Black Sociologists and Civic Engagement
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Black Sociologists and Civic Engagement Sandra Barnes 1 Received: 2 February 2020 / Revised: 17 August 2020 / Accepted: 19 August 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Black sociologists have a long history of correlating their professional and personal lives through civic engagement. This study considers the status of Black sociologists by focusing on their efforts to enhance the life chances and quality of life in the Black community through both political and non-political processes. Informed by research on civic engagement in the Black community and quantitative analyses, this project examines the influence of demographics, professional affiliations, attitudes, and interaction indicators on the time and money donated weekly toward civic engagement for a cadre of 146 Black sociologists. Results show that the amount of time and money contributed toward civic engagement is influenced by: attitudinal variables about civic-mindedness; excitement about the efforts of civic organizations in which Black sociologists are most active; and the breadth of social services offered by those organizations. Although involvement in a national, predominately Black civic organization does not influence civic engagement, older individuals who are most active in Black Greek organizations contribute more time to civic engagement compared with their peers; females who are most active in Black Greek organizations contribute more money to civic engagement than their peers. Implications for strategic civic involvement, policies, and cause competition among Black sociologists are suggested. Keywords Black sociologists . Civic engagement . Race . Economic conditions . Cause competition
Black1 sociologists are reputed for their civic engagement that often aligns with their scholarly interests (Aldridge 2009; Blackwell 1975; Blackwell and Janowitz 1974; Du Bois 1893, 1899, 1915, 2007; Hunter 2018; Washington and Cunnigen 2002), but given the diverse professional and personal organizations, affiliations, and causes vying for their time, energy, and resources, in what types of civic engagement are Black sociologists most active today? Informed by scholarship on Black civic engagement and using multivariate analyses, I consider the following questions for 146 Black sociologists—in what types of civic organizations are they most active? What types of social services are most common in those organizations? How much time and money does this group of Black sociologists contribute weekly to the civic organizations in which they are most active?, and do certain demographics, attitudes, profes-
* Sandra Barnes [email protected] 1
HOD and Divinity School, Vanderbilt University, 68 Ravenwood Hills Circle, Nashville, TN, USA
sional ties, and interaction indicators help explain their efforts? This study has academic and applied import by identifying dynamics that may directly and/or indirectly influence civic involvement by Black sociologists. Moreover, findings extend existing qualitative studies about ci
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