Globalizing Sociology

Globalizing Sociology

As sociologists, I am interested in applying my sociological knowledge to improving society’s conditions and people’s lives. But how do sociologists do this? In general, we play three different roles in doing sociology.

First, we conduct research to systematically analyze social conditions and possible solutions to problems in the conditions. Second, we develop models, theories, and perspectives to further help us understand how the social conditions might be changed for the better. Third, we facilitate improving the social conditions as policy makers and activists.

Probably our most common role is conducting research, searching for possible causes of problems, and evaluating possible solutions. For example, a review of a number of sociological associations indicates that their main focus is research, which we will discuss later in the paper. Similarly, in the United States, about 75% of sociologists are in academic institutions (National Science Foundation, 2006). Less commonly, doing sociology might include direct intervention, including things like improving access to clean water or training people on how to advocate for their rights.

In this paper, I focus primarily on this third role, direct interventions by sociologists around the world. I would like to explore how our efforts could collectively work together in helping to change the world for the better.

The chapter includes three parts.

First, I briefly describe the current world social, political, and economic conditions. This is the context in which sociologists are working. A description of the world sets the stage for a description of the work of the sociologists described in this chapter.

In the second section, I describe several sociological associations worldwide. How sociologists work is very much influenced by the general condition of sociology in the country. The more sociology and sociological methods are accepted, the more options the sociologists have in conducting their projects.

In the third section, I introduce some sociologists who are currently involved with direct interventions aimed at changing people’s lives. I start with describing the general sociological conditions of various countries, based on information from the sociologists, or from other sources.

The above sociological conditions can serve as indicators of what kinds of sociological activities or practices are possible. Last, I describe what the sociologists are actually doing, as they apply sociology throughout the world; what kinds of activities they do and how they do it. I hope that, by reading this chapter, people can develop a better understanding about what sociologists do, around the world. People can then see how and where sociology may be useful in understanding, explaining, and helping to change the world.



Current Global Conditions and Trends: A Sociological View

There are a number of major trends in the world concerning population, health (represented by infant mortality rate [IMR]), economics, and politics (represented by freedom).

First, the population in the Less Developed Countries (LDCs) is becoming an increasingly large proportion of world population, growing from 70% in 1960 to 81% in 2001 (Table 2).



Table 2: Population



N Mid-year population 1960(millions) Mid-year population 1980(millions) Mid-year population 2001(millions) Annual Average Growth Rate 1960-80 Annual Average Growth Rate 1980-01

All countries 223 3,039 4,456 6,157 2.33% 1.82%

Less Developed Countries 167 2,129 3,375 4,968 2.93% 2.25%

More Developed Countries 6 910 1,081 1,189 0.94% 0.48%

Ratio of LDC to MDC populations 2.3 3.1 4.2

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Database, www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/. Also presented in Table 5 from Shackman, Gene, Xun Wang and Ya-Lin Liu. 2002.Brief review of world demographic trends. Available at http://gsociology.icaap.org/report/demsum.html


However, population growth is declining, in both the LDCs and More Developed Countries (MDCs). Second, IMR declined significantly between 1960 and 2001, for the world, and for both LDCs and for MDCs (Table 3).

Table 3 Infant Mortality Rate (Infants death per 1,000 births)

1980 2001

More developed countries(N=30) 13 6

Less developed Countries(N=83) 102 61

World 89 54

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Database, www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/. Also presented in Table 6 from Shackman, Gene, Xun Wang and Ya-Lin Liu. 2002. Brief review of world demographic trends. Available at http://gsociology.icaap.org/report/demsum.html.



While both LDCs and MDCs, on average, made dramatic improvements, gains for LDCs were much slower than were gains among the MDCs. Third, in the last several decades, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita increased in both developing and developed countries (Table 4).





Table 4. GDP Per Capita (in thousands of dollars)



1980 2000

MDCs $ 18,491 $ 28,168

LDCs $ 961 $ 1,491

World $ 9,373 $ 5, 229



Source: International Macroeconomic Data, www.ers.usda.gov/Data/Macroeconomics/. Also presented at Shackman, Gene, Ya-Lin Liu and Xun Wang. 2005. Brief review of world economic trends. Available at http://gsociology.icaap.org/report/econ/econsum.html.



GDP— the market value of all goods and services produced in a given year—is one of the measures used to describe a country’s economy. In general, GDP per capita increased about the same in both developed and developing countries. Finally, in the last several decades, there has only been moderate growth in freedom, and in 2000, about 43% of people in LDCs still lived in countries that were not free (Table 5)




Table5. Percent of People Living in Countries That Are Free

1980 2000

MDCs 88% 99%

LDCs 27% 32%

Percent of people living in countries that are not free

MDCs 7% 0%

LDCs 45% 43%

Source: Freedom House ratings available at www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=1. Combined with U.S. Census Bureau’s population data from the International Data Base. Also presented at Shackman, Gene, Ya-Lin Liu and Xun Wang. 2004. Brief review of world political trends. Available at http://gsociology.icaap.org/report/polsum.html.



However, the general trends of improving living conditions described above don’t apply to every country. For example, five countries (three in Africa) recently had increases of IMR greater than 10 percentage points (Shackman, Wang and Liu, 2002). Also, seven countries had GDP per capita declines of more than 40 percent, and four of these countries were in the Middle East (Shackman, Liu and Wang, 2005). Finally, twelve countries experienced a large decline in freedom, and seven of these were in Asia (Shackman, Liu and Wang, 2004).

In sum, there were large gains in many aspects of society. On the other hand, there were also many countries that did not share in these gains. It would seem reasonable to use sociology to understand why some of the countries did not improve, and what could be done about it. This is the rationale behind a project developed by the chapter authors called the Global Social Change Research Project (Shackman, Liu and Wang, 2008). The project provides a set of reports showing global social, political, economic, and demographic trends, hopefully in formats that are easy for everyone to read. The Global Social Change Research Project provides a Sociological point of view of where the world is, where it is going, and how it might get there. The project facilitates others who may want to apply sociology to address various social problems, either globally or locally.


Doing Sociology at Institutional Levels

There are a number of international, regional, national, and topic specific sociological associations (see Table 2.6). In this section, we briefly review information from these organizations. We also briefly describe several sociologists working at major institutions. Through these reviews, we demonstrate what sociologists are doing

Worldwide at the institutional level, which, as mentioned above provides indicators of the varying conditions throughout the world in which sociology can be applied. The major theme of most sociological associations is to promote sociology, sociological knowledge, and research, and also to develop networks for sociological researchers. For example, the International Sociological Association supports activities to: “(a) secure and develop institutional and personal contacts between sociologists and other social scientists throughout the world; (b) encourage the international dissemination and exchange of information on developments in sociological knowledge; and (c) facilitate and promote international research and training” (ISA, 2008). Most other associations have similar statements.

A few associations specifically have goals of promoting sociological interventions in public affairs. For example, the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology has a goal to “promote the use of applied and clinical sociology in local, regional, state, national, and international settings” (AACS, 2008). A few other institutions have a similar statement. It seems possible that in those countries or regions where organizations can include these statements, sociologists may have more opportunity to practice sociology, or use more sociological methods. Other ways that sociologists engage in international intervention include working directly with government agencies, or with government affiliated associations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, or the United Nations (UN), or with any of the thousands of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). For example, one of the authors developed a training program for Chinese officials to deal with unemployment and reemployment problems in China (Wang and Statham, 2004). A web search on “sociologist at the UN” returned a chair of a panel of Civil Society (UN, 2008a), several members of a High-Level Panel about Gender Dimensions of International Migration (UN, 2006), and a moderator of a Human Rights Workshop (UN, 2008b). A brief search of WHO returned a sociologist working as a research director, and another as a program commissioner (WHO, 2008).

Doing sociology at the institutional level includes direct intervention, including, as mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, things like improving access to clean water in one village or training people on how to advocate for their rights. In this section, we describe some of the direct interventions sociologists are doing, using examples primarily from the sociologists who volunteered descriptions of their work. The activities they describe include work in a variety of settings including using evaluations to train and build capacity, creating workshops on gender sensitivity, sexual harassment, sexual education, and abuse issues, empowering community development, and training in human rights education. These sociologists work in a variety of countries including Brazil, Cyprus, Ghana, Iran, India, Nigeria, Russia, and South America. These sociologists were contacted through various sociology related organizations and e-mail lists. These sociologists volunteered information about their activities in practicing sociology.




DOING SOCIOLOGY IN INDIA

 India is the dominant nation of South Asia. The world’s second-largest country in population, with 1.12 billion people, India is 80% Hindu, and 13% Muslim, with an estimated 2,000 ethnic groups (U.S. Department of State, 2008d). The quality of life in India is somewhat mixed. India’s IMR of 35 per 1,000 (U.S. Department of State, 2008d) is much better than the average for developing countries, of 63 per 1,000 (see Table 2). India’s social structure is characterized by dramatic class and regional disparities, as seen in the recent hit movie, Slumdog Millionaire. While, the GDP per capita of India is $909 (U.S. Department of State, 2008d), somewhat lower than the average for developing countries (see Table 3), the country has a huge and growing middle class. Politically, the government of India had some degree of respect for citizen rights but there is also a good deal of corruption and abuse, including torture. Overall, there is inadequate enforcement of human rights laws, although there have been some investigations into individual abuse cases and punishment of perpetrators (U.S. Department of State, 2008b).

Presenting a consistent mixed picture, the national government displays general respect for religious freedom, but some state and local governments were rather more restrictive (U.S. Department of State, 2008a). On the one hand, academic sociology in India seems to be progressing, with a continuingly growing association, journals, and popular conferences (Indian Sociological Society, 2008). On the other hand, academic growth does not seem to translate to sociological involvement with applied issues. For example, there seems to be only a limited number of sociologists working with or in the government of India. A search from the government of India’s website (http://india.gov.in/) found no sociologists as such (although as in the United States, sociologists may be working under other job titles). A Google search for sociologists with URL’s ending in “gov.in” found only two sociologists, in advisory capacities (Ministry of Culture, 2005; National Water Development Agency, 2004). In one recent book review (Vasavi, 2003), the author criticizes Indian sociologists for not becoming involved with major societal issues. It is difficult to find any further information about the position of sociology in India. One of the Indian practitioners we contacted, Dalaja, works on education and advocacy for a NGO. Recently Dalaja has been focusing on creating workshops on gender sensitivity, sexual harassment, sexual education, as well as abuse issues among teenage students and teachers in low income communities. These workshops are being developed for one specific organization. The administrators of the organization requested the workshops but based on conversations so far with people she will be working with, Dalaja feels that the workshops may not be well received by people working in that organization. The other sociologist, Aadesh is the lead researcher for a project on the coping strategies among the poorest in rural India. Aadesh, was involved in problem formulation, methodology development, conduct of actual research, analysis, and publication. Dalaja writes that her sociological training was useful. “My sociological training actually is employed in critically analyzing the way in which I conduct research among already victimized groups. I find that while there are a lot of NGOs that work in the field, there is a surprising lack of ethical conduct or conversations about confidentiality in the field. I discovered this when I was collecting data for my dissertation. So, my future interest primarily lies in making sure that the participants of research study are treated ethically.”

Conclusion

What are sociologists doing globally, and are they contributing? It is clear from this review that sociologists are active in a very wide variety of fields internationally. The position of sociologists in society seems somewhat mixed, at times fairly well accepted and involved in government or community projects as agents of change, and at other times, somewhat restricted to supporting the status quo. As indicated in the introduction, our participation seems largely in academics, but there are also many sociologists who take a direct role in applying sociology in the global community. In sum of where we are, there is still a good deal of room for growth among sociologists worldwide. One of the issues that may be limiting sociologists in terms of direct intervention is lack of recognition. Pilar, from Argentina and now attending graduate school in Europe, wrote of this, “Usually when I am in other countries people don’t know what sociology is or they mix it with psychology, so I am always obliged to say that I study society and that this is useful for teaching at University or for Public Policy (this is my short version for ordinary citizens of what sociology is).” Thus, one step that sociologists could take is to develop better information resources, easily available to the public, about sociology, describing what sociology is, and what sociologists do. The American Sociological Association began a project on public sociology (American Sociological Association, 2008), but this has had little impact. As sociologists and sociological practitioners have long noted, there remains need to publicize what our discipline is all about and what we can do—both here in the United States and globally. Another related step to furthering the ability of sociologists to work in direct intervention (whether clinical or applied sociology, or what is coming to be considered “public sociology”) is expanding recognition of our abilities to use sociology beyond “pure research.” At least in the United States, the sociology community is increasingly coming to recognize intervention in the tenure and promotion process (Jaschick, 2007). As can be seen in the chapters of this book, sociologists are expanding the use and understanding of sociology outside the academic community, at least in the United States. Hopefully this trend will continue, and will further develop throughout the rest of the world as well.



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