5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

As subdisciplines, history of sociology and historical sociology share the same terms of the equation. Both enterprises sought to combine an interest in temporality, process, and social change to explain variations occurring at the level of individual trajectories, fields, and configurations. To this aim, scholars engaged in the two subfields combine—sometimes eclectically—archival sources, both qualitative and quantitative, with historiographical secondary literature. This panel, a collaborative effort, aims to offer a platform for scholars to delve into the theoretical and methodological challenges represented by the multiple intersections between sociology and history. We privileged submissions that reflect on the making of a sociological history of sociology (what might be labelled a “historical sociology of ideas and intellectuals”) and explore the possibilities of reconstructing biographical and intellectual trajectories within the field of historical sociology (what might be labelled a “historical sociology of historical sociologists”), regardless their theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, and spatiotemporal focus.