What Is Sociology’s Contribution Beyond the Humanities and Other Social Sciences?

Abstract

Invitation to Sociology makes known that sociology is a coherent and value-added academic discipline. In exploring the continuing relevance of Invitation to Sociology, the time is ripe to reconsider sociology as a value-added intellectual enterprise. This paper answers this question: What does sociology have to offer beyond what the humanities and its sister social sciences already provide? This paper answers this question by identifying the four elements that compose the sociological tradition. These elements are social action; embeddedness; social problems; and social construction. I argue that these elements are more pronounced in sociology than in any other academic discipline, and hence contribute to the value-added character of sociology.Nearly a half century ago, Peter Berger apprised a wideranging audience of the value-added character of sociology to the uninitiated. In recognizing the continuing relevance of his classic Invitation to Sociology, the time is ripe to reconsider the value-added character of the intellectual world of sociology. I will state the purpose of this paper in interrogative form: What is the value of sociology as a scholarly activity beyond what the humanities and its sister social sciences have to offer? It is this question that Berger addressed-and the one that I will explore in this paper. An ability to answer this question unambiguously, almost fifty years following the publication of Invitation to Sociology, illumines that there is something unique about the sociological enterprise.Before take-off, however, it is important to touch on an issue that makes this reconsideration a timely one. When finished, I will return to the question raised above by expounding on what I and Berger consider to be the distinctive value-added elements of sociology.The importance of this exploration into the value-added components of sociology derives from a cause of unease amongst professional sociologists. This source of uneasiness has to do with tension within sociology regarding the coherence of the discipline. I will, therefore, look to enhance the value of this exploration by working to counter the notion that sociology is an incoherent discipline. Is Sociology an Incoherent Discipline?The contemporary knock against sociology, particularly amongst sociologists, is that there is a high degree of specialization, but little agreement on foundational issues to provide ballast for its numerous and varied areas of study. Put simply, sociology is replete with intellectual differentiation, yet suffers from a dearth of intellectual integration (Coleman ). The unfortunate result of this is that, according to Turner (2006: 26), "sociology has trouble specifying clearly what its subject matter is; it has no clear conception of the proper mode of theorizing, [and] with no theory in the discipline accepted as the best explanation of phenomena for the present, it has little consensus over how to conduct research …." Furthermore, given Turner's (2006) depiction of a coherent discipline, i.e., a discipline tha...