Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Public Sociology and Democratic Theory

  • Chapter
Book cover The Social Sciences and Democracy

Abstract

On the eve of the Second World War, the Danish sociologist Svend Ranulf wrote a samizdat study in the history of sociology, which he later published under the title ‘Scholarly Forerunners of Fascism’ (1939). It is a stark reminder that sociology has always been in conflict or potential conflict with liberal democracy. Although classics such as those by Émile Durkheim and Ferdinand Tönnies were also prominently featured, August Comte earned a privileged place in Ranulf’s text for his attacks on the idea of freedom of conscience and the ‘anarchy of opinions’ in his time. These make for shocking reading even today. Comte denounced the very idea of a liberal public making decisions based on discussion, ridiculed citizens for forming their own opinions, and called for state control over the dispersion of ideas.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Bourdieu, Pierre (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, trans. Richard Nice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre and Jean-Claude Passeron (1990) Reproduction in Education, Society, and Culture, trans. Richard Nice. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre, Jean-Claude Passeron, and Monique de Sainte-Martin (1994) Academic Discourse: Linguistic Misunderstanding and Professorial Power, trans. Richard Teese. Stanford, CA: Stanford University P

    Google Scholar 

  • Burawoy, Michael (2005a) ‘2004 American Sociological Association Presidential Address: “For Public Sociology.” ‘The British Journal of Sociology 56(2), 259–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burawoy, Michael (2005b) ‘The Critical Turn to Public Sociology.’ Critical Sociology 31(3), 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, Patricia Hill ([1990] 2000) Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, Patricia Hill (1997) ‘Comment on Hekman’s “Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited”: Where is the Power?’ Signs, 22(2), 375–81. Reprinted in Where’s the Power? The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies, ed. Sandra Harding. New York: Routledge, pp. 255–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Comte, Auguste ([1830-42] 1864) The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte, trans. Harriet Martineau. New York: Calvin Blanchard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, Robert A. (2006) On Political Equality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eliaeson, Sven (2006) ‘Myrdal as Public Intellectual.’ In: Das Faszinosum Max Weber, ed. Karl-Ludiwg Ay and Knut Borchardt. Konstanz, Germany: University of Konstanz Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feyerabend, Paul (1978) Science in a Free Society. London: NLB, pp. 283–300.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gramsci, Antonio (1971) ‘The Intellectuals.’ In: Selections from the Prison Notebooks, ed. Q. Hoare and G. N. Smith. New York: International Publishers, pp. 3–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, Jürgen ([1962] 1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, trans. Thomas Burger. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding, Sandra (1997) ‘Comment on Hekman’s “Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited”: Whose Standpoint Needs the Regimes of Truth and Reality?’ Signs 22(2), 382–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartsock, Nancy (1997) ‘Comment on Hekman’s “Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited”: Truth or Justice?’ Signs 22(2), 367–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayek, Friedrich von (1960) The Constitution of Liberty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hekman, Susan (1997) ‘Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited.’ Signs 22(2), 341–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, David (1998) Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey. New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, David (2006) The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jefferson, Thomas (1779) ‘Bill for Religious Freedom.’ Papers 2:545. http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff160.htm. Accessed 3 August 2006.

  • Merton, Robert (1942) ‘A Note on Science and Democracy.’ Journal of Legal and Political Sociology 1, 115–26. Reprinted as ‘Science and Democratic Social Structure’ in Social Theory and Social Structure ([1949, 1957] 1968), pp. 604–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merton, Robert ([1949, 1957] 1968) Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mill, John S. (1865) ‘August Comte and Positivism.’ In: The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill. London: Trubner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myrdal, Gunnar ([1944] 1962) An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nilsen, Waldemar (1972) The Big Foundations. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pettit, Philip (1997) Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polanyi, Michael (1939) ‘Rights and Duties of Science.’ The Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies 10(2), 175–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Polanyi, Michael (1941–43) ‘The Autonomy of Science.’ Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society 85(2), 19–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polanyi, Michael (1943–45) ‘Science, the Universities, and the Modern Crisis.’ Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society 86(6), 107–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polanyi, Michael ([1946] 1964) Science, Faith, and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polanyi, Michael ([1951] 1980) Logic of Liberty: Reflections and Rejoinders. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Price, Don K. (1965) The Scientific Estate. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ranulf, Svend (1939) ‘Scholarly Forerunners of Fascism.’ Ethics 50(1), 16–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, John (1993) Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt, Karl ([1922] 1985) Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty, trans. George Schwab. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Dorothy (1993) ‘Standpoint Epistemology.’ The Sociological Quarterly 34(1), 169–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Dorothy E. (1997) ‘Comment on Hekman’s “Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited.”’ Signs 22(2), 392–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stacey, Judith (2004) ‘Marital Suitors Court Social Science Spin-sters: The Unwittingly Conservative Effects of Public Sociology.’ Social Problems 51(1), 131–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, Stephen P. and Jonathan H. Turner (1990) The Impossible Science: An Institutional Analysis of American Sociology. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, Stephen (2005) ‘Polanyi’s Political Theory of Science.’ In: Emotion, Tradition, Reason: Essays on the Social, Economic and Political Thought of Michael Polanyi, ed. Struan Jacobs and R. T. Allen. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, pp. 83–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, Stephen (2006) ‘Was “Real Existing Socialism” Merely a Premature Form of Rule by Experts?’ In: Building Democracy and Civil Society East of the Elbe: Essays in Honor of Edmund Mokrzycki, ed. Sven Eliaeson. London: Routledge, pp. 248–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, Stephen (2007a) ‘Merton’s “Norms” in Political and Intellectual Context.’ Journal of Classical Sociology 7(2), 161–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, Stephen (2007b) ‘The Social Study of Science Before Kuhn.’ In: Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, ed. Edward Hackett et al. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, Max ([1917] 1949) ‘The Meaning of “Ethical Neutrality” in Sociology and Economics.’ In: The Methodology of the Social Sciences, ed. Edward A. Shils and Henry Finch. New York: Free Press, pp. 1–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, Max ([1917] 1946) ‘Science as a Vocation.’ In: From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, ed. H. H. Gerth and C. W. Mills. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 129–56.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA

    Stephen P. Turner (Graduate Research Professor)

Authors
  1. Stephen P. Turner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ghent University, Belgium

    Jeroen Van Bouwel

Copyright information

© 2009 Stephen P. Turner

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Turner, S.P. (2009). Public Sociology and Democratic Theory. In: Van Bouwel, J. (eds) The Social Sciences and Democracy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230246867_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation