| Popis: |
This chapter analyses the intellectual shifts and methodological concerns in British sociology between the 1930s and 1970s. This was a period dominated by an interest in sociological theory relevant to the contemporary problems British society was facing (in contrast to the abstract and historically broad theoretical approach of the previous generation of sociologists). The British empirical tradition in social research, which existed in parallel to academic sociology, was rejected and labelled as un-sociological, in spite of the fact that there was still little clarity as to what ‘sociology’ actually was. This view was heightened by a widespread fear, however unlikely, of British sociology falling into ‘an obsession with empiricism’, with empirical research and quantitative methods being portrayed as a fruitless path for the future development of British sociology and a distraction from what ought to be the priority—theoretical research. |
