October 7, 2005

How to Reform Sociology

To the Editor:

The Chronicle Review offered us sociologists a chance to explain why our discipline has not attained the status of a social science, which in turn would explain its occupancy of the lowest rung on the campus status ladder. However, in their thoughtful essays, seven sociologists neither defined sociology unambiguously nor identified the means whereby sociology might improve its status ("Sociologists on Sociology," August 12). ...

The explanation for sociology's low