1st Edition

The Future of Sociology Ideology or Objective Social Science?

Edited By Robert Leroux, Thierry Martin, Stephen Turner Copyright 2023
230 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

230 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

230 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book explores the shift in sociology away from the shared aspiration of the classical transition, of transcending partiality through the construction of a "science of society", in the face of challenges to the notion of objectivity.  With the increasing subjugation of sociology to political ideologies and a growing emphasis on "policy", which casts sociology in the role of a provider of... Read more

Part I: What is Sociology?

Chapter 1

Sociology: Before the Origin

Dominique Raynaud

Chapter 2

Sociology in Search of Grounded Knowledge

Simon Langlois

Chapter 3

Sociology Today and the Classical Legacy

Gerard Delanty

 

Part II: Unity and Disunity

Chapter 4

Social Sciences and Natural Sciences: Which Unit?

Thierry Martin

Chapter 5

The Lessons of Rational Choice Theory

James Rule

Chapter 6

Middle-Range Theories and the Unification Problem in Social Science

Alban Bouvier

Chapter 7

Running from Madness?: Sociology’s Dread of the Irrational

Alan Sica

Part III: Objectivity or Ideology?

Chapter 8

Sociology as a Profession in a Post-Truth World

Martyn Hammersley

Chapter 9

From Luhmann to Esser: On Changing Intellectual Dominance in German Mainstream Sociology

Phillip Korom

Chapter 10

Rationalization, Science, and Politics: A Sociological Fable

James Chriss

Chapter 11

The Two Parts of Sociological Objectivity

Stephen Turner

 

Biography

Robert Leroux is Professor of Sociology at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He is the author of History and Sociology in France: From Scientific History to the Durkheimian School, French Liberalism in the 19th Century and Political Economy and Liberalism in France. He is the editor of The Anthem Companion to Gabriel Tarde and the co-editor of The Anthem Companion to Maurice Halbwachs.

Thierry Martin is Professor Emeritus at the University of Franche-Comté and a researcher at the Logiques de l´agir laboratory and at the Institut d’histoire et de philosophie des scienceset des techniques, France.

Stephen Turner is Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Florida, USA. His recent books include Cognitive Science and the Social: A Primer, The Politics of Expertise, Understanding the Tacit, and American Sociology: From Pre-Disciplinary to Post-Normal.

' … a timely and important book, both for its central theme and the wider implications, reflecting, as it does, broader societal developments such as the existence of fake news, a climate of post-truth and the dominance, at times, of ideologically motivated policy rather than policy based on factual analysis.'Judith Glaesser, Sociology