Italian Sociology,1945–2010

Writing national histories of sociology: Methods, approaches and visions

“…With encouragement from the editors, most volumes offer an explicit institutional approach. These include Chen’s (2018: 1) national history of sociology in China, and Cossu and Bortolini’s (2017) history of Italian sociology. Cossu and Bortolini (2017), argue that an institutional approach helps avoid an excessive focus on the individual agency of a handful of ‘founders’, and guards against ‘romanticising’ the birth or delayed birth of the discipline.…”

“…These include Chen’s (2018: 1) national history of sociology in China, and Cossu and Bortolini’s (2017) history of Italian sociology. Cossu and Bortolini (2017), argue that an institutional approach helps avoid an excessive focus on the individual agency of a handful of ‘founders’, and guards against ‘romanticising’ the birth or delayed birth of the discipline. Instead, it guides one’s search for ‘something structural and more deeply embedded in the organisational context which [in Italy] prevented the full integration of sociology into the academic system’ (Cossu and Bortolini, 2017: 5–6).…”

“…Cossu and Bortolini (2017), argue that an institutional approach helps avoid an excessive focus on the individual agency of a handful of ‘founders’, and guards against ‘romanticising’ the birth or delayed birth of the discipline. Instead, it guides one’s search for ‘something structural and more deeply embedded in the organisational context which [in Italy] prevented the full integration of sociology into the academic system’ (Cossu and Bortolini, 2017: 5–6). Aside from the Sociology Transformed series, an important addition to this genre has been Fleck, Duller and Karády’s (2018) edited collection, which seeks to offer a comparative, historical account of the institutional structures within which European social science research takes place (including but also beyond the universities).…”

A Systematic View on the Use of History for Current Debates in Sociology, and on the Potential and Problems of a Historical Epistemology of Sociology

“… 11 Together with John Holmwood, Stephen Turner is in the process of editing a series of national histories published by Palgrave MacMillan, called “Sociology Transformed” ( http://www.palgrave.com/in/series/14477 , last visited August 31, 2017). At the moment, there exist volumes on Australia (Harley and Wickham 2014 ); Austria (Fleck 2016 ); Belgium (Vanderstraeten and Loucks 2018 ); China (Chen 2018 ); the Czech Republic (Skovasja and Balon 2017 ); Denmark (Kropp 2015 ); France (Masson and Schrecker 2016 ); Ireland (Fanning and Hess 2015 ); Israel (Ram 2018 ); Italy (Cossu and Bortolini 2017 ); New Zealand (Crothers 2018 ); Poland (Bucholc 2016 ); Portugal (da Silva 2016 ); Russia (Titarenko and Zdravomyslova 2017 ); South Africa (Sooryamoorthy 2016 ); Sweden (Larsson and Magdalenić 2015 ); and the United States (Turner 2014 ). Further books are in preparation.…”