ABSTRACT
Although there is a variety of ways in which sociology may be applied, as I have endeavoured to show in the previous chapter, it is plain that many sociologists, and most of those who are engaged in practical social work, think of applied sociology pre-eminently in terms of its capacity to provide (or at least to suggest) remedies for particular social evils. The attempt has rarely been made, however, to show exactly how sociological principles, concepts or data have been used, or might be used, in a direct way to solve practical problems.1 The actual state of affairs may be illustrated from the experience of the International Sociological Association in undertaking a systematic review of the application of sociological knowledge in a number of different fields.2 The authors of the principal papers found so few instances of the direct and successful application of sociology to the different problems with which they dealt, that they had to confine themselves for the most part to reviewing current research or reflecting upon methodological questions.
