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European Sociological Review 18:371-378 (2002)
© 2002 Oxford University Press

Sociology that Really Matters: European Academy of Sociology, First Annual Lecture, 26 October 2001, Swedish Cultural Center

Raymond Boudon

Université Paris IV – Sorbonne, ISHA, 96 bd. Raspail, 75006 Paris

The diversity of sociology can be captured with the help of four ideal types. First is cameral or informative sociology: that which produces data and analyses oriented towards decision-makers. Second is critical sociology, which identifies the defects of society and proposes remedies for them. Third is sociology which aims to arouse emotions by describing social phenomena in a vivid fashion: it can be characterized as expressive. A fourth type, the cognitive type, sees the explanation of puzzling social phenomena as its objective. The four orientations characterize contemporary as well as classical sociology but are not equally valuable. Tocqueville, Weber, or Durkheim illustrate the fourth type, but various factors today have caused the other three to expand at its expense. As a consequence of this diversity within sociology and the trend away from the cognitive type, scepticism about the discipline has grown in recent years.


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