Social Theory and the Sociological Discipline(s) - European Sociological Association's Social Theory Conference
One cost of sociology s growth and its institutional success are fragmentation and specialization. However, the continual splicing off into new themes and subfields, and frequent cutting off from traditional links with the classical founders, discipline-wide issues, and subfield-transcending questions are often criticized at ESA and ISA meetings. It ultimately contradicts sociology s self-understanding in two important ways: first, its widespread post-Kuhnian philosophical foundation and, second, its public role in society. Consequently, it is increasingly important to remind ourselves what the identity of sociology is and look for unifying links that inspire the breadth of sociological studies, namely, for social theory: How does social theory keep sociology and social sciences together? And, in particular, how does it do that in practice?One cost of sociology s growth and its institutional success are fragmentation and specialization. However, the continual splicing off into new themes and subfields, and frequent cutting off from traditional links with the classical founders, discipline-wide issues, and subfield-transcending questions are often criticized at ESA and ISA meetings. It ultimately contradicts sociology s self-understanding in two important ways: first, its widespread post-Kuhnian philosophical foundation and, second, its public role in society. Consequently, it is increasingly important to remind ourselves what the identity of sociology is and look for unifying links that inspire the breadth of sociological studies, namely, for social theory: How does social theory keep sociology and social sciences together? And, in particular, how does it do that in practice?