ABSTRACT
By coincidence, Robert Moore was one of the professors interviewed by Alan Rusbridger for ‘Who needs sociologists?’, the Guardian newspaper article which so irritated me that I was prompted to devise this book by way of a reply. Moore, in a spirited denial of Rusbridger’s accusations, maintained that British sociology had a ‘world reputation’ and was ‘enormously healthy and widely respected’. Rusbridger remained frankly unconvinced. ‘The pressure is on’, he observed, ‘for more research to be applied, empirical, relevant, policy-based and preferably dove-tailing with another discipline such as medicine or business studies.’
