Radical Politics and Sociological Research: Observations on Methodology and Ideology

Abstract

Sociological work producing results that are "true" in not being falsifiable by available evidence and "true to the world" in encompassing the major components of the phenomena it studies is likely to have a radical thrust. Such work unmasks the conventional stories with which institutional functionaries and social leaders hide the inequities and failures or the organizations for which they are responsible. In so doing, it serves to increase the possibilities for freedom and equality in a society. The radical thrust of good sociological work reveals itself in its choice of causes for analysis, since the designation of causes serves to assign blame for undesirable events and to suggest what might be attacked in order to prevent them from occurring.