The relationship between sociology and social critique has haunted
the discipline since its origins. Does critique divert sociology
from its scientific project? Or is critique the ultimate goal of
sociology, without which the latter would be a futile activity
disconnected from the concerns of ordinary people? This issue has
underpinned two divergent theoretical orientations that can be
found in the discipline today: the critical sociology that was
developed in its most elaborate form by Pierre Bourdieu, and the
pragmatic sociology of critique developed by Luc Boltanski and his
associates.
In critical sociology, description in terms of power relations
underscores the potency of mechanisms of oppression, the way the
oppressed passively endure them, going so far in their alienation
as to
adopt the values that enslave them. Pragmatic sociology, by
contrast, describes the actions of human beings who rebel but who
are endowed with reason. It stresses their ability, in certain
historical conditions, to rise up against their domination and
construct new interpretations of reality in the service of critical
activity.
In this major new book Boltanski develops a framework that makes
it possible to reconcile these seemingly antagonistic approaches -
the one determinist and assigning the leading role to the
enlightening science of the sociologist, the other concerned to
stick as closely as possible to what people say and do. This labour
of unification leads him to rework central notions such as
practice, institution, critique and, finally, 'social
reality,' all with the aim of contributing to a contemporary
renewal of practices of emancipation.
