University World News - NORWAY: Fears for future of sociology

NORWAY: Fears for future of sociology Jan Petter Myklebust
23 January 2011
Issue: 155

A high-level panel of sociologists has found that the multidisciplinary research environments in which most PhD students in sociology spend a large part of their training pose a threat of weaker long-term sociological competence in Norway.

The sociologists, all from Nordic states, agree that "a substantial amount of high quality research has attained international attention". But they recommend intensified efforts to "develop theoretical and methodological research within sociology".

The report says that problem-oriented empiricism is a strength of Norwegian sociology. Problems related to the welfare state, family, sex and organisation dominate in all examined research institutions. Recently, the integration of immigrants, family roles in the home and exclusion from the workforce have gained Norwegian sociologists' attention.

However Sverker Sørlin, professor of environmental history at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and author of studies on research and research history, said the report "unidimensionally promotes sociological orthodoxy" and does not address the "challenges of today and the future, which will demand more multidisciplinary approaches".

Thirteen research units comprising 177 sociologists were included in the evaluation. The panel states that the strength of Norwegian sociologists in problem-oriented research "brings with it a risk that core issues of sociology and further theorising around these issues will not be given sufficient attention".

In the first decades after World War II there was a "golden age of Norwegian sociology", when several Norwegian sociologists, under the influence of US colleagues, "imported a problem-oriented and...social reality-oriented sociology in Norway".

In particular, a visit by Paul Lazarsfeld, founder and director of Columbia University's Bureau of Applied Social Research, made a strong impact. Sociological research was developed into a critical discipline and, through participating in public debate, influenced the consequences of social change, notably for weaker and less privileged groups in society.

Today the sociology profession constitutes 850 members, which made one prominent Norwegian sociologist claim there were more sociologists in Norway than in any other Nordic country.

The geographical and institutional mobility of Norwegian sociologists is low: 97% of those working at the University of Oslo graduated there. The panel calls for more research experience at institutions abroad and greater use of foreign adjunct professorships.

The average age of the sociologists is 47 years, while 55% of the 47 professors at these units are 55 years or older, meaning that there will be a need to replace 300 researchers over the next 15 to 20 years. Women comprise 42% of all professors in sociology - a very high proportion in an international context.

During the 2001-08 period, the Norwegian Research Council allocated NOK410 million (US$70.5 million) to projects classified as sociological research. The two main thematic programmes were welfare and working life research.

Sørlin, who in 2006 chaired a Danish panel examining PhD education in Denmark, said: "I think it may be right to strengthen sociology in the core areas given the preconditions in Norway at the time of reporting. But it is surprising that the report does not relate sociology more to the real, great challenges that researchers are facing for the near future and coming generations. Global change, environment and constant crisis related to nature and society are some keywords.

"To influence such a research agenda sociology must as precisely as the other social and humanistic sciences think through the agenda for research and methodology, and not only strengthen those areas that during the 19th Century were regarded as sociology's core areas." 

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