“…This assumption, which I refer to as the performativity of knowledge claims (Bacevic, 2019), underpins a variety of approaches to sociology and its role in the world, from the idea that sociology can transform the world, or fight injustice and oppression, to the idea that sociological narratives provide justifications for bad, unacceptable, or criminal behaviour. Recent examples of the latter include ‘It is time people engaged in looting and violence stopped hearing economic and social justifications’, stated by Boris Johnson in response to the London ‘Riots’ at the time when he was Mayor of London, and French Prime Minister Manuel Valls’ repeated denouncement of ‘social and sociological excuses’ in the wake of terrorist attacks in France (Brandmayr, 2021a, 2021b). Traces of this assumption, however, can also be identified in British and French governments’ current opposition to Critical Race Theory and the related critique of ‘postmodern’ (in the United Kingdom) or ‘foreign/American’ (in France) theories.…”