The Future of Sociology: Ideology or Objective Social Science?

Description

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 intellectual content for political programs, this volume asks whether the situation is the result of an exhaustion of ideas or might perhaps be rooted in the failure in the very program of establishing sociology as a science. Taking seriously the challenges to the classical aspiration of constructing theories that both explain and are grounded in empirical reality, The Future of Sociology asks whether the core idea of transcending ideology is still worth pursuing, and whether there remains scope for making sociology scientific. As such, it will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, social theory, and social scientific methodology. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Contents List of Contributors Introduction Part I What Is Sociology? 1 Sociology: Before the Origin 2 Sociology in Search of Grounded Knowledge 3 Sociology Today and the Classical Legacy Part II Unity and Disunity 4 Human Sciences and Natural Sciences: Which Unity? 5 The Lessons of Rational Choice 6 Middle-Range Theories and the Unification Problem in Social Science 7 Running From Madness?: Sociology’s Dread of the Irrational Part III Objectivity or Ideology? 8 Sociology as a Profession in a Post-Truth World 9 From Luhmann to Esser: On Changing Intellectual Dominance in German Mainstream Sociology 10 Rationalization, Science, and Politics: A Sociological Fable 11 The Two Parts of Sociological Objectivity Index