Who Had Faith in Sociology? Scholarly and Ideological Divergences in Belgium around 1900

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4516387
AutoresRaf Vanderstraeten (0000-0002-4155-2499, Ghent University Hospital, autor correspondente)
Ano2018
Volume31
Fascículo4
Páginas457-475
Data de publicação2018-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoScience in Context (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0269-8897 • E-ISSN: 1474-0664
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0269889718000327
PMID30630549
OpenAlexW2910227471
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas32

ArgumentThis paper examines the early institutionalization of sociology in Belgium. It displays how different intellectual and social contexts bred their own research interests and research approaches. It shows, more particularly, how ideological affiliations and divisions defined the setting within which this new discipline had to develop in Belgium in the decades around 1900. As a consequence of the ideological controversies, sociology had difficulty gaining legitimacy as a theory-driven analysis of society. Most scholars in Belgium could not avoid taking an explicitly normative position on society. This paper also displays how secularization and the reinforcement of the international level and its infrastructure gradually allowed for more academic autonomy for sociology in Belgium

Epistemology · Faith · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of religion · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Emile Durkheim and Sociology · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Law · Philosophy