Social Sciences in Crisis

DHAOUADI: Based on my own observations and impressions, one talksmore about sociology as a discipline having a crisis, than about psychologyor political science. How do you respond to that?SMELSER: I heard this kind of talk among sociologists. Among thequestions raised in their frequent conversations are: What is the fieldabout? What are the boundaries about? Is it (sociology) fragmented? Is itpracticed ... etc?In that disciplinary sense, every field in the social sciences has aproblem to some degree. Economics, even has a problem about the con -flict between neoclassical economics and the various branches of this discipline,which internally , has become even more complex. They don'tbeat their breast quite as much about this as sociologists, but if you talkto anybody in the field they will say: "Well, we have no unity, we haveno consensus; it's splitting up into too many specializations." We find thesame kind of talk in sociology. Realistically, I think that sociology canprobably be best compared with political science, in the sense that it issolidly established in the university system, so its organization is solidand its professional association is solid. Despite the conflict I mentionedearlier, it is recognized in the agencies that give money to the field, it'srecognized by publishers as being a field, and no one seems to be desertingit

Political science · Social science · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice