Sociologies (Jan 2012)
Une ou plusieurs sociologies ?
Abstract
First, this paper offers a few insights into the causes and effects of the sociological « bubble » which appeared in France during the last generation. Then it comes back to a previous proposal published a few years ago in the Revue du Mauss, consisting in a kind of cartography of the four big tendencies of sociology. Beyond the apparent homogeneity of the discipline named « sociology », two main oppositions may be enlightened: first, the opposition between a « sociology of the social » and a « sociology of experience »; second, the opposition between a normative sociology and an analytico-descriptive sociology. Once crossed, these two lines draw four sociological zones (or families) organised between four « cardinal points » (or ideal-typical positions). The paper ends up with a short advocacy in favour of an analytico-descriptive sociology of experience, in that it is the more specific to the methods and tools of this discipline.
