CSSLRV Research Associate Dr. Jordan Fairbairn published research this month in Critical Sociology that explores feminist approaches to public sociology. The paper draws from feminist perspectives, including Fairbairn’s own experiences in community-engaged settings, to consider various limitations of Burawoy’s (2005) public sociology campaign and the following debates. Building on feminist expertise, Fairbairn argues that public sociology should embrace its blurred university-community boundaries and promote the development of collaborative forms of expertise to address social problems. To advance this understanding and move past Burawoy’s traditional/organic dichotomy, Fairbairn proposes an alternate conceptual model for understanding public sociologists as public intellectuals, community-engaged scholars, community educators, and/or advocates and activists.Fairbairn is an Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology at King’s University College, Western University, London, Ontario. She recently completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children (CREVAWC) at Western University.
