Contenu du sommaire : Politique des sciences sociales

Larry Portis, Moral Education and Moral Order : The Political Uses of Durkheimian Sociology Because Durkheim 's sociology avoided any utopian project for society and tended to contribute to the maintenance of existing institutions and social relationships, education and the formation of moral consciousness are central to it. The force of durkheimian sociology lies in its capacity to give the impression of contributing to social reform while avoiding any radical critique of the structure or dynamic of existing society. The vocabulary and concepts proper to this sociology allow scholars and journalists to describe the symptoms of social dysfuction without explaining the causes. This integrationist sociology performs, thusly, an ideological function.

Francis Farrugia, Geneology of a Process of Professionalization : French Sociology from 1945 to 1960 In the immediate post-war period French sociology became institutionalized and changed the position of the sociologist. This development was largely initiated by Georges Friedmann and Jean Stoetzel who, inspired by American sociological empiricism, oriented research towards field study. This reorientation was, however, resisted by those who continued to advocate an anthropological conception of the social sciences, such as Georges Gurvitch, Raymond Aron and Claude Lévi-Strauss. The major opposition was between quantitative or qualitative approaches, between microsociological or macrosociological orientations and between « managerial » and « critical » approaches. This real crisis of sociology opposed, on the one hand, sociology as a « profession » and, on the other hand, sociology as a « vocation ».

Odile Piriou, Is Sociology a Trade or a Profession ? Attitudes of Sociologists about Their Work The sociologist can study his or her own field of activity in several ways. One such way is epistemology, others are history, the analysis of practice or the study of specialist discourses about the practices and objectives of the discipline. This last method is particularly useful in the examination of the evolution of the outstanding ideas concerning the practice of sociology. Study of such ideas from the 1960s to the present time reveals that a recurrent tension has existed between two professional conceptions. One of these conceptions favors the scientific model and the other favors a model of an applied profession. But it remains to explore the ambiguities inherent in these two positions and the reality of the apparent antagonism between them.

Joseph Romano, Politics and Policy in the Work of the Sociologist of Business Enterprise When the « enterprise » is the object of sociological study and no longer « work », sociology tends to valorize management at the expense of knowledge and its critical function. This approach, which eliminates the political dimension so fundamental to social science, contributes to an unbalenced legitimation of an essentially economic logic. Since the 1980s, a particularly important example of this phenomenon is the creation of institutions designed to integrate businesses and universities. The question is how the intervention of the State in scientific policy has influenced or even determined the work of the sociologist. this phenomenon is the creation of institutions designed to integrate businesses and universities. The question is how the intervention of the State in scientific policy has influenced or even determined the work of the sociologist.

Jean-Claude Delaunay, Academic Economics and its Recruitment of Professors If, as always, economic knowledge is politically oriented, it has become more and more technical. The professorial caste of university economists controls entry into the profession by applying both political and technical criteria. The national competition for recruitment into the French national education system is organized in relation to these two criteria. It is on this basis that the professorial rank as a corporate entity prepares the cohorts of « experts » who are called upon outside the university to engage in political discussion and, in this way, serve and justify the interests of elite social interests in the name of the general interest.

Gérard Mauger, The Sociology of Sociology : Research Notes The work of sociological objectification starts with the objectification of the sociologist of his or her methods, resources, position and interests. Far from being narcissistic, such self interrogations and analyses help the sociologist to avoid unconscious solipcism. Establishing a typology of approaches and dispositions can contribute to a collective self-analysis of sociologists and thereby elucidate problems of spontaneous sympathies and antipathies, elective affinities and impulsive aversions that may detract from objectivity.

Gérard Fabre and Laurence Roulleau-Berger, Identities, Otherness and Social Wounds : What Role for the Sociologist ? Other than the necessity of combatting all forms of intellectual routine, the sufferings experienced by people do not limit their capacity to act. Sociological analysis should not be oriented and limited by « small lives » made-up of resignations but also of resistance and invention. From the reciprocity of the initial contact to the publication of results, the sociologist and the objects of study that he or she approaches construct together a sharing of knowledges.

Philippe Corcuff, The Sociologist and the Actors : Epistemology, Ethics and new forms of Commitment Are social sciences presently liable to provide academics and social scientists with a basis to renew their civil commitment, inside as well as outside the autonomous framework of their skills, with a broader social, political and ethical concern ? The categories of commitment and distanciation (Norbert Elias) and a dialectization of the ideal-typical patterns of the historically tested relationship to commitment are the starting point of this reflexion. It leads to the concept of a moving reflexivity as a means to increase the accuracy of social sciences, as well as to a shift in the relationship to the social actors which should no longer be external or from above.