Case Study 1
The Work, Interaction, and Technology research centre at King’s College London specialises in video-based ethnographic studies of a wide range of workplace contexts, including healthcare, museums and markets. Bridging the academic and applied divide, the group engages with clients who are seeking to understand more about their world through detailed interactional analysis. Their insights led to the design of new technology, and have influenced others around the world on how to study work.
Case Study 2
Applied sociologists in rural Central Pennsylvania had targeted conversations with local municipal and community leaders to discover the functional problems they faced. From this, they used student surveyors and faculty with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) skills to map blighted housing. This was information the towns desperately needed to gain access to Community Development Block Grant money (Milofsky and Green, 2015).
Case Study 3
A local university sociology department established a sociology clinic in the shopping area of Trondheim, Norway. The clinic used community-based studies to inform and guide urban planners and commercial endeavours, and involved community bodies and citizens as participants in the research process. (Bye, 2016)
Bibliography
Bye, T.A. (2016) A sociology clinic: a sociology of the people, by the people, for the people? Social Theory and Health. https://socialtheoryhealth.wordpress.com/2016/12/12/
Milofsky, C. and Green, B. (2015) Chaining and virtual organization in a slow sociology project: the Brown Ridge School District Health Needs Assessment becomes the Central Susquehanna Affordable Care Act project. Journal of Applied Social Science, 9(2): 170-181.