Public relations and historical sociology: Historiography as reflexive critique

The essay focuses on thinking about thinking about PR history. The space between history and sociology encompasses theoretical and conceptual frames and can be drawn upon to consider PR in time, across times and between times. It reflects upon the purposes and practices of historical sociology and foregrounds themes relevant to public relations, its histories and methodological approaches. The paper, which is methodological at the strategic rather than the technical level, argues that public relations historians can usefully engage with theoretical issues and problems delineated in historical sociology and historical theory. Evolutionary, functionalist and typological approaches and the cultural logics of historical periodization are discussed and contextualized.     

A Systematic View on the Use of History for Current Debates in Sociology,and on the Potential and Problems of a Historical Epistemology of Sociology

For various reasons, among them changes in the global higher education regime and competitive knowledge claims from other disciplines, the field of the history of sociology (HoS) has experienced an increased pressure to justify its own existence during the last decade. Positing that the best approach to justify the existence of a thing is to show its usefulness, the article discusses four types of claims to usefulness made by historians of sociology. The history of sociology can be said to be relevant in (I) shaping and maintaining the discipline’s identity; (II) in providing a rich fund of teaching future sociologists; (III) in informing current research and theorizing; and (IV) in reflecting more broadly on the cultural status of sociology in modern societies. The article then assesses the potential and problems of aspiring a historical epistemology of sociology, a proposal made recently especially in German and Anglophone contexts to link the history of science with its philosophy in the sense described as type III. It concludes that selected principles or ideas of historical epistemology can be very fruitfully applied in HoS. However, the project of transferring the whole program of historical epistemology into HoS is bound to fail. Nonetheless, there is plenty of reason to continue conceiving of HoS as an integral part of sociology.     

“The Past in the Present: Mills,Tocqueville and the Necessity of History”

Historical sociology has achieved a reasonable degree of respectability in the discipline, and there is much interesting work being produced. But a pronounced aspect of much of this work is an indifference to the question of the value of studying the past as a way to understanding the present. This article argues that, rather than trying to outdo the historians by producing “better,” more theoretically sophisticated history, sociologists would better advance the case for historical sociology by showing how any particular historical study helps illuminate contemporary concerns. The article draws upon the writings of C. Wright Mills and Alexis de Tocqueville to show not just the need for historical sociology but also as indications of how this might best be done.     

For a postcolonial sociology

Postcolonial theory has enjoyed wide influence in the humanities but it has left sociology comparatively unscathed. Does this mean that postcolonial theory is not relevant to sociology? Focusing upon social theory and historical sociology in particular, this article considers if and how postcolonial theory in the humanities might be imported into North American sociology. It argues that postcolonial theory offers a substantial critique of sociology because it alerts us to sociology’s tendency to analytically bifurcate social relations. The article also suggests that a postcolonial sociology can overcome these problems by incorporating relational social theories to give new accounts of modernity. Rather than simply studying non-Western postcolonial societies or only examining colonialism, this approach insists upon the interactional constitution of social units, processes, and practices across space. To illustrate, the article draws upon relational theories (actor-network theory and field theory) to offer postcolonial accounts of two conventional research areas in historical sociology: the industrial revolution in England and the French Revolution.     

Reflections on Mathematical Sociology

As a participant in the development of mathematical sociology over the past several decades, the author undertakes a personal and historical review of the field. A special effort is made to link early innovations and interests to recent developments. The paper deals successively with (a) the origins of mathematical sociology and its early achievements, (b) the cognitive interests and values of mathematical sociologists in relation to ideas associated with the founders of sociology, (c) the scope of mathematical contributions in terms of the general components of human action and society, and (d) the problematic specialty status of mathematical sociology. The paper concludes with some thoughts on the future of mathematical sociology.     

Reconsidering sociological theory and method after 1989

1989 was a cataclysmic year in the political history of the world and the problems facing sociology, especially political sociology, have changed radically. Unfortunately the dominant paradigms of sociology in Western Europe were not developed to deal with these problems, but rather with Western European problems during the Cold War. It has, therefore, become necessary to look at these paradigms and to ask whether, in terms of their conception of sociology, its substantive problems and methods, they are at all capable of dealing with the post‐communist world. I suggest that it is now necessary to go back to some of the concerns of classical comparative and historical sociology, particularly as they are reflected in the work of Max Weber, in order to map and to understand the political structures of the contemporary world.     

Toward a Historical Sociology of COVID-19: Path Dependence Method and Temporal Connections

Encountering the unprecedented social crisis of COVID-19, an increasing number of sociologists are calling for historical sociology to engage empirically with the dynamics of the COVID-19 crisis. I present the “path dependence method” and the “temporal connections” to interpret social life during the COVID-19 pandemic. By using the path dependence method, I show how the personal, social, and national problems created by the COVID-19 crisis initiate a new path and furthermore how this newly created path is justified in a society. Through the temporal connections, I will show how non-Western countries responded more reasonably and quickly than most Western countries to the COVID-19 crisis. The overall aim of this research is to disclose effectiveness of historical sociology, to encourage researchers to think time variable, and to argue that linking historical-sociological knowledge to the COVID-19 crisis would be a positive step for an in-depth COVID-19 sociology.     

A framework for a sociology of visual images*

Bakhtinian dialogical theory suggests a model for the sociology of visual images that focuses on the social geography of the maker of the image, the “hero” or topic of the image, and the viewer for whom the image is intended. The model is illustrated in the context of the sociology of painting with reference to three art‐historical monographs and to three artists who worked in colonial urban Quebec.     

SOCIOLOGY IN AN ERA OF FRAGMENTATION:From the Sociology of Knowledge to the Philosophy of Science, and Back Again

In this article we revisit Alvin Gouldner's The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology (1970). In part, this article is an attempt to apply Gouldner's own lessons about the sociology of knowledge to his own work, situating it with respect to the dominant epistemological unconscious of late 1960s American sociology as well as the broader historical context of a still-vibrant Fordist mode of societalization. Gouldner's critique of positivism was limited because he was still partially caught up within the dominant epistemological framework in American sociology at that time, a formation we call methodological positivism. With thirty years of hindsight, it is not surprising that contemporary readers interested in following up Gouldner's call for a reflexive sociology of knowledge will find certain aspects of his own program unsatisfactory. We propose an alternative sociology of knowledge based on a more explicit philosophy of scientific understanding, namely, contemporary critical realism. We also trace the vicissitudes of the trope of a "crisis in sociology" which Gouldner unleashed into the world and unpack the tensions between the "western" sociology referred to in the book's title and Gouldner's actual focus on the United States.     

The French Tradition of Sociology of International Relations: An Overview

International Relations (IR) is an Anglo-American discipline. It was founded in 1919 at Aberystwyth University. Immediately after the Second World War it found a particularly fertile ground for its development in the United States. Even if the discipline remained marked by its Anglo-American origins, a sociological school of international relations emerged in France in the 1960s, with two main authors Raymond Aron and Marcel Merle. This French sociology of international relations already dated back to the eighteenth century with Montesquieu and Tocqueville. In the context of the First and Second World Wars, Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss, produced an embryonic sociology of international relations. After the Second World War, Aron’s sociology of international relations marked a break with the French school. His sociology was influenced by Max Weber and Carl von Clausewitz. He produced a comprehensive and historical tradition of international relations sociology and his analyses had a strong influence in IR specialists during the entire period of the Cold War. Today, his thought continues to exert influence on French and foreign internationalists as an essential reference point of the discipline. Marcel Merle, for his part, influenced by the work of Durkheim and Mauss, created an explanatory, positive school studying transnational relations which exerted influence on French and foreign internationalists as well. This contribution offers an historical overview of the development of this French tradition of sociology of international relations from the eighteenth century to the present time.     

Die Arbeitsgruppe Professionssoziologie und die Randständigkeit der Professionssoziologie im deutschsprachigen Raum

The article analyzes the consequences of the marginal status of the Sociology of Professions in Germany during the last decades on the efforts of the new working group “Sociology of Professions.” This new working group has been established in order to make professions an attractive research topic. First it will be demonstrated that a lack of a solid grounding in the international literature influences the new efforts to publish textbooks. Second it will be shown that there is a missing historical perspective in the old and new sociology of professions in Germany. Finally everything seems to indicate that the new working group is more interested in questions of general sociology and occupational sociology than in questions of a sociology of professions.     

Historical approach to environmental sociology

Focusing on the problem of the so‐called exploitative or pillage economy (Raubwirtschaft in German), the article explores the potential and the limitations of sociology as a method of environmental research. The term ‘exploitative economy’ designates the over‐exploitation of nature and natural resources by industrial societies, in disregard of the interests of future life and future needs. Traditional sociology has responded inadequately to environmental problems, and attempts to develop a new, environmental sociology have remained sporadic and marginal. The present article has addressed the problem of exploitative economy in the context of the tradition of historical sociology and suggested that this tradition would gain from environmental sociology, environmental history, and institutional environmental economics, with their new views of economic and industrial development.     

Inventing the axial age: the origins and uses of a historical concept

The concept of the axial age, initially proposed by the philosopher Karl Jaspers to refer to a period in the first millennium BCE that saw the rise of major religious and philosophical figures and ideas throughout Eurasia, has gained an established position in a number of fields, including historical sociology, cultural sociology, and the sociology of religion. We explore whether the notion of an “axial age” has historical and intellectual cogency, or whether the authors who use the label of a more free-floating “axiality” to connote varied “breakthroughs” in human experience may have a more compelling case. Throughout, we draw attention to ways in which uses of the axial age concept in contemporary social science vary in these and other respects. In the conclusion, we reflect on the value of the concept and its current uses and their utility in making sense of human experience.     

Finnish and American Sociology: A Cross-Cultural Comparison*

A comparison is made of the interrelationship between theoretical orientations and research methods of authors publishing in major U. S. journals, with those publishing in Sosiologia, the major Finnish journal. Based on a content analysis of 1,808 articles, similarities are found cross-culturally concerning the tendency for authors with a realist theoretical orientation to use comparative historical data-gathering techniques and for nominalists to employ data-gathering procedures more amenable to quantification (e. g. surveys and experimental methods). These data also document the often conjectured tendency for European sociologists to emphasize a more collectivist, organic, and hence realist theoretical posture. Similarities and differences between U. S. and Finnish sociology are discussed in the context of various cultural, historical, and political differences in the maturation of sociology in the two countries.     

The Specificity of Marxist Sociology in Gramsci's Theory

This paper analyzes the relationship between sociology and Marxism and attempts to delineate the fundamental components of sociology within the framework of Marxist theory as presented in the voluminous writings of Gramsci. After reviewing Gramsci's systematic critique of positivist sociology and that brand of Marxism which accepts any positivist canon of analysis, the paper focuses on certain Gramscian concepts hermeneutically useful for a macro-sociology of social structures. Of great importance is the concept of catharsis , that is the development of a given fundamental social group from a mere economic to an hegemonic entity, entailing a process of transformation of the structure of a given historical bloc and the nature and functions of intellectuals in the organization of the ideological, juridical, and political superstructure. The paper concludes that Gramsci's sociology contains specific sociohistorical criteria very useful in understanding how dominant hegemonic systems disintegrate and new ones are formed.     

Reexamining economic sociology: Beyond rational choice reductionism

The article aims at reexamining the origins and character of economic sociology by comparison with rational choice within the history of economic and social ideas, particularly neoclassical economic and classical sociological theory. Some suggestions for a rational choice approach to economic sociology are particularly curious in that they tend to conflate the distinct characters and origins of these two disciplines throughout this history and have in turn provided an impetus for this reexamination. Modern rational choice theorists display a predilection for reducing economic (and, all) sociology into an economic approach to human behavior, with many economic sociologists evincing some degree of lenience or benevolence vis-à-vis such tendencies. Both tendencies do not seem justified in light of the different nature and origin of economic sociology and rational choice in the history of social and economic ideas. Since the current literature lacks coherent attempts at specifying the nature and historical roots of economic sociology versus those of rational choice, the article contributes toward filling in this hole.     

Sociology and Sisyphus: postcolonialism,anti-positivism,and modernist narrative in Patterson’s oeuvre

Theory and Society - This article argues that Orlando Patterson is a key contributor to postcolonial fiction and postcolonial theory as well as historical sociology and social theory, whose work...     

Environmental Sociology in Japan and Environmental Problems in Asian Societies

This paper discusses typical aspects of environmental sociology in Japan and what characteristics can be found in Japanese environmental problems when they are viewed from their relation to environmental problems in Asian societies.
The most prominent feature of environmental sociology in Japan is that it has been mainly the sociology of environmental problems, whereas in the United States is has been mainly the sociology of the environment. The second characteristic is closely related to the first: environmental sociology in Japan has focused on the local community and the life of people and victims affected by environmental problems.
The third property would be that many studies by environmental sociologists have been accumulated by the Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology, which was set up in 1990.
The approach to the study of environmental problems in Asian societies reflects these characteristics. Views from the historical interaction between Japan and other Asian countries are essential to the study of environmental problems in Asian countries.     

Gramsci and Marxist Sociology of Knowledge: an Analysis of Hegemony—Ideology—Knowledge*

This paper is an attempt to analyze the fundamental components of Gramsci's Marxist theory: the assertion of absolute historicism and humanism over economic determinism, the primacy of superstructural over infrastructural activities, the primacy of ideological over political hegemony and the subjective over the objective dimension in Marxist theory of history and society. Furthermore, after reviewing the historical development of the sociology of knowledge and contrasting Marx, Mannheim, Stark, and Gurvitch with Gramsci's theoretical positions, an attempt is made to delineate a Gramscian sociology of knowledge. In its basic framework, the ideologization of thought is pressed to its extreme; the theory of knowledge becomes the theory of ideology; the totality of sociocultural phenomena is ultimately subordinated to the hermeneutic criterion of “critical consciousness” of subaltern classes developed in their ascendant movement toward idological and political hegemony, and the success of positivist methodology is explained in terms of the masses' lack of critical consciousness. In conclusion, the Gramscian sociology of knowledge becomes a form of critical consciousness. Its validity resides in its ideological function of intellectually organizing the experiences of the masses. Thus, ideologies cease to be viewed as intellectual processes mystifying social reality as in Marx and Mannheim and acquire true historical, psychological, and gnosiological value.