Questioning the Old Models and Bringing in the New (1980 to the Present)

Abstract

Chapter 4 examines the period from the 1980 until the present day, which, at least during the first decade, was characterized by a new phase of expansion of French sociology. Large numbers of researchers and lecturing staff were recruited both to replace the generation of sociologists born in the 1930s and to take charge of the wave of students who were arriving in higher education. These institutional changes went hand in hand with the reorientation of the interest of sociologists towards constructivist approaches, as illustrated by the sociology of science and gender studies, and towards anthropological methods. This was accompanied by extensive epistemological debate as to the nature of the discipline.