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Public Sociology : Public And Academic Sociology

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In sociology there are two major communities. One community is based on presenting its information to a wider audience and making a change. The other is more concerned with the end result of its research and presenting it to other scholars. These are public and academic sociology. Public sociology is a very romantic approach to the field. Public sociology involves helping and working with communities to bring change. Most times when a public sociologist does research it’s to benefit a community and the researcher usually works with a team community. Public sociology also helps influence and shapes our world in ways we don’t notice. For example with public sociology policy makers in government can use research written by a public sociologist to help guide them in making fair and just policies. Public sociology isn’t only about making change, but also provoking other to want to make changes in society. One large difference between public and academic sociology is that public sociology tends to be written in a simpler manner with less jargon so that the general public can be engaged and use the information another difference is that public sociology doesn’t necessarily require a degree. For example in Nyden’s article he describes that many people working in non-profit organizations and epidemiologists use sociological theories and applications in their jobs everyday with out necessarily having a degree in the matter. Academic sociology on the other hand tends to be more

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