French sociological pragmatism: Inheritor and innovator in the American pragmatic and sociological phenomenological traditions

Abstract

Philosophical pragmatism has seen a revival within the sociological discourse. We bring three strands of this approach into direct dialogue with one another. Anglophone and German scholars have brought pragmatists such as George Herbert Mead back to the forefront of our understandings of social action. In a parallel development, scholars such as Alfred Schütz incorporated Husserlian phenomenology with American pragmatism, reinforcing a specific micro-interactionist model. In Francophone sociology, Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot challenged the hegemonic structuralist approach in the 1980s by developing their own pragmatic framework. In this synthetic review, we illustrate why this recent French pragmatic sociology adds interesting cultural, sociological, and psychological dimensions to the American pragmatic and to phenomenological lineages. We then show how these innovations provide a richer understanding of the interaction between individuals and institutions and a way to understand something American pragmatists and phenomenological sociologists often struggle to engage with: social conflict.