What is at stake when social science goes public?

Didier Fassin

Chapter 6 in Research Handbook on Public Sociology, 2023, pp 74-85 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: While public sociology as well as public anthropology have called for more interactions of the social sciences with their publics, this essay takes a different, non-normative, approach by addressing in a descriptive and analytical way the stakes and implications of such public presence. It opens with the paradoxical figure of Claude Lévi-Strauss, who, during his lifetime, was considered to be the most influential intellectual in France but stayed away from all major public debates. It then distinguishes two dimensions of publicization, popularization consisting of rendering research likeable and accessible, and politicization comprising the involvement in the public sphere and the contribution to policy making. It finally discusses the crucial role of critique in the encounter with publics and counterpublics, and the challenges of publicization, including the risks to which it exposes the author.

Keywords: Politics and Public Policy Sociology and Social Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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