Moral Minefields: How Sociologists Debate Good Science

Shai M. Dromi and Samuel D. Stabler

University of Chicago Press, 2023

Available on the University of Chicago Press website, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble!

Few academic disciplines are as contentious as sociology. Sociologists routinely turn on their peers with fierce criticisms not only of their empirical rigor and theoretical clarity, but of their character as well. Yet despite controversy, scholars manage to engage with thorny debates without being censured. How?

In Moral Minefields, Shai M. Dromi and Samuel D. Stabler consider five recent controversial topics in sociology—race and genetics, secularization theory, methodological nationalism, the culture of poverty, and parenting practices—to reveal how moral debates affect the field. Sociologists, they show, tend to respond to moral criticism of scholarly work in one of three ways. While some accept and endorse the criticism, others work out new ways to address these topics that can transcend the criticism, while still others build on the debates to form new, more morally acceptable research.

Moral Minefields addresses one of the most prominent questions in contemporary sociological theory: how can sociology contribute to the development of a virtuous society? Rather than suggesting that sociologists adopt a clear paradigm that can guide their research toward neatly defined moral aims, Dromi and Stabler argue that sociologists already largely possess and employ the repertoires to address questions of moral virtue in their research. The conversation thus is moved away from attempts to theorize the moral goods sociologists should support and toward questions about how sociologists manage the plurality of moral positions that present themselves in their studies. Moral diversity within sociology, they show, fosters disciplinary progress.

+ Distinctions

Robert K. Merton Book Award (honorable mention), Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section, American Sociological Association, 2024.

Outstanding Published Book Award (honorable mention), Section on Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity, American Sociological Association, 2024.

+ 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.

Related Articles

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

Theory & Society 48, no. 2 (2019): 325-350
Honorable Mention, 2020 American Sociological Association Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity Outstanding Published Article Award

An open access version of the article is available on the publisher's website. A downloadable preprint is available at this link.

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)

New Literary History 41, no. 2 (2010): 351-369
Read the article at this link or on the publisher's website .

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.

Above the Fray: The Red Cross and the Making of the Humanitarian NGO Sector

The University of Chicago Press, 2020

Available at the the University of Chicago Press website. Also available at Barnes & Noble's and Amazon.
  • Outstanding Published Book Award, American Sociological Association Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity Section
  • Peter Dobkin Hall History of Philanthropy Prize, Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA)

“Humanitarianism is not just an ethical orientation, but a whole sector of social institutions and practical actions. Dromi’s Above the Fray superbly illuminates both the history of this field since the founding of the Red Cross and its increasingly difficult challenges today.”

Craig Calhoun, University Professor of Social Sciences, Arizona State University

"Above the Fray is a major effort to analyze the development of a distinct humanitarian field animated by the religious worldview of the nineteenth Calvinist milieu of Geneva, which connects a network of philanthropists, pacific activists, and religious actors concerned with addressing human tragedies. In telling the story of the emergence of this institutional field, Dromi innovates by bringing meaning-making into Bourdieusian field analysis in a non-reductivist fashion. Thus, he makes a brilliant contribution to historical sociology, and offers a much-needed addition to the sociological theory of fields. His book will be a crucial point of reference for several fields of research in the years to come."

Michèle Lamont, Professor of Sociology and African & African American Studies and Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies, Harvard University

"The book makes major and thought-provoking contributions to a surprisingly wide range of fields. It could make a perfect addition to an organizational theory book, since it shows how an organizational form arises as well as how a new form seeds a whole field. A course on professions would benefit from this book. As one brilliant chapter shows, this new “humanitarian logic” was quickly copied by other professions: law, nursing, and journalism. The book could be used to good end in courses on international law, cultural sociology, social movements, sociology of religion, cosmopolitanism and secularism, and political sociology."

Nina Eliasoph, Professor of Sociology, University of Southern California

"I promise... that anyone interested in humanitarianism’s past and future will enjoy this read. Considering how the humanitarian movement is rooted in specific historical contexts of faith, war, and political upheaval challenges our assumptions about the universality of humanitarian principles today"

Dorothea Hilhorst, Professor of Humanitarian Studies, International Institute for Social Studies of Erasmus University, The Hague

+ Book Description

From Lake Chad to Iraq, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) provide relief around the globe, and their scope is growing every year. Policymakers and activists often assume that humanitarian aid is best provided by these organizations, who are generally seen as impartial and neutral. In Above the Fray, Shai Dromi investigates why the international community overwhelmingly trusts humanitarian NGOs by looking at the historical development of their culture. With a particular focus on the Red Cross, Dromi reveals that NGOs arose because of the efforts of orthodox Calvinists, demonstrating for the first time the origins of the unusual moral culture that has supported NGOs for the past 150 years.

Drawing on archival research, Dromi traces the genesis of the Red Cross to a Calvinist movement working in mid-nineteenth-century Geneva, showing that the organization’s founding members were convinced by their faith that an international volunteer program not beholden to the state was the only ethical way to provide relief to victims of armed conflict. After illustrating how Calvinism shaped the humanitarian field, he argues for the key role preexistent belief systems played in establishing social fields and institutions. Ultimately, Dromi shows the immeasurable social good that NGOs have achieved, but also suggests that alternate models of humanitarian relief need to be considered.

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+ Related Articles

Soldiers of the cross: Calvinism, humanitarianism, and the genesis of social fields
Sociological Theory 34, no. 3 (2016): 196-219
Read the article at this link.
Abstract: Field theory has largely treated the cultural dimensions of social fields as an emergent property of their objective structures. This article reconsiders the role of culture in fields by examining the development of the logics that govern new social fields. As a study case, it focuses on the genesis of the logics underpinning the field of transnational humanitarianism, focusing on the International Committee of the Red Cross (established 1863). The article shows that the Calvinist doctrine to which the early Red Cross activists subscribed motivated and shaped the genesis of the humanitarian field, especially through its convictions about the nature of war, state and society relations, and charity. Activists drew on this doctrine to justify and advocate the establishment of a permanent, independent, and neutral humanitarian field. Based on this evidence, the article argues that preexistent belief systems have a key role in establishing the logics of new social fields.

For good and country: Nationalism and the diffusion of humanitarianism in the late nineteenth century
The Sociological Review 64S, no. 2 (2016): 79–97
Winner of the Global and Transnational Sociology Best Graduate Student Paper Award from the American Sociological Association
Read the article at this link.
Despite the growing interest in transnational fields and their influence on national-level dynamics, existing literature has not yet addressed the processes involved in creating such fields in the first place. This article provides insight into the complexities involved in national-transnational interactions amidst national and transnational field formation. It examines the nascent transnational humanitarian field of the late nineteenth-century through the work of the emerging Red Cross Movement in the 1860s-1890s, drawing primarily on the archive of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The findings show that National Red Cross (NRC) societies employed a discourse drawn from a transnational cultural arena in order to gain central positioning in their national fields and to convince other parties of their necessity. Conversely, NRCs used nationalism as a form of symbolic capital in establishing themselves in their national fields, seemingly at odds with their cosmopolitan aspirations. Thus, by contrast to the ideal-typical representation of global humanitarianism as non-national, these findings suggest that nationalism and impartial humanitarianism are historically intertwined. More broadly, the article argues that national-level field dynamics as well as nationalism play important roles in the creation of transnational fields, even when field actors present themselves as acting for universal causes.

Donor Identity, Morality, and Nonprofit Organizations: Soliciting Donations and Recruiting Volunteers for the Red Cross, 1863-1919
Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, forthcoming
Read the article at this link.
Abstract: Recent literature has highlighted the central role donor identity, one's perception of oneself as a giving person, plays in fundraising. In this, nonprofit organizations develop strategies to encourage a generous self-perception among potential donors and volunteers in order to elicit donations. However, existing literature has not yet examined the cultural repertoires organizations develop to portray convincing representations of donor identity to their donor- and volunteer-base. This article argues that nonprofit organizations draw on broad, culturally-defined notions of the moral good in order to create idealized depictions of a donor identity. To demonstrate, the article looks at the early decades of the Red Cross movement. It shows that the movement developed four different logics in order to depict romanticized notions of donors and volunteers, each of which based on a different idea of the social good. The article argues that such meaning making is a key aspect of nonprofit organizations’ work.

Examining the links between beliefs and institutional emergence
Sociology Compass 14, no. 2 (2020)
Read the article at this link or on the publisher's website.
Abstract: Although the study of institutions is one of the longest standing sociological topics, numerous recent studies have revisited questions about the genesis of new institutions and institutional domains. In this review, I argue for increased attention to the role cultural beliefs play in the emergence of new institutions. I highlight three substantive research areas where sociologists have demonstrated a relatively independent causal effect of beliefs on the genesis of new institutions: (a) studies of states and state institutions; (b) studies of emergent markets; and (c) studies of the charitable aid sector. I conclude by highlighting promising avenues for future research on beliefs and institutional emergence.

+ Podcast

+ Op-eds/Newsletters/Blogs

“Explainer: Obstacles and Opportunities for NGOs Providing Humanitarian Relief in a Changing World.” JURIST October 13, 2022.

“COVID-19 is Spreading in Africa. How Should Philanthropy Respond?” Inside Philanthropy March 30, 2020

“The Page 99 Test: Shai M. Dromi's 'Above the Fray'” The Page 99 Test January 25, 2020

“Exploring the origins of the humanitarian sector through archival work,” Sectors: The newsletter of the American Sociological Association’s Sociology of Development Section 2017

“Nationalism and humanitarianism,” The Sociological Review Blog 2016

The Handbook of the Sociology of Morality, vol. 2

Steven Hitlin, Shai M. Dromi, and Aliza Luft, editors

Springer, 2023

Available on Springer’s website and on Amazon.

The introduction is available here.

This handbook articulates how sociology can re-engage its roots as the scientific study of human moral systems, actions, and interpretation. This second volume builds on the successful original volume published in 2010, which contributed to the initiation of a new section of the American Sociological Association (ASA), thus growing the field. This volume takes sociology back to its roots over a century ago, when morality was a central topic of work and governance. It engages scholars from across subfields in sociology, representing each section of the ASA, who contribute to how their subfield connects to research on morality.

This reference work appeals to broader readership than was envisaged for the first volume, as the relationship between sociology as a discipline and its origins in questions of morality is further renewed. The volume editors focus on three areas: the current state of the sociology of morality across a range of sociological subfields; taking a new look at some of the issues discussed in the first handbook, which are relevant in sometimes completely new contexts; and reflecting on where the sociology of morality should go next.

This is a must-read reference for students and scholars interested in topics of morality, ethics, altruism, religion, and spirituality from across the social science.