‘Metaphoricity’ in Bauman’s sociology

Bauman's deployment of metaphors is a defining feature of his sociology, and most commentators have argued that Bauman's sociology has a 'literary edge' giving it a number of strengths, and should not be judged in a conventional sociological manner. This chapter discusses the role of metaphors in sociology. Bauman points out in an interview with Jacobsen that sociology cannot do without metaphors, even the idea of 'society' started life as a metaphor. However, sociologists stopped noticing that it was a metaphor for 'fellowship' and other such terms when the metaphor became so successful that it assumed a reality of its own. The usefulness of one form of selectivity and reductionism rather than another, to cite from Bauman's own discussion of what work metaphors do in sociology, cannot be judged on 'literary', aesthetic and personal grounds only. They must be put against appropriate findings from sociological and other empirical research.

Epistemology · Linguistics · Metaphor · Reductionism · Social science · Sociological research · Sociology · Agriculture and Farm Safety · Philosophy