by Katie Powell, Tina Basi, Nick J Fox, Tom Genillard, Sunny Gunnesee and Steve Raven
In the midst of polycrisis (Diamond and Skrzypek, 2024), this blogpost is a call to action for all sociologists to transform the impact that sociology can and should make across society by building the sociology family. We propose here that sociology needs to be promoted as a way to change mindsets and develop the problem shakers of the future. We propose methods for building stronger public connections with sociology and embedding sociological knowledge into career pathways, starting with its place in the school curriculum, making the case for sociology at the degree level and in workplaces and communities.
A changing role for sociology
Sociologists are increasingly engaged in the work of building the futures others merely forecast. Our lived experience reveals a field more diffuse and more powerful than the institutional imagination often allows. The boundaries of sociological work are not neatly contained within recognisable sectors; they spill into emergent domains such as digital strategy, sustainability consulting, speculative design, corporate transformation, public health innovation, and beyond. If we are to expand sociology’s social impact, we must first expand our understanding of where, and how, sociologists actually work.
Sociologists in the knowledge economy: impact, infrastructure, and institutional change
The shift in UK research policy towards knowledge exchange and demonstrable impact has catalysed a proliferation of university-based roles that now form an integral part of the sociological ecosystem. Often overlooked in traditional career maps, these roles, spanning knowledge exchange, knowledge translation, knowledge mobilisation, research impact, public engagement, policy engagement, research assessment strategy, impact management, commercialisation, and research exploitation, represent a significant reconfiguration of the field.
These are not peripheral functions; they are infrastructural. They enable the circulation, application, and legitimisation of sociological knowledge across institutional and public domains. In 2021–22 alone, such activities generated an estimated £8.73 billion for the UK economy (London Economics, 2024). And yet, they remain conspicuously absent from dominant narratives of what sociologists do and where their skills are valued.
Sociology in an age of polycrisis: health, well-being, and the public good
For many of us, the polycrisis of our time, climate breakdown, democratic fragility, economic inequality, and the global mental health crisis, is not an abstraction but a lived condition. In this context, the demand for sociological expertise is intensifying across public policy, social impact, and public affairs. roles now commonly listed as policy analyst, social researcher, programme evaluator, advocacy specialist or behavioural consultant increasingly draw upon sociological methods, critical reflexivity and a systems-level understanding of causality and context.
As these roles evolve, so too do their trajectories, maturing into positions such as monitoring and evaluation specialist, participatory action research consultant, gender advisor, and urban studies specialist, many with a global or transnational scope. Simultaneously, sociologists are entering the language of the sustainability economy, advising on ESG (environmental, social, governance), DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion), impact analytics, ethical supply chains, and systems transformation. These are not adjacent sectors; they are the frontline of reimagining the social contract.
This shift is, in part, a response to the slow erosion of state-supported care and public health infrastructures. As traditional systems falter, new forms of public engagement are emerging, ones that centres lived experience, relational wellbeing, and trauma-informed practice. Sociology’s insights are now indispensable in roles such as health researcher, social prescriber, lived experience lead, and trauma-informed advisor, as well as in allied professions across social work, prisons, and probation services. What binds these diverse careers is not a shared job title but a shared commitment to diagnosing and repairing the fractures of contemporary life.
Sociologists in industry: design, innovation, and the cultural imagination
Organisations such as EPIC (a not-for-profit organisation advancing the value of ethnography) have long championed the value of sociologically informed roles in industry, roles that apply ethnographic sensitivity, systemic thinking, and cultural analysis to the practical work of organisational transformation. Many of EPIC’s members are trained sociologists now working in organisational and industrial research, taking up titles such as industrial ethnographer, culture consultant, change strategist, human resources analyst, and workplace researcher.
Again, these are not marginal developments, they are signals of sociology’s evolving utility. As industry increasingly turns toward complexity-informed approaches, the tools of sociological inquiry are gaining new currency. Nowhere is this more evident than in the rapidly expanding design and technology sectors. The emergence of artificial intelligence, and the ethical, epistemological and political questions it raises, has created an urgent need for sociologists to be at the table.
Across the domains of user experience (UX), product development, and creative industries, sociologists are shaping conversations as UX researchers, design ethnographers, innovation consultants, product designers, and strategic foresight specialists. Within the cultural and media industries, they appear as cultural insight leads, audience strategists, story consultants, and media ethnographers. These roles are underpinned by the very capacities sociology cultivates: attunement to lived experience, critique of power, cultural interpretation, and the design of meaning-making systems.
Part two of this blogpost takes up the challenges posed here, and looks at how they can be turned into actions.
References
Diamond, P., & Skrzypek, A. (eds.) (2024). The Politics of Polycrisis. Dietz. https://feps-europe.eu/publication/the-politics-of-polycrisis/
London Economics. (2024). The economic impact of higher education teaching, research, and innovation (Report for Universities UK, August 2024). London Economics. https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/what-we-do/policy-and-research/publications/economic-impact-higher-education
Katie Powell is convenor of the Applied Sociology Group and senior research fellow in sociology at the University of Sheffield. Tina Basi is Principal Investigator for Roam Within at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge, and a former convenor of the Applied Sociology Group. Nick J Fox is professor of sociology at the University of Huddersfield and a former convenor of the Applied Sociology Group. Tom Genillard is subject advisor for Sociology & Criminology for Cambridge OCR. Sunny Gunessee is a sociology teacher and Lead Practitioner for Teaching and Learning at JCoSS (The Ronson Jewish Community Secondary School). Steve Raven is visiting research fellow at the University of Birmingham and a member of the BSA Board of Trustees.
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