Relationship between Sociology and Psychology at the L’Année Sociologique

The journal L’Année Sociologique was founded by Émile Durkheim in 1898 and since then it became the scene of some important debates and strong divergences between several approaches related to the explanation of social facts. The main agents involved were: Durkheim, his collaborators and the authors whose works were reviewed by them.

The main objective is to analyse the way the conflicts between sociology and psychology appear inside the pages of the journal - emphasising three main moments: during the foundation period, structured around the debate between Tarde and Durkheim; during the 1920s, when Mauss and the new collaborators to the journal look again to this question through their reviews of recent books; and, finally, in the 1930s, when the collaborators of the Annales Sociologiques, linked to Célestin Bouglé, returned once more to the debate after new works were published.

The proposal, firstly, is to treat each one of these periods in its specificity, focusing on the agents’ positions and their works within the corresponding intellectual fields. Secondly, the aim is to compare these three moments and analyse their differences - regarding the composition of the group of collaborators to the journal and the relationship they developed with the authors whose works they reviewed.