SCOTT DAVIES
Much of my research has focused on classic issues of inequality by race, class, and gender. Early in my career I examined differing educational attainment and labour market rewards by gender, class and race, in some instances tested various cultural theories of inequality. More recently I have turned my attention to stratification within school systems, particularly higher education, comparing Canada to other nations.
I can work with students who are interested in inequality in education and other institutions, particularly in new forms that stratification is taking in the emerging era marked by globalization and the «knowledge economy.»
http://www.socsci.mcmaster.ca/sociology/people/davies.cfm
TINA FETNER
«Lesbian and Gay Activism in High Schools: The Emergence of Gay-Straight Alliances.» Youth & Society.
«Birth Cohort and Tolerance of Homosexuality: Attitudinal Change in Canada and the United States, 1981-2000.» «Ex-gay Rhetoric and the Politics of Sexuality: The Christian Antigay/Pro-family Movement’s ‘Truth in Love’ Ad Campaign.»
http://www.socsci.mcmaster.ca/sociology/people/fetner.cfm
NEAL MCLAUGHLIN
As a sociologist of culture and a sociological theorist, my major research interests fall into five broad categories. One stream is concerned with developing a sociological theory and empirical research agenda on what has often been called the «public intellectual.» Secondly, I have an interest in studying intellectual «reputations.» Third, drawing from the sociology of science and culture as well as from classical and contemporary sociological theories, I am studying the sociology of creativity and its relationship to marginality. Finally, I research the sociology of sociology itself, in historical/comparative context and as well as studying and publishing in sociological theory proper.
The Public Intellectual
Intellectuals who write about social and political matters outside narrow professional networks have sometimes been called «public intellectuals.» What is meant by this is a complicated matter, but clearly there is widespread interest (both inside and outside the contemporary university) in making knowledge relevant in an increasingly global «knowledge society.» Drawing on sociological literature on professions, organizations, education and culture, as well as a rich history of writings on intellectuals within sociology, I am studying the public intellectual in two major projects. First, as part of a three year SSHRC funded grant called «Academy and Society,» I am working with Lisa Kowalchuk (Sociology, Guelph University) and Jeffrey Cormier (Sociology, King’s College, University of Western Ontario) on a study of the sociological and institutional factors that facilitate and/or inhibit the efforts of Canadian professors who attempt to take their knowledge outside the ivory tower. Secondly, as part of a SSHRC funded large scale international interdisciplinary research team based here at McMaster University, I am exploring the theme of «Globalization and Autonomy» through an examination of the work, life and reputational reception after his death of Edward Said, the prominent post-colonial theorist and social critic. Said is arguably a «global public intellectual,» a new type of intellectual that provides a theoretical and empirical challenge to the traditional nation based approach in the sociology of intellectuals. Both these projects flow from theoretical concerns developed first in my earlier writings on William Julius Wilson, Erich Fromm and David Riesman, examples of prominent public intellectuals.
The Sociology of Reputations
Reputations are inherently sociological in nature, and I have been studying the creation, diffusion and destruction of intellectual reputations in a series of studies on «how to become a forgotten intellectual,» «why schools of thought fail» and related topics. I study «difficult reputations» as Gary Alan Fine once put it, with an empirical focus on intellectuals who take controversial political positions addressed to a public beyond the university, such as Fromm, Said and Chomsky. This research agenda on the social construction of reputations has wide potential applicability to the study of Canadian politics, social movements, journalism, sports and intellectual life more generally.
The Sociology of Creativity
There is a long tradition in sociological analysis that argues that insights come from the margins of power and privilege. Strangers and nomads, from this perspective, can see society more clearly than those deeply imbedded in existing power relations and social structures. Contrary to this view on the social origins of creativity, there is another sociological tradition that emphasizes the creative potential that comes from links to core societal and institutional resources. I have argued in print that this longstanding debate is stale and irresolvable and have offered the concept of «optimal marginality» to suggest that there may be some forms and combinations of social marginality which lead to insight, and others which lead to marginal ideas. Drawing on Michael Farrell’s innovative theory of collaborative circles, I have a research agenda for studying the creation of intellectual innovations in the Frankfurt School for Social Research, in the work of Erving Goffman, among Freudian theorists, among networks of radical intellectuals and similar networks of relatively marginalized but creative thinkers. I am starting this work with a case study on «The Frankfurt School as a Collaborative Circle» but believe there is enourmous potential for studying creativity and innovation in networks of innovators outside academic and public intellectual circles (for example, in health, science, music or sports, for example).
The Sociology of Sociology
While I am strongly committed to interdisciplinary work, I also believe that the discipline of sociology is a space where public intellectual work and intellectual creativity can find a particular secure and strong home. This is despite the fact (or perhaps because of the fact!) that sociology’s reputation is not as secure as it could be in modern universities dominated increasingly by the natural sciences, applied programs and interdisciplinary institutes. Using the intellectual tools developed in my earlier research, I am presently studying the sociological and historical factors that sustain or inhibit the secure institutionalization of the sociological imagination in the modern research university. My essay «Canada’s Impossible Science: Historical and Institutional Origins of the Coming Crisis of Anglo-Canadian Sociology» will be published soon in The Canadian Journal of Sociology. I am embarking on a research agenda on the sociological «field» in a comparative perspective (in Quebec, English Canada, the United States, Great Britain and France) inspired by the work of Bourdieu and Randall Collins and informed by recent debates on the globalization of knowledge. This research is part of my normative commitment to strengthen Canadian sociology, as well as being linked to my interest in developing a «Public Sociology» along the lines being discussed in The American Sociological Association.
Sociological Theory
These various empirical research agendas are inspired by my interest in sociological theory. But I also teach (both at the undergraduate and graduate levels) and write on sociological theory proper. My major interests in sociological theory are in the work of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, psychoanalytic social theory, the work of Erving Goffman, Randall Collin’s sociology of philosophy, the critical sociology of Mills and Gouldner, the history of sociological theory in the US, Canada and Britain and broad attempts to combine theory and empirical research in a multi-method sociological imagination.
Research Grants
Global and Autonomy MCRI, “Edward Said as Global Public Intellectual,” (three years), 2002-2005
“Canadian Professors as Public Intellectuals,” (three years ) SSHRC Standard Research Grant 2004-2007
http://www.socsci.mcmaster.ca/sociology/people/mclaughlin.cfm
VICTOR SATZEWICH
Research Interests
• Race Relations Training in Russia and Canada. This project is funded by the University of Calgary Gorbachev Foundation. In collaboration with Professor Billy Shaffir (Sociology, McMaster), and Professor Leokadia Drobizheva (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow), we are interested in exploring the ways that organizations have responded to equity concerns. In particular, we are exploring the strengths and weaknesses of different models of ‘race relations’ training in Canada, and their application to the Russian civil service.
Transnational Communities in Canada. I am currently editing a collection with Professor Lloyd Wong (Sociology, University of Calgary) on transnational communities and practices among immigrants in Canada. The collection will contain chapters by some of Canada’s leading social scientists on a wide range of groups and communities. Look for it soon!
The International Union of the Save the Children Fund. Founded in the aftermath of the First World War, the International Union of the Save the Children Fund, was a pioneer in the field of children’s rights and international child welfare. In collaboration with Professor Linda Mahood (History, University of Guelph), we are interested in the ways in which the International Union framed issues of international child welfare. We are also examining the Union’s fund raising strategies and techniques, and its relationships with other child welfare governmental and non-governmental organizations.
The Fourth Wave of Ukrainian Immigration to Canada . This is a study (with Professor Sev Isajiw, Sociology, University of Toronto, and Ewhen Duvalko, Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society) of the adjustment of recent Ukrainian immigrants in Toronto. Our research is based on a survey of over 300 respondents who were asked a variety of questions about their identity, their occupations before and after emigration, and their settlement experiences in Canada.
http://www.socsci.mcmaster.ca/sociology/people/satzewich.cfm
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