1995 MSSA PLENARY ADDRESS - THE CRUDE AND THE REFINED - SOCIOLOGY, OBSCURITY, LANGUAGE, AND OIL

Sociology is too obscure-both in terms of its linguistic clarity and i n terms of its societal influence. The reasons for the linguistic obsc urity are numerous, but they can be boiled down to two sets of factors . The first involves the fact that clear writing requires hard work. B ad writing, however, can also require hard work-and hard work doesn't necessarily prevent clear writing in other disciplines. The second and more specific set of factors involves fear: the fear of being dismiss ed as ''obvious.'' Yet, far from being obvious or widely understood, ' 'socio-logical'' insights are often the opposite of the usual, individ ualistic assumptions. One way to lessen the risk of merely stating the obvious, accordingly, may be to spend more time questioning the obvio us-particulary those assumptions that also happen to provide convenien t justifications for power. This could create other risks, specificall y the risk of attack or vilification that seldom afflicts those who re main truly obscure. Where sociological insights truly are relevant to societal debates, however, the proper response may be to increase the amount of effort that is devoted to stating the evidence responsibly, not incomprehensibly. After spelling out this argument in the paper, I take the brave step of trying to illustrate it with a simple example, involving some of my own work with Bob Gramling, which deals with the onshore battles that now rage over offshore oil.