Hijacked by the project? Research which demands to be done

This paper discusses how a commitment to follow
C. Wright Mills’s (1959) imperative to engage the
sociological imagination ethically and critically
and in such a way that ‘the personal uneasiness
of individuals is focused upon explicit troubles
and the indifference of publics is transformed into
involvement with public issues’ (1970: 11–12) can
have the effect of shaping research agendas. I tell
two stories from my career about research that I
didn’t so much choose to do but which, rather,
seemed to choose me to do it.