"[C]ritics of the state of the discipline say sociologists who aim to change the conditions they study can no longer claim to be rigorous scientists."

"A report released over the weekend about the state of scholarly standards in the field said it had been compromised by politics that influenced the discipline’s values and priorities. The report was produced by a commission led by Vanderbilt University and Washington University in St. Louis, where leaders have argued that higher education is in need of reforms. The commission found that scholarship in the humanities and social sciences was sometimes in the service of political goals. 'Some topics cannot be studied or cannot be studied in an honest way,' said Jukka Savolainen, a Wayne State University criminologist and sociologist who is not part of the commission. For scholars studying incarceration, he said, 'the only research that’s rewarded and allowed and encouraged is to find the umpteenth way in which incarceration is harmful.'"

From "Conservatives Don’t Like Sociology. Some Sociologists Don’t Either. A group of sociologists broke away in protest from their colleagues over disagreements about Israel. Some worry the political stances are harming the field" (NYT gift link).