Our old friend, Peter Klein of the evil twin Organizations and Markets blog, draws our attention to a recent Wall Street Journal article called “The Twilight of Sociology” by Wilfred McClay. Peter has a nice summary of its main points. According to the article, sociology is doomed because it is too political and too “scientistic,” which means a shallow aping of economics and political science. McCly also points out that wide ranging generalist sociologists, like the recently departed Seymour Martin Lipset, are not to be found these days (unless you read orgtheory.net).
Sociology does have some serious issues, but the patient isn’t dead. Any long time observer will know that sociology’s demise has been predicted for decades, yet has never happened. Anti-sociologists like McClay remind me of orthodox Marxists waiting for the revolution that never came. Remember the “coming crisis of western sociology” in the 1970s? Never happened. Remember the impending “death of white sociology” predicted by Joyce Ladner in the late 1960s? Didn’t happen either. Sociology is academia’s Desdemona. You keep suffocating her, but she won’t give up the ghost.
Elsewhere, Gordon Smith explores the question: "Why do economists think sociologists are stupid?" (HT Brayden King) More thoughts on this by Lawerence Solum.
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