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Public Sociology in the Age of Social Media

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2017

Kieran Healy
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Abstract

I informally examine how the idea of public sociology has been affected by the rise of social media. New social media platforms disintermediate communication, make people more visible, and encourage public life to be measured. They tend to move the discipline from a situation where some people self-consciously do “public sociology” to one where more sociologists unselfconsciously do sociology in public. I discuss the character of such “latently public” work, the opportunities and difficulties it creates for individuals, and its tendency to be associated with academic fields that believe in what they are doing.

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Type
Reflections
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Perspectives on Politics , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , September 2017 , pp. 771 - 780
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2017 

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