Some Common Misconceptions of Sociology

Pete Boettke, over at the new and improved Coordination Problem, makes the case to perspective graduate students for a PhD in economics from George Mason University. I have several friends who currently study at GMU and absolutely love it. As Pete points out, they do a lot of interesting work in a lot of different subfields there. That being said, I want to offer an alternative to, not just GMU, but to economics in general. Try sociology! Stick with me here. I realize sociology isn’t for everyone. If you really want to study price theory or monetary economics then sociology might not be your cup of tea, but if you want to study comparative institutional analysis or the effects of culture on economics development then you really should check us out.

You can read about my personal story of how I came to sociology here. More generally though, I want to clear up some common stereotypes about graduate studies in sociology.

1.) Sociology is all mushy methods

Simply not true. At Albany, for example, we take required courses in research methods, intermediate statistics, and multivariate analysis. Many students take more advanced methodology courses as well. Sociology programs also offer mathematically intensive courses in demography, econometrics, network analysis, and game theory. At the same time, they offer more qualitative courses in survey research, ethnography, and comparative-historical analysis. Fabio Rojas has a long list of math skills you should have if you want to work with him. It includes:

Calculus (differential, integral, ODEs & vector calculus), linear algebra and probability; basic statistics – hypothesis testing, OLS, and elementary categorical data analysis; advanced statistical techniques – Bayesian analysis, event history/hazard models, simultaneous equation & structural equation models, log linear methods and missing data techniques; basic stochastic processes – Poisson models, arrival processes, Markov chains, and Monte carlo methods; network analysis – matrix representations, graphs and bipartite graphs, centrality, density, clustering, balance in signed graphs, graph diameter, p* models, dyad and triad census, block models, different types of networks such as cliques, trees and small worlds; game theory – utility theory, expected utility, Nash equilibrium, games of imperfect information, signalling theory, subgame perfect equilibria, repeated games, tit for tat strategies; agent based simulations – the Axelord tournament, the garbage can, the beer game, the hypercycles model, the Schelling model, and the game of Life. You should learn how to program in a computer language really well.

Does any of that sound mushy to you? The guys over at Permutations or Code and Culture can further attest to the rigor of sociological research.   

2.) Sociology is ideological

If you ask my good friend Walter Block, sociology is nothing but a bunch of Marxists and feminists. Walter was probably right in the 1960s. Fifty years have gone by though and I think its probably time to update that perception. Sociology has what I’ll call a bounded diversity of thought. Yes, most of the professors you encounter will be left of center, but that doesn’t mean they’re all Marxists. As I’ve written elsewhere, even the Neo-Marxists have a whole lot to offer. One of the professors I currently work for is a Marxist – he’s also one of the people I go to most for advice. I can see the many benefits of being surrounded by like-minded scholars at places like GMU, The New School, or the University of Chicago, but personally I prefer to study in an environment where people actually don’t think like me. In sociology, your ideas will be challenged in ways that you never imagined. There’s two ways you can react to this. You can write off your critics as a bunch of Marxists and feminists or you can take their criticism seriously and come up with creative and new ways of thinking. None of this means that you are intellectually isolated in sociology. Organizations like the Institute for Humane Studies, the Mises Institute, and the Foundation for Economic Education have been crucial to my intellectual development. On a more individual level, there are several market-oriented professors who I know I can go to whenever I need advice, recommendations, or help with my research. This is especially true in the internet age.

3.) Sociology is all about activism

Not unless you want it to be that way. Public sociology is a movement within the discipline most associated with Michael Burawoy’s 2004 ASA presidential address. Burawoy’s strain of it is very anti-market and if you go to UC Berkeley or Loyola Chicago then you’ll get a heavy dose of social justice and activism. Not all public sociology is the same though. Just as some economists go on to work for mainstream public policy think tanks such as the Cato Institute or the Heritage Institute, some sociologists interested in social change go on to work at the Brookings Institution or the Urban Institute. Most of the ones you encounter in graduate school will be interested in research and teaching though. Just because they have a particular point of view and advocate it sometimes, doesn’t mean that they aren’t interested in quality research and critical discussion.

4.) Sociology is irrelevant

I met a friend (a political scientist) last summer who took a research methods class with a group of sociologists. He expressed doubt as to the merits of the discipline after discovering one of the students in his class pursued the important research question of “Why don’t Jews go to the Opera?”  To a prospective economist (and probably a whole lot of other people), this probably seems like a waste of time. It’s a good thing that this isn’t the norm in sociology! Economy sociology is one of the fast growing subfields in sociology with its own ranking in US News & World Report. For example, Northwestern University recently hosted a great conference looking at the economic sociology of the current financial crisis.  Here at Albany, Mitch Abolafia and Aaron Major are doing really interesting work on how The Fed formulates policy. Beth Popp-Berman is working on the link between public policy, universities, and scientific innovation in industry. Personally, my work looks at racial discrimination in labor markets and the role of ideology in institutional change among other things. The best part is that, unlike economics, there is a wider diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches to just about any issue you can imagine.

Students who are interested in classical liberal ideas have some great options in economics as a discipline, but why limit yourself when looking for that perfect graduate program? Pick up a copy of US News and World Report’s issue on graduate schools, look at the list of top programs for economic sociology, then go to the university websites and look at faculty research interests. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

• Josh McCabe