Making a Difference

Irwin Deutscher is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Akron. He is past president of the Society for Applied Sociology, the Washington DC. Sociological Society, the Society for the STtdy of Social Problems and the North Central Sociological Association. He has published over 100 articles in professinoal journals and symposia. He is probably best known for his 1973 book, What We Say/What We Do.

• Introduction: On The Nature of Essays, Editing, and Organization and a Bit of Biography Part I: Toward a Useful Sociology 1. For Beginners: The Social Causes of Social Problems—From Suicide to Delinquency 2. A Short and Selective History of Evaluation Research in the United States 3. What Do Social Indicators Indicate? 4. For the More Advanced: Social Theory, Social Programs, and Program Evaluation—A Metatheoretical Note Part II: On Doing Applied Research: Comments and Cues 5. The Stereotype as a Research Tool 6. Summarizing Research: Meta-analyzing Meta-analysis 7. Physicians’ Reactions to a Mailed Questionnaire: A Study in “Resistentialism” 8. Secondary Data, Anecdotes, and Case Studies: Valid Evidence from Bad-Mouthed Sources Part III: The Raised Eyebrow: Assumptions in Evaluation Research 9. Toward Avoiding the Goal Trap in Evaluation Research 10. Success and Failure: Static Concepts in a Dynamic Society 11. Traditions and Rules as Obstructions to Useful Program Evaluation: Part I, Rule-Making 12. Traditions and Rules as Obstructions to Useful Program Evaluation: Part II, Rule-Breaking 13. Public Issues or Private Troubles: Is Evaluation Research Sociological? 14. How Applied Sociology Can Save Basic Sociology: A Note on Consistency, Objectivity, and the Relationship between Basic and Applied Research 15. Project Head Start and the Cognitive Police Part IV: Vignettes: Troubles in the Everyday World 16. On Public Housing: The Gatekeeper in Public Housing 17. On Aging in America: Misers and Wastrels—Perceptions of the Depression and Yuppie Generations 18. On Middle-Class Husbands and Wives in the 1950s: The Quality of Postparental Life 19. On Disaster Relief: Fun and Profit in a Disaster 20. On Town Drunks: The White Petty Offender in the Small City 21. On Anticipating Martin Luther King and the Integration of Public Facilities: Cohesion in a Small Group—A Case Study 22. On Delinquency: Some Relevant Directions for Research in Juvenile Delinquency 23. On the Education of Nurses: Professional Education and Conflicting Value Systems 24. On Development in “Developing” Nations: Home-Grown Development—The Education of Tribal Peoples Part V: Polemics on Practice 25. The Moral Order of Sociological Work 26. Sociological Practice: The Politics of Identities and Futures 27. The Most Useful Knowledge for Everyone is the Most Useless Education of All: Social Needs versus Market Demands (being a consideration of projections, predictions, prophesies, and other magical forecasts of the future of liberal education)