Standing up for science is part of sociology\u27s mission as a social science. Standing up is also consistent with our field\u27s ethical obligation to identify and avoid research compromised by conflict of interests

Ruane, Janet M.

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Montclair State University Montclair State University Digital Commons Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works Department of Sociology Winter 12-4-2017 Should Sociologists Stand Up for Science? Absolutely! Janet M. Ruane Montclair State University, ruanej@montclair.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/sociology-facpubs  Part of the Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Community-Based Learning Commons, Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, Educational Sociology Commons, Law and Politics Commons, Other Sociology Commons, Place and Environment Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Theory, Knowledge and Science Commons, and the Work, Economy and Organizations Commons MSU Digital Commons Citation Ruane, Janet M., "Should Sociologists Stand Up for Science? Absolutely!" (2017). Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 24. https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/sociology-facpubs/24 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Sociology at Montclair State University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works by an authorized administrator of Montclair State University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@montclair.edu. See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321532078Should Sociologists Stand Up for Science? Absolutely!Article  in  Sociological Forum · December 2017DOI: 10.1111/socf.12394CITATIONS8READS211 author:Janet M. RuaneMontclair State University4 PUBLICATIONS   19 CITATIONS   SEE PROFILEAll content following this page was uploaded by Janet M. Ruane on 12 February 2019.The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.The ForumShould Sociologists Stand Up for Science? Absolutely!1Janet M. Ruane2Standing up for science is part of sociology’s mission as a social science. Standing up is also consistent withour field’s ethical obligation to identify and avoid research compromised by conflict of interests.KEYWORDS: controversy; politics; power; public opinion; science; trust in science.In “Out of the Labs and into the Streets: Scientists Get Political,” MacKen-drick (2017) asks if sociologists should “stand up for science.” I ask, “How couldwe do anything but?”Science is dedicated to finding empirical evidence that serves the search fortruth about our world. Sociology, as a social science, is equally dedicated to thistask—finding the empirical evidence of the truths about our social reality. If we arenot on board with the data-based mission of science, we can’t call our discipline asocial science.Perhaps the more discerning question is whether sociology should stand up forscience’s speaking truth to power. This is, after all, the question that gets us to theheart of the issue: the dustup over mixing science and politics. To be sure, mixingpolitics and science has always been a risky and, some might argue, foolish endea-vor. (Galileo and Einstein offer some prime examples of the backlash that can awaitscientists who butt heads with power.) But the costs of not speaking truth to power,especially today, may be far too high to endure. The most obvious case in point, ofcourse, is the “debate” over the science of climate change. The failure to respect andlisten to the scientific community about the facts of climate change will wreak severegeographical, environmental, social, and economic consequences. The longer wedelay, the greater the costs. No society can afford to wait.A decade ago, a study by the Global Development and Environment Instituteat Tufts University estimated the annual cost of ignoring climate change at $20 tril-lion (Legum 2006). A 2014 report by the Council of Economic Advisers warned thata rise of mean global temps from 2 to 3 degrees Celsius would result in annual1Editor’s Note: This essay is one of six articles written in response to MacKendrick (2017). For otherresponses, see Brulle (2017), Fisher (2017), Frickel (2017), Shostak (2017), and Whooley (2017).2Department of Sociology Montclair State University 1 Normal Avenue, Montclair New Jersey 07043.;e-mail: ruanej@mail.montclair.edu.Sociological Forum, Vol. 33, No. 1, March 2018DOI: 10.1111/socf.12394© 2017 Eastern Sociological Society239additional damages of .9% of global economic output. A rise of temps from 3 to 4degrees would produce additional annual costs of 1.2% of global economic output(Furman and Podesta 2014). With increasing occurrences of severe weather eventsand improving scientific research on climate change, the estimates of adaptive costsare doubling and tripling every few years for developing nations. Indeed, a UnitedNations Environment Programme Report puts the estimate of maximum annualfinancial needs for developing nations at $300 billion by 2050 (Dougherty-Choux2015). Other researchers estimate that economic costs of delayed mitigation will begreat for both rich and poor nations and project a 23% drop in global incomes by2100 (Geiling 2015). The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the Uni-ted States will see a $180 billion loss due to water shortages by the end of the cen-tury (Davenport 2015).Our ability to effectively respond to climate change will depend on our willing-ness to “tap” and trust the scientific community. Consider, for instance, NeildeGrasse Tyson’s recent call for scientists and engineers to figure out how to har-ness the cyclonic energy of hurricanes in order to “power” affected areas throughthe storm (Garfield 2017). But trusting science is something we have been less will-ing to do since the 1960s (Ruane 2017). Polling data tell us that Americans whohave a great deal of trust in people running our scientific institutions has held at arelatively low rate (about 40%) since the 1970s. A significant number of Americanstoday remain skeptical that science is using the “best available data” when it comesto such issues as climate change or genetically modified food (Rainie 2017). (Collins[2014] has argued that this shift in public opinion regarding the superior status ofscience as a source of valid, trustworthy knowledge can be traced to the publicationof Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.) Given these conditions, it is easyto see how society is primed today for the current science/politics battle.But does sociology have an obligation to take a stand in this battle? AsMacKendrick alludes, sociology is a field that is already “short” on status in theview of some of the public as well as in the view of some funding agencies. We areoften accused of promoting biased, political, or even frivolous research. So do wereally want to stick out our necks for a political battle, especially in today’s hyper-partisan environment? Again, I have to say how can we not do so? Sociology has along tradition of studying the many manifestations and dynamics of power. Indeed,we could say that the study of power is in our wheelhouse. The current fake newscontroversy is just the latest example of how ideas and truth are often the first casu-alties of power plays. These political battles will be waged with or without us. To beclear, the battle is not so much about science taking on politics as much as it is poli-tics attacking science. For the last several decades, interest groups looking toadvance their interests and consolidate their power have elected to do battle withscience. Vested interest research is pursued by organizations wanting to “use”science in the service of a mission that is very different from the “truth” mission ofscience. The vested interest research mission is to persuade consumers of informa-tion and advance a political agenda. But the scientific enterprise with its inherentskepticism, its reliance on empirical evidence, and its insistence on the public shar-ing of that evidence has an obligation to assess and challenge vested interestresearch. Sociology as a social science shares this commitment. And as a discipline,240 Ruanesociology is also charged with the ethical mandate to avoid and reveal the conflictof interest that is at the heart of vested research. And so, we were well served bythose committed to the scientific endeavor when they informed us that earlyresearch on the dangers of tobacco (conducted on behalf of the tobacco industry),and early research on the dangers of playing football (conducted under the auspicesof the National Football League), or early research on the negative effects of sugarin our diets (funded by sugar trade groups) all fell far short of the essential stan-dards of true scientific research. If science and sociology is not “on the case,” we willbe letting the public down. Science and sociology must do its due diligence to gatherthe empirical evidence needed to set the record straight and continue the mission ofbuilding an empirically grounded, trustworthy knowledge base.REFERENCESBrulle, Robert J. 2017. “Critical Reflections on the March for Science.” Sociological Forum: 33: 1: 255–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12398.Collins, Harry. 2014. Are We All Scientific Experts Now?Malden, MA: Polity.Davenport, Colin. 2015. “E.P.A. Warns of High Cost of Climate Change.” New York Times. RetrievedAugust 23, 2017 (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/us/politics/effects-of-climate-change-could-cost-billions-epa-report-says.html?_r=0)Dougherty-Choux, Lisa. 2015. “The Costs of Climate Adaptation, Explained in 4 Infographics.”Retrieved August 23, 2017 (http://www.wri.org/blog/2015/04/costs-climate-adaptation-explained-4-infographics)Fisher, Dana R. 2017. “Scientists in the Resistance.” Sociological Forum: 33: 1: 247–250. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12396.Frickel, Scott. 2017. “Political Scientists.” Sociological Forum: 33: 1: 234–238. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12393.Furman, Jason, and John Podesta. 2014. “New Report: The Cost of Delaying Action to Stem ClimateChange.” Retrieved October 6, 2017 (https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2014/07/29/new-report-cost-delaying-action-stem-climate-change)Garfield, Leanna. 2017. “Neil deGrasse Tyson: Scientists Should Figure Out How to Turn HurricaneEnergy Into Electricity.” Business Insider. Retrieved August 23, 2017 (http://www.businessinsider.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-hurricane-energy-power-cities-2017-10)Geiling, Natasha. 2015. “The Economic Cost of Climate Change.” Retrieved August 23, 2017(https://thinkprogress.org/the-economic-cost-of-climate-change-20bd91b532f6/)Legum, Judd. 2006. “REPORT: The Cost of Ignoring Climate Change Is $20 Trillion a Year.” RetrievedAugust 23, 2017 (https://thinkprogress.org/report-the-cost-of-ignoring-climate-change-is-20-trillion-a-year-3e22916d13a7/)MacKendrick, Norah. 2017. “Out of the Labs and into the Streets: Scientists Get Political.” SociologicalForum: 32: 4: 896–902. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12366.Rainie, Lee. 2017. “U.S. Public Trust in Science and Scientists.” Retrieved October 4, 2017 (http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/06/27/u-s-public-trust-in-science-and-scientists/)Ruane, Janet M. 2017. “Should Sociologists Stand Up for Science? Absolutely!” Sociological Forum: 33:1: 239–241. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12394.Shostak, Sara. 2017. “Standing Up for Science and Social Justice.” Sociological Forum: 33: 1: 242–246.https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12395.Whooley, Owen. 2017. “A (Pragmatic) Defense of (Some) Science.” Sociological Forum: 33: 1: 251–254.https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12397.Should Sociologists Stand Up for Science? 241View publication stats

Should Sociologists Stand Up for Science? Absolutely!

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Should Sociologists Stand Up for Science? Absolutely!

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