By VAUGHAN MEYER

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Sociology Professor David Grusky describes himself as an “academic’s academic” and speaks passionately of “intellectual puzzles” that captivate the academic audience. Though he thinks that these traits and actions have in the past confined his impact to the realm of academia, in founding the Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality he is spearheading a movement to make it possible for cutting-edge research about poverty and inequality to have a wider impact on the world.

Though Grusky hails from a long line of sociologists, he had no real idea what he wanted to do when he entered college, though he had a “social relevance criterion.” He settled on sociology, and liked it so much that he went on to earn his doctorate.

He now says that “to state that my career was a choice would be a bit of a stretch.” He said that, finding himself as a sociology professor “wasn’t me...so much as social forces acting upon me... it certainly wasn’t a chance outcome.” These words perfectly demonstrate Grusky’s tendency to downplay himself and his accomplishments — though any casual observer can tell that he was driven by the intensity of his curiosity and a desire to serve that brightens the space around him.

As a researcher Grusky has examined questions of inequality, both with regards to gender and socioeconomic status. After many years of such study, however, he found that he and other researchers were collecting enormous amounts of useful data and results - but that these results weren’t diffusing out to non-academics, politicians, and policy makers currently dealing with poverty and inequality.

Academics had “created a world unto itself that’s very self-absorbed,” Grusky said.

This “self-criticism” caused Grusky to rethink what he wanted to achieve. He didn’t want to exit this world having focused exclusively on academic, rather than real-life, problems and puzzles. So he started to look for ways to apply sociological data to solving the problems they described.

His search led him to found the Stanford Center of the Study of Poverty and Inequality, intending to make it “the go-to clearing house for trend data on poverty and inequality.” With a web-based center for trend data, journalists, politicians, and policy makers at all levels could have immediate access to a wealth of information, making it possible to monitor poverty and inequality just as easily as monitoring economic output.

Grusky says that this access is necessary now, because his generation dropped the ball on poverty and inequality. As a consequence, he says, every American loses, not just those afflicted by these diseases. In addition to seeing the existence of poverty and inequality as moral problems, Grusky argues that they create huge externalities through raising crime rates and increasing the national health care bill, among other things. In other words, they affect the bottom line and should be treated accordingly. Grusky hopes that his work can help prepare the next generation to face the looming spectre of poverty and remove this social blight.

Contact Vaughan Meyer at vaughan.meyer@gmail.com