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Simon Susen

Sociology in the Twenty-First Century

Simon Susen

Sociology in the Twenty-First Century Key Trends, Debates, and Challenges

Simon Susen City, University of London London, UK

ISBN 978-3-030-38423-4    ISBN 978-3-030-38424-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38424-1 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: (c) Dina Belenko / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Foreword

News of the demise of sociology comes regularly across my desk, and if not of its death, then at least reports of life-threatening epidemics.1 In the social sciences, sociology is peculiarly afflicted by the instability of its paradigms, conflicts over methods, and disagreements about the most basic issues. What is the social? Are we to study individuals or whole societies? The problem is not that sociology is a relatively new discipline. We can trace its origins to at least the 1820s. One can identify various causes that underpin its dilemmas. Sociology is more driven by fashions in theory than other academic disciplines. In the 1970s the fashions came from Germany—notably with Jürgen Habermas, Niklas Luhmann, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Arnold Gehlen, among others. Later we had a ‘French period’—with Michel Foucault, Jean-François Lyotard, Jacques Derrida, Pierre Bourdieu, and Luc Boltanski. Perhaps one peculiarity of contemporary British sociology is the absence of commanding figures, with the exception of Anthony Giddens. By contrast, we can readily count the many foreign academics who have brought intellectual brilliance to our shores—Zygmunt Bauma