Compromising Scholarship: Religious and Political Bias in American Higher Education

3 With Whom Do Sociologists Want to Work?

49 With Whom Do Sociologists Want to Work? CHAPTER THREE Exploring bias within the discipline of sociology will allow me to assess whether there are certain dynamics that facilitate or limit the emergence of social biases and intolerance that may be generalized to other academic disciplines. Once I have investigated the general trends in sociology, I will then consider whether those trends hold up in other scientific fields. If they do, it is possible to extrapolate some of the nuanced findings from my in-depth study of a single discipline to the other scholarly fields. This investigation will allow me to gain an understanding of the types of biases scientists develop and how they may construct their social biases. In this chapter, I will conduct a quantitative exploration of sociologists in the United States. In the next chapter, I will examine some of the online blogs written by sociologists to gain a qualitative perspective of their social tendencies. Sociological History I have chosen sociology for an in-depth analysis since it is the scientific field I know best. My knowledge of this discipline will allow me to appreciate some of the nuances that may emerge from my findings. Although some may wonder whether I am too much of an insider to provide an honest evaluation of the field, I contend 50 || compromising scholarship that my inside knowledge of sociology and sociologists offsets any disadvantages I may have from the biases I have developed being part of the discipline. However, in no way am I asserting with this analysis that sociologists suffer more or less from social biases than other social scientists. Whether sociologists are more prone to adopt the biases that scholars possess can be evaluated when I compare the results of this chapter to the results of my quantitative analysis of multiple disciplines in chapter 5. It is important to understand the historical and social context in which sociologists operate. It is commonly acknowledged that sociology wasfoundedbyAugustComte.Heperceivedtheneedforascientificway to develop the moral rules that should organize society. Thus from its inception sociology was a discipline that challenged the hegemony of religious order, which is true for many other scientific disciplines. However, early American sociologists tended to be clergy or sons of clergy,andinfactmanysociologistsovertlyshowedsupportforreligious faith even while they sought to subvert the influence of religion in the larger society (Smith, 2003). Furthermore, early prominent American sociologists worked with social workers from Hull House in their endeavortolearnaboutsocietyandtofindappliedwaystoimprovesociety . However, a schism developed between sociologists and social workers as the mostly male sociologists desired to escape the lower status possessed by the mostly female social workers (Deegan, 1988; Smith, 2003).Thesociologistsworkedtowardestablishingtheirworkasascientific endeavor distinct from the work done by the social workers. To help them create this separation from social workers, these clergy and sons of clergy moved away from religious appreciation in their work and took a rather critical assessment of traditional religious thought. This conflict with social workers illustrated an important early dynamic that would shape how sociologists would interact with people of faith. Smith (2003) divided early twentieth-century sociologists into reformers and academics. Reformers were more likely to have religious belief and sought academics as allies in their attempt to make societal changes. Academics regarded the reformers with some degree of professional embarrassment and were more antireligious in their outlook. Their understanding of religion was with whom do sociologists want to work? || 51 that it was a competitor for social influence. As the academics looked to gain status in order to use scientific information to address the social problems in society, they reframed religious ideology in an effort to stigmatize and privatize it. It was these academics, and not the reformers, who built upon the foundations of the early sociologists and developed American sociology into the institutions it is today. It is not evident that American sociology had to maintain a confrontational stance toward organized religion, but there were clearly socio-psychological aspects in the development of this discipline that inclined sociologists to develop such a stance. American sociologists also focused on studying the demographic transition.1 This helped to situate their work in a way that allowed them to understand processes of urbanization and industrialization . As they documented these processes, it is natural that sociologists perceived these changes as an acceptable path toward a more advanced society. Thus American sociologists developed ideas that facilitated, rather than resisted, social change. In this way it is not surprising that...