Metamorphoses of Sociology in Times of Crisis
Introduction
Visualizações: 2DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20336/rbs.1163Keywords:
concept of crisis, crisis and sociological practice, crisis in sociology, polycrisisAbstract
This article introduces the topic of crises in sociology and presents the dossier "Metamorphoses of Sociology in Times of Crisis." To this end, it offers a brief review of the literature on crises in sociology, highlighting the importance of conceptual discussion, the relationships between crises within society and within knowledge, as well as themes present in contemporary crisis diagnoses. It discusses how some themes are recurrent, appearing in distinct contexts, which may characterize more lasting differences in sociologists' self-understanding of the discipline. At the same time, the article highlights some new developments in the contemporary debate, particularly the controversy surrounding the existence and definition of a sociological "canon" and the emergence of ecology as an important theme linked to transformations in the social perception of crises and problems. The articles comprising the dossier are presented throughout the text in conjunction with the broader literature.
Downloads
References
Alatas, Farid, & Sinha, Vineeta. (2017). Sociological Theory beyond the Canon. Palgrave Macmillan.
Alexander, Jeffrey C. (1977). Review: S.N. Eisenstadt and M. Curelaru, The Form of Sociology: Paradigms and Crises. Contemporary Sociology, 6 (6), 658–661.
Alexander, Jeffrey. (1987). The new theoretical movement is Sociology. In N. Smelser (ed.) Handbook of Sociology, (pp. 77-102). Sage.
Bariani, Edison. (2006). Padrão e salvação: o debate Florestan Fernandes x Guerreiro Ramos. Revista Cronos, 7 (1), 1. https://periodicos.ufrn.br/cronos/article/view/3194.
Beck, Ulrich. (1997). What is globalization. Polity Press.
Bhambra, Gurminder K., & Holmwood, John. (2021). Colonialism and Modern Social Theory. John Wiley & Sons.
Boltanski, Luc, Esquerre, Arnaud, & Lazarus, Jeanne. (2024). La sociologie est-elle toujours en crise? Communications, 114 (1), 211–21. https://doi.org/10.3917/commu.114.0211
Boudon, Raymond. (1971). La crise de la sociologie. Questions d’épistémologie sociologique. Librairie Droz. https://doi.org/10.3917/droz.boudo.1971.01.
Bourdieu, Pierre. (2011). Homo Academicus. 2a. Editora da UFSC.
Brasil Jr., Antonio. (2013). A reinvenção da sociologia da modernização: Luiz Costa Pinto e Florestan Fernandes (1950-1970). Trabalho, Educação e Saúde 11 (1), 229–49. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1981-77462013000100013.
Burawoy, Michael. (2005). 2004 American Sociological Association Presidential address: For public sociology. The British Journal of Sociology, 56(2), 259-294. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2005.00059.x
Busino, Giovanni. (1990). Sociology in Crisis. Revue Européenne des Sciences Sociales, 28 (88), 193-203.
Caillé Alain, & Vanderberghe, Frédéric. (eds.) (2021). For a New Classic Sociology. A Proposition, followed by a Debate. Routledge.
Calhoun, Craig. (2022). For Sociology: May our arguments unite us. Critical Sociology, 48 (2), 197–203. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205221075652
Calhoun, Craig, Gerteis, Joseph, Moody, James, Pfaff, Steven, & Indermohan, Virk. (2002). Introduction. In: Contemporary Sociological Theory. (pp. 1-222). Blackwell.
Coenen-Huther, Jacques. (1995). Crise de la Sociologie ou Sociologues en crise? Revue Europenne des Sciences Sociales, 33 (100), 185–89. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40370950.
Connell, Raewyn. (2006). Northern Theory: The political geography of general social theory. Theory & Society, 35(2), 237-64.
Connell Raewyn. (2018). Decolonizing Sociology. Contemporary Sociology, 47(4), 399-407.
Connell, Raewyn. (2019). Canons and Colonies: the global trajectory of Sociology. Estudos Históricos, 32(67), 349–67. https://doi.org/10.1590/s2178-14942019000200002.
Connell, R. W. (1997). Why is classical theory classical? American Journal of Sociology, 102(6), 1511-1557.
Cusicanqui, Silvia. (2010). Ch’ixinakax utxiwa: una reflexión sobre prácticas y discursos descolonizadores. Tinta Limón Ediciones.
Daflon, Verônica T., & Chaguri, Mariana M.. (2023). Mulheres na Teoria Social: presente e passado para uma sociologia plural. Sociologias, 24(61)16–24. https://doi.org/10.1590/18070337-129026.
Das, Veena. (1993). Sociological research in India: The state of crisis. Economic and Political Weekly, 28(23), 1159-1161. https://www.unipune.ac.in/snc/cssh/historysociology/A%20DOCUMENTS%20ON%20HISTORY%20OF%20SOCIOLOGY%20IN%20INDIA/A%202%20Crisis%20in%20sociology/A%202%2001.pdf
Dubet, François. (2020). Le retour de la société. Sociologie. Revue du MAUSS, 56 (2), 49–76. https://doi.org/10.3917/rdm.056.0049.
Dufoix, Stéphane, and Éric Macé. 2019. “Les enjeux d’une sociologie mondiale non-hégémonique.” Zilsel 5 (1): 88–121. https://www.cairn.info/revue-zilsel-2019-1-page-88.htm.
Eisenstadt, Shmuel N. (1976). The Form of Sociology: Paradigms and crises. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Eppard, Lawrence, Savolainen, Jukka, Campbell, Bradley, & Mackey, Jacob L. (2025). Sociology in Crisis. Theory and Society, 54(3), 459–474. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-025-09630-6.
Fassin, Didier, & Steinmetz, George. (eds.) (2023). The Social Sciences in the Looking Glass: Studies in the production of knowledge. Duke University Press.
Freitas, Renan S. de. (2022). Three places for ‘science’s legitimacy’ crisis. Tempo Social, 33 (3), 47-69. https://doi.org/10.11606/0103-2070.ts.2021.187549
Go, Julian. (2020). Race, empire, and epistemic exclusion: Or the structures of sociological thought. Sociological Theory 38(2), 79–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/0735275120926213.
Goldthorpe, John H. (2006). On Sociology. Second Edition. Volume One. Critique and Program. Stanford University Press.
Gouldner, Alvin W. (1971). The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology. Heinemann Educational Publications.
Graf, Rüdiger, & Föllmer, Moritz. (2012). The Culture of ‘Crisis’ in the Weimar Republic. Thesis Eleven, 111(1), 36–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/0725513612445364
Grüning, Barbara, & Santoro, Marco. (2021). Is there a canon in this class? International Review of Sociology 31(1), 7–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2021.1926674
Gurvitch, Georges. (1956). La Crise de l’explication en sociologie. Cahiers Internationaux de Sociologie, 21, 3–18. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40688966
Habermas, Jürgen. (1988). Legitimation Crisis. Polity Press.
Hamlin, Cynthia L., Weiss, Raquel A., & Brito, Simone M. (2022). In defense of a polyphonic sociology: Introducing female voices into the sociological canon. Sociologias, 24(61), p. 26-59
Heinich, Nathalie. (2020). Et moi je l`aime toujours plus, la sociologie. Revue du Mauss, (56), 40–48.
Koselleck, Reinhart. (2006). Crisis. Traduzido por Michaela Richter. Journal of the History of Ideas, 67(2), 357–400.
Kuhn, Thomas. (2012). The structure of scientific revolutions. The University of Chicago Press.
Lacerda, Marcos, & Magnelli, André, & Garcia, José Luis. (2021). O tempo presente: uma vocação teórica e sociológica. Norus, 9(15), 3-24. https://doi.org/10.15210/norus.v9i15.21664
Lahire, Bernard. (2021). Manifeste pour la science sociale. AOC media. (online). https://aoc.media/analyse/2021/09/01/manifeste-pour-la-science-sociale/.
Lahire, Bernard. (2023). Les structures fondamentales des sociétés humaines. La Découverte.
Lengermann, Patricia M., & Niebrugge-Brantley, Jill. (1998). The Women Founders: Sociology and Social Theory, 1830-1930; a Text with Readings. McGraw-Hill.
Lepenies, Wolf. (1996). As três culturas. Edusp.
Maia, Felipe. (2021). Crise, crítica e reflexividade: problemas conceituais e teóricos na produção de diagnósticos de época / Crisis, critique and reflexivity: conceptual and theoretical problems in diagnoses of times. Sociologias, 23(56), 212-243. https://doi.org/10.1590/15174522-95597
Maia, João Marcelo Ehlert. (2015). A sociologia periférica de Guerreiro Ramos. Caderno CRH, 28 (73), 73. https://doi.org/10.9771/ccrh.v28i73.19848
Maia, João Marcelo Ehlert. (2023). Ensinando a partir do sul: novos diálogos entre a história da sociologia e a teoria sociológica (Introdução). Revista Brasileira de Sociologia, 11(27), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.20336/rbs.916.
Marshall, Barbara L., & Anne Witz. (2004). Engendering the Social. Open University Press.
Martins, Hermínio. (1996). Hegel, Texas - e outros ensaios de teoria social. Século XXI.
Martins, José de S. (2013). A sociologia como aventura: memórias. Contexto.
Martins, Paulo Henrique. (2019). Narrativas da crise: entre a recolonialidade neoliberal e as versões em disputa. In: Teoria crítica da colonialidade. Ateliê de Humanidades.
Miglievich-Ribeiro, Adelia, & Brito, Simone M. (2024). Caminhos da crítica: identidades, feminismos e projetos emancipatórios. Civitas, 24(1) e45549. https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-7289.2024.1.45549
Moebius, Stephan. (2021). Reconstruction and consolidation of sociology in West Germany from 1945 to 1967. In: S. Moebius (org.) Sociology in Germany: A History. Springer.
Moodie, Nikki M. (2023). Gender, Epistemic Violence, and Indigenous Resistance. In: M. Walter, T. Kukutai, A.A. Gozales, & R. Henry (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous Sociology. Oxford University Press.
Morin, Edgard. (1976). Pour une crisologie. Communications, (25), 149–63.
Morris, Aldon D. (2015). The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the birth of modern sociology. University of California.
Outhwaite, William. (2021). 1920: A Caesura in Social Theory? Czech Sociological Review, 56(6), 897–910. https://doi.org/10.13060/csr.2020.046
Parsons, Talcott. (1937). The Structure of Social Action. The Free Press.
Parsons, Talcott. (2021). Estrutura da ação social. Editora Vozes.
Pellegrino Vincenza, & Ricotta, Giuseppe. (2020). Global social science. Dislocation of the abyssal line and post-abyssal epistemologies and practices. Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, (4), 803-828.
Pendenza, Massimo. (2025). Canonicità riflessiva. In difesa della sociologia classica. Sociologia Classica Contemporanea, 1(1), 27-46. https://doi.org/10.82020/scc.v1i1.492
Preunkert, Jenny. (2011). Die Krise in der Soziologie. Soziologie - Forum der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie, 40 (4), 432–442. https://publikationen.soziologie.de/index.php/soziologie/de/article/view/683.
Quijano, Anibal. (1992). Colonialidad y Modernidad/Racionalidad. Perù Indígena, 13(29), 11-20.
Ricoeur, Paul. (1988). La Crise: Un Phénomène Spécifiquement Moderne? Revue de Théologie et de Philosophie, 120(1), 1–19. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44356679.
Ricotta, Giuseppe. (2025). Stratificazione sociale e colonialità. Appunti per una lettura decoloniale del canone sociologico. Sociologia Classica Contemporanea, 1(1), 47-63. https://doi.org/10.82020/scc.v1i1.493
Ricotta, Giuseppe, & Ruocco, Giovanni. (eds.) (2025). Pensare, classificare, costruire l’alterità. Percorsi di critica postcoloniale. Castelvecchi.
Rosa, Marcelo C. (2019). Sociologias indígenas ioruba: a África, o desconcerto e ontologias na sociologia contemporânea. Estudos Históricos, 32(67), 389–408. https://doi.org/10.1590/s2178-14942019000200004
Schuhmacher, Isette.(2025). Gesellschaftskrisen: Eine sozialphilosophische Krisenkonzeption, (Tese de Doutorado não publicada, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2025).
Sell, Carlos Eduardo. (2025). A Destruição dos clássicos da sociologia: democratização ou homogeneização? Revista Brasileira de Sociologia - RBS, 13, e-rbs.1057. https://doi.org/10.20336/rbs.1057
Starn, Randolph. (1971). Historians and ‘crisis’. Past & Present, (52), 3–22.
Steinmetz, George. (2023). Concept - Quake: From the History of Science to the Historical Sociology of Social Science. In: D. Fassin, & G. Steinmetz (orgs.). The Social Sciences in the Looking Glass: Studies in the Production of Knowledge. Duke University Press.
Susen Simon. (2020). Sociology in the Twenty-First Century. Palgrave Macmillan.
Sydie, Rosalind Ann. (1994). Natural Women, Cultured Men: A Feminist Perspective on Sociological Theory. UBC Press.
Tooze, Adam. (2022a). Chartbook #130 Defining Polycrisis - from Crisis Pictures to the Crisis Matrix. Substack newsletter. Chartbook, June 24. https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-130-defining-polycrisis
Tooze, Adam. (2022b). Welcome to the World of the Polycrisis. Global Economy. Financial Times, October 28. https://www.ft.com/content/498398e7-11b1-494b-9cd3-6d669dc3de33
Tooze, Adam. (2022c). Chartbook #131 Calibrating the Polycrisis - with the Help of the Bank of International Settlements. Substack newsletter. Chartbook, June 26. https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-131-calibrating-the-polycrisis.
Turner, Jonathan H. (1993). Classical Sociological Theory: A positivist’s perspective. Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Vandenberghe, Frédéric, & Fuchs, Stephan. (2019). On the Coming End of Sociology. Canadian Review of Sociology = Revue Canadienne de Sociologie, 56(1),138–43. https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12238
Wallerstein, Immanuel. (1979). The Capitalist World Economy. Cambridge University Pres.
Wagner, Gerhard. (2012). The Imitation of Science: On the Problem of the Classics in Sociology. In Hans-Georg Soeffner (ed.). Transnationale Vergesellschaftungen: Verhandlungen Des 35. Kongresses Der Deutschen Gesellschaft Für Soziologie in Frankfurt Am Main 2010. Springer.
Wagner, Peter. (1994). A sociology of modernity: liberty and discipline. Routledge.
Wagner, Peter. (2001). A history and theory of the social sciences: Not all that is solid melts into air. Sage Publications.
Werneck Vianna, Luiz, Carvalho, Maria Alice R. de, & Cunha Melo, Manuel Palácios. (2004). A institucionalização das ciências sociais e a reforma social: do pensamento social à agenda americana de pesquisa. In: A revolução passiva: iberismo e americanismo no Brasil. Editora Revan.
Wieviorka, Michel. (2009). La sociologie et la crise: Quelle crise, et quelle sociologie ? Cahiers internationaux de sociologie, 127 (2), 181–98. https://doi.org/10.3917/cis.127.0181
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Raquel Andrade Weiss, Felipe Maia, Giuseppe Ricotta

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All content of the journal, except where identified, is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution-type 4.0 International