Public Sociology as Educational Practice frames, critically engages with and seeksto further the theory and practice of public sociology as popularised by publicsociologist, Michael Burawoy. Public sociology is about taking sociology outsidethe university, and using it to support ‘publics’ or communities to generateknowledge about society and how it can be changed. To readers of a journal aboutcommunity education this aim will likely sound familiar; the explicit and implicitlinks between arguments for public sociology and the dialogical pedagogy of PauloFreire are clear throughout the book

McAree, Orlaith

English

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Eurig Scandrett (ed) (2020) Public Sociology as Educational Practice: Challenges, Dialogues and Counter-Publics

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Vol. 13, No. 1, Spring 2022ReviewEurig Scandrett (ed) (2020) Public Sociology as Educational Practice:Challenges, Dialogues and Counter-Publics, Bristol University Press, 396pp,ISBN 978-1529201403, £80.00Public Sociology as Educational Practice frames, critically engages with and seeksto further the theory and practice of public sociology as popularised by publicsociologist, Michael Burawoy. Public sociology is about taking sociology outsidethe university, and using it to support ‘publics’ or communities to generateknowledge about society and how it can be changed. To readers of a journal aboutcommunity education this aim will likely sound familiar; the explicit and implicitlinks between arguments for public sociology and the dialogical pedagogy of PauloFreire are clear throughout the book.Published in 2020 by Bristol University Press, and edited by Eurig Scandrett, thebook advocates a public sociology in which dialogical education is key to generatingknowledge and deepening understanding by sociologists and publics both inside andoutside the university. Other contributions come from people practising publicsociology in a range of fields including academia, trade union organising, art,activism, health and community work.In its format the book echoes Burawoy’s extended case method in that it seeks toengage critically with and further public sociology education theory and is rooted inthe methodological principle of dialogue. It is split into three sections, each ofwhich begins with a series of theoretical provocations. Section I is concerned withthe constitution of ‘publics’, Section II with the production of knowledge(s), andSection III with the practice of public sociology. The provocations are followed bya series of case studies which are in turn followed by rich and insightful ‘dialoguesections’. The case studies take the form of examples of educational practicedelivered with a wide range of publics including survivors of domestic abuse,mad-identified people, academics (as workers in the neoliberal university),migrants, children and young people, and working class people. In the dialogue1http://concept.lib.ed.ac.uk/ Online ISSN 2042-6968Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licenseVol. 13, No. 1, Spring 2022sections, contributors are invited to engage with one another and with the editorwith a view to ‘challenging, interrogating and developing further the argument …in the context of wider political and historical processes’ (8).Section I explores who are the ‘publics’ that public sociologists should engagethrough their pedagogical activities. Here, and throughout the book, Nancy Fraser’sconcept of ‘subaltern counter-publics’, ‘those engaged in resistance, resilience, orbuilding alternatives to some form of oppression, exploitation or injustice’ (13), isprominent. Scandrett argues that it is they who should be central to publicsociology and, furthermore, that validation of public sociology should come, atleast in part, from dialogue with subaltern counter-publics.Much of Section II draws on the dialogical pedagogy of Paulo Freire, and reinforcesthe need for public sociology to centre dialogue between public sociologists andpublics as well as dialogue between sociological knowledge and knowledgeproduction by these publics. It highlights the colonial, gendered and classist natureof knowledge production, and reflects critically on how public sociologists can andshould avoid reproducing these hierarchies in validating public sociologyknowledge.Section III looks at what public sociologists do, and how public sociology does andmight operate in different contexts. This section focuses more than the first two onhow public sociology education can operate in the context of, or in close connectionwith, the increasingly neoliberal university. It demonstrates how public sociologyeducation is possible in spite of or, as in a case study about collective union strugglesas a result of, the expansion of market forces and market values into Scottish andEnglish universities.Through its provocations, case studies and dialogue sections, Public Sociology asEducational Practice engages critically with current debates from both publicsociology and struggles for social justice more generally. Scandrett explains thatwhilst sociology cannot be an adjudicator in many of such debates, ‘it does provideresources through which the debate can be conducted’ (347).2http://concept.lib.ed.ac.uk/ Online ISSN 2042-6968Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licenseVol. 13, No. 1, Spring 2022Scandrett frames class, and a deepening of class analysis, as central to publicsociology (whilst noting that references to class are noticeably absent from many ofthe case studies) but goes further to argue that public sociology education must alsoincorporate other forms of oppression and injustice that are ‘not reducible tocapitalist relations of production’ (20).The book makes a case for a public sociology education that not only centressubaltern counter-publics who are engaged in struggles against exploitation andoppression, but also one that enables public sociologists to become part of thesestruggles through their educational practice.Dialogue I, from Section I of the book, includes Scandrett’s response to what arelegitimate questions regarding who the ‘publics’ of public sociology should be andhow subaltern counter-publics should be defined. Here, and throughout the book,Scandrett makes a strong case for why Fraser’s subaltern counter-publics should beprivileged in public sociology education, but this section and some of the casestudies in sections II and III highlight the key point that ‘sociologists are not unitedin their interpretations of axes of power and oppression and, therefore, where tolocate subalternity’ (15).Finally, throughout the book contributors demonstrate that public sociologytheory and practice must be validated by both the academic community andsubaltern counter-publics outside the university. Furthermore, it is onlythrough dialogical processes with subaltern counter-publics that publicsociology knowledge can be validated as ‘really useful’ in the context of theirstruggles and movements.Public Sociology as Educational Practice will be useful, illuminating andchallenging for people from a range of fields who are engaged in learning, working,and resistance. It seeks not only to bridge the gap between sociology andnon-academic audiences, but encourages the reader - whether student, practitioner,activist or educator - to think about how public sociology as educational practice cancontribute to, and become part of, struggles for social justice and liberation.3http://concept.lib.ed.ac.uk/ Online ISSN 2042-6968Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licenseVol. 13, No. 1, Spring 2022Unfortunately, the book costs £80 so, unless it is in a local or university library, it isunlikely to be accessible to many of the people or groups that would find it usefulor interesting.Drawing on public sociology practices in Scotland and England means the bookreflects Burawoy’s call for ‘provincialised’ public sociology, and one in whichpublics are ‘always contingent [and] relational’ (343). In spite ofthis, however, this book will be useful and interesting to a wide range of peoplefrom far beyond Scotland and England.Public Sociology as Educational Practice advocates a public sociology that ispedagogical, dialectical, radical and, most importantly, rooted in subalternmovements for social justice and change. In the context of neoliberalism,increasing inequality, a global pandemic and a climate emergency, this book ismore relevant than ever, and makes a case for bringing to bear, through publicsociology education (and, indeed, community education), the analytical tools ofsociology to support a wide range of struggles against oppression and exploitation.Orlaith McAree4http://concept.lib.ed.ac.uk/ Online ISSN 2042-6968Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license

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Eurig Scandrett (ed) (2020) Public Sociology as Educational Practice: Challenges, Dialogues and Counter-Publics

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