Three Spaces of Social Theory

Towards a Political Geography of Knowledge

Bibliographic Data

ID3023906
AuthorsDick Pels (corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume26
Issue1
Pages31
Publication date2001-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Canadian Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0318-6431 • E-ISSN: 1710-1123
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3341510
OpenAlexW2095801225
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited31

This paper raises doubts about the traditional justification of the autonomy of the sociological object in terms of the of as demarcated from the state. Against the tendency to homogenize social theory from an overly or liberal image of its early history, it offers atriadic, knowledge-geographical tableau of interpretations of the social object-and-project, which aligns it more closely with political ideology, resisting any clear-cut delineations in vs. terms. In the threepartite space of emerging social science, the French and German--Italian branches stuck significantly closer to the political and staatswissenschaftliche tradition than the Anglosaxon branch, and exemplified not so much a rupture with as an innovatory continuation of Aristotelian political philosophy, extending and generalizing its scope of analysis from sovereignty towards a more inclusive theory of the generation and distribution of social power. This approach introduces anew specification of the unity and diversity of the sociological object-and-project, which may be redescribed as that of knowledgeable organization. an appelation which at once defines the classical promise and the classical hubris of the sociological tradition in its three intellectual-geographical zones. Resume: Cet article met en question la justification traditionnelle de l'autonomic de l'objet sociologique comme decouverte de Ia societe differenciee de l'Etat, S'opposant a la tendance pour unifier la theorie du social dans une perspective anglo-saxone qui insiste un peu trop sur les origines liberales de la sociologic, cet article propose un tableau epistemo-geographique triadique des interpretations de l' objet-projet social qui est plus en phase avec l' ideologie politique et qui resiste a une demarcation tranchee entre in societe et l'Etat. A l' interieur de l'espace trmadique de Ia science sociale naissante, les courants francais et germano-italiennes demeuraient plus proches de Ia tradition politique de la Sttatswissenschaft que de la tradition anglo-saxonne. En tant que tels, us ne representent pas tant une rupture qu' une continuation de la philosophie politique aristotelicienne, dont ils etendent et generalisent Ia portee de Ia souverainet de l'Etat vers une theorie plus inclusive de l' emergence e t de Ia distribution du pouvoir. Cette demarche introduitu une nouvelle specifications de l'unite et de Ia difference de l'objet-projet de Ia sociologie en tant que [less than or equal to] organisation instruite [greathan or equal to] (knowledgeable organization). Cette denomination permet du coup de redefinir la promesse et la demesure classiques de la tradition sociologique dans satrois espaces intellectuelles-geographiques. The Elusive Object of Sociology According to a widely held idol of the tribe, sociology started its career with the discovery of as an entity distinct from and independent of the (Collins and Makowsky, 1972; Goudsblom, 1977; Bottomore and Nisbet, 1979; Heilbron, 1995; Vandenberghe, 1997; 1998). Sociology, Aron has argued, marks a moment in man's reflection on historical reality when the concept of the social, of society, becomes the centre of interest, replacing the concept of politics or of the regime or of the state (1965 I:15). Early sociology, Gouldner agreed, rejected the dominance of by the state, and more generally, defocalized the importance of politics in order to concentrate upon civil society as its principal scientific object (1980: 363-4). Most significant in the sociological experience, Elias has written, is the conceptualization of as a self-regulating nexus of events, and as something which was not determined in its course and its functioning by governments (1984: 38). The idea appears to add the virtues of simplicity to those of self-evidence, and offers a classical justification for the existence of sociology as an autonomous intellectual enterprise

Economic geography · Epistemology · Geography · Human geography · Political geography · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Law · Philosophical and Historical Studies · Philosophy

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