Measure, Value and the Current Crises of Sociology

Abstract

This paper returns to C. Wright Mills' The Sociological Imagination to make an argument about the crisis of sociological method and theory today. Mills' famous text opens with a stinging critique of abstracted empiricism and grand theory on the grounds that they fetishize either methods or concepts. It is argued that Mills' critique can be applied to current sociological practices and thinking. The first part of this paper centres on questions of method, and reads between Mills' critique of abstracted empiricism and a recent debate over what Mike Savage and Roger Burrows call the ‘coming crisis of empirical sociology’. In the light of this, it is argued that two crises currently haunt empirical sociology: a crisis of imagination and measurement. The second part of the paper then moves to the analysis of what Mills calls ‘grand theory’. Here, two parallel crises are identified: a generational crisis within social theory that is tied in turn to what might be called a crisis of the concept. The conclusion of the paper returns to Mills in order to rethink his vision of the promise or value of sociology. It is argued that innovative conceptual work must lie at the heart of future sociological thinking if it is to move beyond the parallel traps of what Mills calls abstracted empiricism and grand theory.

Co-Opted Biased Social Science: 64 Years of Telling Half Truths about the Kibbutz

“…Universities became "highly managed and controlled spaces that produce docile bodies… that limits and inhibits the imagination to such an extent that it is difficult to create socially and economically transformational knowledge" ( [1] p. 480; also: [32] [42]). …”

“…Sociologists' main mistake was not too abstracted empiricism (e.g., [42]) as their studies tried helping kibbutzim, but they framed research as inviting Ichud leaders have wanted, i.e. excluding I-KOs although the Ichud did not fund research (e.g., [121]) while already Landshut [55] pointed to I-KOs integrality and Buber [81] asserted that I-KOs' adoption of kibbutz principles was their "truly structural task".…”

After Numbers? Innovations in Science and Technology Studies’ Analytics of Numbers and Numbering

“…Sociologists Lisa Adkins and Celia Lury gathered numbers studies together under the title 'Measure and Value' in a volume published by Sociological Review Monographs in 2012. Among the eight papers were studies of valuation, data, and metricisation, and perhaps giving a clue about the origins of the volume, finally a paper concerned about 'Measure, Value, and Current Crises of Sociology' (Gane, 2012). Shortly afterwards, Celia Lury, teaming up with Sophie Day and Nina Wakeford, published 'Number ecologies: numbers and numbering practices' in Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory (Day et al, 2014).…”

The Russian Sociological Tradition from the XIXth Century Until the Present: Key Features and Possible Value for Current Discussions

“…Questions about sociology's self-identification, its place and role in the contemporary society are more and more actively discussed in the international literature (Savage and Burrows (2007), Gane (2011) and Back (2012)). These discussions might benefit from the contributions of scholars with different national and cultural backgrounds (Bhambra 2013(Bhambra , 2014.…”