Through the Looking Glass: An Identity Crisis in Sociology?:

As the discipline of American sociology enters its second century, the debate over its goals and purpose still remains. This philosophical debate can no longer continue if sociology expects to survive and thrive as a discipline in the twenty-first century. How will the discipline be judged by a society in need of solutions to problems? Does the discipline have an identity crisis or is it in urgent need of defining and setting its direction for the future? The following symposium discusses what twenty-first century sociology might look like and then links it back to the founding principles. It then discusses whether an identity crisis exists and how sociology can better be defined within and outside the discipline.