Sociologist and Soldier

What can you do with a sociology degree? I was interested to see in The Times today, in the obituary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, that as a student he had studied Sociology at the University of Reading.

Cynics may say this just shows how dense army officers are. But my degree course - at the University of Leicester in the 1980s also included a course on the sociology of the armed forces. The lecturer who taught the course had used Max Weber’s theory of bureaucracy as the launching point for a very interesting PhD on the sociology of the Royal Navy in the C17. The reading list included a lot of history and political writing: it was and is a vibrant interdisciplinary area.

Sociology is a great subject for lots of careers. Why? Because it teaches you a lot about political and social structures - how societies and institutions are structured and how they work. To the cynics and critics, I say this - find out something about the subject before you try to criticise it.