ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of those traits which, perhaps unexpectedly, the sociological trades share in common. Here, the first point to note is their mutual influence. On the one hand, large parts of sociology have grown directly out of the literary and journalistic traditions. Since they are analysts not practitioners, sociologists, writers and journalists all have relatively weak professional organisations in bourgeois democracies though, given their different working conditions, the NUJ is much stronger than the BSA or PEN. Theoretical ambition is perhaps less obvious amongst journalists and writers but, in a way, this is no less true of sociology, where a lengthy tradition and major career constraints keep most research and theory well apart. The journalist and social scientist seek to establish that their claims are firmly based on actual incidents and specific individuals. Artistic ethnographers also write about many subjects which sociologists find it practically difficult to investigate.
