What's wrong with sociology?

Abstract

I was asked to write on what's wrong. If I had been asked to write on what's right, I could have done that.2 But I will do what I was asked to do. Remember, however, I was not asked to be balanced, totally objective, or diplomatic. I did do some research. My first reaction had been, What's wrong with sociology? It's all embarrassing, pretentious, painfully obvious, turgid, humbug. (I had just returned from the annual meetings.) To document this notion I flipped through recent issues of three or four of the leading journals and was surprised. By and large the published articles in the major journals can stand anyone's test of academic/scientific quality. They are sober, carefully researched, well documented, and contain very little overt ideology, back scratching, self-promotion, or name calling. They are poorly written and the reader often feels the topic is not very exciting, b-ut in terms of basic intellectual quality, mainstream academic sociology need not bow to any other social science.