431368

2012
JAXXXX10.1177/1936724411431368FinkelsteinJournal of Applied Social Science

Journal of Applied Social Science

6(1) 3142
Sociologys Icebergs: Jobs, The Author(s) 2012
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Workplace Change, and the sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1936724411431368

Applied Imperative http://jax.sagepub.com

Marv Finkelstein1

Abstract
This article explores sociologys continued vulnerability as a discipline in the context of global,
economic, and workplace change. Recent data suggest that a majority of sociology graduates will
continue to pursue jobs and careers outside of academia, though they all express misgivings about
whether they are prepared to do so. Moreover, there has been a precipitous decline in the number
of academic jobs in sociology while the number of non-academic jobs has actually increased. Re-
gardless, new sociology PhDs expect to find jobs in academia. In the aftermath of the great reces-
sion of the past decade, the changing nature of employment, jobs, careers, and the workplace is
likely to continue to challenge sociologys ability to provide graduates with clear pathways toward
success in a competitive global economy. In short, the discipline may be headed in a perilous direc-
tion, particularly regarding its future graduates. The article suggests ways that academic sociology
might change course and better serve its students and its institutional role in higher education.The
central goal will be to suggest how applied concepts regarding employment and workplace change
in the global economy may be integrated into the curriculum.

Keywords
applied sociology, workplace change

We have all heard the stories of vessels at sea that experience smooth sailing and calm waters but
are lulled into complacency, unaware of the dangers that may lie just below the oceans surface.
The ships that are vigilant are better prepared to change direction, the ones that are not risk disaster.
Could sociology be an academic Titanic failing to take seriously the tips of large icebergs that lie
ahead? Consider these icy protrusions that have recently been sighted in a series of reports mostly
from the ASA:

The number of sociology students planning on going to grad school has declined, and the
number of students planning to exclusively get a job after graduation was 60 percent in 2007,
up from 40 percent in 2005 (Spalter-Roth and Van Vooren 2008).

1
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, USA

Corresponding Author:
Marv Finkelstein, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, USA
Email: mfinkel@siue.edu
32 Journal of Applied Social Science 6(1)

More than half of sociology grad students intend to go directly into the job market, and only
12 percent of them say they have been adequately advised how to do so (Spalter-Roth 2007).

Seventy-five percent of sociology undergrads that say they will go to grad school do so in
programs other than sociology, and they are career oriented when they get there (Spalta-Roth
and Van Vooren 2009).

A growing number of sociology majors are nontraditional students, older, people of color,
and/or immigrants who are more likely to be interested in ways they can use their degrees
to find a job and develop a successful career (Spalter-Roth and Erskine 2006).

The National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation have issued reports
suggesting that for the past 20 years 80 percent of sociology PhD grads continue to expect
academic jobs compared to other social science disciplines that are more likely to have
expanded their career purview to the non-academic job sector (Spalter-Roth and Van Vooren
2011).

There has been a 35 percent decline in the number of advertised academic positions in soci-
ology, while there has been a 21 percent increase in non-academic jobs (Spalta-Roth, Jacobs,
and Scelza 2010).

State funding for higher education is down across the country and will likely be weak for
years to come, while there will continue to be a rise in private for-profit providers of college-
level educational programs (Spalter-Roth, Senter, et al. 2010).

These trends suggest that underlying what appears to be current, robust student enrollments and
ASA memberships may be unseen obstacles that threaten to undermine the disciplines vitality and
future prospects. It is clear that growth in higher education and especially the liberal arts will be
difficult to sustain in the coming years. The national and global economies will take much longer
to recover from what has been called the great recession, which means that family income as well
as state and local government revenue will continue to be anemic. College tuition and state budget
allocations for higher education will come under increasing scrutiny. Persistently high unemploy-
ment rates will directly and indirectly renew pressure on the traditional liberal arts to demonstrate
its relevance and responsiveness to student concerns about jobs and careers. Thus, cost-conscious
and career-minded students will sharpen their focus on academic programs that will help them
maneuver in chronically restrictive labor markets. Though obviously not a new concern for sociol-
ogy, there is reason to believe that this time may be different.
For example, in the early 1980s, during what was considered the most serious recession since
the Depression of the 1930s, there was a precipitous decline in sociology majors and a shift in
educational resources toward business and professional fields (Huber 1985). And although student
enrollment and interest came back, a fundamental restructuring of the global and domestic econo-
mies went on unabated. Globalization, downsizing, outsourcing, technological change, and demo-
graphic shifts have taken their toll. The loss of jobs and the growth of underemployment have taken
on record dimensions. Thus, part of the reason why jobs and careers remain a great quandary to
students is that little about employment today resembles what was taken for granted just a few
years ago. Job security and stability, established job ladders, progressive pay increases, standard
full-time positions, and built-in benefits, including health care, pensions, and vacations, have all
but disappeared. In addition, the growth in home ownership and investment savings that helped
finance family college spending in the past 20 years has dropped sharply.
Finkelstein 33

A programmatic approach in sociology to not only understand these developments but also to
integrate the practical implications appears to be called for; in fact, may be imperative. Sociology
is one of the few disciplines equipped to analyze the broad significance of global and workplace
change. It is well positioned to provide both the conceptual, research, and practical know-how
necessary to address the social transformation of work and employment, and the transition of edu-
cation to work, that will continue well into the twenty-first century. However, this requires a delib-
erate and systematic effort to rethink the curriculum and incorporate an applied perspective. It
cannot be left to ad hoc and arbitrary opportunity, or tacked on to courses or programs. Regretfully,
studies continue to indicate that academic sociologists rank applied concepts, labor force issues,
and career trajectories toward the bottom of learning goals and priorities for sociology students
(Wagenaar 2004; Persell 2010). Alternatively, a programmatic approach would help remake sociol-
ogys understanding of itself and its role as a profession.
The purpose of this article is to explore ways academic sociology might change course and steer
in a direction that will better serve students and strengthen the disciplines institutional role in
higher education. How applied concepts regarding jobs and employment in the global economy
may be integrated into the curriculum will be the central goal.

Global and Workplace Change and Sociology

The discipline of sociology was born almost two centuries ago in the context of a societal sea
change Karl Polanyi (1957) called the great transformation. Much of sociology may be under-
stood as an effort to comprehend and explain this momentous change. Today there is evidence that
a change of equal or perhaps greater proportions may be underway (Bell 1976; Harvey 1992;
Castells 1996; Friedman 2006). This may be particularly true with regard to the nature of work and
production (Womack, Jones, and Roos 1990). Broadly speaking, the change has to do with the
movement away from the Fordist model of organization characterized by a high degree of
bureaucracy, mass production techniques, standardized products, and scientific management
toward operations fueled by rapid information flows and geared toward innovation and service-
oriented products.
We are increasingly in a world compressed in time and space, flattened by virtue of elec-
tronic communication, economically integrated and interdependent, and in a state of permanent
flux. These amount to structural and cultural changes at work that tend to call for cooperation and
information sharing, initiating greater flexibility, though with fewer workers who possess higher
levels of skills and education. They create a context that suggests new perspectives and skills
especially sociological ones.

Sociology as a Useful Art

Although sociology has, in the latter part of the twentieth century, defined itself as a traditional
liberal art, it might be more helpful to recognize the disciplines applied origins in the United
States and to consider itself more of a useful art (Finkelstein 1994; Dentler 2002). This is not to
be confused with the view that sociology should gear itself as vocational or as a practical art in
the way many schools such as business, criminal justice, or engineering have attempted to profes-
sionalize their programs strictly toward the delivery of skill sets oriented toward the job market
(Brint 2002). On the contrary, we should understand the useful arts in the way that Ernest Boyer
(1987), who was among the first to pioneer such innovative concepts in higher education, urged
us to bridge the gap between traditional academic study and professional practice. He argued pro-
fessional schools such as engineering, business, and nursing have sought to liberalize their cur-
riculums to overcome excessively narrow and technical approaches, while the social sciences must
34 Journal of Applied Social Science 6(1)

hone their broad-based ideas to forge practical skills. For Boyer there is a need to apply creative
and profound liberal ideas to practice settings. More recently, we recognized that strictly dividing
liberal education from technical learning may create a false dichotomy. This is true, even in tradi-
tional, technical occupations such as manufacturing and construction that increasingly require
higher-level skills such as problem solving, information processing, communications, and team-
work in diverse settings. Conversely, those with a bachelors degree in the liberal arts often lack
hands-on knowledge and an understanding of practical application in concrete workplace settings.
A recent report issued by the Harvard Graduate School of Education (2011) asserts the failure of
American education to prepare young people for successful careers and jobs. It suggests the need
for alternative pathways to help students make a successful transition from education to work.
Internationally, European and Scandinavian countries have long established education systems
that not only blur such distinctions, but also give greater emphasis to vocational programs. The
United States has given more attention to these examples, arguing that high unemployment rates
are exacerbated by structural unemployment or the mismatch between jobs that require greater
skills and the lack of workers who possess those skills. They point to countries like Germany,
Denmark, and Switzerland that have a tradition of offering technical and apprenticeship programs
for young and displaced workers as alternatives to more academically oriented career trajectories.
However, in these countries as elsewhere, bridging the gap between the two remains unclear. To be
sure, applied and clinical sociology are practiced around the world (Fritz 2010) but whether educa-
tional programs internationally are directly addressing the issue remains unseen.
Accomplishing this task for sociology would require a reconciliation and synthesis of the liberal
arts and practice traditions. It would mean clearly developing the content and relevancy of curri-
cula in relation to emerging workplace issues and skills. As it stands there is a great deal of confu-
sion what applied or clinical sociology is, especially with regard to the emerging conceptualization
of public sociology. In fact, there are many models within sociology to consider, but the practicality
of sociology remains largely hidden and unexplored (Finkelstein 2009).
Let us recall that if the liberal arts and sciences tradition focuses on anything its the free
exchange of ideas and the sanctity of pursuing knowledge for its own intrinsic value, absent of all
practical commitments. Objectivity and value neutrality are presumed to encourage an unbiased
and more truthful outcome. The strength of ideas is measured by the extent to which credible
untainted evidence can be produced in support. Thus, it is quite understandable that historically
the basic model of scientific research largely dominates the liberal tradition. The assumptions of
the basic model of research strongly resemble those of the natural sciences, which suggests: (1) the
purpose of doing research is to obtain an objective understanding of the world or the pursuit of
knowledge for the sake of understanding; (2) to achieve this goal requires methods of data collec-
tion that distance the researcher from the research setting, lest the principle of objectivity be more
likely violated; and (3) since the role of the researcher should be clearly separate from the research
setting (thus favoring strategies in the social sciences such as surveys and standardized instru-
ments), the legitimacy and credibility of the research hinges on the extent to which the researcher
remains disconnected and unstained by the bias inherent in any practical commitments surrounding
the research setting. The result is the liberal arts tradition has a strong affinity to the basic model of
science in the way it has maintained a separation between itself and any professional or practical
field.
Thus, it is no wonder that models of research that involve application or practice are viewed
with a jaundiced eye by those whose who are wedded to the liberal and scientific traditions. The
notion that the basic model is but one of a variety of approaches to scientific research remains a
marginal perspective in the social sciences. In part, this is why applied sociology and sociological
practice have yet to be fully recognized, let alone implemented in the academic realm.
Finkelstein 35

Finally, concerning college-level curriculums, the most effective ways to make the crucial con-
nection between education and work have become out-of-class activities, internships, practicums,
and service learning aimed at capstone projects and experiences (Hand 2007). However, there is a
need to ground such experiences in the sociological perspective and its pedagogy systematically.

The Power of Perspective

Among the most important challenges facing anyone attempting to make sense of the vast struc-
tural changes of a new economy and work successfully in it will be to develop powerful conceptual
skills and a penetrating framework of analysis. One way we may combine the conceptual force of
sociology rooted in its liberal tradition with the benefits of its potential practicality is to recognize
what the discipline has always relied on for guidance and direction: the sociological imagination.
Mills (1959) encourages us to pay attention to the plight of ordinary human beings and urges the
development of a quality of mind necessary for incisive insight and penetrating analysis in a
complex and changing world. Seen this way, the approach goes beyond the common reference to
people skills and helps us formulate more sharply stated sets of capabilities. That is the capacity
to understand, critique, and challenge the everyday assumptions and world views that often trap
us in old categories or ways of thinking that deny us the potential for transforming our circum-
stances creatively.
Three contemporary thinkers illustrate Millss perspective, particularly as it applies to the transfor-
mation of work. They are Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Peter Senge, and Gareth Morgan. Kanters (1977,
1983) work in Men and Women of the Corporation and the Change Masters demonstrates the power
of the sociological approach in a way that not only reconceptualizes jobs, careers, and organizations
( by flattening the hierarchy and empowering the inhabitants), but also provides an understanding
of how the actors experience the work world and how they may change it. Similarly, Peter Senge
(1990), in the Fifth Discipline (one that embodies many basic sociological principles), presents five
mental models that he argues will help the participants create learning organizations. Finally,
Gareth Morgan (1993, 2006) in his Imaginization: The Art of Creative Management and Images of
Organization provides a revolutionary set of lenses via metaphors to reconceptualize the organiza-
tional world and the kind of steps necessary to create workplace change.
These are examples of scholar-practitioners who have attempted to bridge the gap between the
liberal and useful arts, theory and practice, and the academic and professional world. They are
social constructionists, who wish to understand and make workplace participants active agents in
restructuring organizational processes such as language, culture, roles, and groups. This contrasts
sharply with traditional approaches where we assume people have little control over their circum-
stances at work. Thus, rigid adherence to categories such as management and the boss may
make less sense when there is a need for shared responsibility and collective effort. A social con-
structionist view emphasizes participants have the ability to make and shape their social environ-
ment, but to do so they must see through the illusions of many taken-for-granted assumptions
that can trap or constrain us.
Thus, the power of the sociological perspective can provide our students with the ability to chal-
lenge assumptions about the workplace, employment, and the economy so they may develop alter-
native ways of organizing and managing work. Such a perspective translates into specific skills
associated with a sociological approach.

De-individualizing Work: Levels of Analysis

At the same time we encourage our students to critically question taken-for-granted assumptions
about jobs and work, we demonstrate the importance of going beyond the individual in our notions
36 Journal of Applied Social Science 6(1)

of workplace behavior and recognizing the connection between the individual and the larger social
context. To do so means introducing levels of analysis from micro notions of the individual
experience, the group, family, and the organization to more macro views of the community, institu-
tions, and the global level. Of course dimensions such as social class, race, and gender cut across
these levels of analysis (Finkelstein 2004).
The strength of the sociological approach is integration of these dimensions, providing a broader
view and firmly grounding the individual in the social context (Mills 1959). To make sense of
workplace behavior and ones role in it any other way would be like trying to distinguish a single
thread apart from the quilt in which it is embedded and the larger social patterns that define it
(Carruthers and Babb 2000). While it may be true individuals bring an array of personal character-
istics that may predispose them to act in particular ways and which may or may not make them well
suited for the job for which they have been hired, a sociological approach emphasizes that once an
individual becomes part of an organization, that social context highly influences the way that indi-
vidual will behave and perform. To go work in the real world means to understand your relation-
ship as an employee to others, who possess a variety of characteristics and who now have a common
ground in that organizational context to make sense of that world.

Team-based Work and Culture

To be human is to work in groups. Most of human evolution took place in small nomadic bands
that migrated through Africa and Europe for hundreds of thousands of years. Survival depended
on the development of culture, language, and tools, which provided for the adaption to climate and
environmental change. Artisanal groups, guilds, and communities characterized traditional societ-
ies. Yet the Industrial Revolution, capitalism, and the technological development of the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries increasingly attempted to individualize the structure of work.
Specialization and the detailed division of labor so characteristic of the rise of modern bureaucracy
and mass production proliferated. The machine model of organization became dominant in the
twentieth century (Morgan 2006). Yet these rigid hierarchical structures have come under a good
deal of criticism and change with the rise of the global economy. They do more to create order and
control than accommodate rapid information flow, facilitate horizontal communication, problem
solve, and encourage greater innovation and creativity. This is likely to occur in a more open con-
text where the free flow of ideas and experimentation are cultivated and networking social rela-
tionships can flourish.
Sociological research emphasized the rise of such developments and their transformative impact
on the social organization of work (Hodson and Sullivan 2007). This is especially true of techno-
logical change, which tended to be viewed as deterministic with regard to the structure of produc-
tion, for example, the assembly line. Recognition of the social nature of technology is more likely
today. It is more appreciated that technical systems can be designed and arranged to assist and
enhance the role of humans instead of the other way around. Such insights with regard to work
structure, culture, and technology do not come naturally. In fact, what the workplace looks like
depends on those who participate in it and create it.
All of this is to suggest that sociology as a discipline could do much more to guide and advise,
if not instruct, students on major trends, issues, and ideas confronting todays workplace.

Workplace Change
One of the most important sources of influence spurring workplace change in the post-WWII era
is the phenomenal success of the Japanese automobile industry. Chronicled in the now classic
study, The Machine that Changed the World, the authors argue the merits of what has become
Finkelstein 37

known as lean production (Womack et al. 1990). According to this analysis, the reason compa-
nies like Toyota and Honda were able to rise literally from the ashes of total devastation in the
aftermath of WWII, and to surpass American companies like General Motors to become the
worlds dominant automakers, is because they reorganized manufacturing operations and made
them less bureaucratic and more integrated.
This meant a shift away from top-down, high volume, low cost mediocre production to high-
quality customization, based on a bottom-up approach to fostering a relentless emphasis on meet-
ing customer needs. Lean also means doing more with fewer highly trained employees and
resources and less space. This revolutionary change, from mass to more flexible production tech-
niques, encourages employee participation, involvement, teamwork, and cooperation. According
to this view, only a highly skilled and involved workforce can possibly deal with the complex
problems and intricacies of advanced technologies in a fast moving global economy. In other
words, only when the production is organized in a way that structures opportunities for employee
communication and interaction can innovative problem solving and attention to quality take place.
Of course lean production has had its share of criticism for promoting and legitimizing such
things as layoffs, load-up, and speed-up on the job (Fantasia, Clawson, and Graham 1988).
Nevertheless, these changes may take many forms and may be implemented in different ways. A
sociological perspective and practicality is well positioned to provide skilled guidance to this pro-
cess that recognizes and critically evaluates these issues while developing more satisfying out-
comes for all parties involved.

Diversity
The workplace is increasingly defined by diversity. It is clear that the workforce of tomorrow that
is happening today is a diverse one. In the next 20 years the population of native-born workers in
the United States will barely grow. At the same time, presently about 10 percent of the population
or about 30 million Americans were born in another country. Foreign-born workers accounted for
nearly half the net increases in the labor force between 1996 and 2000. Moreover, a majority of
these immigrants are not from Europe or Scandinavia. They are mostly from Africa, Asia, and the
Caribbean. By 2050, whites will be in the minority of the U.S. population and will constitute about
53 percent of the workforce, down from 73 percent in 2000 (Feagin 1999). Yet probably the single
greatest change in the labor force in the past century is the rapid increase of working women.
Female participation rates have surged to 60 percent, reaching close to half the labor force as a
whole. This change has such far-reaching implications for families, communities, and the general
economy that it must be considered in understanding virtually every American institution. Finally,
the retiring Baby Boomer generation means we will have a younger, more diverse workforce than
perhaps since the early days of industrialization at the turn of the twentieth century.
All these demographic changes add up to the bigger question of whether the workforce of the
future happening now will be prepared for the twenty-first century global economy. Though work
will require increasingly higher levels of education, skills, and especially communication and col-
laboration, it is unclear whether this new workforce will be ready or willing to work together
cooperatively. Scientists argue that a digital divide continues to widen in the United States: Some
labor find it much easier than others to maintain and upgrade their computer skills and competen-
cies in a range of fields. Thus, social class and the intersection of gender, race, and sexuality inhib-
its the horizontal exchange of information fueled by the Internet and needed to promote creativity
and innovation. Moreover, discrimination on all these counts continues to erect barriers that
threaten to undermine workplace effectiveness and larger social goals for equal opportunity.
Customers and clients lose satisfaction when such unaddressed differences exist. But more impor-
tantly, structural and institutional obstacles stand in the way of minority participation and severely
38 Journal of Applied Social Science 6(1)

limit the extent to which new and talented workers enter the workforce and gain the experience and
skill to fill managerial and professional occupations.
In other words, we depend on a future workforce that historically experienced exclusion or dis-
crimination in the United States. Sociologists have long studied racial, ethnic, and gender differ-
ences as well as differences in sexuality. And many have seen this as a moral obligation, in addition
to an academic interest. The time, however, has come to emphasize the ways in which such differ-
ences must be overcome so we can work together cooperatively and more effectively. It behooves
the discipline of sociology to develop new and innovative ways for students to become practitio-
ners who are equipped to address these problems and facilitate others in addressing the increasingly
diverse workforce. For example, as experts focused on diversity education/training, equal employ-
ment opportunity, and affirmative action policies, sociology practitioners have much to offer.

The Net Is Working

Networks are everywhere. They are pervasive. They are electromagnetic impulses that travel at the
speed of light. They are invisible streams of energy that connect us wherever we are no matter
what we are doingthe net is working. Like the telegraph, the telephone, the railroads, and high-
ways of the past century that linked us in a vast series of transportation and communication sys-
tems, networks are revolutionizing the world in which we live. But they do so behind our backs.
They do not depend on telephone poles that line the streets, railroad tracks that run through the
smallest communities, or the combustible engines that chug carbon dioxide. They are largely
unseen by those who are looking for something more tangible and concrete. Yet Net-Work
online interaction, email, Facebook, twitter, and mobile communicationis the kind of work that
now dominates everyday workplace activities.
Networks at their core, in fact, consist of social relationships (Finkelstein 2004). Of course,
social relationships are the grist of sociological analysis. The sociological perspective is uniquely
positioned to shed light on perhaps the greatest change in societies since the Industrial Revolution
which sociology has done much to help us understand. But beyond social scientific and academic
inquiry are the skills and practices that can contribute to addressing such monumental changes and
their problems and implications. These are skills honed into a changing global economy in which
networking will increasingly underlie the cultural, structural, and institutional relationships of the
economy, the workplace, and employment. The emergence of such changes suggests a plethora of
opportunities for sociologists and their students to make more explicit the skills and perspectives
that can be applied to this central sphere of activity.

Change Making
If there is one defining feature of global change, its change itself. And of course, change just
doesnt happen. People who have the understanding, the perspective, and the inclination to make
change create it. This has always been the case. But perhaps what differs today is the accelerating
rate, scope, and magnitude of change. Moreover, because change is so rapid and unwieldy, social
forces may move in many directions at once. Thus, change is often contradictory, paradoxical, and
underlying what is immediately given or perceived in everyday life. Furthermore, challenging
taken-for-granted assumptions requires critique; but it must go beyond critique if change is going
to actually take place. In short, there is a growing need for those who can make sense of the incred-
ibly complex multilevel nature of social change and guide its direction.
Sociology is uniquely qualified to fill this need. One of the greatest obstacles to creating work-
place change outside of the tyranny of an entrenched elite is simply the lack of inclination to be
proactive and an agent of change. This lack of inclination may be traced back to the inability to
Finkelstein 39

conceive of alternatives and think creatively. But it may also be bound up with the dominant liberal
arts tradition and its preference for the basic model of scientific research mentioned earlier, which
tends to favor a more contemplative approach to social change. The core of change-making skills
has to do with the ability to present sound theoretical explanations, defer judgments, undertake
empirical analysis, produce the widest variety of options, and take deliberate actions based on those
considerations.
We may call this problem solving sociology (Steele, Scarisbrick-Hauser, and Hauser 1999), a
more active variant of applied sociologysince the latter emerged by also developing the fields of
evaluation research and assessment, in which involvement in the research setting may be less
extensive. Indeed, clinical sociology, on the other hand, defines itself by making intervention the
key role of the researcher-practitioner. Clinical sociologists often take the role of therapist, coun-
selor, or community organizer as a way of directly solving problems and making changes (Fritz
1991). This approach may be contrasted with more recent attention given to public sociology
(Burawoy 2005), which focuses on social ills and societal problems but is less about direct inter-
vention than about engaging in dialogue with the community by virtue of investigative reporting,
consciousness raising, and a greater connection to the media. Probably the most action-oriented
model of change-making sociology is an approach designed to actually marry research and practice
known as action research (Stringer 2007). Here the sociologist takes on the role of a facilitator of
change, and the assumption is that the stakeholders in the setting are in the best position to not only
define the problem and gather evidence to support that definition and its analysis but also to find
the solution and carry it out. Thus, the sociologist practitioner may be a facilitator of change who
is committed to helping the participants find their own way to the solution. The most common loca-
tion for action research has been the workplace and the community (Whyte 1991; Stoecker 2005).

Employment Relations: An Academic and Practical Curriculum

for Teaching Applied Sociology
An example of a college curriculum in applied sociology that presents to students a systematic way
of understanding how sociology may be applied in practical ways is offered in the Department of
Sociology and Criminal Justice Studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (Finkelstein
1989, 1990). The program, Employment Relations, is a concentration in the general sociology
major and focuses on employment and workplace change. The central purpose is to show the con-
siderable sociological tradition in these areas in the form of courses and to present how students
may apply sociology more concretely. The focus is to help students develop sociological skills
honed into the workplace context and professional-managerial jobs. The program encourages stu-
dents to recognize how sociology is uniquely equipped to address workplace change in the global
economy.
A general sociology major provides the programs core, requiring introductory, theory, methods,
and statistics courses plus a three-course sequence. The first concerns industrial sociology, which
provides a macro historical overview of the transformation of the social organization of work. The
second focuses on organizational and workplace change, which: (1) provides an understanding of
problems surrounding hierarchy and bureaucracy, (2) addresses supervisory/employee relations,
and (3) emphasizes alternative forms of work arrangements. Finally, the internship experience is
the capstone course and focuses on applying what students have learned in their coursework to an
actual workplace setting. The capstone helps faculty assess the program and make needed changes.
Pedagogically, classes are based on small group activities and are intended to emulate the kind
of team building and group facilitation students are likely to encounter or help create at work. The
sociological skill sets emphasized are critical thinking and writing, problem solving, communica-
tion, teamwork in diverse settings, and applied research and analysis.
40 Journal of Applied Social Science 6(1)

Conclusion:The Applied Imperative

A majority of sociology graduates will continue to look for ways to engage the world and make a
living at it. They will pursue opportunities where they can apply their sociological interests and
skills. Those opportunities are more likely to emerge outside of the academy, the university, and
the academic setting. Virtually every sociology department in the United States claims that with a
degree in sociology, students are prepared to pursue careers such as human resource specialists,
health care professionals or hospital administrators, and not-for-profit organization volunteers.
However, can we really assume that sociology students automatically understand the applied and
practical implications of the sociological perspective in doing such jobsparticularly with regard
to the labor market and careers in the context of global, economic, and workplace change? Many
will likely be severely constrained unless provided with clearer, more precise, more developed,
and systematic pathways toward accomplishing this goal.
The American economy is undergoing a difficult transformation and students will be challenged
to demonstrate how they may become a part of it. In order to assist these students and to enhance
the relevance and applicability of the discipline, we would do well to revise its institutional bear-
ings and refocus the application and practicality of sociologys approach. One way to do so is to
restructure coursework and the curriculum. Application and practice cannot be merely tacked on to
traditional academic areas of research and teaching. Providing opportunities for service learning or
internships are a step in the right direction, but it is a small step. These opportunities must be fully
and logically integrated into our thinking, teaching, and research. They must be seriously supported
and addressed, just as theory and methodology are considered core areas of any subfield. We can-
not relegate application to ad hoc and arbitrary use of examples or illustrations. At the course level,
the pedagogy of sociology should involve a focus on application and material presentation in an
applied fashion. This requires careful planning and designing.
We ignore or overlook the growth of icebergs lying just beneath the surface of rising trends
within the discipline at our own peril and at the risk of the future of our students. By charting a new
course, we may avoid fewer of these and safely reach our destination stronger and with more
opportunities ahead for both students and faculty alike.

Authors Note
Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Las Vegas, Nevada, 2011.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publica-
tion of this article.

Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Bio
Marv Finkelstein is professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Southern
Illinois University Edwardsville. He received a masters degree in labor and industrial relations and PhD in
sociology from Michigan State University. He developed an Applied Sociology Program in Employment
Relations and has been teaching applied sociology for the past twenty-five years. He is a past-president of the
faculty senate at SIUE and is a former executive director of the the Labor Management Committee
Southwestern Illinois. He has been an advisor, consultant and trainer for labor and management. He has
published several articles focusing on employment and workplace change in the global economy. He is author
of A Start-Up Guide for On- Site Labor Management Committees (1996) and Net-Works: Workplace Change
in the Global Economy (2004). He has received several awards including the Paul Simon Outstanding Scholar
Award at SIUE.