value committed

• gouldner

  • sociologists had become 'spiritless technicians'
  • no longer problem makes - became problem takers who hired themselves out to organisations to solve their problems
  • sociologists leave their values out as a way of making a 'gentlemen promise' that they would not criticise the views of their paymaster
  • saw their own values as irrelevant as were only doing as what the higher ups wanted
• Myrdal 


  argues sociologists should not only spell out their values but also openly take sides
• valued committed 


  Myrdal

  gouldner
• gouldner - value laden


  value free sociology is

  • impossible - because either the sociologist’s own values, or those of their paymasters, are bound to be reflected in their work.
  • undesirable - since without values to guide research, sociologists are merely selling their services to the highest bidder.
  • e.g some sociologists have had no hesitation about doing market research designed to sell more cigarettes, although well aware of the implications of recent cancer research.’
  • must take moral responsibility
• Becker - underdogs

  • values are always present in sociology
  • sociologists tend to take viewpoint of powerful groups (overdogs)e.g police, psychiatrists
  • argues we should take side of underdogs e.g criminals , mental patients
  • their story is less known, needs to be told in order to redress the balance
  • sociologists should adopt compassionate stance
• goffman - mental patient example

  • to describe the situation of the mental patient faithfully, we have to take their side.
  • We have to be biased in favour of the patient and against the psychiatrist.
• Becker agrees with committed sociologists in that values are needed to improve the society we live in