Sociology in Action

Routledge Revivals Sociology in Action This book, first published in 1976, discusses four classical paradigms for sociology — the positivism of Saint-Simon and Comte, Durkheim, Marx and Weber — and four contemporary developments or revisions of them — the sociologie active of Dumazedier and his colleagues in France, sociology in Socialist Poland, the work of Dahrendorf and the ‘new sociology’ of Mills and his successors. Christopher Bryant suggests that no neutral language exists in which to compare the characteristics of these different paradigms, yet highlights those features which are common to all of them. Unique in its approach and analysis of the relationship between sociology and action, this book is of value and interest to students of sociology and theory and professional sociolo gists. This page intentionally left blank Sociology in Action A Critique of Selected Conceptions of the Social Role of the Sociologist Christopher G. A. Bryant First published in 1976 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd This edition first published in 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1976 Christopher G. A. Bryant All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. D isclaim er The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact. A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 76372935 ISBN 13: 978-0-415-83164-2 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-203-76893-8 (ebk) Sociology in Action A Critique of Selected Conceptions of the Social Role of the Sociologist CHRISTOPHER G. A. BRYANT London George Allen & Unwin Ltd Ruskin House Museum Street First published in 1976 This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. All rights are reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the publishers. © George Allen & Unwin Ltd 1976 ISBN 0 04 300058 4 Printed in Great Britain in 10 point Times Roman type by Redwood Burn Limited Trowbridge & Esher For Elizabeth This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements I wish to thank: The Nuffield Foundation for supporting this study financially; The Polish Government for a bursary which enabled me to visit Warsaw in April 1971, and the twenty-two sociologists at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Sociology of the University of Warsaw who discussed their work with me on that occasion, especially my host Dr Edmund Mokrzycki; Professor Ralf Dahrendorf for giving me an interview in Brussels in February 1971 and for his comments on an earlier draft of Chapter 8; Professor Joffre Dumazedier and Mme Nicole Samuel for giving me an interview in Paris in June 1971; Professor Maurice Broady and Professor John Smith, my successive Ph.D supervisors, for their help and encouragement; Colleagues and students in the University of Southampton, where I have lectured since 1966, and the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, which I have visited four times since 1970, for their witting and unwitting help over the years. C.G.A.B. Southampton, March 1974 This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements page 9 1 Introduction 15 I The multi-paradigmatic state o f sociology 15 II The choice o f paradigms for discussion 17 III The sociology o f knowledge or sociology in action? 21 IV Social development and macrosociology 23 V The deterministic and active components o f action 25 V i Consciousness and the problem o f strategy 2 5 VII The relation between sociology and philosophy 27 2 Positivism 30 I Introduction 30 II Saint-Simon and Comte 31 a The relation between Saint-Simon and Comte 31 b The law of the three stages 33 c The positive philosophy and sociology 39 d The positive polity: Saint-Simon 42 e The Saint-Simonians 45 f Comte’s life and his vision of the positive polity 47 g Saint-Simon: an assessment 51 h Comte: an assessment 55 III Coda 57 a The basic tenets of (Comtean) positivism 58 b Comte and Lundberg 60 3 Durkheim page 66 I Introduction 66 II The crisis o f modern societies 67 a The division of labour 67 b The pathological forms of the division of labour 68 c Moral facts 71 d Crime 79 e Suicide 81 III Towards social reconstruction and moral regeneration 83 a Occupational associations 83 b Education 88 c Religion 91 IV Durkheim’s sociology: some general comments 94 V Durkheim’s life and politics 108 VI Durkheim: an assessment 119 4 La Sociologie active 127 I Introduction 127 II Intellectual sources 128 a Planification franqaise 128 b Positivism 135 c Marx 135 d Sartre 136 III Basic principles 138 IV Work completed and in progress 144 V La sociologie active:an assessment 147 5 Marx 150 I Introduction 150 II Conservatism and criticism 15 2 III Alienation and liberation 162 IV Materialism and praxis 167 a The material basis of society and the super structure 168 b The qualified rejection of determinism 171 c The link between the concept of praxis and Marx’s epistemology 174 V Marx’s praxis 178 VI Marx: an assessment 188 6 Sociology in a Socialist Society page The Case of Poland 196 I Introduction 196 II The history o f sociology in the Soviet Union and Poland 197 III Polish theoretical sociology 204 IV The sociologies o f class and occupations in Poland 207 V Future prospects for Polish sociology 214 VI The functions o f sociology in socialist societies 219 7 Weber 228 I Introduction 228 II Values and social science 230 a The choice of objects of investigation 230 b The formation of theories and ideological dis tortion 234 c The investigation of values 240 d The practical application of social science 242 III Politics and science as vocations 245 IV Weber's life and politics 250 V Weber: an assessment 259 8 Dahrendorf 268 I Introduction 268 II Class and conflict ^69 III Class and inequality 275 IV Class, contest and change 278 V Society and democracy in Germany 280 VI Uncertainty, science and politics 286 VII The social role o f the sociologist 290 VIII Dahrendorf s life and politics 296 IX Dahrendorf: an assessment 302 9 The New Sociology page 308 I Introduction 308 II Personal troubles o f milieu and public issues o f social structure 309 III Criticism and independence 312 IV The bureaucratic ethos 321 V Sociology: profession or discipline ? 323 VI The new sociology and reflexivity: an assessment 328 10 Conclusions 336 I The non-availability o f a neutral language for the discussion o f sociology in action 336 II Criticism and choice 340 III Concepts, commensurability and action 343 IV The need for strategy 344 Bibliography 349 1 Introduction I THE MULTI-PARADIGMATIC STATE OF SOCIOLOGY Sociological research and teaching cannot be hermetically sealed off from other social processes: they both affect them and are affected by them. In the interests of simplicity the relations between sociology and society may be said to divide into three categories. Firstly, there are social influences upon the formation of sociological thought. Secondly, there is the influence of sociological thought upon other social processes. In either case establishing empirically the nature of these relationships poses enormous problems of research design, but if there are ever to be sociological accounts of sociological practice they will have to be faced. Thirdly, there is the question of what sociologists themselves think the object of their labours is, what they think their social role is and what social, political and economic developments they would seem to facilitate or obstruct by the very ways they construct their sociologies. It is with this third question that I am principally concerned. In referring to the construction of sociologies in the plural I wish to insist from the outset upon the multi-paradigmatic state of sociology in the past, the present and the foreseeable future. The term ‘paradigm’ is an old one but it has found a new vogue following the publication of Kuhn’s The Structure o f Scientific Revolutions in 1962.1 It is used in the latter in many different ways and it has been further varied subsequently.2 Kuhn now suggests that in a general sense a paradigm is an ‘entire constellation of beliefs, values, techniques, and so on shared by the members of a given community’, i.e. a disciplinary matrix of concepts, assumptions, basic laws, proven methods and other objects of commitment common to all practitioners of a specified discipline or a sub-discipline which may or may not be necessarily related but which certainly require individual specification.3 In a more restricted sense, however, a paradigm refers to one element in the matrix,the exemplar, 16 Sociology in Action the concrete problem solution which provides a model for subsequent inquiry.

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