Sociology, normativity and social problems: Is there still room for critique?
Despite the various theoretical and methodological rearrangements that sociology underwent ever since its origin in the mid-19th century, the normativity inherent to its object remains a significant source of debate. Behind the classical epistemological question involving the separation of facts fro...
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Etudes Scientifiques Spécialisées Appliquées aux Communications Humaines, Economiques, Sociales et Symboliques
2019-08-01
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doaj-4cecb146dd8f41d8b5e8c46f5d7199222021-08-02T07:00:06ZengEtudes Scientifiques Spécialisées Appliquées aux Communications Humaines, Economiques, Sociales et SymboliquesEssachess2066-50831775-352X2019-08-01121(23)167185Sociology, normativity and social problems: Is there still room for critique?Joaquin SABAT0Université Laval CANADADespite the various theoretical and methodological rearrangements that sociology underwent ever since its origin in the mid-19th century, the normativity inherent to its object remains a significant source of debate. Behind the classical epistemological question involving the separation of facts from values and descrip-tive discourse from normative discourse lies an issue that runs through sociology’s history. After showing, based on the theses of Michel Freitag (1987), the critical role that sociological thought played throughout the modern period, this article explores the foundations of the argument between functionalism’s approach to social problems and that of constructivism in order to demonstrate how the crux of the problem is not that both are in some way normative, but that this normativity is never recognized and assumed as such. Since it is normativity that is problematic to the sociology of social problems, it seems that the answer is not to veil in an ever renewable fashion its unlikely overtaking, but rather to theorize the mutual involvement of normativity and sociology by showing how this internal relationship never stopped working between them, as the very condition of a truly “critical” discipline.http://www.essachess.com/index.php/jcs/article/view/449/477critiquenormativitysociologysocial problemsconstructivism |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Joaquin SABAT |
spellingShingle |
Joaquin SABAT Sociology, normativity and social problems: Is there still room for critique? Essachess critique normativity sociology social problems constructivism |
author_facet |
Joaquin SABAT |
author_sort |
Joaquin SABAT |
title |
Sociology, normativity and social problems: Is there still room for critique? |
title_short |
Sociology, normativity and social problems: Is there still room for critique? |
title_full |
Sociology, normativity and social problems: Is there still room for critique? |
title_fullStr |
Sociology, normativity and social problems: Is there still room for critique? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sociology, normativity and social problems: Is there still room for critique? |
title_sort |
sociology, normativity and social problems: is there still room for critique? |
publisher |
Etudes Scientifiques Spécialisées Appliquées aux Communications Humaines, Economiques, Sociales et Symboliques |
series |
Essachess |
issn |
2066-5083 1775-352X |
publishDate |
2019-08-01 |
description |
Despite the various theoretical and methodological rearrangements that sociology underwent ever since its origin in the mid-19th century, the normativity inherent to its object remains a significant source of debate. Behind the classical epistemological question involving the separation of facts from values and descrip-tive discourse from normative discourse lies an issue that runs through sociology’s history. After showing, based on the theses of Michel Freitag (1987), the critical role that sociological thought played throughout the modern period, this article explores the foundations of the argument between functionalism’s approach to social problems and that of constructivism in order to demonstrate how the crux of the problem is not that both are in some way normative, but that this normativity is never recognized and assumed as such. Since it is normativity that is problematic to the sociology of social problems, it seems that the answer is not to veil in an ever renewable fashion its unlikely overtaking, but rather to theorize the mutual involvement of normativity and sociology by showing how this internal relationship never stopped working between them, as the very condition of a truly “critical” discipline. |
topic |
critique normativity sociology social problems constructivism |
url |
http://www.essachess.com/index.php/jcs/article/view/449/477 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT joaquinsabat sociologynormativityandsocialproblemsistherestillroomforcritique |
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