Academics vs Activism

When looking at the sociological view in the way of the public the conflict of academics vs activism starts to come into play. Many different sociologist have looked into this conflict and debated on a ways to try and resolve the conflict but a solution has yet to been found. When a sociologist is working in at a university they follow the same way of teaching students and use articles and books as their research citations but when it comes to be an activist in the public eye sociologist then get critiqued and have their view/words changed to fit how they media wants them too. I feel like the debate is one that will never be totally resolved but will be fought by every sociologist their is. I agree with the articles from the sociologist in the points that finding the way to appeal to the public and to students is completely different but I do not believe that a sociologist should have to stick to one or the other because academic sociologist have an observation group that other activist sociologist do not. Since the academic sociologist have the extra group and brains they should use them to build on their research and to help them be activist in a way of educating the younger adults so can then educate the older adults and the generations to follow.
Social scientist hold a view that might not be popular with some of the population or a view that most of the population has not even thought of before so I believe that social scientist should be engaging in public debate, but there are roadblocks to this happening. The sociological perspective is so hidden because of money or educational requirements that if an individual wants to learn more about what a social scientist is talking about they have to have the access to pay for the articles and the literacy to read at the scholarly level which is a huge roadblock because the majority of the population today is in a poor class level. The articles that are being read are only by they top 1% of the population which is not enough people to make a change, so why not open up the academic articles to all individuals and not just right the article in the context of colleagues to read but in the context of an everyday individual. When learning the sociological view I never really thought of the debate on academics vs activism but now reading about it the debate is one that will always be a struggle for sociologist. I do believe that sociologist that do not work in the university have the debate easier because they are specialized in more of an occupational area that they can spread their knowledge on.

References

Collins, Patricia Hill. 2013. "truth-telling and intellectual activism" in Contexts 12:1, Pp. 36-39. Temple University Press.

Jurgenson, Nathan. "How Academics Can Become Relevant." Cypborology. Retrieved September 12, 2017. (https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2012/01/23/how-academics-can-become-relevant/). 

Rojas, Rubio. "why activism and academia don't mix." Orgtheory. Retrieved September 12, 2017. (https://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/why-activism-and-academia-dont-mix/).