Why sociology is useless

With a bachelors degree, you may enter some of these career tracks as an assistant or a junior associate. Other roles, such as sociologist, may require a certification program or a masters degree. In general, sociology majors believe that there is room in the world for positive change, and they want to be a part of making that happen.

The study of societies, institutions, and the ways that people relate to one another is known as sociology. The field of sociology emphasizes critical thinking, statistical analysis, and behavioral science. Typically, students in this field not only want to understand why people and communities do the things they do but also want to explore ways to make the world a better place. A sociology program is likely to challenge your assumptions and encourage you to see the world from a different perspective.

If you want to work directly with people, you may consider applying for positions in social or human service agencies. After gaining experience, you might eventually land a management position. You may also join a sociology research team as an assistant. You may work for a government agency, a nonprofit organization, or even a research and development firm. The experience you gain by polling respondents, compiling data, or filing reports could prepare you for graduate studies in this field.

Public relations and human resources departments could benefit from your sociology background. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, those who get promoted to managerial positions make, on average, over six figures annually. Bryan was a top class scholar of religion and absolutely scrupulous about attention to evidence.

Alas he did not always hold himself to the same standards when it came to commenting about social issues outside of his field of expertise where his socially conservative predisposition tended to make him somewhat selective with respect to the facts he was willing to countenance. You speak your mind earnestly.

For that reason, even if everything you said are wrong, it is worth reading these. Post a Comment. Popular Posts Open letter to Prof. Kate Pickett. Dear Professors Wilkinson and Pickett You don't know me and are unlikely to read this letter. Even if you do, I know you won't r So the guys over at GBCS have finally got around to responding, in a piece titled ' On social class, anno '. Obviously th Is sociology useless?

Something I've been meaning to blog about for a while. The Guardian 's Aditya Chakrabortty has been putting the boot into sociolog The Great British Class Fiasco. It's been a bad week for my blood pressure. I'm trying manfully to ignore the hooplah arising from MT shuffling off her mortal coil Writing a Master's Thesis. It's that time of year when my MSc students are starting to seriously worry about choosing a dissertation topic.

With that in mind here Prolier than thou. Fair dinkum cobber, the land of the cultural cringe has come up with its own version of the Great British Class Survey and like the origina Blah blah sociology. Taking a look at the videos on the British Sociological Associations web site of its last conference I found one nice thing - richly deser Making an online lecture. I'm very lucky to be on sabbatical leave and living until September hopefully in a country that has taken a different approach to the The Krugman style.

I have to say that I admire Krugman's style, by which I mean his willingness to put his boxing gloves on when he sees foolishness.

On metaphors - cultural and social capital again. Recently, as you no doubt know, I've been beating up on the use of the term "capital" in phrases like "cultural capital Not having extraneous variables just ruined my study, because it's likely the gender is coincidental when the real connection is to lurking variables like age, or time on site, etc. If I included the extra variables in the research, I can control for them to acutely determine if there's any meaningful connection between the original two variables I wanted to study.

As a humorous example of what happens when you don't gather extraneous data:. Plus, publish a book and make money. Not to mention it's of "use to certain individuals, particularly to those that harbor anti-religious sentiments" I admit to not being clear how it is of use to them, but I'm not the one making that claim.

Rebuttal Section 2: Inherent Founding-Father Biasness The resolution deals clearly with uselessness, not if it is negative I think my R2 covered what a boon it is, but to be thorough Saying something is bad because "Karl Marx, Simone De Beauvoir and Antonio Gramsci" were pioneers of it, implies various broad reaching actions tied to their names, which is a nice pathos appeal, but actually implies Sociology as being quite useful no matter if we dislike some of those uses.

Rebuttal Section 3: Alternatives to Quantitative Research A lot of crossover with the above; and as noted at the start of this round, my non-contested case from last round.

If an area has a social trend of say tipping Smart Cars [13], I need not know the objective odds of my car getting vandalized, to deduce it's best not to leave it parked there overnight.

If I'm traveling in an area prone to STD's [14], I don't need study conducted with perfect objectivity to tell me I need to be extra careful. Getting deeper, to understand what social habits lead to the spread of diseases, helps decrease their spread.

The alternative of ignoring it leads to numerous problems [15]. Rebuttal Section 4: The Queue of Legitimate Concerns "If the priority of attaining religious understanding weighs less than solving current crisis such as the issues with modern health problems, then social scientists must give way to those concerns.

If Steve Bruce studied cancer instead of religion, at best he'd just be one more researcher among thousands, cancer would not magically be cured by his dedication. If he studied war in the Middle East, as evidenced by the countless people already trying to broker peace, we would still not have peace there. That something is not useful to everyone, does not mean it's useful to no one. That it's not of optimum utility, does not mean it is of zero utility.

Care to elaborate? I consider this point to have been self-refuted already in R2 with the statement of how useful such studies are to anyone with "anti-religious sentiments. I've of course already named various scenarios where not understanding the details, still allows sociology to be of benefit to us. My opponent has made a compelling case for his dislike of sociology in particular researcher Steve Bruce , yet dropped several areas it is of clear use, and complained that he doesn't like that it's useful in others.

His own selected definition stipulates if something serves "any purpose" it is not useless. Defenses To begin, I believe previous statements of mine from last round already cover much of pro's rebuttals. If saving lives is "completely irrelevant" I am unsure what would fit pro's baseline for relevancy. The survey conducted by Morning Consult is of unquestionable use, as we've seen it put to some purpose by journalist Jesse Byrnes as the basis for a political commentary article for which he was paid [1], and yes I do take for granted that his paycheck is useful to him; the newspaper itself certainly enjoys the increased traffic that headline generates.

Complaining that the cited survey was mainly about views on drugs the word drug is contained in 80 of the questions, or as my opponent puts it "a handful" , but was also useful to a newspaper talking about the election, seems self-defeating when it demonstrates the number of people whom it is useful to has been increased exponentially with the inclusion of just one additional question.

Complaining that a statistic of how many people would consider doing something, "fails to consider financial opportunities, And complaining that it did not have enough side questions about different countries on other continents " Saudi Arabia or Iran" for consideration, directly counters my opponent's own complaints about Extraneous Variables. I do however agree that different phrasing of questions yields different results, it's flexibility, understanding this allows smart researchers to design different studies for different purposes, to include cross studies to understand differences in answer sets for similar questions.

My case specifically included the word "visit," because most people enjoy visiting different countries if lacking the means, still researching hypothetical vacations for fun , and knowing a little more of what to expect is useful as source 8 pointed out, failing in this has resulted in people being tortured to death for minor misunderstandings. Relations Apparently I fail " to consider that the multi-national corporations themselves abuse third world countries.

As my opponent's own source points out, NIKE used knowledge of Viet Nam's differing social structure to in addition to various other crimes all but brainwash people into submission: "Labor reporters said they had been ordered to write only positive stories about NIKE.

Further this kind of thing is done by multi-national corporations in general pro's point was specifically plural, as in not exclusive to NIKE , proving that sociology is frequently of use. On the same point, understanding that people of different cultures define their needs differently, is incredibly useful to addressing what they feel are problems [2].

Further I have shown that it is useful to understanding average differences as seen with the Hofstede Chart [5, 6], and my opponent from Hungary's fine example of the increased "cynicism and pessimism" indicated on the chart via decreased indulgence compared to the USA [5], which is not universal of all people from there, but he chose to match the norms as already predicted by a pre-generated sociological comparison.

I find it very useful to predict people, it helps me win debates, and in this sample my predictions held true verifying their use. I do not need to refute any sociological studies for any of the above to be true, and certainly not ones which deal with religion when the one I just used does not address that area. Advertising I am unsure why, but my opponent complains that an argument made in a round to which rebuttals were not allowed, was not a rebuttal " Then he complaints that sociology is useful in the job market, which is leaving the use of it unchallenged.

Yes, he does touch on how he dislikes it morally, but the definition of useful has nothing to do with morals. He does bring up his analogy about Tychonian Science, which if applied the way he wants to apply things to the whole field of Sociology would mean Astronomy itself would have been entirely abandoned, rather than improved as was the case.

Key Dropped Points:. Rather than address my actual explanation for why studies gather Extraneous Variables outside the precise ones they want to study, my opponent made another blatant Strawman fallacy: "None of the chronological secularization thesis order made by Steve Bruce provided a link to 'Elo from Debate. As for if a lack of " total control over variables speaks of it's validity," there is never such a thing in any science, certainly not in Astronomy the only other named one in this debate.

By side stepping into that weird strawman, my actual point about the need to gather extraneous variables is untouched. Inherent Founding-Father Biasness Again Strawmanning, "Con attempts of appeal to the internet's toxic anti-religious dissidents. Queue of Legitimate Concerns I'm unsure what special skills would enable a year-old religious studies major to cure cancer, nor who would hire him for such. Granted as someone who makes money selling books on religion in society, he could currently donate money to cancer research.

Conclusion A number of cases have been presented by my opponent and I. Here is a breakdown on the majority Sources All source references may be found within my previous rounds it's why I use continuous numbering. By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Google Search. Post Your Opinion. Create New Poll. Sign In Sign Up. Follow debateorg. The Instigator. Do you like this debate? After reading a few books on sociology, notably a few religious case studies and a few "New Dads" studies by various graduates, I have come to the conclusion that sociology is a useless field.

While this may be premature, I'd still like to test whether this is true or whether I'm just not competent enough to see the value that it provides. Sociology : "Sociology is the study of social behavior or society, including its origins, development, organization, networks, and institutions.

It is a social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order, disorder, and change. Many sociologists aim to conduct research that may be applied directly to social policy and welfare, while others focus primarily on refining the theoretical understanding of social processes. Both sides are prohibited from debating and overhauling definitions.

If you have any concern regarding the definitions, raise them now before the debate commences. If any of the rules are broken, the entire debate is forfeited. Both sides are not allowed to raise new arguments in the last round. As expected, the Burden of Proof is on Pro. More than half of sociology must be proven as useless. You may also engage in survey studies where you interview large numbers of people, and collect data via surveys. This sounds relatively uninteresting however the real work comes when you analyse your results to learn about that particular group to understand why they may be facing an issue.

Both of these are ethnographic in their approach and therefore offer huge opportunities to gain experience for a future career in scientific research. Sociology should never be seen as a useless degree since so many useful discoveries in social behaviour have come from sociologic research.

This includes the use of surveys and statistical analysis to uncover certain behavioural and cognitive processes. Sociology aims to understand the world itself, and how different groups and cultures relate with each other, and how this can have an effect on larger groups. The implications of the research are far-reaching, and will always be relevant especially in these modern and often changing times. People are quick to condemn an entire degree as useless without even considering the course content and future implications.

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