Abstract
The decreasing possibility of employment in academia has stimulated an interest in developing more jobs for sociologists in community & other nonacademic settings. An expansion & development of D. Gelfand's 1975 discussion of implications of the movement toward an applied sociology are presented. 2 problems faced by applied or community sociologists are discussed: (1) the dominance within sociology of an academically biased professional subgroup, & public cynicism toward sociology. Justification of an applied sociology must be in its contributions to society rather than in creating new jobs for sociologists. Applied sociologists may be more effective if they abandon the identifying label "sociologist" & just do a job. Discussed are the theoretical assumptions inherent in academic sociology which may limit its capacity to deal with social problems: (A) that man (& woman) are consonance-seeking rather than dissonance-seeking in their motives & actions, (B) that a perfect or problem-free society is possible, & (C) a bias toward simplified structural analysis of social problems rather than one based on an understanding of complex relationships between the individual & society. Sociologists' consciousness of themselves & their roles in society, & their uses of social theory must be reconsidered if they seek significant work outside of academia or wish to be engaged in anything other than academic analysis of social problems.