The Transnational Lives of Sociology

With a few exceptions, the history of sociology has paid little attention to how the term itself, coined in 1838 by Auguste Comte and present in the 47th lesson of his Cours de philosophie positive published in 1839, was subsequently used, translated and appropriated by scholars in most of the world's major regions. Although the first forms of disciplinarization of sociology came later - starting with the United States and Japan in the 1880s - sociology as a movement of ideas saw a sharp increase in its presence during the second half of the 19th century. Translators, learned societies, researchers in the “hard” sciences and publicists were all involved in the circulation of texts by Auguste Comte and Spencer. This presentation will draw on a few late 19^th c. specific examples (Japan and China, Venezuela, Greece, India) to demonstrate the mechanisms of this circulation.