Bridging cultural sociology with Francophone sociologists: a transcultural challenge

Abstract

This article focuses of the relation of cultural sociology to Francophone sociologists, showing that this analytical orientation remains little known among them. Such gap can be bridged, however, if one brings attention to the developments of Jeffrey Alexander’s type of cultural sociology on the one side, and Louis Quere’s and Daniel Cefai’s works on the other, along the lines of redefining the Habermasian concept of the public sphere, either by Alexander’s civil sphere concept, or Cefai’s and Quere’s interests for the performative dimension of actors engaged in public arenas. Such an encounter centers on the interpretation of the roles of social movements and media in shaping sociological analysis, and emphasizes the differences that exist between pragmatism and hermeneutics as interpretive tools. While the opposition between pragmatism’particularism and hermeneutic’s universalism would seem to be irreducible, it is rather their dialectical relation which is at stake, opening up the way for a transcultural vision of things. My own interpretation locates this transcultural vision as a challenge for the bridging of those two types of approach, by providing an example and arguments in this direction.