Building Global Sociology in a Divided World (1949–1990)

Abstract

Unlike physics or even demography, sociology is very sensitive to its social environment. That is why the discipline was mired with controversy and confrontations during the Cold War. How did the development of a global sociology become possible in this social context? Due to the complexity of the historical situation, one cannot expect a simple answer. This article contains an attempt at systematically analyzing the globalization of sociology along four lines of analysis and argumentation. The first line follows the stabilization and growth of national sociological communities after the Second World War. Another line of analysis concerns the developmental path of the International Sociological Association from its founding at the beginning of the Cold War up until its maturation at the end of the 1980s. The mutual influence of these processes is the third line of analysis and argumentation. The fourth cross-cutting line of analysis is guided by the concepts of social actors, relations, and processes as analytical parameters of social interaction. The conclusion is that the adequate explanation of the globalization of sociology should focus on the interplay of these processes. Special attention is paid to the decisive mobilizing and organizing role of the ISA in this regard. KEYWORDS: actors in the globalization of sociology; Cold War; globalization of sociology; ISA; processes in the globalization of sociology; relations in the globalization of sociology.