Social Sciences in Crisis A Dialogue with Professor Neil Smelser on the Future of Social Sciences

Abstract

DHAOUADI: Based on my own observations and impressions, one talks
more about sociology as a discipline having a crisis, than about psychology
or political science. How do you respond to that?
SMELSER: I heard this kind of talk among sociologists. Among the
questions raised in their frequent conversations are: What is the field
about? What are the boundaries about? Is it (sociology) fragmented? Is it
practiced ... etc?
In that disciplinary sense, every field in the social sciences has a
problem to some degree. Economics, even has a problem about the con -
flict between neoclassical economics and the various branches of this discipline,
which internally , has become even more complex. They don't
beat their breast quite as much about this as sociologists, but if you talk
to anybody in the field they will say: "Well, we have no unity, we have
no consensus; it's splitting up into too many specializations." We find the
same kind of talk in sociology. Realistically, I think that sociology can
probably be best compared with political science, in the sense that it is
solidly established in the university system, so its organization is solid
and its professional association is solid. Despite the conflict I mentioned
earlier, it is recognized in the agencies that give money to the field, it's
recognized by publishers as being a field, and no one seems to be deserting
it ...