WHAT IVORY TOWER?:

In The Sacred Project of American Sociology, Smith in turn describes what a sacred project is, the content of American sociology's particular version of it, the evidence for the existence of that project. Here is Smith's extensive definition of what that project is:

American sociology as a collective enterprise is at heart committed to the visionary project of realizing the emancipation, equality, and moral affirmation of all human beings as autonomous, self-directing, individual agents (who should be) out to live their lives as they personally so desire, by constructing their own favored identities, entering and exiting relationships as they choose, and equally enjoying the gratification of experimental, material, and bodily pleasures. 

This visionary project, as Smith calls it, is a "secular salvation story"  that constrains the possibilities of sociological research by limiting, through means both subtle and overt, what should and should not be researched and what can and cannot be said. Smith does not reject this project, exactly--in fact he claims sympathy with large portions of it. But he believes that the discipline is largely blind to the existence of its own project. As a result of this blindness, Smith fears, is that "most of American sociology has becoming [sic] disciplinarily isolated and parochial, sectarian, internally fragmented, boringly homogenous, reticently conflict-averse, philosophically ignorant, and intellectually torpid. Sociology lacks the kinds of sustained, fruitful, and intellectually meaningful clashes, struggles, and clarifications needed for a discipline such as itself to generate important scholarship and education."  [...]

[S]mith's point is not merely to expose; he wants the discipline to become the best version if itself. He concludes that, "In my view, social science's greatest contribution to the societies that sustain it with resources is simply reporting back to those societies what really is going on in and among them, why and how so, and with what apparent consequences."  His fear is that sociology's blindness to its own sacred project cripples the discipline's ability to perform this task by conflating the "is" with a predetermined "ought-to-be." If sociologists acknowledged the underlying commitments of their discipline and dealt with them honestly, they would do a better job promoting meaningful research, exchange, and debate.

One way the failure to acknowledge that project impedes research is by excluding or alienating important communities from the work sociologists do. A Christian sociologist can often only avoid being a persona non grata only by downplaying his or religious commitments, while the gap academic between disciplines like sociology and conservative communities widens. Professors have occasionally asked me why "they" (here, Evangelicals) don't listen to sociological findings. The answer is easy. Attentive listeners know when they aren't equal partners in a dialogue.

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