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TechSociety Research
Opportunities for Sociologists
and other Social Scientists with a
B.A.
Dr. Leora Lawton
President
TechSociety Research
Berkeley, CA
TechSociety Research
What is a sociologist?
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Here’s some answers…
“Someone working in the field of sociology is known as a sociologist” Yahoo Answers
“In general, then, a sociologist is a man who is studying the facts of society in a certain
way.” Albion Small (U. of Chicago), AJS, 1903.
Sociology is a social science. It seeks to accurately describe and adequately explain the
social world on the basis of systematically gathered knowledge. … Sociological knowledge
cannot challenge the world, nor should it. We have philosophy and morality for such tasks.
Mathieu Deflem, U. South Carolina, 2006.
Sociologists study and solve problems related to the structures and systems that allow
groups of people to live together, get things done, share meanings, adapt to change, or that
determine which groups of people are able to get some resources and which are not.
(Sociological Practice Section Newsletter, Spring 2007)
“Sociologists use techniques of inquiry, data collection and analysis to explain why people
do what they do given the fact they are members of social groups. Some sociologists use
that understanding to design and implement programs and policies, make
recommendations to organizations, and assist in others’ research endeavors. ” (the author)
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Why
• Make the world a better place to
live in or at least, keep it from
getting worse.
• Make a living.
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What
•Program evaluation
•Policy development
•Journalism
•Organizational behavior consultants
•Consumer behavior
•Grant-writing
•Jury consulting
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Examples of Where and What
•Government
•Research Institutes
•Non-governmental organizations
•Universities and colleges
•Private Sector
–Market research
–Research and consulting
–Product and program development
–Legal research
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Examples of Research Topics
•Energy efficiency: how to get customers to use less electricity or
gas
•Does a program to reduce drug use really work?
•What kind of ways do people use DVD technology and what does
that mean for product development?
•What kinds of stress are people feeling when taking care of their
aging parents and what does that mean for government support
programs?
•What kind of architectural design and floor plan will facilitate the
objectives of the activities to take place in a building?
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Look out, here comes some free advice...
•Know your world - always be a ‘student’
•Be flexible
•Read read read
•Don’t be afraid of the ‘s’ word (psst: sales)
•Learn all about contracts and proposals
•Learn every research method you can while you’re in
school.
•Learn job interviewing skills.
•Women - learn how to present yourself in the
workplace.
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Skills to Have
•Writing is thinking.
•Quantitative methods: SPSS at least, SAS is specialized.
•HTML - it’s about time.
•Stats: bivariate, multivariate
•Interviewing skills (gathering data)
•Qualitative research
•Take public policy courses,
•Learn excel and powerpoint, consider Access, SQL, and others
•Project management
•Business management and marketing
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Become an Expert
•Every ‘industry’ (even government) has a
structure, a set of literature, key players, dynamics.
Learn what they are.
•Or become a methodological expert.
•But most are a bit of both.
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Why the state of our profession?

Sociologists developed a deep dislike of business.

Grads have barely defined, if any, marketable skills.

Sociologists became more focused on finding problems rather than solutions.

The academic departments in better schools tend not recognize a career path for its
students other than graduate school.

Our advanced degree graduates rarely give $$$ to our alma mater.

Outside of academia we refer to ourselves as ‘social scientists’, ‘methodologists’
and other titles rather than sociologists. Even the new Association of Applied and
Clinical Sociology, whose mission is to promote sociology and sociological
knowledge, named its journal “ASS” (Applied Social Science).

The loss of our intellectual ‘children’ through separation of career-focused degrees
from primary research degrees.
Criminology
Social work/social welfare
Public Health/Epidemiology/Demography
Organizational Behavior
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What we do better than anyone else…
1. Our sociological mind
• Being able to look at the big picture – the context of the
little picture. Most people simply do not see the world this
way, and they miss a lot.
2. Our research methods
• Often very good statistical training, including how to
handle data, create analytic models that address
hypotheses.
• Often very good qualitative research methods
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What we do better than anyone else…
3. Our job skills
• Project management (it takes a lot to get a complex
research project done!)
• Public presentation skills – written and spoken
• Proposal writing
• Program and product design
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TRAINING STUDENTS
• Curriculum
– Requiring computer skills, policy, and writing and presentation for lay
audiences.
• Soft skills
– Dress
– Entrepreneurial spirit
– Solution providing, not just problem identification. Proactive versus
reactive.
• Business management
– Even a non-profit isn’t for loss. The bottom line matters when you
can’t pay the bills or do anything due to lack of funds.
– That means, knowing how a business is run: process, documentation,
bookkeeping, customer service.
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Resources
•www.asanet.org – American Sociological
Association
•www.aacsnet.org – Association of Applied and
Clinical Sociology
•www.popassoc.org - Population Association of
America
•www.eval.org - American Evaluation Association
•www.techsociety.com/asa - Sociological Practice
section of the American Sociological Association.