Why we need this site

Hi everyone, thanks for stopping by.

My name is Bruce Ravelli and I am a sociologist teaching, living and writing in Victoria, BC CANADA. My passion is to try everything I can to connect new students in sociology to the beautiful “shades of grey”. Over my 30+ years of teaching I have had to manage students’ perception that sociology is depressing and only deals with what is wrong with the world. I would tell students that most of the sociologists I know are optimists and believe that through our work we can make the world a better place.

A few years ago, I worked with some Graduate Students at the University of Victoria and tasked them to find some examples of when sociology made a difference. My intent was to use these “case studies” to show students and colleagues that sociology really does “make a difference”.  When the students came back and said, while they all loved sociology too, they were frustrated that it was so hard to find examples of sociological research leading to social change. Not believing this could possibly be true, I spent a few hours looking for examples… I found it more difficult than it should have been.

This is what led me to create this site. I want Making Sociology Matter to become a place where students, colleagues, and members of the public can share, highlight and celebrate the wonderful things that are happening. I want to be able to not only inspire my students through my passion for sociology but also by showing them examples of sociology in action. We need to go beyond “talking the talk” and show everyone we also “walk the walk”.

I hope that you will join me in this endeavour and share this site with colleagues and friends to help celebrate the contributions that people are making to improve our world.

Thanks again and I look forward to hearing from you.

/Bruce Ravelli, July 2024