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What is Worth Defending in Sociology Today? Presentism, Historical Vision and the Uses of Sociology

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In recent years, sociology in Britain – and in national contexts influenced by British sociology – has
been diagnosed by various parties as suffering from a wide range of ailments. These forms of selfcriticism
become ever more acute in terms of their potential effects as huge transformations in
university funding regimes are brought to bear on the social sciences. But none of these critiques
engages satisfactorily with what is a much more foundational and serious set of problems, namely the
very nature of sociology itself as a historically-situated form of knowledge production. Sociology claims
to know the world around it, but in Britain today much sociology seriously fails in this regard, because
it operates with radically curtailed understandings of the long-term historical forces which made the
social conditions it purports to analyse. A sophisticated understanding of the contemporary world is
made possible only by an equally sophisticated understanding of very long-term historical processes,
precisely the sort of vision that mainstream British sociology has lacked for at least the last two
decades. This paper identifies the reasons for the development of this situation and the consequences
it has for the nature of sociology’s knowledge production, for its self-understanding, for its claims to
comprehend the contemporary world, and for its apparent social ‘usefulness’. A markedly more selfaware
and historically-sensitive sociology is proposed as the answer to the pressing question of what
aspects of sociology should be defended in the turbulent context of British higher education today.

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Ketersediaan

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Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

Cultural Sociology

No. Panggil

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Penerbit

United Kingdom : SAGE Publications Ltd., 2014

Deskripsi Fisik

Cultural Sociology 2014, Vol. 8(1) 99– 118

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

DOI: 10.1177/1749975

Klasifikasi

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Tipe Isi

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Tipe Media

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Tipe Pembawa

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Edisi

2014, Vol. 8(1) 99– 118

Subjek

sociology

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

dody/Agus

Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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