Critique et consensus dans la sociologie française hier et aujourd'hui

Abstract

Larry Portis, Criticism and Consensus in French Sociology : Past and Present Oscillating between social criticism and support for social cohesion, the historical evolution of academic sociology reveals how the flux of political and social conjunctures can influence perceptions of society. At the turn of the century, sociology emerged as an academic discipline partially in response to the social disintegration symbolized by working-class and socialist movements ; it therefore attempted to discredit a vision of society premissed on the notion of social class divisions. More recently, Alain Touraine has stressed the importance of this consideration, and he too has attempted to combat any image of society tending to promote criticism of it. He and other university sociologists have indeed contributed greatly to the discrediting of critical or subversive images of society in favor of the idea that French society is essentially homogeneous, free of fundamental clivages.