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Mainstream scholars of IR favor policy-relevant research, that is the agenda to influence government policymakers by offering policy recommendations. In this article, I offer a different perspective by presenting alternative arguments about social scientists' responsibility to influence. By drawing on themes of public sociology and critical sociology, security studies and public policy, I argue that the core of this responsibility is to seek to influence policy via engagement with the public rather than with policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem stems from considering the classic proposal of Michael Burawoy (2005) regarding the complementarity between academic and public sociology, seeking to take small steps towards science and popular sociology, as a return of the knowledge generated to its inspirers by making public the issues regarding to private problems. With the objective of applying it to understand the particular development of a local critical sociology and its possibilities, contemplating certain processes from certain theoretical criteria and relative categories constructed for its analysis. For this purpose, the four sociologies in exercise defined by Burawoy (2005) have been included as conceptual tools, as well as the discussion between the context of discovery and justification associated with his idea of social commitment, and his normative position about their reciprocal interdependence that, in their interrelation, they give the discipline its integral and complex meaning. Likewise, central to the discussion raised is the contribution of Max Weber (1977; 1985) about technical rationality and evaluative rationality. As findings, it is evidenced in a historical contextual way to have reached a reasonable time of disciplinary maturation and its institutionalization, according to certain complex processes identified theoretically and categorized. On the other hand, the detection in the practice of sociology of the tension between reflective knowledge versus the hegemony of instrumental knowledge. However, while Burawoy (2005) clearly defends that reflective knowledge must normatively interrogate the value of the premises of society as well as our profession. Finally, that reflexive and critical public sociology constitutes precisely the area where values and positions within the disciplinary field are settled and polished, making communicative action possible, reciprocity that allows conversation between its various audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interviewing different social groups comes with specific challenges. This article focuses on the question of how to interview people who vote or work for the radical right. Over the past decades, radical right-wing movements and parties have become important political forces. Their rise has led to a proliferation of academic publications that have sought to shed light on this renewed swing to the right. In this ever-growing field of research, studies employing qualitative interviews have proven to be of invaluable importance. To date, however, there is no comprehensive, practical guidebook on how to interview the radical right. This article seeks to redress this gap. Drawing on existing studies and personal insights acquired over the course of our own PhD research, during which we interviewed over one hundred radical right respondents ranging from voters and grassroots activists to party elites, this article provides a comprehensive guide for in-depth, interview-based research on the radical right. Specifically, the article discusses a range of practical considerations, including how to find respondents, how to gain access, how to prepare for the interview and how to build rapport during the interview. The insights are useful to early career researchers who rely on qualitative methods when collecting data, as well as scholars from different fields, including political science, public administration and sociology, who are interested in understanding the perspectives and lived realities of the radical right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saberi carefully illustrates that the politics of place-based policy cannot be assessed through a singular scale of analysis, academic discipline, or timeline. Reading Parastou Saberi's I Fearing the immigrant: Racialization and urban policy in Toronto i was a somatic experience as her arguments regularly moved me to smack my desktop and bellow a guttural "YES!". [Extracted from the article]

Although there has been a number of studies on the first Chilean neighborhood revitalization program known as "Quiero mi Barrio", their focus has centered on the exploration of impact evaluations, satisfaction surveys, institutional level analysis and citizen participation, amongst others. In other words, these studies regard this program as a rationally based action or technical instrument, an organized set of principles, objectives, concrete measures and coordinated actions. However, there is no research on the conception and formulation of this initiative, which suggests the need to analyze it as a non-rational process of collective action. Based on diverse approaches from the sociology of public action, the genealogical method developed by Foucault, the cognitive and mobility approaches to public policies and the analysis of 26 interviews with key informants and around 100 institutional documents and press releases, this paper examines three program constitutive events -its political process of development, the "social integration" term conceptualizations and the adoption of the neighborhood contract model- which demonstrate that its formulation is not based on rational planning but on a collective-based action process influenced by interests, values and representations where power and the diversity of approaches to an initial idea are fundamental to understand the nature of this initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the dynamics of today's financial markets in the light of two concepts -- publics and multitudes -- which were developed by the sociologist Gabriel Tarde at the end of the 19th Century. Each of the concepts reveals a different way of structuring social links among individuals. We consider that Tarde's concepts let us: (1) stress the communicative dimension of today's financial markets, placing currents of opinion at the core of speculative activity in the creation and assignment of value to monetary flows and other financial instruments; (2) hypothesise that financial markets articulate the logic of 'publics' (or audiences). These markets are virtually, globally connected, spreading currents of opinion that link financial experts and ordinary folk. They also link the multitudes (giving rise to 'bubbles', key social-temporal moments, and e-valuations through community links among professional agents -- all features that can pave the way to a crisis). The paper's point of departure is a review of present theories on Market Sociology. It then delves into the contributions that the concepts of 'public' and 'multitude' make in shedding light on financial dynamics and hence on the Sociology of Finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we discuss an interdisciplinary and collaborative four-year project, Taking Race Live, that explored lived experiences of race among students enrolled at an ethnically diverse university in England. Utilizing qualitative methods to evaluate the project each year, we draw on students' voices to address their experiences of race, partnering with interdisciplinary peers and learning about each other. Framing the discussion are the concepts of 'liveness' and 'public sociology' proposed by sociologists to bring sociological knowledge alive. Attention is given to how this was done through engaging with the arts and embodied practices found within drama, dance and music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the metaphor of dancing is used to discuss the skewed gender relations in society as a result of the various interpretations available in terms of the narrative of Jesus and the Samaritan woman (Jn 4). The question explored is the following: how scholarly interpreters of the Bible and the homeless people describe this 'dancing', that is, the human movements between the male and female conversation partners? The author uses the 'woman-friendly' interpretations of various theologians on the John 4:1–42 narrative and juxtaposes it against other theologians' interpretations. Furthermore, the author discusses how a homeless group in the City of Tshwane reflects on and interprets the text. The article builds on the premise that biblical texts like John 4:1–42 – which are interpreted in a way that sustains patriarchy – serve as the cause for gender-based violence. Therefore, although the article does not refer directly to the issue of gender-based violence, it is contributing to 'woman-friendly' interpretations of Biblical texts to counter patriarchal tendencies in society. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This is interdisciplinary study as it integrates gender-based violence in the field of sociology, public theology, feminist ethics with missiology. It is also integrating the field of biblical hermeneutics with missiology in terms of a specific biblical text namely Jn. 4 that is analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we recover the proposal of Michael Burawoy on the place of Public Sociology in the framework of contemporary Sociologies, applying it to the Studies of Disability. This new scientific field is characterized and the results of a qualitative study examining violations of human rights of persons with disabilities in Portugal and the socio-political factors that underlie it are discussed. It concludes with the pertinence of a Public Disability Sociology that gives voice to the disabled, giving space for a viewpoint of and about the issue of deficiency in contemporary Sociology, while also considering knowledge construction and social intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent does the anointing of the Pentecostal prophets provide a meaningful way of responding to poverty in an unjust economic context? Using Zimbabwe as a case study, this article critically evaluates the growing reliance on the anointing of the Pentecostal prophets by many poor people as a way of responding to their economic poverty. The practice is considered to provide miraculous power to pave the way for a desired economic outcome. The article highlights that many people turn to the anointing of Pentecostal prophets as a form of spiritualised activism against unjust economic forces in the country. The article proposes that rather than anointing, seeking justice should be the adopted means of responding to unjust economic systems. It examines aspects that should inform the church's quest for economic justice. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This study relates to the disciplines of systematic theology, public theology and sociology of religion by calling on Christians to allow other disciplines to inform their desire to eradicate poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of sociological knowledge in relation with evolution of public policies in Portugal as it considers epistemological and institutional foundation. Topics discussed includes Portuguese sociology, sociological activism, public communication of scientific procedures and pluralism of ideas and theories.

In his call for more public sociology, Michael Burawoy presents a generic framework to describe disciplinary structures in the social sciences. This model is based on a fourfold typology of knowledge which has been criticized by many. However, alternatives have fallen short of providing a convincing articulation of the social organisation and meaning of the intellectual practices the original typology was trying to describe. The debate on public sociology did not bridge differences in analytical beliefs about knowledge production and thus could not be expected to build a consensual disciplinary orientation. The current paper builds on field theory, organizational sociology, and interview data to frame the practices identified by Burawoy as social manoeuvers (i.e. ways of utilizing and legitimating knowledge) within specific social fields. In so doing, the paper provides a framework that is more flexible, more empirically adequate, and congruent with the sociology of science and the sociology of intellectuals and experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]