SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIOLOGY: AGENDAS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

JOE R. FEAGIN __ University of Florida

The world's peoples face dauntingchallenges in the twenty-firstcentury. While apologists herald the globaliza- tion of capitalism, many people on our planet experience recurringeconomic exploitation, immiseration,and envi- _ B y ronmentalcrises linked to capitalism's spread.Across the globe social movementscontinue to raise the issues of social justice and democracy.Given the new century's serious challenges, sociologists need to rediscovertheir roots in a sociology committedto social justice, to cultivate and extend the long- standing "countersystem"approach to research,to encourage greater self-reflection in sociological analysis, and to re-emphasizethe importanceof the teaching of soci- ology. Finally, more sociologists should examine the big social questions of this century,including the issues of economic exploitation,social oppression,and the looming environmentalcrises. And, clearly, more sociologists should engage in the study of alternativesocial futures, including those of morejust and egalitarian soci- eties. Sociologists need to thinkdeeply and imaginativelyabout sustainable social futures and to aid in building better humansocieties.

XAJE STAND today at the beginning of [T]odaythe contradictionsof Americancivi- a challenging new century. Like lization are tremendous.Freedom of politi- ASA Presidents before me, I am conscious cal discussionis difficult;elections are not of the honor and the responsibility that this free and fair.... The greatest power in the not thoughtor ethics,but wealth.... address carries with it, and I feel a special landis Presentprofit is valued higher than future obligation to speak about the role of sociol- need.... I know the UnitedStates. It is my ogy and sociologists in the twenty-first cen- countryand the landof my fathers.It is still tury.As we look forward, let me quote W. E. a land of magnificentpossibilities. It is still B. Du Bois, a pathbreakingU.S. sociologist. the home of noble souls and generous In his last autobiographical statement, Du people. But it is selling its birthright.It is Bois (1968) wrote: betrayingits mightydestiny. (Pp. 418-19)

Direct correspondence to Joe R. Feagin, De- Today the social contradictions of Ameri- partment of Sociology, Box 117330, University can and global civilizations are still im- of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, (feagin@ mense. Many prominent voices tell us that it ufl.edu). I would like to thank the numerous col- is the best of times; other voices insist that it leagues who made helpful comments on various is the worst of times. Consider how the drafts of this presidential address. Among these apologists for modem capitalism now cel- were Herndn Vera, Sidney Willhelm, Bernice ebrate the "free market"and the global capi- McNair Barnett, Gideon Sjoberg, Anne Rawls, Mary Jo Deegan, Michael R. Hill, Patricia talistic economy. Some of these analysts Lengermann, Jill Niebrugge-Brantley, Tony even see modem capitalism as the last and Orum, William A. Smith, Ben Agger, Karen best economic system, as the "end of his- Pyke, and Leslie Houts. tory" (Fukuyama 1992). In contrast, from

AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW, 2001, VOL. 66 (FEBRUARY: 1 -20) 1 2 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW the late 1930s to the 1950s many influential MANY OF THE WORLD'S PEOPLE STILL economists and public leaders were commit- LIVE IN MISERY ted to government intervention (Keynesian- ism) as the way to counter the negative ef- First, while it may be the best of times for fects of capitalist markets in the United those at the top of the global economy, it is States and other countries-effects clearly not so for the majority of the world's seen in the Great Depression of the 1930s. peoples. The pro-capitalist polices of many The view that a capitalistic market alone national governments and internationalorga- should be allowed to make major social and nizations have fostered a substantial transfer economic decisions would then have been of wealth from the world's poor and work- met with incredulity or derision (George ing classes to the world's rich and affluent 1999; also see Block 1990). Half a century social classes. Social injustice in the form of ago, Karl Polanyi ([1944] 1957), a prescient major, and sometimes increasing, inequali- economic historian, critically reviewed the ties in income and wealth can be observed history of the free-market idea: "To allow across the globe. Thus, in the United States the market mechanism to be sole director of income inequality has reached a record level the fate of human beings and their natural for the period during which such data have environment, indeed, even of the amount been collected: The top one-fifth of house- and use of purchasing power, would result holds now has nearly half the income; the in the demolition of society" (p. 73). bottom one-fifth has less than 4 percent. Since the 1960s, conservative business Moreover, the top 1 percent of U.S. house- groups have pressed upon the world's politi- holds holds more in wealth than the bottom cal leaders, and upon the public generally, 95 percent, and the wealthy have doubled the idea of a self-regulating market mecha- their share since 1970. Moreover, more nism, thereby organizing a successful Americans live in poverty than a decade ago. counter-attack against Keynesian ideas As of the late 1980s, 31.5 million people (Steinfels 1979). These new apologists for lived at or below the officially defined pov- capitalism have heralded the beneficial as- erty level, while in 1999 the figure had in- pects of a globalizing capitalism and have creased to 34.5 million (Collins, Hartman, exported the free-market model in an eco- and Sklar 1999; Oxfam 1999). In recent de- nomic proselytizing project of grand scope. cades the numberof millionaires and billion- Free marketeershave persuadedmany people aires has grown dramatically. Yet many or- across the globe that class conflict is in de- dinary workers have seen their real wages cline and that capitalism and its new tech- decline-even while the costs of housing, nologies will bring prosperity to all coun- transportation, and medical care have in- tries. Similarly, other influential supporters creased significantly in real terms. of the status quo have argued optimistically Of the 6 billion people on earth, a large that major forms of social oppression, such proportion live in or near poverty and desti- as racial and gender oppression, are also in tution, with 1.2 billion living on less than one sharp decline in Western societies. dollar a day. The numbers living in poverty are increasing in areas of South Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Today one-fifth of the THE DOWNSIDE OF A world's people, those in the developed coun- CAPITALISTIC WORLD tries, garner 86 percent of the world's gross Nonetheless, many people in the United domestic product, with the bottom fifth gar- States and across the globe insist that this is nering just one percent. In recent years the not the best of times. Karl Marx long ago world's richest 200 people, as a group, have underscored the point that modern capital- doubled their wealth, to more than 1 trillion ism creates bad economic times that encom- dollars for the year 2000 (Oxfam 1999). pass both social injustice and inequality. While there has been much boasting about Looking at the present day, I will briefly de- economic growth among those pushing glo- scribe a few examples of the troubling con- bal capitalism, between 1980 and the late ditions currentlybeing created or aggravated 1990s most of the world's countries saw sus- by modern capitalism: tained annual growth rates of less than 3 per- SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIOLOGY 3 cent per capita, and 59 countries actually ex- ditions, low wages, underemploymentor un- perienced economic declines (Toward Free- employment, loss of land, and forced migra- dom 1999). Moreover, in most countries tion. Ordinary working people and their great income and wealth inequalities create families-in most nationality, racial, and major related injustices, including sharp dif- ethnic groups across the globe-face signifi- ferentials in hunger, housing, life satisfac- cant negative social impacts from an encir- tion, life expectancy, and political power. cling capitalism. Viewed from a long-term perspective, the high levels of wealth and income inequality, CAPITALISM IMPOSES HUGE and the increase in that inequality, signal yet ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS anothercritical point in human history where there is a major foregrounding of social jus- Third, the global capitalistic economy gen- tice issues. erates profits at the huge cost of increasing environmental degradation. Since the 1970s, the levels of some greenhouse gases (e.g., WORKING FAMILIES ARE EXPLOITED AND carbon dioxide) in the earth's atmosphere MARGINALIZED have grown significantly because of the in- Second, global capitalism may bring the best creasing use of fossil fuels, widespread de- of times for corporate executives and the forestation, and industrial pollution. Global well-off, yet for many of the world's people warming, which results from this increase in it brings recurring economic disruption, ex- greenhouse gases, is melting polar ice packs, ploitation, marginalization, and immis- increasing coastal flooding, generating se- eration. The international scene is increas- vere weather, creating droughts and reshap- ingly dominated by highly bureaucratized ing agriculture, and facilitating the spread of multinational corporations, which often op- disease. In addition, as a result of human ac- erate independently of nation states. Work- tions, the earth's ozone layer is severely de- ing for their own economic interests, these pleted in some areas. This alone results in a transnational corporations routinely "de- range of negative effects, including in- velop" their markets-and destroy and dis- creases in skin cancer incidence and major card regions, countries, peoples, cultures, threats to essential species, such as phy- and natural environments. For example, toplankton in the oceans (M. Bell 1998; transnationalcorporations now control much Hawken, Lovins, and Lovins 1999). of the world's agricultural system. In devel- A lack of sufficient water and poor water oping countries small farmers are shoved quality are large-scale problems in many aside by large agribusiness corporations or countries. Half the world's wetlands and are pressured to produce crops for an inter- nearly half the forests have been destroyed national market controlled by big trans- in just the last century. The destruction of national corporations-thereby reducing the forests is killing off many plant species, in- production of essential foodstuffs for local cluding some supplying the oxygen we populations (Sjoberg 1996:287). breathe. The consequences of these environ- Today there are an estimated 1 billion un- mental changes will be the greatest for the employed or underemployedworkers around world's poorest countries, many of which the world, with 50 million unemployed in are in areas where the increasing heat of glo- the European countries alone. Hundreds of bal warming is already having a serious im- millions, including many millions of chil- pact on water availability, soil erosion, de- dren, work in onerous or dangerous work- struction of forests, agriculture, and the places. Some 30 million people die from spread of disease (Sachs 1999). hunger annually in a world whose large ag- Today, some environmental experts are se- ricultural enterprises produce more than riously discussing the possibility that most enough food for every person (Ramonet of the planet's plant and animal species will 1999). The real effects of expanding capital- be gone by the twenty-second century. Jared ism for a large proportion of the planet's in- Diamond, a leading physical scientist, has habitants are not only greater inequality but reviewed the evidence and concludes that also job restructuring, unsafe working con- movement toward an environmental catas- 4 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW trophe is accelerating. The only question, in modities.We can have a marketeconomy, his view, is whether it is likely to "strike our but we cannothave a marketsociety. In ad- children or our grandchildren, and whether dition to markets,society needs institutions we choose to adopt now the many obvious to serve such social goals as political free- 24) countermeasures"(Diamond 1992:362). And dom and socialjustice. (P. there are yet other related problems facing As Soros sees it, without a more egalitarian humanity, such as those arising out of the global society, capitalism cannot survive. new technologies associated with world- In a recent interview, Paul Hawken (Haw- wide, capitalist-led economic development. ken and Korten 1999), an environmentally oriented critic of modern capitalism, has re- counted the story of a business consultant GLOBAL CAPITALISM REINFORCES who conducted a workshop with middle OTHER INJUSTICE AND INEQUALITY managers in a large corporation that makes, Fourth, in addition to the economic and en- among other things, toxic chemicals such as vironmental inequalities generated or aggra- pesticides. Early in the workshop the execu- vated by contemporary capitalism, other tives discussed and rejected the idea that cre- forms of social injustice and inequality re- ating social justice and resource equity is es- main central to the United States and other sential to the long-term sustainability of a societies. I only have space here to note society such as the United States. Later, briefly such major societal realities as racial these managers broke into five groups and and ethnic oppression, patriarchy,homopho- sought to design a self-contained spaceship bia, bureaucratic authoritarianism,violence that would leave earth and return a century against children, and discrimination against later with its occupants being "alive, happy, the aged and the disabled. These persisting and healthy" (Hawken and Korten 1999). forms of discrimination and oppression gen- The executives then voted on which group's erally have their own independent social dy- hypothetical spaceship design would best namics, yet they too are often reinforced or meet these objectives. exacerbated by the processes of modern The winning design was comprehensive: capitalism. It included insects so no toxic pesticides were allowed on board. Recognizing the im- portance of photosynthesis, the winning WHAT KIND OF A WORLD group decided that weeds were necessary for DO WE WANT? a healthy ecosystem, so conventional herbi- The world's majority now lives, or soon will cides were not allowed. The food system live, in difficult economic and environmen- was also to be free of toxic chemicals. These tal times. By the end of the twenty-first cen- managers "also decided that as a crew, they tury, it is likely that there will be sustained needed lots of singers, dancers, artists, and and inexorable pressures to replace the so- storytellers, because the CDs and videos cial institutions associated with corporate would get old and boring fast, and engineers capitalism and its supporting governments. alone did not a village make." In addition, Why? Because the latter will not have pro- when the managers were asked if it was rea- vided humanity with just and sustainable so- sonable to allow just one-fifth of those on cieties. Such pressures are already building board to control four-fifths of the ship's es- in the form of grassroots social movements sential resources, they vigorously rejected in many countries. the idea "as unworkable, unjust, and unfair" A few of the world's premier capitalists (Hawken and Korten 1999). already see the handwriting on the wall. Note that this example spotlights the criti- The billionaire investor George Soros cally importantideas of human and environ- (1998), for instance, has come to the con- mental interdependenceand of social justice. clusion that free markets do not lead to Even these corporate managers, when hypo- healthy societies: thetically placing themselves in the closed system of a spaceship, rejected environmen- Markets reduce everything, including human tal degradation, a boring monoculture, and beings (labor) and nature (land), to com- major resource inequalities. SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIOLOGY 5

As I see it, social justice requires re- Perhaps there are clues in the gaia theory source equity, fairness, and respect for di- for a broader sociological framework for versity, as well as the eradication of exist- viewing the development of human societ- ing forms of social oppression. Social jus- ies. We human beings are not just part of an tice entails a redistribution of resources interconnected biosphere, but are also linked from those who have unjustly gained them in an increasingly integrated and global web to those who justly deserve them, and it of structuredsocial relationships. This com- also means creating and ensuring the pro- plex "sociosphere"consists of some 6 billion cesses of truly democratic participation in people living in many families and commu- decision-making. A common view in West- nities in numerous nation states. Nation ern political theory is that, while "the states and their internal organizations are people" have a right to self-rule, they del- linked across an international web. Indeed, egate this right to their representatives-to we human beings have long been more in- the government leaders who supposedly act terconnected than we might think. Accord- in the public interest and under the guid- ing to current archaeological assessments, ance of impartial laws (Young 1990:91-92). we all descended from ancestors who mi- However, there is no impartial legal and po- grated out of Africa some millennia in the litical system in countries like the United past. Today, most human beings speak re- States, for in such hierarchically arranged lated languages; about half the world's societies those at the top create and main- people speak an Indo-Europeanlanguage. In tain over time a socio-legal framework and recent decades the expansion of telecommu- political structurethat strongly support their nication technologies has placed more group interests. It seems clear that only a people in potential or actual contact with one decisive redistribution of resources and de- another than ever before. For the first time cision making power can ensure social jus- in human history, these technologies are rap- tice and authentic democracy. idly creating one integrated body of human- The spaceship example explicitly recog- ity (Sahtouris 1996). nizes the interdependence of human beings Yet, this increasingly interconnected and other living species. For some decades sociosphere remains highly stratified: Great now central ideas in physics and biology benefits accrue to those classes dominant in have stressed the interconnectedness of what international capitalism. Today most of the were once thought to be discrete phenomena. globe's political and business leaders, as Thus, the "gaia theory" in biology suggests, well as many of its academic experts, have according to Lovelock (1987), that come to accept capitalism as the more or ... the entire range of living matter on less inevitable economic system for all Earth,from whales to viruses,and from oaks countries. However, at the same time, grow- to algae, couldbe regardedas constitutinga ing numbers of people are recognizing that, single living entity,capable of manipulating because of globalizing capitalism, the earth the Earth's atmosphereto suit its overall is facing a massive environmental crisis, needs andendowed with facultiesand pow- one that has the potential to destroy the ba- ers far beyondthose of its constituentparts. sic conditions for human societies within a (P. 9) century or two. Issues of ecological de- This is more than a metaphorical descrip- struction-as well as broader issues of so- tion, for in fact we live on a planet that, we cial inequality and injustice-are being are increasingly realizing, is truly interwo- forced to the forefront not by corporate ex- ven. All of earth's aspects-from biosphere, ecutives but by some 30,000 people's to soils and oceans, to atmosphere-are seen groups and movements around the globe. as parts of one interconnected living system These include environmental groups, indig- with important cybernetic features. Thus, enous movements, labor movements, environmental irresponsibility in one place, health-policy groups, feminist groups, anti- such as the excessive burning of fossil fuels racist organizations, and anti-corporate in the United States, contributes to negative groups (Klein 2000). Such groups agree on effects elsewhere, such as to global warm- many critical environmental and political- ing in Australia. economic goals. 6 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

Indeed, many people in other regions of desire to be accepted as a fully legitimate the world seem to be ahead of us in the discipline in the larger society, especially by United States in their understanding of the powerful elites. The lead article in the July damage done by the unbridled operations of 1895 issue of the American Journal of Soci- multinational corporations.These groups are ology, written by Albion Small, founder of pressing for meaningful international decla- the first graduate sociology department (at rations and treaties, such as the various the University of Chicago), listed among the United Nations declarations on the environ- major interests of the journal editors the ment and human rights. In the United States analysis of "plans for social amelioration" awareness of the negative impact of global- (Small 1895:14). A decade later, Small pre- izing capitalism is now substantial and may sented a paper at the American Sociological be growing. A 1999 U.S. poll found that just Society's first meeting in which he argued over half the respondents said they were vigorously that social research was not an sympathetic with the concerns of activists end in itself but should serve to improve so- who had aggressively protested a recent ciety (Friedrichs 1970:73). Small was not World Trade Organization summit in Seattle alone in this commitment. In the first decade (Business Week1999). In many places in the or two of U.S. sociology, leading scholars United States today there is growing opposi- advocated the pursuit of knowledge for its tion to the economic and environmental de- own sake and the assessment of that knowl- cisions of those executives heading trans- edge in relation to its current usefulness to national corporations. society. Unquestionably, social justice appears as Moreover, from the beginning there has a recurring concern around the globe. For been a robust "countersystem" tradition that reason alone, we sociologists must vig- within U.S. sociology-a tradition whose orously engage issues of social justice or be- participants have intentionally undertaken come largely irrelevant to the present and research aimed at significantly reducing or future course of human history. eliminating societal injustice. The counter- system approach is one in which social sci- entists step outside mainstream thought pat- A LONG TRADITION: SOCIOLOGY terns to critique existing society (Sjoberg AND SOCIAL JUSTICE and Cain 1971). From the perspective of this Given impending national and international research tradition, social scientists have all crises, sociology appears to be the right dis- too often accepted the status quo as their cipline for the time. Sociology is a broad in- standard. It is noteworthy too that much terdisciplinaryfield that draws on ideas from countersystem analysis develops ideas about other social sciences, the humanities, and the alternative social systems. For instance, any physical sciences. Our intellectual and meth- serious exploration of the countersystem tra- odological pluralism, as well as our diver- dition must acknowledge the past and cur- sity of practitioners, are major virtues. Such rent influence of Marx's critical analysis of richness gives sociology a particularly good capitalism, which included ideas about an position as a science to examine the com- alternative social system. Marx's counter- plexities and crises of a socially intercon- system analysis has, directly or indirectly, nected world. Those sciences with diverse influenced many social scientists, including viewpoints and constructive conflicts over several of the sociologists to whom I now ideas and issues have often been the most turn. intellectually healthy. As P. H. Collins In the late nineteenth and early twentieth (1998) has put it, "Sociology's unique social centuries, a number of white women, black location as a contested space of knowledge men, and black women sociologists-as well construction allows us to think through new as a few white male sociologists-did much ways of doing science" (p. 10; also see innovative sociological research and at the Burawoy 1998). same time took strong informed positions in Views of sociology's goals have long re- regard to ending the oppression of women, flected a dialectical tension between a com- black Americans, the poor, and immigrants. mitment to remedy social injustice and the Among the now forgotten women and black SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIOLOGY 7 male sociologists were Jane Addams, Flo- her colleagues accented a new sociological rence Kelley, Emily Greene Balch, Ida B. tradition that developed empirical data in or- Wells-Barnett, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, der to better deal with issues of both social and W. E. B. Du Bois. All were practicing theory and public policy. Their 1895 book, sociologists, and all developed importantso- Hull-House Maps and Papers (Residents of ciological ideas and research projects. Most Hull-House [1895] (1970), reported on the were members of the American Sociological sociodemographic mapping of Chicago's ur- Society (Deegan 1987). ban areas well before that statistical ap- Jane Addams was a key founder of U.S. proach became important for the University sociology. Head resident of Chicago's pio- of Chicago's male sociologists. Interestingly, neering Hull-House complex, she was an ac- these sociodemographic data were used to tive sociologist and charter member of the help local residents understandtheir commu- American Sociological Society. She inter- nity patterns, not just to provide data for acted professionally with other leading soci- publications in academic journals. More- ologists and intellectuals. During the 1890s over, one indication of the disciplinary im- and later, there was great intellectual fer- pact of these early women sociologists is ment at Hull-House. Not only were union that between 1895 and 1935 they published leaders, socialists, and other social reform- more than 50 articles in what was then the ers welcomed there, but a few major male leading sociology journal, the American social theorists, such as John Dewey and Journal of Sociology (Deegan 1988:47). George Herbert Mead, regularly interacted In 1896 W. E. B. Du Bois became an as- with the women sociologists there (Deegan sistant in sociology at the University of 1988:5). Addams was one of the first U.S. Pennsylvania. Du Bois was hired to do a sociologists to deal conceptually and empiri- study of black Philadelphians using, as he cally with the problems of the burgeoning noted, the "best available methods of socio- cities, and she was advanced in her socio- logical research" (Du Bois [1899] 1973:2). logical analysis of justice and democracy. His book, The Philadelphia Negro ([1899] She viewed democracy as entailing more 1973), was the first empirical study of a than fairness and legal equality: black community to be reportedin sociologi- We are brought to a conception of Democ- cal depth and at book length. Therein Du racy not merely as a sentiment which desires Bois not only analyzed sociological data on the well-being of all men, nor yet as a creed patterns of life in the black community (in- which believes in the essential dignity and cluding racial discrimination) but also as- equality of all men, but as that which affords sessed what he viewed as the immorality of a rule of living as well as a test of faith. discrimination. The last part of this path- (Addams 1902:6) breaking book includes a study of domestic In her view ordinary Americans had to par- workers by Du Bois's white colleague Isabel ticipate actively in major decisions affecting Eaton, a former Hull-House sociologist. The their lives for there to be real democracy. research collaboration of these early black Addams and the numerous women (and a and white sociologists is also part of the now few men) sociologists working at Hull- forgotten history of sociology. Moreover, in House not only accented a cooperative and spite of Du Bois's stellar qualifications- democratic model of society but also used major sociological research, a Harvard their sociological research and analysis to Ph.D., and work with leading European so- ground their efforts for tenement reform, cial scientists-no white-run sociology de- child-labor legislation, public health pro- partment offered him a regular position. grams, feminism, and anti-war goals (Dee- Over time, Du Bois would make very impor- gan 1988). They worked in immigrant and tant contributions to the sociological study other poor urban communities and sought to of community, family, social problems, and build a grassroots base for social change. class relations, as well as to the historical Moreover, working in collaboration, they did study of slavery and Reconstruction. the first empirical field research in U.S. so- We should recognize too that in this early ciology. Like HarrietMartineau earlier in the period there were important black women nineteenth century (see below), Addams and sociologists, such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett 8 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW and Anna Julia Cooper, whose work has re- universities. This approachis "instrumental" cently been rediscovered (Lemert and Bhan in that it limits social research mainly to 1998; Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley those questions that certain research tech- 1998). Though neither was affiliated with niques will allow; it is "positivist" in that it academic sociology, both were practicing commits sociologists to "rigorous"research sociologists and theorists of society. In their approaches thought to be like those used in work they were among the earliest social sci- the physical sciences (Bryant 1985:133). A entists to analyze data on the conditions of pioneer in this approach was Franklin H. African Americans and of women in U.S. Giddings at Columbia University. In an early society in terms of social "subordination" 1900s' American Journal of Sociology dis- and "repression" (Cooper 1892; Wells- cussion, Giddings (1909) argued, in strongly Barnett 1895). gendered language, By the 1920s and 1930s leading white We need men not afraidto work;who will male sociologists were downplaying or ig- get busy with the addingmachine and the noring the pioneering sociological work of logarithms,and give us exact studies, such the early countersystem sociologists. For ex- as we get in the psychologicallaboratories, ample, the dominant introductory textbook not to speak of the biological and physical of the interwar decades, Park and Burgess's laboratories. Sociology can be made an ex- (1921) lengthy Introductionto the Science of act, quantitative science, if we can get in- Sociology, views sociology as an academic dustriousmen interestedin it. (P. 196, ital- ics in and abstractscience. This text contains in its original) 1,040 pages only a few bibliographical ref- By the 1920s the influential William F. erences to the work of Du Bois, but no dis- Ogburn, who trained at Columbia University cussion of his research work, and only one under Giddings and was later hired at the terse sentence on, and two bibliographical University of Chicago, aggressively argued references to, the work of Addams. for such a detached and quantitativeresearch Park and other prominent sociologists approach.In his 1929 presidential address to were increasingly critical of an activist soci- the American Sociological Society he called ology and were moving away from a con- for a sociology emphasizing statistical meth- cern with progressive applications of social ods and argued that sociologists should not research toward a more "detached" sociol- be involved as sociologists in improving so- ogy. Their work was increasingly linked to ciety; instead they should focus on effi- the interests of certain corporate-capitalist ciently discovering knowledge about society. elites, such as those represented by the Whoever is in power, "some sterling execu- Rockefeller family foundations. While they tive," might then apply this objective socio- frequently researched various types of urban logical research (Bannister 1992:188-90). "disorganization," usually in qualitative Survey methods and statistical analyses were field studies, they rarely analyzed deeply the gradually becoming the emphasized and pre- harsherrealities of social oppression-espe- ferred research strategies in mainstream so- cially gender, class, and racial oppression- ciology. in the development of cities. Park and sev- Over the next few decades, most main- eral of his colleagues played a major role in stream sociologists, including those in lead- shifting the emphasis from a sociology con- ing departments, did not research major cerned with studying and eliminating serious public events and issues, especially from a societal problems to a more detached and critical perspective. One study of 2,559 ar- academic sociology concerned with "natu- ticles appearing in the American Sociologi- ral" social forces-without the humanitarian cal Review from 1936 to 1984 examined attitude or interpretationof what Park some- major social and political events for five pe- times called the "damned do-gooders" riods within this time frame-events such as (Lengermannand Niebrugge-Brantley 1998: the Great Depression and McCarthyism- 15-18; Raushenbush 1979:96). and found that overall only 1 in 20 articles Moreover, during the 1920s and 1930s dealt with the major events examined for support for a detached and instrumental- these periods (Wilner 1985). Moreover, from positivist sociology increased at major U.S. the 1920s to the 1940s remarkablyfew of the SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIOLOGY 9 leading U.S. sociologists researched, or from corporate foundations and government spoke publicly and critically of, the agencies. As Deegan (1988) has noted re- growing fascist movements in the United garding the dominant sociologists at the Uni- States and Europe, some of which would versity of Chicago, soon help generate a catastrophic war. Ap- parently, one reason for this neglect was the Theselater men thereforecondemned politi- cal action for sociologists, while the ideas increasing emphasis on a "value-free," of the elite, in fact, permeated their "pure-science" approach to sociology (Ban- work.... Ratherthan condemnthe exploi- nister 1992:175-89). tationand oppressionof daily life, the later Still, some important critics emerged. Chicagomen describedit. They justified it Writing in the early 1940s in an appendix to throughtheir acceptance of it. (P. 304) his An American Dilemma, Gunnar Myrdal ([1944] 1964) specifically criticized the In the decades after World War II, many move by Park and Ogburn toward a more mainstream sociologists continued the move detached sociology: toward the pure-science ideal and away from the concerns for social justice and the mak- The specific logical error is that of inferring ing of a better society. There was a great ex- from the facts that men can and make should pansion of federally funded research in the no effort to change the "natural"outcome of the specific forces observed. This is the old physical sciences, and leading sociologists do-nothing (laissez-faire) bias of "realistic" worked aggressively to grasp a share of the social science. (P. 1052) new federal money, often by stressing an in- strumental-positivist sociology that at- Anticipating later discussions and debates, tempted to imitate those physical sciences. Myrdal developed a critique of the new ac- In the late 1950s some 15 prominent social cent on a "value-free" social science: scientists, including leading sociologists, onto a "National Scientific facts do not exist per se, waiting signed statement, Support for scientists to discover them. A scientific for Behavioral Science," which pressed the fact is a construction abstracted out of a U.S. government for funds for social sci- complex and interwoven reality by means of ence: arbitrarydefinitions and classifications. The processes of selecting a problem and a basic We assume the probability of a break- hypothesis, of limiting the scope of study, throughin the control of the attitudesand and of defining and classifying data relevant beliefs of human beings.... This could be a to such a setting of the problem, involve a weaponof greatpower in Communisthands, choice on the part of the investigator. unless comparableadvances in the West ([1944] 1964:1057) produce effective counter-measures. (Quotedin Friedrichs1970:88) As Myrdal viewed the matter, value neu- trality in social science is impossible, for in Contraryto their statements elsewhere about making choices about how to assess and re- value neutrality, the political orientation of search society there is always something of these and other influential social scientists of value at stake. While scientific conventions the time made transparentthe centrality of provide guidelines for choices, they neces- values that were then shaping social science sarily involve value judgements, and no one research. can avoid value judgments simply by focus- Also evident is the strong interest of lead- ing on just social "facts." ing social scientists in state-funded research. By the 1930s and 1940s the critical, coun- These researchers were largely successful in tersystem approaches of sociologists like their efforts, and substantial bureaucracies Addams and Du Bois were losing out to a have developed to fund social science re- politically safe, academic, and distancing search under the auspices of the federal gov- sociology. Sociology was increasingly be- ernment and private foundations. This gov- coming a discipline whose college and uni- ernment and corporateunderwriting of much versity departments were dominated by mainstream sociological research has fed the white male sociologists and often linked to emphasis on a quantitatively oriented or in- elite interests-including ties such as grants strumental-positivist sociology and on soci- 10 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW ologists as research entrepreneurs.Not sur- than any other social science books except prisingly, social scientists who have secured history books (Bressler 1999:718). major funding from federal government Let us now consider a few of the socially- agencies and large corporate foundations relevant agendas for the twenty-first century have rarely done research that draws on the that can be inauguratedor accelerated by so- countersystem tradition and is strongly criti- ciologists with many different research per- cal of established institutions in the corpo- spectives and methods. rate or governmentalrealms. From the 1930s to the present, the accent on academic grant- BRING SOCIAL JUSTICE BACK getting, the heavy emphasis on certain types TO THE CENTER of quantitatively-oriented research, and the movement away from the social justice con- First, it is time for the discipline to fully re- cerns of earlier sociologists have been asso- cover and celebrate its historical roots in a ciated trends (see Cancian 1995). sociology committed to social justice in ide- A detached-science perspective has been als and practice. In recent decades no soci- influential in many areas of sociology for ologist has published even one substantial some decades now, but not without strong article in a major sociology journal (e.g., the countering perspectives (e.g., see Vaughan American Journal of Sociology, American 1993). Since the late 1960s there has been a Sociological Review, and Sociological periodic resurgence of interest in an activist Theory) on the sociological ideas of the sociology, including an increased concern women sociologists in the founding genera- with research on (and the eradication of) in- tion (Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley stitutional discrimination and other forms of 2001). It is time for us sociologists to rem- social oppression (e.g., see Omi and Winant edy this neglect and help to reclaim the im- 1994). Significantly, the recent history of portant ideas of those women sociologists sociology has been dialectical, with support- and sociologists of color who are among the ers of the detached-science perspective of- founders of our discipline. ten being central, yet regularly challenged A strong case can be made that the British by those advocating a sociology committed social scientist Harriet Martineau (1802- to both excellent sociological research and 1876) is the founder of empirical sociology social justice. in the West. She was apparently the first so- cial scientist both to use the term sociology and to do systematic sociological research in AGENDAS FOR SOCIOLOGY: the field (Hoecker-Drysdale 1992). She THE NEW CENTURY helped to invent a new sociological ap- Looking toward the next few decades, I see proach that brought empirical data to bear importantconceptual, empirical, policy, and on questions of social theory and public activist tasks for which the rich diversity of policy. She wrote the first book on socio- contemporarysociology can help prepareus. logical research methods (Hill 1989), in These tasks often relate to questions of so- which she argued-preceding Emile Durk- cial justice. Indeed, one major reason that heim by half a century-that research on so- some subfields of sociology are periodically cial life is centrally about studying social attacked by conservative, and often ill-in- "things" accurately and should involve re- formed, journalists and media commentators search on "institutions and records, in which is that analyses of discrimination, domina- the action of a nation is embodied and per- tion, and social justice are generally threat- petuated" (Martineau [1838] 1989:73). ening to those who desire to maintain the sta- She was a contemporary of Auguste Comte tus quo. Moreover, we should keep in mind and translated his major work on positive that sociologists have already had a broad philosophy (sociology) into English. impact. Sociological ideas and research are Martineau's first major sociological analysis frequently used in public discourse by those was based on observations from a field trip grappling with societal problems, and soci- across the United States-a multi-volume ology books are more widely reviewed (and set titled Society in America (1837). In that perhaps even read) outside the discipline work she developed sociological insights as SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIOLOGY 11 penetrating and original as those of her more relations always more equitable, so as to as- celebrated male counterpart, Alexis de sure the free development of all our socially Tocqueville. Martineau was also a feminist useful forces. (P. 387) theorist and anti-slavery activist, and wrote extensively and sociologically on social is- A successful movement to complex organic sues for the general public. societies requires ever more social justice, Contemporary sociologists should also ... and we can be sure that this need will recognize the importance of, and draw more become ever more exacting if, as every fact from, the ideas of early U.S. sociologists presages, the conditions dominating social like Jane Addams and W. E. B. Du Bois. As evolution remain the same. (P. 388) I noted previously, these pioneering U.S. sociologists offer solid role models in their dual commitments to social-scientific NURTURE THE COUNTERSYSTEM knowledge and to social justice, equality, APPROACH and democracy. They gave central attention Second, contemporary sociologists need to to the theoretical, empirical, and policy di- enlarge and cultivate the long-standing mensions of sociological research. The countersystem approach, not only in regard work of the early women and African to investigating social inequality and injus- American sociologists, as well as that of tice but also in regard to assessing alterna- progressive white men, may well point us tive social systems that may be more just. toward a new conceptual paradigm for soci- Today, the sociology handbooks and ency- ology. Such a paradigm would accent the clopedias on my bookshelves have little to centrality of differences, oppressions, and say about the concept of social justice. One inequalities-as well as recurring move- significant task for social scientists is to ments for social justice-within societies document empirically, and ever more thor- like the United States. oughly, the character of major social injus- It is also time that we recognize these so- tices, both nationally and internationally.We cial justice themes in the writings of some also need more conceptual work that devel- of the classical "founding fathers" of sociol- ops and enriches the concepts of social jus- ogy. For example, Emile Durkheim has of- tice and equality. In my view, social justice ten been portrayedin relatively conservative is not only a fundamental human right but is terms, as being principally concerned with also essential for a society to be sustainable social order and stability. Yet Durkheim in the long term. Even the corporate execu- wrote eloquently about the impetus for so- tives in the aforementioned spaceship ex- cial justice in societies. He argued that a ample developed some understanding that forced division of labor, like that found in a justice and equity are essential to the long- class-riven society, was pathological and term sustainability of a social system. made organic solidarity impossible. Social As I have suggested above, social injus- inequality, created by such social mecha- tice can be examined not only in terms of nisms as routine inheritance across genera- the maldistribution of goods and services, tions, compromises organic solidarity. For but also in regard to the social relations re- Durkheim ([1893] 1933:384-88) organic sponsible for that maldistribution.These so- solidarity and social justice require the cial relations, which can range from cen- elimination of inequalities not generated by trally oppressive power relations to less cen- variations in personal merit: tral mechanisms of discrimination, deter- mine whether individuals, families, and If one class of society is obliged, in order to other groups are excluded from society's im- live, to take any price for its services, while portant resources and decision making pro- another can abstain from such action thanks cesses. They shape the development of to the resources at its how- disposal which, group and individual identities and the sense ever, are not necessarily due to any social superiority, the second has an unjust advan- of personal dignity. In the end, social justice tage over the first at law.... [The] task of entails a restructuring of the larger frame- the most advanced societies is, then, a work works of social relations generally (Feagin of justice.... [O]ur ideal is to make social and Vera forthcoming). 12 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

We sociologists have made a good start [Questions]that arouse human passions, es- toward understandingcertain types of social pecially in a time of change,have had to do injustice and inequality. Some of us have with the forms of authorityand justice, and done considerable work to document the the purposes of human life.... It is impos- sible thereforeto avoid takingsome kind of character and impact of class, racial, and a moralposition, not only in writingabout gender subordination. In the United States politics but also in not writingabout them. and in Latin America some sociologists us- (P. 3) ing participatory-action-research strategies have honed countersystem ideas and meth- A countersystem approachattempts to assess ods and worked interactively with people at the status quo from a viewpoint at least the grassroots level seeking assessments of, somewhat outside the frame of the existing and alternatives to, an onerous status quo society and/or nation state. In practice, so- (e.g., Fals-Borda 1960). The commitment cial scientists can accept the prevailing na- here is to get out of the ivory tower and to tion-state or bureaucratic-capitalisticmoral- help build a resource and power base for ity or they can resist this morality by mak- the disenfranchised in their communities. ing a commitment to social justice and hu- The legitimacy of this type of sociological man rights. Contemporary countersystem research must be enhanced. As one group of approaches often accent a broad human participatory-action researchers has put it, rights framework in which each person is "To map and analyze the dimensions of so- entitled to fair treatment and justice simply cial problems ... is seen as scientific re- because they are human beings, not because search. To discuss and describe alternative they are members of a particular nation- practices and develop solutions is seen as state. Moreover, some social scientists (e.g., moving toward politics and advocacy-ar- Sjoberg 1996) have suggested that the Uni- eas that are perceived as a threat to the ob- ted Nation's Universal Declaration of Hu- jectivity of research" (Nyden et al. 1997; man Rights-with its strong array of social, also see Stoecker 1996). Collaborative re- political, and economic rights-may be a search between sociologists and community good starting place for developing a robust groups seeking solutions to serious local human rights framework for social science problems of housing, work, education, pov- research. erty, discrimination, and environmental pol- We should seek a sociology that is lution should not be shoved aside, as it grounded in empirical and theoretical re- sometimes is, with cavalier comments about search and that hones a critical perspective sociological "do-goodism," but should be less restricted by established institutions. placed in the respected core of sociological Careful data collection, reasoned argument, research-where it was at the birth of U.S. and critical moral judgments are not incom- sociology. 1 patible. The great sociologist of race and In everyday practice all sociology is a class, Oliver C. Cox, underscored this point: moral activity, whether this is recognized or not. In a society deeply pervaded and struc- Clearly,the social scientistshould be accu- rateand objective but not neutral;he [or she] tured social most by oppressions, sociologi- shouldbe passionatelypartisan in favor of cal research will reflect these realities to the welfareof the people andagainst the in- some degree, and attempts to deny these re- terests of the few when they seem to sub- alities or their impact on research are mis- mergethat welfare. (Cox 1948:xvi) guided at best. All social science perspec- tives have an underlying view of what the Numerous sociologists, from Jane Addams world ought to be. As Moore (1971) noted, and W. E. B. Du Bois, to Robert and Helen Lynd and Gunnar Myrdal, to more contem- porary scholars as diverse as Alfred McClung Lee, Jessie Bernard, James Black- 1 Interestingly, one 1990s survey of 12,000 Ph.D. sociologists revealed that over half spent well, Robert Bellah, and Orlando Fals-Borda at least 10 hours a week doing what they view as have accented the importance of bringing "applied" research (Dotzler and Koppel moral discourse and research on "what is the 1999:79). good society" into the center of sociological SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIOLOGY 1 3 debate and analysis. Even more, today we pressed the discipline of sociology to view need to look beyond the borders of the na- and research society from their standpoints tion-state to address the possibility of a and thus to broaden sociological knowledge. world moral community. For instance, in an introductionto the reprint of her pioneering book, The Death of White Sociology ([1973] 1998), Ladner notes nu- BE MORE SELF-CRITICAL merous ways in which the presence of schol- Third, as part of an ongoing self-renewal ars of color, as well as women and gay/les- process, I see the need for accelerated self- bian scholars, has forced issues of social reflection in sociology. This is a task closely subjugation to be considered seriously in related to my last point. The communities, both the academy and the larger society. colleges, universities, agencies, companies, Similarly, racial-ethnic feminists have and other settings in which we practice soci- forced the academy to consider seriously ology are shaped in part by the oppressive multiple statuses and the intersectionality of social relations of the larger society. We oppressions (Baca Zinn and Dill 1994). The need a liberating and emancipating sociol- goal of all these scholars is not just to de- ogy that takes risks to counter these oppres- velop alternative funds of knowledge, but sive social relations in our own bailiwicks. also to push this knowledge in from the mar- As social scientists, we should regularly gins, where it too often resides, toward the examine our research environments, includ- central trends and debates in sociology. In- ing our metascientific underpinnings and side and outside the discipline, this accumu- commitments. Critical social perspectives, lating knowledge can then become part of such as those of feminists, gay/lesbian schol- the process of eroding the historical relations ars, critical theorists, anti-racist scholars, of social oppression. and Marxist researchers, among others, have Hopefully, more self-reflection among so- been resurgent since the 1960s. Scholars re- ciologists can also lead us and other social searching from these perspectives, as well as scientists to destroy the insidious boundaries symbolic interactionists and ethnometh- we often draw around ourselves, such as the odologists, have called for more internal re- artificial dichotomy of quantitative versus flection in the social sciences. In one such qualitative research, the ranking of basic disciplinary reflection, feminist sociologists over applied research, and the valuing of re- Stacey and Thorne (1996:1-3) argue that, search over teaching. while anthropology and history have incor- porated feminist ideas better than sociology, RECOGNIZE AND STRESS THE the questioning of androcentricconcepts and IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING SOCIOLOGY structures is finally beginning to have a broader impact in sociology. In an earlier Fourth, we need to recognize and accent the critical reflection, Dorothy Smith (1987) ar- importance of teaching sociology-espe- gues that mainstream sociology has histori- cially the kind of quality teaching that will cally been part of the dominant ideological prepare present and future generations for apparatus,which focuses on issues primarily the coming social, economic, technological, of concern to men. Mainstream sociology's and environmental challenges. Indeed, many central themes are "organized by and articu- of us were recruited into sociology by first- late the perspectives of men-not as indi- rate teachers. Our graduateprograms need to viduals ... but as persons playing determi- recognize that most people who secure Ph.D. nate parts in the social relations of this form degrees in sociology do not become profes- of society . . ." (p. 56). Feminist sociologists sors in research universities, but rather be- have pressured the discipline to view and re- come applied sociologists or faculty mem- search the social world from the perspective bers with heavy teaching loads in a diverse of women and thereby greatly expand its array of public and private educational insti- fund of knowledge. tutions (see Eitzen, Baca Zinn, and Gold African American, Latino, Native Ameri- 1999:57-60). can, Asian American, gay/lesbian, and other The majority of undergraduateand gradu- formerly excluded sociologists also have ate students in sociology are looking for 14 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW meaningful ways to contribute to making a STUDY THE BIG SOCIAL QUESTIONS better society. Thus, it is disturbing to hear reports from some of these students at vari- Finally, contemporary sociologists need to ous colleges and universities that their pro- spend much more effort studying the big so- fessors are asserting that there is no room in cial questions of the twenty-first century. In- sociology for idealism and activism. Social terestingly, Kai Erikson (1984:306; also see scientists who attempt to avoid social better- Wilner 1985) once suggested that a review ment issues often defend themselves with of leading sociology journals over several phrases like, "We are not out to save the decades would likely find that many decisive world." C. Wright Mills (1958) once sug- events had been ignored there by sociolo- gested, gists. When social scientists become too professionalized and too narrowly commit- Sometimes this is the disclaimer of a mod- ted to a discipline or area of study, research sometimes it is est scholar; the cynical con- issues tend to be defined from within their tempt of a specialist for all issues of larger concern; sometimes it is the disillusionment dominant professional paradigm. They rely of youthful expectations; often it is the pos- heavily on a narrow range of theories and ture of men who seek to borrow the prestige methods. Only those research topics and in- of The Scientist, imagined as a pure and dis- terpretations are accepted that do not embodied intellect. (P. 133) threaten the basis of the profession and its established intellectual capital. However, As teachers of sociology, we should make technological and other knowledge develop- clear to the coming generations of sociolo- ments are now moving so fast that a social gists not only that there is plenty of room scientist who is too narrowly trained or fo- for idealism and activism in the field but cused may be incapable of making sense out that these qualities might be requiredfor hu- of the ongoing currents of change. manity to survive the next century or so. We In many U.S. colleges and universities the need to communicate the excitement and administratively sanctioned goal of generat- importance of doing sociology. Alfred ing grant money-often for its own sake- McClung Lee (1978) was eloquent in this still distorts too much social science re- regard: search in the direction of relatively minor The wonder and mysteries of human creativ- social issues. This heavy focus on grant ity, love, and venturesomeness and the money reduces the amount of research on threatening problems of human oppression key public issues and diminishes the poten- and of sheer persistence beckon and involve tial for colleges and universities to be arenas those with the curiosity and courage to be for critical debate and discussion of those is- called sociologists. Only those who choose sues (Black 1999). to serve humanity rather than to get caught C. Wright Mills (1958) called for social up in the scramble for all the immediate re- scientists to challenge dominant ideas: wards of finance and status can know the pleasures and lasting rewards of such a pur- If truly independent ideas are not even for- suit. (Pp. 16-17) mulated, if we do not set forth alternatives, then we are foolishly trapped by the diffi- In my view, sociology students should be culties those now at the top have gotten us shown how the diversity of theories, meth- into. (P. 137) ods, debates, and practitioners in sociology is generally healthy for the field and for so- Sociologists need to formulate more original ciety. We also should strive to help our stu- and independent ideas, and to illuminate and dents think critically about their social lives directly and critically address recurring na- and about building a better society. Wendell tional and global crises. We need to imple- Bell (1998) has underscored the importance ment Gans's (1989) call for more sociolo- of showing social science students how to gists to become public intellectuals who will engage in debates about important issues, speak critically, and from data, about major critically assess necessary moral judgments, societal issues. Especially in our journals, and explore possible social futures for them- many social scientists need to break from the selves and their societies. conventional style of research presentation SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIOLOGY 1 5 and jargonistic writing that targets a special- ways in which racial oppression becomes ized audience and move to a style accessible disguised or subtle in its character and prac- to broad audiences and to an approach that tice, the ideological defense of that oppres- addresses the big social questions and the sion, and the social costs for its targets and implications of research for society. At the the larger society. same time, we should recognize that there We should also encourage similar socio- are numerous sociologists who write well logical research on other major forms of so- and accessibly, yet often face the censorship cial oppression that pervade this and other of ideas that are seen as too critical-an ex- contemporary societies. In recent years so- perience still common in this society. Thus, ciologists and other social scientists have we also should insist that the relevant pub- undertaken significant empirical and theo- lishing outlets consider and publish impor- retical work on sexism, homophobia, age- tant critical analyses of momentous social ism, and discrimination against the disabled, issues, and not rule them out as "too contro- yet today these areas cry out for much more versial" or as "only thought pieces" (Agger research and analysis. 1989:220). In addition, more sociologists should Yes, some sociologists do work on the big study societal futures, including the alterna- and tough questions; yet we need many more tive social futures of just and egalitarian so- to ask major questions about such societal cieties. The United States spends several trends as the huge and ongoing wealth trans- million dollars annually on the scientific fers from the working classes to the rich, the search for extraterrestriallife, yet very little social impact of environmental crises, the on examining the possible or likely social impact of globalizing capitalism on local futures for terrestrial societies. Today, we communities, and the human costs of racism, should encourage more sociologists and sexism, and other social oppressions. other social scientists to investigate societal One major research question requiring probabilities and possibilities, and assess much attention relates to the international them for the general public. Social scientists impact of multinational capitalism and its can extrapolate critically from understand- "free markets." We hear much today about ings of the trends and possibilities already the global capitalistic economy, but all too apparent in various societal arenas, as well little social science research is examining its as probe an array of societal alternatives deep structure and broad range of human with imaginative research approaches. consequences. Half a century ago, in a fore- Major societal transformations loom word to Polanyi's book, The Great Transfor- ahead of us. There are, for example, the de- mation, sociologist Robert M. MacIver mographic changes well described by some ([1944] 1957) noted that some research on sociologists, such as the graying of societ- capitalistic markets already indicated that ies. Such trends will likely be associated formulas like "world peace through world with other societal changes: Aging societies, trade"were dangerous simplifications: for example, may have less interest in war, Neithera nationalnor an internationalsys- experience less street crime, and focus them- tem can dependon the automaticregulants. selves more on issues of health care, social Balancedbudgets and free enterpriseand services, and euthanasia. Another demo- worldcommerce and international clearing- graphic shift already underway is an increas- houses ... will not guarantee an interna- ing racial and ethnic diversity in some na- tionalorder. Society alone can guaranteeit; tional populations. According to some U.S. internationalsociety must also be discov- Census Bureau projections, in the year 2050 ered.(P. xi) the U.S. population will reach about 383 Other major research questions deserving million; just under half will be Americans of more attention from sociologists center on color (Murdock 1995:33-47). And by the the character,costs, and future of contempo- 2050s, it is estimated, Americans of Euro- rary racism. While some sociologists have pean descent will become a statistical minor- pressed forward in researching the white- ity. For the most part, in-depth analysis of generated oppression targetingAmericans of the social significance of this demographic color, more researchers should address the trend has been left to journalists or popular 16 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW commentators, most of whom have limited than at present, and that computerized robots sociological knowledge. There is ample op- will be much "smarter"than human beings. portunity right now for sociological research A generally cautious computer scientist, Joy into the possible or likely societal futures (2000) does not see himself as writing sci- associated with trends such as these, particu- ence fiction, but as one who asks tough larly assessments from a countersystem questions about social futures: "Given the framework accenting the goals of social jus- incredible power of these new technologies, tice and multiracial democracy. shouldn't we be asking how we can best co- In addition, more sociologists should be exist with them? ... [S]houldn't we proceed doing research on, and showing the public with caution?" (n.p.). the social consequences of, the likely tech- Reviewing policy options, Joy (2000) sug- nological advances in biomedicine, artificial gests the almost unthinkable solution of hu- intelligence, genetics, and telecommunica- mans giving up entirely the development of tions. A central aspect of human societies is this robotic technology because of its likely the ability to collect, amass, and analyze in- negative consequences for human societies. formation. Today new developments in in- Physical scientists like Joy are questioning formation generation, storage, and applica- the modern faith in the benign character of tion are emerging at an explosive rate. For new technologies. They are asking tough instance, technological optimists predict that questions about the failure of physical and over the next few decades the biomedical social scientists, policymakers, and ordinary revolution will greatly extend the human life citizens to be centrally concerned with the span and augment our mental and physical social consequences of technologies. Criti- capacities dramatically. What are the social cal assessments of possible or probable so- consequences of such striking biomedical cial futures for technologically "advanced" developments for the world's many peoples? civilizations are naturalresearch and analyti- A leading medical expert on immunology, cal tasks for contemporary sociologists. Jerome Groopman (1999), has speculated on the inequalities likely to emerge: CONCLUSION I don't see the wealthywestern nations ral- lying to makemajor inroads into the devel- In an 1843 letter, the young Karl Marx sug- oping world, where infantmortality is still gested that critical social analysis should lay highand life expectancyis muchlower. Will bare the hidden societal realities. The goal you have this very lopsided set of popula- must be the "reform of consciousness not tions,where people in Americaand Western through dogmas but by analyzing mystical Europeare playing tennis and taking Viagra consciousness obscure to itself, whether ... at 115, while in Zairepeople are still dying in religious or political form" (Marx [1843] at 15 from HIV, malaria,tuberculosis, and 1975:209). Marx added that the task for in- Ebola?(1999:n.p.) volved social scientists, as for other citizens Moreover, in a provocative article, "Why of the world, was the clarification of the the Future Doesn't Need Us?" Sun Micro- "struggles and wishes of the age" (p. 209). systems' co-founder and chief scientist Bill For many millennia human beings have Joy (2000) has warned of a major techno- been tool-makers, yet in just a few decades logical threat to human beings-the new we have created economies and technolo- technologies of robots and other human-en- gies-such as polluting industries, fossil- gineered organisms. In Joy's informed pre- fuel consuming engines, and nuclear weap- diction, uncontrolled self-replication by ro- ons-that may well threaten the survival of bots with artificial intelligence could pose a our species and of our living planet itself. It serious threat to human beings in the com- seems likely that the fate of our planet and ing decades. A number of computer scien- its many species will be decided within the tists have predicted that by the 2030s com- next few generations by just one of its spe- puters will be ever more human, "con- cies. As moral beings, we need to ask insis- scious," and intelligent (Kurzweil 1999). tently: What would alternatives to our self- They predict that computers will have ca- destructive societies look like? And how do pacities a million times greater in the future we get there? SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIOLOGY 17

Much of humanity might agree on a new tors, and the character of the discrimination global social system that reduces injustice, faced by women in U.S. society. His recent and is democratically accountable to all people, forthcoming books include Racist America: offers a decent standardof living for all, and Roots, CurrentRealities, and Future Reparations (Routledge 2001); White Racism: The Basics operates in a sustainable relation to earth's (with Hernadn Vera and Pinar Batur, 2d ed., other living systems (e.g., see Korten 1999; Routledge 2001); and The First R: How Children Sahtouris 1996). Determining whether this is Learn Race and Racism (with Debra Van the case and how such a just global society Ausdale, Rowman and Littlefield 2001), and Lib- might be developed are enormous questions eration Sociology (with HernadnVera, Westview, that sociologists-and other citizens of the forthcoming). world-should be tackling.2 In a pioneering book, The Image of the Future (1973), Fred Polak argued that we need a new generation REFERENCES of visionaries who can think clearly and Addams, Jane. 1902. Democracy and Social Eth- deeply about sustainable social futures: ics. New York: Macmillan. Social scientist, intellectual, artist, leader, Agger, Ben. 1989. Reading Science: A Literary, middleman of any breed, and the Common Political, and Sociological Analysis. Dix Hills, Man (and Woman) to whom, after all, this NY: General Hall. century belongs-each must ask himself [or Baca Zinn, Maxine and Bonnie Thornton Dill, herself], what is my vision of the future? eds. 1994. Women of Color in U.S. Society. And what am I going to do about it? (P. 305) Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Bannister, Roger C. 1992. "Principle, Politics, Profession: American Sociologists and Fas- While social science analysis can help us cism." Pp. 172-213 in Sociology Responds to to understandour ailing societal dreams and Fascism, edited by S. P. Turner and D. Kasler. decide what dreams to accept or reject, such London, England: Routledge. analysis is beneficial only if it frees us to Bell, Michael M. 1998. An Invitation to Environ- decide on a better future. Let me conclude mental Sociology. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge. by closely paraphrasing Polak (1973:305): Bell, Wendell. 1998. "Making People Respon- Human beings have the ability to dream bet- sible: The Possible, the Probable, and the Pref- ter futures than we have yet succeeded in erable." American Behavioral Scientist 42: 323-39. dreaming. We have the ability to create Black, Timothy. 1999. "Going Public: How So- much better societies than we have yet suc- ciology Might Matter Again." Sociological In- ceeded in creating. quiry 69:257-75. Block, Fred. 1990. Postindustrial Possibilities: A Joe R. Feagin is Professor of Sociology at the Critique of Economic Discourse. Berkeley, Universityof Florida. His research interests con- CA: University of California Press. cern the developmentand structure of institution- Bressler, Marvin. 1999. "Contemporary Sociol- alized discrimination, oppression, and exploita- ogy: A Quarter Century of Book Reviews." tion in contemporarysocieties, as well as related Sociological Forum 14:707-20. resistance struggles and movements. He is cur- Bryant, Christopher G. A. 1985. Positivism in rently working on research examining the racial Social Theory and Research. New York: St. views of white elites, the individual and social Martin's. costs of racism, racial barriers in business sec- Burawoy, Michael. 1998. "Critical Sociology: A Dialogue between Two Sciences." Contempo- rary Sociology 27:12-20. 2 For example, visualizing the path to a better Business Week. 1999. "Economic Growth: Hey, future for the world's poor is not difficult. The What About Us?" Business Week, December 1997 Human Development Report of the United 27. Retrieved December 22, 1999 (http:// Nations indicated that for about 15 percent of the www.businessweek.com). U.S. defense budget, or about $40 billion a year, Cancian, Francesca M. 1995. "Truth and Good- the basic needs for health, nutrition, education, ness: Does the Sociology of Inequality Pro- reproductive health, safe water, and sanitation mote Social Betterment." Sociological Per- could be met for the entire population of the spectives 38:339-56. planet. Another $40 billion would be enough to Collins, Chuck, Chris Hartman, and Holly Sklar. bring the poorest residents of the planet out of 1999. Divided Decade: Economic Disparity at extreme poverty (Williamson 2000). the Century's Turn. Boston, MA: United for a 18 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

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PAST PRESIDENTS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

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