Final Blog Post - Please Reflect

Well, we've come to our final blog post (besides your long-form post, which I am looking forward to!). I'm curious to know about your thoughts on the importance of public/applied sociology.

Is it important for social scientists to find ways to connect with public audiences and make social science research accessible and relevant to the public discourse? Is it important for social scientists to practice public sociology in terms of their research questions and designs? Why or why not? And finally, was this class, and this line of questioning, useful to you? How or how not?

And, if you're interested in thinking about this further, here is a link to a video with Virginia Rutter. She talks about why public sociology is important to her. I think her story of how she came to sociology from a media background gives validity to the argument that sociology has a lot to offer to public discourse!