Sociology and liberalism
A reconsideration
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24230449 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Clayton Fordahl (0000-0002-0585-1360, University of Akureyri, Iceland) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-10-08 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Classical Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1468-795X • E-ISSN: 1741-2897 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1468795x261492124 |
| OpenAlex | W7221011537 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 33 |
Sociology has often been defined in opposition or contrast to liberalism. However, a new postliberal historical revisionism may challenge this view. According to the postliberal position, liberalism should be understood as a broad political culture which contains both the “left” and “right” tendencies of contemporary politics. From this view, all modern politics, whether state-centered or market-oriented, forms a complementary whole dedicated to the liberation of the individual. This article uses this postliberal critique to reconsider the history of sociology. Revisiting sociological theories from the classical to the contemporary era, the article contends that the discipline’s seemingly contradictory impulses form a complementary, liberal project. This new perspective suggests that sociology is not so divided as is often supposed. However, if sociologists want to develop truly radical social theories, they must be attuned to liberalism as a historical force and the influence of liberalism on the history of sociological thought.
classical sociology · History of sociology · Left and right · Liberalism · Political culture · post-liberalism · self-liberation · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Legal and Social Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence
Why Liberalism Failed
The Performance of PoliticsObama's Victory and the Democratic Struggle for Power
Politics of Virtue
Reconciliation Through the Public Use of Reason
Natural Rights and the Theory of the Political Institution
Transforming Capitalism through Real Utopias
Bourdieu's Politics
The radical sociology of Durkheim and Mauss
Capitalism and Modern Social Theory
The Rules of Sociological Method
Rereading the Classics after the Decolonial and Feminist Critiques
Narrative Accounts of Origins
Recovering the primitive in the modern
Decolonizing Sociology
Address
Understanding Class
The Structure of Intersectionality
A Tale of Two Civil Religions
Re-Thinking Intersectionality
Modern Democracy as the Cult of the Individual
The Foundation of Pragmatic Sociology
In search of the common good
The individual and society in Durkheim
Choosing our Ancestors
A Tale of Two Marxisms
The Diversity of Class Analyses
Radical Politics and Sociological Research
Sociological Implications of the Thought of George Herbert Mead
Max Weber as a critical theorist
| Highly cited | No |
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