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Some persistent issues of sociological polemics

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Sociological Forum

Abstract

The centrifugal forces and the jumble of polemics that have allegedly fragmented sociology today are shown to have existed also in the 1920s and the 1930s. The sharply contrasting visions of our field are illustrated in the debates among Ogburn, MacIver, Lundberg, and others. The logical analysis of certain persistent themes of intradisciplinary polemics shows them to be pseudo-issues—for example, differences in findings can be caused by differences in latent questions addressed by writers. From a cognitive point of view, the different approaches are frequently complementary rather than conflicting. The social conflict is caused by competition of various schools for scarce resources. This article proposes a two-pronged intellectual agenda that might clarify the complementarity of some orientations and strengthen the thrust towards theoretical integration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Barnard College, Columbia University, USA

    Mirra Komarovsky

Authors
  1. Mirra Komarovsky
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Additional information

Paper read at the annual meeting of the Sociological Research Association, August 31, 1986.

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Komarovsky, M. Some persistent issues of sociological polemics. Sociol Forum 2, 556–563 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01106626

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01106626

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