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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Main Author: Joaquin SABAT
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Etudes Scientifiques Spécialisées Appliquées aux Communications Humaines, Economiques, Sociales et Symboliques 2019-08-01
Series:Essachess
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.essachess.com/index.php/jcs/article/view/449/477
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spelling 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
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