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One of the most serious challenges lacing "advanced' industrial societies is the management of technological risks. Recently. a number of sociologists have called attention to the topics noting the significant contributions sociologists can offer to the ongoing risk debate. This article takes a complementary approach. suggesting that it is important to ask not just what sociology can do tor the study of risk, but what the study of risk can do for sociology. Particular promise is evident in studies that go beyond a focus on individuals' risk perceptions, dealing with the behaviors and interests of societal institutions entrusted with the management of risks. Still lacking, however. is a more explicit and coherent conceptual framework. one that can help guide future research toward the testing of sociologically important questions, not just what questions and issues that technologists and policymakers define as important. Working from an explicitly sociological orientation, ibis article outlines a couceptual perspective that focuses on the "framing" of risk debates by institutional actors. This approach suggests that, given the profound growth of technological efficacy, in the face at modest if any growth in the efficacy of social control mechanisms, the management of technological risk is likely to become increasingly problematic for sociology as well as for society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that applied settings offer opportunities for analysis as well as employment. The theme is discussed in the context of a recent Congressional Fellowship. The first half of the article is a relatively straightforward report on Congressional staffers and their activities: it presents background information and identifies three areas of dynamic tension that seem to deserve greater attention in future research. Building on this information. the second half of the article provides examples of three types of substantive conclusions that deserve to be encouraged in future applied work. The first is the application, in a new context, of previously familiar concepts. An example in the present case is that. despite the mans ways in which Congress is unique, it is also very much like a "typicaI" small town. The second is the questioning of common assumptions: despite the frequent criticisms of the so-called "rational model of decision making," for example, information and analysis play a significant role in policy outcomes, and knowledge is indeed power in many Congressional deliberations. The third is the recognition of broader challenges to the discipline: an example in the Congressional context is that social scientists, and sociologists in particular, have been extraordinarily ineffective in educating policy- makers on the nature of their work. Individually, each of these conclusions has implications for sociologists: collectively, they are meant to illustrate the importance of looking to applied settings as a source of insights, not just income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]