2012/08/22 by Linda McKie, Louise Ryan
Social Sciences · #Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice #Social Capital and Networks #Social and Cultural Dynamics
paper · doi:10.1177/0038038512452356
openalex publication_date 2012/08/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
This is the first e-special issue for the journal Sociology and its chosen focus is the article ‘The coming crisis of empirical sociology’ by Savage and Burrows (2007). This article challenged sociologists with a variety of questions about the role, relevance and methodological opportunities for sociological research in the 21st century. On publication it stoked the already charged debates on a public sociology (Burawoy, 2004), the role of publicly funded research (ESRC, 2009) and relevance of sociological research in an age of burgeoning social media (Brewer and Hunter, 2006). This e-special provides a reprise of these debates and explores relevant papers in Sociology, as well as alerting readers to recurring themes and new directions on the topic of methods and social research.