A la recherche d'une sociologie du long terme

MARCEL JOLLIVET Marcel Jollivet tells us about his experience as a sociologist of the rural world. He is the author of a history of rural France, and considers himself a historian of the present. Rural sociology is necessarily in close relation with history, for at least two reasons : a) a long tradition of monographs which associate contributions of historians and geographers b) a key issue, (the nature of) the peasant as a social type. In order to understand the change from French peasantry to modern agriculture, it has proved necessary to consider long time periods, which differentiates between rural sociology and, say, the sociology of work. Trying to understand the present, the sociologist dares undertake analyses which the historian would not do. But the absence of long term makes his/her work more fragile. Writing history may be a way to check whether the sociologist's analyses resist when confrontated with long time spans

Agriculture · Historical sociology · History of sociology · Humanities · Peasant · Political science · Rural development · Rural sociology · Social science · Sociology · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Anthropology · Cultural Identity and Heritage · French Urban and Social Studies · History · Law · Philosophy