Making Knowledge Count: Advocacy and Social Science

Derek Wilkinson is an associate professor of Sociology at Laurentian
University.

This book contains 11 articles that show the relationship between
advocacy and research. Here advocacy is defined as empowering social
groups to challenge dominant values.

Landstreet et al. argue that, in Chile, social science shifted from
advocating political projects in the early 1960s to advocating human
rights. Adelman considers how interactions among politicians, civil
servants, and public and nongovernmental groups affected refugee policy,
and argues that the expert must accept the risks of becoming a media
spokesperson for the advocacy group. Rees and Tator study the
Toronto-based Urban Alliance on Race Relations, which targets the
government in its attempt to eradicate racial discrimination.

Heyworth, Marshall, and Dippo argue that pedagogy can develop through
making knowledge claims in specific material and social conditions, and
through analyzing the interests that those claims articulate (e.g.,
universities and labor, academic programs, and local groups). Thus,
these authors maintain that critical pedagogy should involve advocacy.

Connecting advocacy and social movements, Leah summarizes union
attitudes toward—and practices of—child care, showing how feminism
and other related issues have strengthened union support for child-care
provisions in Canada over the past 20 years. Cleveland claims that
feminism is still marginal, in relation to both state and household,
because of a utopian anarchist vision and a lack of direct focus on the
state.

Considering advocacy and method, Spencer attributes sociologists’
lack of involvement in advocacy to the bankruptcy of functionalism and
Marxism; an unclear account of the relationship between knowledge and
interests; and an assumption that authority relates to violence. Morgan
goes so far as to say that advocacy can be scientific, and argues that
achieving generalizability enhances advocacy. Crysdale suggests that the
social sciences in Canada have generally distinguished themselves by
blending policy with basic research; he describes advocacy research as
“a tiny but bright spark of hope.”