Anthony Giddens as a Symptom of Sociology's Decline The Gulbenkian Commission on future of sciences has popularized idea that sociology is a discipline that has outlived its usefulness (Wallerstein 1996). According to this argument, sociology had made sense over previous 100-150 years, with ascendancy of Euro-American nation-states increasingly concerned with integrating diverse peoples in terms of various functions, to which standard-issue sociology textbook dutifully assigns a chapter apiece. Emile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons marked high points in this conception of rise of sociology. However, with end of Cold War has come decline of welfare-warfare that had kept forces of global capital in check. The result has been increasingly indeterminate and permeable boundaries of life that mark the postmodern condition. For example, while topics relating to -- be it defined in legal or medical terms -- retain their traditional popularity, deviance is now put in scare quotes and researchers wince at social problems perspective from which field arose. After all, presupposes a strong sense of normativity, which after Michel Foucault has acquired a negative connotation that Durkheim would not have recognized. Moreover, these postmodern sociologists justify their rejection of norm-deviance binary, not on grounds of political correctness, but simply increasing practical difficulty of enforcing distinction. Consequently, historically innocent empirical researchers in can discover nascent identity politics in heretofore deviant groups. However, this probably has more to do with retreat of state power from civil society than any philosophically inspired realization of inherent perniciousness of binary oppositions. While this begins to explain global decline in sociology's disciplinary identity, much more needs to be said to explain peculiar form it has taken in United Kingdom, major nation with probably weakest institutional tradition in field. Here sociology remains very popular with students, largely because it is natural home of cultural and media studies programs that in, say, US would be housed in departments of literary studies. In this respect, British sociology has turned its disciplinary permeability from a weakness to a strength, effectively rendering itself the science of postmodern. Moreover, there is a thriving, albeit publisher-led, sociological book industry in UK. On one hand, this means that British sociology journals exert relatively little impact on field' s global research agenda; on other, it ensures that sociology is seen by people in other disciplines and countries through eyes of British teachers. From this milieu emerges Anthony Giddens, first Professor of Sociology at Cambridge and now Director of London School of Economics. As principal theorist behind third way between capitalism and socialism that enabled Labour to regain control of Parliament in 1997, Giddens is probably most internationally influential British scientist since John Maynard Keynes -- ironically another thinker who was often portrayed as offering a third way between these very alternatives. However, despite Cambridge connection, Giddens and Keynes demonstrate rather different paths to influence. Keynes hailed from science -- economics -- in which UK has been an acknowledged world leader. Moreover, his career involved shuttling between Kings College tutorials and Treasury assignments. In contrast, Giddens has always been oriented to pedagogy, be it large introductory classes he continues to teach at LSE or academic publishing empire he founded that is Polity Press. Seen in world-historic perspective, two features of Giddens' career stand out. …
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