+ Reviews

“Moral Minefields offers an explosion of insight into how to approach the seemingly always politically charged project of conducting sociological research. Throughout its history, the discipline has stood between commitments to scientific inquiry and the pursuit of truth, and commitments to addressing social inequality, socio-economic disadvantage, and other moral concerns. Rather than try to resolve the push and pull emanating from both sides of this divide, readers are guided to think more critically and carefully about what constitutes the pursuit of good research that is indelibly tied to visions—either by the sociologists producing their work or the audiences receiving it—of morally sound research. Dromi and Stabler seek not to resolve the tension, but rather expose readers to sociology’s courageous embracing of it and, therefore, guide readers to think more effectively about how it can be managed going forward.”—Alford Young, Jr., University of Michigan

“Dromi and Stabler skillfully puncture a stalled debate between the value-free and deliberately activist camps of contemporary sociology, showing how scholars within our methodologically and substantively diverse field form judgments about what counts as ‘good research.’ Weaving together a range of powerful examples—from secularism to breastfeeding, cosmopolitanism, and racial inequality—their framework of moral repertoires shines new light on the field. Equally valuable to both the seasoned sociologist and the young researcher.”—Jenny Trinitapoli, University of Chicago

“Is it true that the major social science disciplines have shut down debate about sensitive issues? At times, the answer is certainly yes. But an important new book entitle Moral Minefields argues that some sociologists have developed strategies to address some of the most highly fraught issues of our time, involving race and genetics, secularization, nationalism, the culture of poverty, and parenting practices.”—Stephen Mintz, University of Texas at Austin

“…there is much erudition in this book, such that I’m confident sociologists of all theoretical persuasions will get something from it. For what Dromi and Stabler are ultimately concerned with are questions that strike to the heart of our vocation (or profession, if you prefer), and which no working sociologist can avoid grappling with: What constitutes “good” sociology? By what criteria should our work be evaluated? And how should our discipline contribute to the common good? However, what is innovative about their approach is that, rather than enter the fray and offer their own hot takes on these issues, they instead strive to rise above it by examining how we—the sociological community—go about debating these questions.” —Galen Watts, University of Waterloo

+ Podcasts

New Books Network interview with Dave O’Brien, September 2023.

Moral Matters interview with Elena van Stee and Kerby Goff, October 2023.

The Annex podcast with Dan Morrison, October 2023.

Interview with Faculti (video), March 2024.

+ Opinion Pieces and Blog Posts

"How Bad is Academic Censorship, Really?" The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 20, 2024 (with Samuel D. Stabler).

“Weird Nones: The Moral Justifications for Religious Research on Non-Religious People.” Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network, December 11, 2023 (with Samuel D. Stabler).

“Better Together, or What Sociology’s History of Moral Debate Can Teach You.” Contexts Blog, December 19, 2023 (with Samuel D. Stabler).

+ Interviews

Interview with Larry Au for Skatology, the Newsletter of the ASA Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology, October 2, 2023.

+ Good on paper: Sociological critique, pragmatism, and secularization theory (Shai M. Dromi and Samuel D. Stabler)

Recent years have seen numerous sociological disagreements devolve into moral debates, with scholars openly accusing their peers of being both empirically wrong and morally misguided. While social scientists routinely reflect on the ethical implications of certain research assumptions and data collection methods, the sociology of knowledge production has said little about how moral debates over scholarship shape subsequent research trajectories. Drawing on the New French Pragmatic Sociology, this article examines how sociologists respond to moral criticisms of their work, and outlines three typical responses: (1) accepting the moral criticism and changing direction completely; (2) accepting the criticism but changing discursive register to allow additional work in the area without being subject to critique; and (3) circumventing the criticism by using the debate to devise new research directions that would not trigger such criticism. To demonstrate, the article looks at how sociologists of religion responded, in their published scholarship, to criticisms of secularization theory as depreciating religious people and spiritual experience. Across the responses, we show that sociologists have included moral considerations in their empirical investigations and have switched between diverse moral frameworks to address -- and also avoid -- criticism. We conclude by demonstrating that this model can be extended to other domains of sociological inquiry, including the study of gender-based wage inequality and methodological nationalism. The article highlights the importance of mapping the moral frameworks sociologists use for the sociology of knowledge and the sociology of morality. Please contact me if you would like a copy of this paper.

+ Recovering Morality: Pragmatic Sociology and Literary Studies (Shai M. Dromi and Eva Illouz)

The disciplines of sociology and literary studies have seen a renewed interest in morality and in ethics in recent decades, but there has been little dialogue between the two. Recognizing that literary works, both classical and popular, can serve as moral critiques and that readers, of all types and classes, can and often do serve as moral critics, this paper seeks to apply some insights of pragmatic sociology to the field of literature by exploring the ways in which moral claims are expressed, evaluated, and negotiated by texts and through texts by readers. Drawing on the new French pragmatic sociology, represented by sociologists such as Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot, this paper claims that fiction has a twofold role in civil society. Firstly, novels serve as critiques in their ability to formalize and dramatize generalizable logics of evaluation and to elicit debates by pointing to the inadequacies of, and clashes between, such evaluative logics in the lives of their characters. Secondly, the reading public is often moved to form its own critiques of a novel, in praise or in denunciation of its content, its form, or its perceived intent, and in doing so exercises its moral capacity in the public sphere.

Translations

An abridged translation to Russian appeared in Social Sciences and Humanities: Domestic and International Literature, series 7: Literary Criticism 18, no. 1 (2012): 13-19.

A translation to Polish appeared in Second Texts , no. 6 (2012): 167-187.