Is It Possible to Write a History of "Anti-Sociology"? Taking a Look Back at Alternative Traditions in France and Germany

"Anti-sociology" is an uncommon expression: it was claimed by German sociologist Helmut Schelsky as a a self-designation in the 1970’s and also used in the French context to designate Deleuze and Guattari’s effort to turn the marxist and freudian traditions over their own head. In the first case, anti-sociology apparently refers to an alternative tradition to a supposed "mainstream sociology". As the example of Schelsky shows, this tradition can not be entirely absolved from its link to the historical experience of Nazism, even when this historical background appears totally absent, such as in the case of Schelsky’s former pupil Niklas Luhmann. In the French context, on the contrary, the critic of sociology seems to take hold in the opposite political camp: it stems from philosophers vying to radicalize the emancipatory revendications of "1968".

From the vantage point of a history of sociology, this raises the question of the relationship between these two intellectual movements: can they be subsumed under a single category such as "anti-sociology"? Is it possible to think of them as somehow related, rather than opposed? And finally, what do they tell us about the political standing of sociology?

These are the questions that will be treated in this presentation, which will take stock of the intellectual approaches of "histoire croisée" and historical sociology.