Idea of Research-Writing in Sociology: Polemics on the Loss of a Transformative Practice

Abstract

Following Alwin Gouldner (1971), it is pertinent to perpetually ask a seemingly all-time relevant question. And the question is, what do sociologists do? In the manner of doing sociology of sociology, and by a polemical resurrection of fragments from the dominant practices of sociologists, this essay brings forth general understanding about the idea of research-writing in contemporary India. It underlines the anomalies in the practice of research-writing, connected with the teaching and training programmes, in a self-referential perspective. The essay substantiates the polemics with analytical reasoning, in order to reveal as to what could be reasons behind this state of sociological research-writings.

Idea of Pandemic-Pedagogy: Reflexive Rumination on Teaching and Learning Practices

“…This evident tendency solicits from a teacher an alternative pedagogic plan to bring about a fusion between textual and contextual, intellectual and experiential, rational and emotional. It entails changes in the method of execution, the course curricula, rather than a teacher-centred curriculum with fortified 'teacher's academic prowess' (Pathak, 2021a).…”

“…The art of being a teacher during the pandemic, the mainstay of this essay, demands to elucidate, also applied elsewhere, a phenomenology of academic practices (Pathak, 2021a). A strong orthodoxy about teaching sociology is dominant across India.…”

Being and becoming (of/with) Burawoy: An anxious apprehension of public sociology in South Asia

“…Rather than finding a way out of the crises, through a radical version of sociology of sociology, it seems crisis-mongering is trapped in the liturgy of lament in South Asia. In spite of reflexivity abuzz, the disciplinary orthodoxy seems immune to any virus of the time (Pathak, 2021(Pathak, , 2022. It is in such an anxious context that an apprehension of whats, hows, and whys from Burawoy's book shall be relevant.…”