A book to be read and studied: Monde pluriel. Pen ser l'unité des sciences sociales

Abstract

n line with a constant concern of contemporary French epistemology (Berthelot, Passeron), this book addresses once again the theme of the pluralization and hyper-specialization of the social sciences, which can cause doubts about their scientificity and their capacity for accumulation. of knowledge. While it is true that specialization can be a factor of professionalization - says Lahire -, exaggerated hyper-specialization carries undeniable risks, such as the loss of focus on "wholes" or on "societal processes" (as it is sometimes said) , which are transversal. The situation becomes even more serious when sociologists (or anthropologists), locked within the increasingly narrow limits of their little "specialization", stop reading their colleagues from other disciplines, like historians, linguists, geographers, social psychologists, economists, etc., because then they lose the possibility of thinking about the connections between social phenomena (or between different dimensions of the social world), or simply the possibility of progressing within your own field discovering advances in related fields. It cannot be denied, for example, that the success of an author like Norbert Elias is related to his ability to break down the barriers between sociology, history and psychology, showing, for example, the link between the development of the State and such intimate everyday practices as the way of consuming food at the table.