SGY 120 Week 2: Exercises
The Pat Sheil newspaper article expresses a humorous reflection of public perception of sociologists. How does this compare with the academic perception expressed by Berger?
Sheil describes Sociologists as people who are intrusive and waste time with meaningless studies. Berger describes the Sociologist in a similar way when he describes sociologists as being “intensively, endlessly, shamelessly interested in the doings of men” (Berger 1963). While Berger discusses the sociologist in a serious manner, Sheil lanpoons the sociologists and their studies, although they both descibe the process of the studies in similar terms. Sheil comments that in her new study, “the terms of reference will be clear and precise” (Sheil 2003). Berger insists that sociologists conduct their studies according to “strictly defined frame of reference” (Berger 1963).
