The Task Force on the Institutionalization of Public Sociology was charged by the ASA Council with three tasks:

1.  To develop proposals for the recognition and validation of on-going public sociology, proposals that would bring to light how extensive is the practice of public sociology as well as advertising its variety. This could be, for example, through columns in Footnotes, through the collection of press clippings, through websites, etc.

2.  To develop guidelines for evaluating public sociology as a scholarly enterprise, guidelines for departments that wished to make good public sociology a criterion of merit and promotion. Here we would be able to draw on publications from other disciplines that have developed such evaluative criteria.

3.  To propose incentives and rewards for doing public sociology, in particular trying to find possible sources of funding for public sociology from foundations, perhaps something along the lines of the Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline (FAD), or by creating a special member contributed fund.

Task Force on Institutionalization of Public Sociology

Susan H. Ambler
Andrew L. Barlow
Kevin J. Delaney
Peter Dreier
Ann Goetting
Leslie H. Hossfeld
Carla B. Howery, Executive Office Liaison
Paul Edward Lachelier
Donald W. Light
April Linton
Cynthia Negrey
Philip Nyden, Chair
Carmen Sirianni
Roberta M. Spalter-Roth, Executive Office Liaison
Gregory D. Squires
Randy Stoecker
Diane Vaughan, Council Liaison
William Velez