How Does the Individual Find a Place in French Sociology?

Abstract

International audienceIn France over the last four decades increasing interest in the small, the specific and the subjective can be observed. This involves a shift away from a holist approach towards social analysis focused on the individual and often carried out by researchers as specified and reflexive individuals. To be understood, this movement must be situated in the context of the development of French sociology, largely dominated at its origins by Durkheimian sociology. Thus, when the individual has appeared this is often not in his or her own right, but as representative of a social trend or group. As from the 1980s, new perspectives, very often imported from American sociology bring into play individual action, emotions and bodies, often studied as socially shaped. More recently, individual characteristics have been examined as a constraint on the possibilities of action, and discussion has also revolved around the reality of the person as an autonomous subject

Guest Editor’s Introduction: French Sociology, French Sociologies

“…The last category of papers adopts a reflexive posture to shed light on the production of sociological science in France. One is about the practice of the corporate sociologist (Jeannin 2017), while the other focuses on the place of the individual in French sociology (Masson and Schrecker 2017).…”

“…What we learn from several of these contributions is that the influence works in both directions. French social scientists have too been influenced by their American colleagues, for instance in their study of deviance and crime (Mucchielli 2017), but also in their conceptualization of the individual (Masson and Schrecker 2017). To be sure, French and US sociologies do present major differences.…”