Wallerstein - Open the Social Sciences.pdf
Transcript of Wallerstein - Open the Social Sciences.pdf
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Oen e Sc Scence
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Foreword
The Calouste Gulbenian Foundation sponsored, inthe second half of the 1980' s, what became a rst, fruitful phase
of the project Portugal 000, generating valuable relections
about the framework for and main issues concerning the pos-
sible or probable trajectories of the Portuguese nation at the
dawn of the tentyrst century These thoughts and investiga-
tions have been published , in Portuguese , in the series Portu-gal The Next ent Years. "
A this initiative unfolded, the Foundation further sought to
support relections and endeavors on issues of a global
and on problems whose consideration and solutions are
crucial to the common search by societ for a better future n
this context, a survey of the social sciences and the role they per-
form, in terms both of the relations among the disciplines and of
their relationship ith the humanities a nd the natural sciences,
se em ed appropriate. The great intellectual achievements of the
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x FOREWOR
pas hi o fo yeas eading o he moden sdy of ife
and o he sc ience of compexi he emeging need fo conex-
aiaion" of nivesaisms (which ges an inceasing dia-
oge eeen ces and he goh of nivesi edcaion
since he ae 1950'S a have songy inlenced he pacice of
socia scieniss ye ef pecios ie oom fo peoccpa-
ions of a sca and oganiaiona nae. In he pesen
sae of he evoion shod ovecoming he exising disci-pinay sce no e consideed a cena diemma fo he so-
cia sciences?
The C aose Genian Fondaion hs wecomed a po-
po sa y Pofes so Immane Waesein Dieco of he Fe-
nand Bade Cene of Binghamon nivesi o condc a
disingished inenaiona gop of schoassx om he so-
cia sciences o om he naa sciences and o omhe
hmaniiesin a elecon on he pesen socia sciences and
hei fe Conseqenly he Genian Commissi on on he
Rescing of he Socia Sciences was ceaed in Jy 1993,
ih Pofesso Walesein as is chai Is composiion elecs
oh he deph an he ide pe specive ha was nece ssay oachieve he anaysis pesened in he ex ha foows
Open the Social Sciences is a seios geneos and povoca-
ive ook which faihfy depics he amosphee and he vivac-
i of he Genian Commissi ons exchanges ding he o-
yea peiod ha foowed is ceaion. Thee penay meeings
wee hed: he s a he Fondaions he adqaes in Lison
in Jne 1994, he seco nd a he Maison deiene de omm ein Pais in Janay 1995, and he hid a'e Fenand BadeCene in Binghamon in Api 1995. Is ineeca level is pi
FOREWOR l
maiy de o he capaci of he eminen indiidas who s eved
on he Commission he ovea achievemen wod no
have een possiehohe enhsiasm deeminaion and
eadeship of Immane Waesein which we gaefy ac-
knowedge hee.
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
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Members of the Commission
Immanuel Wallerstein chai of he Commiss ion so -
cioog SA Dieco of he Fenand Bade Cene fo he
Sdy of conomies isoica Sysems and Ciiiaions and
Disingished Pofes so of So cioog Binghamon nivesi
Pesiden Inenaiona Socioogica Associaion aho The
Mode Word-System (3 vol Unthinking Social Science.
Calestous Juma science and echnoog sdiesenya xecive Seceay N Convenion on iodivesi
Geneva fome xecive Dieco fican Cene fo echno-
og Sdies Naioi coaho Long-Run Economics: An
lutiona Approach to Economic Growth
Evelyn Fox Keller physics SA Pofesso o he
isoy and Phiosophy of Science Massachses Insie of
echnoog Mach Feow I99-I997; aho Rections
on Gender and Science
Jrgen Kocka hisoy Gemany Pofesso of he is-
oy of he Indsia Wod Feie nivesi Bein pema
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xv MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION
nn Fow Wissnschafskog Bin Dico Cn fo
Conmpoay Hisoy Posdam aho Arbeitverhlnisse
und Arbeiterexistenzen; dio Bourgeo Socie in Nineteenth
Century Europe
Dominique Lecourt phiosophy Fanc Pofsso of
h Phiosophy and Hisoy of Scinc nivsi d Pais
Dnis Dido aho A quoi donc sert la philosophie? Des sci
ences de la nature aux sciences politiques; Promthe, Faust
Frankenstein Fondements imaginaires de l'thique
V Y Mudimbe Romanc angags Zai Wiiam R
Knan J Pofsso a Sanfod nivsi wh h achs in
h Dpamn of Compaaiv ia Fnch and Iaian
and Cassics and in h Afican Sdis and Modn Thogh
and Lia pogams Gna Scay Soci fo Afican
Phiosophy in Noh Aica aho The Invention ofica;
codioAica and th Disclines
Kinhide Mushkoji poiica scinc Japan Pofs
so Fac of Innaiona Sdis Mii Gakin nivsi
fom Psidn Innaiona Poiica Scinc ssociaion
fom VicRco fo Pogamm nid Naions nivsiPsidn Japans Conci fo Innaiona Affais aho
Global Issues and Intearadigmatic DialogueEssays on ul
tolar Politics
Iya Prigogine Vicom chmisy Bgim No
Pi fo Chmisy I977; Dico In sis Innaionax d
Physiq d Chimi fond pa E Sovay Dic Iya Pi
gogin Cn fo Sdis in Sh and Compx"l' }
Sysms nivsi of Txas a sin6
ho,
La nouvelle
alliance; Exploring Complexity; Entre e temps et leit
MEMBERS OF TH E C OMMISSION xv
Peter J. Taylor gogaphy K Pofsso of Goga
phy Loghoogh nivsi dio Political Geogphy; co
dio Review ofInteational Poltical Economy; aho Polit
ical Geogphy WordEconom NationState and Locali
Michel-Rolph Trouillot anhopoog Haii ri
gEisnhow Disingishd Pofsso of Anhopoog and
Dico Insi fo Goa Sdis in C Pow and
Hisoy Th Johns Hopins nivsi fom Chai di
soy Conci WnnGn Fondaion fo Anhopoogica
Rsach aho Silencing the Past Power and the oduc
tion of Histo; Peasants and Capital Dominica in the Word
Economy
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Oen e S Sene
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The Historical Construction of
the Social Sciences� from the
Eighteenth Century to 1945
Think of lfe as an immense pro blem, an equation, orrather a famly of equations, partially dependent on each
other, partially independent . . . it bein understood thatthese equations are very complex, that they are fll ofsurprises, and that we are often unable to iscovertheir "roots.
Fernand Braudel'
Th ida ha w can c inigny on h naof hmans hi aions o ach oh and o spiiua focs
and h s ocia scs ha hy hav cad and ihin which
hy iv is a as as od as codd hisoy Th civd i
gios xs discss hs mas as do h xs w ca phio
sophica And th is h oa isdom ha has n passd on
hogh h ags a nd on p ino in fom a on poin oanoh No do much ofhis wisdom was h s of cing
indcvy om h funss of xpincd hman if in on o
anoh pa of h wod ov a ong piod of im vn
ss w psnd in h fom of vaion o aiona
ducion om som inhn na hs
ha w oday ca socia scinc is hi o his isdom I
is howv a isan hi and phaps on an ngaf and
I. Fernand Braudel, preface to Chares Moraz, Les bourgeois con-qurants (Paris Libraire rmand Colin, I957).
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HISTORICAL CONSTRCTION
nacknowdging hi fo socia scinc consciosy dnd i
sf as h sch fo hs ha wn yond sch civd o
ddcd isdom. Socia scinc is an npis of h modn
wod Is oos i in h amp fon sinc h sxnh
cny and pa and pac of h conscion of o modn
wod o dvop sysmaic sc knowdg ao ai
ha is somhow vaidad mpiicay This ook h nam of sci
entia which simpy man knowdg Of cos phiosophymoogicay aso mans knowdg o mo pcisy h
ov of knowdg
Th s ocad cassica iw of sc inc pdominan fo sv
a cnis now was i on o pmiss On was h Nw
onian mod in which h xiss a smmy n pas
and f This was a qasihoogica ision ik God w can
aain cids and hfo do no nd o disingish
n pas and f sinc vhing coxiss in an na
psn Th scond pmis was Casian daism h as
smpion ha h is a fndamna isincion n na
and hmans n ma and mind n h physica
wod and h sociaspiia wod hn Thomas Hook wp h sas of h Roya Soci in 1663 h inscid as is
ociv o impov h knowdg of naa hings an a
sf As Manfacs Mchanick paciss Engns and
Invnions y Expimns" adding h phas no mding
ih Diini Maphysics Moas Poiicks Gamm Rh
oicks o Logick" Ths sas incanad aady h dii
2. Cited in Sir Henry Lyons, The RoyalSO� 10-140 ( New York:Greenwood Press I968), p I
EIGHTEENTH C ENTRY TO 1945 3
sion of h ways of knoing ino wha C P Snow wod a ca
h o cs"
Scinc cam o dnd a s h sach fo nivsa aws of
na ha maind ov a ofim and spac Axand
Ko acing h ansfomaion of opan concpions of
spac om h fnh o h ighnh cny nod
The innite Universe of the Ne Cosmology innite in Duration as
ell as in Extension, in hich e ternal matter in accordance th
eternal and necessar las moves endlessl and aimlessl in eteral
space i nherited all the ontological attributes o f Dinity. Yet onl
those-all the others the departed God took aa th Him 3
Th oh ais of h dpd God w of cos h
moa vas of a Chisian wod sch as ov hmii chi
Ko dos no h mak on h vas ha cam in hi
pac w know ha h dpad God did no qi av
a moa vacm hind If h ss w ifd yond imi
so oo w hman amiions Pogss cam h opaiv
wod now ndowd h h nwy acqid sns of innid
and infocd y h maia achivmns o f chnoog.
Th wod" of which Ko spaks is no h si
go h cosm os Indd on migh ag ha ov h
sam piod h pcpion of sia spac in h Wsn
wod was dgoing a ansfomaion in h vs
owad nid Fo mos pop iwas ony wih h voyags
discovy avsing h go ha h ah cosd in ono
sphica fom To s h cicmfnc of his sph was
fa ga han h on Coms had imagind i was
Aexandre Kor, Frm the Csed Wrd t the Innite Universe(Baltimore: Johns Hopns Universit Press, I97), p. 276
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4 HISTORICAL C ONSTRCTION
nonthlss nit Furthrmor with us and ovr tim ths
sam voyags of discovry stablishd th commrcial routs
and th consqunt nlargd divisions of labor that would
stadily shrink social and tmporal distancsHowever, this nitude of the earth was not, at least not until
recently, a source of discouragement. "ile the ideal and the
ision of unlimited progress drew sustenance om the innities
of time and space, the practical realization of progress in human
affairs through technological advance depended on the know-
abilit and explorabilit of the world, on a condence in its ni-
tude in certain key dimensions (especially its epistemology and
geography . Indeed, it was generally supposed that achieing
progress required that we rid ourselves completely of all inhibi-tions and restraint in our role as discoverers seeing to uncover
the inner secrets and to tap the resources of a world ithin
reach. Up until the te!tieth century, it seems that the nitude
of the earthly sphere served primarily to facilitate the explo-
rations and exploitation demanded by progres s, and to make
practical and realizable Western aspirations to dominion. In the
tentieth century, as terrestrial distances began to shrink to a level that seemed to be constraining, the limitations of the earth
could even be invoked as added incentive for the ever mor up-
ward and outard explorations needed to enlarge that sphere of
dominance still fther. In short, the abode of our present and
past habitation came to look less like a home base and more like
a launching pad, the place from which we, as men (and a few women) of science, could soar into
p
ce .
,
st
bl i
sh n
g
a position
of mastery over an ever more cosmicu
ni;
�
Progrss and discovry may b th ky words hr but othr
EIGHTEENTH CENTRY TO 1945 5
trmsscinc unit simplicit mastry and vn th uni-
vrs" ar ndd to complt th lxicon Natural scinc as
it was constructd in th svntnth and ightnth cnturis
drivd primarily from th study of clstial mchanics t rst
thos who attmptd to stablish th lgitimacy and priorit of
th scintic sarch for th laws of natur mad littl distinction
btn scinc and philosophy To th xtnt that thy distin-
guishd th to domains thy thought of thm as allis in thsarch for scular truth But as xprimntal mpirical work b-
cam vr mor cntral to th ision of scinc philosophy b-
gan to sm to natural scintists mor and mor a mr substi-
tut for tholog qually guilt of a priori assrtions of truth
that wr untstabl By th bginning of th nintnth cn-
tury th division of knowldg into to domains had lost th
sns of thir bing sparat but qual" sphrs and took on
th lavor of a hirarchy at last in th ys ofnatural scintists
knowldg that was crtain (s cinc) vrsus knowldg that was
imagind vn imaginary (what was not scinc) Finally in th
bginning of th nintnth cntury th triumph of scinc was
nsconcd linguistically Th trm scinc" without a spci-ing adctiv cam to b quatd primarily (oftn xclusivly)
with natural scinc This fact markd th culmination of th
attmt of natural scinc to acquir for itslf a VV
tual lgitimacy tha was totally sparat from indd vn in
position to anothr form ofnowldg calld philosophy
This clear Enlish and in e Romance lanuaes. lessclear in German, where e erm Wissenschaft coninues o be used as aeneral erm for sysemaic knowlede and where wha in nlish arecalled he "humaniies are called Geisteswissenschaften which rans
laes lierally as knowlede of spiriual or menal maers.
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8 HISTORICAL CONSTRCTION
ls o pomo h n aa scincs Th n aal sciniss
phaps dd no nd h nivsiis o ps hi wok
I was ah hos who w no naal scinisshisoi
ans classiciss scholas of naiona liaswho id mos o
viv h nivsis in h cos of h ninnh cny
sing i as a mchanism o oain sa sppo fo hi schol
alywok Thy plld h naal scinss ino h goning
nivsi scs hy poing fom h posiiv pol
of h naal sciniss. Th sl howv was ha fom hn
on h nivsiis cam h pimay si of h conning
nsion n h as (hmaniis and h scincs which
w now ing dnd as qi diffn and fo som anago
nisic ways of knoing
In many conis cainly in Ga Biain and Fanc i
was h clal phaval ogh ao y h Fnch Rvol
on ha focd a e n claicaon of h da T ps
s fo polical and social ansfomaion had gaind an
gncy and a lgimacy ha cold no asily conaind any
long simpl y poclaiming hois ao a spposdly na
al od of social lif Insad many agd ha h solionlay ah in oganiing ad aionaliing h social ch ang ha
now smd o inial in a wold in which h sovgn
of h popl" was fas coming h nom no do hoping
hy o limi is xn. B if on w o ogani and aio
nali social chang on had s of all o sdy i and nd
sand h ls which govnd i Th was no only spac fo
a dp socia nd fo wha wh
com o call social sci\
nc Fhmo i smd o follow
if on w o y o
ogani a nw social od on a sal as h mo xac ( o
EIGHTEENTH C ENTRY TO I95 9
posiiv" h scinc phaps h Wih his in iw
many of hos who gan o lay h ass of modn social sci
nc in h s half of h ninnh cny mos noaly in
Ga Biain and Fanc nd o Nwonian physics as a
modl o mla
Ohs mo concnd ih niing h social ni of
h sas which had ndgon o w hand y social dis
pion lookd o h laoaion of naional hisoical ac
cons o ndpin h nw o ponal sovigns accons
ha w howv now lss accons of pincs han of po
pls" Th fomlaion of hisoy" as gechichte hap
pnd wha reallyhappnd was hogh o giv i impccal
cdnials Hisoy wold cas o a hagiogaphy sing
monachs and com h soy of h pas xplaining h
psn offing h asis of is choic fo h f This
ind of hiso (asd on mpiical achival sach oind so
cial scinc and naal scinc in cing spclaion" an d
ddcion" (pacics which w said o m philoso
phy" B pcisly cas his nd of hisoy was dply con
cnd wih h sois of popls ach mpiically diffnom h oh i lookd wih sspicion vn hosili pon h
amps of h xponns of h nw social scinc" o gn
ali ha is o salish nivsal laws of soci
In h cos of h ninnh cny h vaios
plins spad o lik a fan coving a ang of
pos iions on nd lay s mahmacs (a nonmpiical ac
ii and nx o i h xpimnal naal scincs (hm
slvs in a so of dscnding od of dminismphysics
chmisy iolog . h oh nd lay h hmanis ( o as
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0 HISTORICAL CONSRCTION
and ls saing h philosophy (h pndan ofmahma
ics as a nonmpiical acivi and nx o i h sdy of fomal
aisic pacics (lias paining and sclp msicol
og on coming clo s in hi pacic o ing hisoy a his
oy of h as And in n h hmaniis and h naal
scincs hs dnd lay h sdy of social ais h
hisoy ( idiogaphic clos o ofn pa of faculis of as and
ls and social scinc" (nomohic clos o h naal
scincs Amids an vhadning spaion of nowldg
ino o dffn sphs ach h a diffn pismological
mphasis h sdns of social aliis fond hmslvs
cagh in h middl and dply diidd on hs pismolog
cal isss
All his hov as occing in a conx in hich (N
onian ) scinc had imphd ov (spclaiv) philosophy
and had hfo com o incna social psig in h old
of noldg This spli n scinc and philosophy had
n poclaimd as a divoc y gs Com alhogh in
ali i psnd pimaily h cion of Aisolian ma
physics and no of philosophical concns p s Nonhlssh isss posd smd o al: is h old govnd y d
minisic las? o is h a plac a ol fo ( human ivn
ivnss and imaginaion? Th inllcal issus fuh
mo ovlain ih hi puaiv poliical implicaions. Polii
cally h concp of dminisic las smd mo sfl fo
amps a chnocaic conol of ponially anachi mov
mns fo chang And poliically th � f ns of h picla
h nondmind h imaginaiv
mo sfl no
only fo hos ho sising chnocaic chang in h
EIGHTEENTH CENTRY TO 945
nam of consving ising insiions and adiions a lso
fo hos who w sggling fo mo sponanos mo ad
cal possiiliis of ining hman agncy ino h sociopoli
cal ana In his da which was coninos nlancd
h ocom in h wold of nowldg was ha scinc
(physics was vwh placd on a pdsal and in many
conis philosophy was lgad o an v small con of
h nivsi sysm On spons of som philosophs was
vnally o dn hi acivis in ways mo consonan
ih h scinic hos (h analyic philosophy of h Vinna
posiiiss
Scinc was poclaimd o h discovy of ojciv al
i sing a mhod ha nald us o go outside h mind
whas philosophs w said mly o cogia and i
ao hi cogiaions This w of scinc and philosophy was
assd qi claly y Com and John Sa Mill in h s
half of h ninnh cny as hy undoo o lay don h
ls ha wold govn analyss of h social wold In viving
h m social physics" Com mad cl his poliical con
cs H ishd o sav h Ws om h sysmaic copion" which had com cd ino an indspns al ool of
govning" cas of h inllcal anachy ha had n
manifs sinc h Fnch Rvolion In his viw h pa
od was asing islf on omodd docins ( Caholic and
dal whil h p of movmn was asing islf on
ngaiv and dsuciv hss dawn fom Posanism Fo
Com social physics wold pmi h conciliaion of od
and pogss y ning ov h solion of social qsions
o a small nm of li inlligncs" ih h appopia
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12 HISTORICAL C ONSTRCTION
ducation. Inthis way th Rvolution would b trminatd" by
th installation of a nw spiritual powr. Th tchnocratic basis
and th so cial function of th nw social physics was thus clar.
In this nw structur of knowldg philosophrs would b-
com in a clbratd formula th spcialists of gnralitis."
hat this mant was that thy would apply th logic of clstial
mchanics (brought to prfction in PirrSimon Laplac's vr-
sion of th Nwonian prototp) to th social world. Positiv
scinc was intndd to rprsnt total libration from tholog
and mtaphysics and all othr mods of xplaining" ralit.
Our rsarchs thn in vry branch of knowldg if thy ar
to b pos itiv must b connd to th study of ral facts without
sing to now thir rst ca uss or nal purpos. " 5
Comt' s English countrpart and corrspondnt John Stuart
Mill spok not of positiv scinc but of xact scinc but th
modl of clstial mchanics rmaind th sam: [th scinc
of human natur] falls far short of th standards of xactnss
now ralid in stronomy; but thr is no rason that it should
not b as much a scinc as Tidolog is or as stronomy was
whn its calculations had only astrd th main phnomnabut not th prturbations ." 6
lthough th undrpinnings of th diisions ithin th social
scincs wr clarly crystalliing in th rst half of th nin-
tnth cntury it was only in th priod 18501914 that th in-
tllctual divrsication rlctd in th disciplinary structurs
uuste Comte, A Discurse n the Psitive pirit (London:Wllam Reeves, I93), p . I.
6 ohn Stuart Mll, A stem f Lgic Rl2ca and Inductive, vol. 8 of Cected Wrks f hn tuart Mi (Toronto Unverst ofToronto Press, I97), bk. 6, chap. 3, para , p 86.
EIGHTEENTH CENTRY TO 1945
of th social scincs was formally rcognid in th principal
univrsitis in th forms thatw now thm today. To b sur in
th priod btn 1500 and 1850 thr had alrady xistd a lit
ratur concrning many of th cntral qustions tratd in
whatw today call so cial scinc th functioning of political in-
stitutions th macroconomic policis of th stats th ruls
govrning intrstat rlations th dscription of nonEuropan
social systms . Today w still rad N iccolo Machiavlli and Jan
Bodin William Ptt and Hugo Grotius th Frnch Physiocrats
and th Scottish Enlightnmnt as wll as th authors of th
rst half of th nintnth cntury from Thomas Malthus
and Daid Ricardo to Fraois Guiot and lxis d Tocquill
to Johann Hrdr and Johann Ficht. W vn hav in this p-
riod arly discussions of social dvianc as in Csar Bccaria.
But all this was not yt quit what w hav com to man today by
social scinc and non of ths scholars yt thought of himslf
as oprating within th framwork ofwhat latr wr cons idrd
th sparat disciplins.
Th cration of th multipl disciplins of social scinc was
part of th gnral nintnthcntury attmpt to scur and ad-vanc objctiv" nowldg about ralit" on th basis of m-
pirical ndings (as opposd to spculation") . Th intnt was to
larn" th truth not invnt or intuit it. Th procss of institu-
tionaliation of this ind of knowldg actiitwas not at all sim-
pl or straightforward. For on thing it was not at rst clar
whthr this actiit was to b a singular on or should rathr b
diidd into th svral disciplins as latr occurrd. Nor was it
at th outst clar what was th bst rout to such nowldg
that is what ind of pistmolog would b most fruitful or vn
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HISTORICAL CONSTRCTION
lgitimat. Last of all was it clar whthr th social scincs
could in som sns b thought to constitut a third cultur"
that was btn scinc and litratur" in th latr formula-
tion of Wolf Lpnis. In fact non of ths qustions has vr
bn dnitivly rsolvd All w can do is to not th actual d-
cisions that wr mad or th majorit positions that tndd to
prvail.
Th rst thing to not is whr this institutionaliation took
plac. Thr wr v main locals for social scinc activit
during th nintnth cntury: Grat Britain Franc th Gr-
manis th Italis and th Unitd Stats. Mo st of th scholars
most ofth univrsitis (of cours not all) wr locatd in ths
v placs Th univrsitis in othr countris lackd th nu-
mrical wight or in trnationa prstig of thos in ths v. To
this day most of th nintnthcntury works that w still rad
wr rittn in on ofhs v local s.
Th scond thing to not is that a vry larg and divrs st o f
nams of subjct mattrs" or disciplins" wr put forward
during th cours of th cntury. Howvr by th First World
War thr was gnral convrgnc or consnsus around a fwspcic nams and th othr candidats wr mor or lss
droppd. Ths nams as w shall discuss wr primaril v:
history conomics socio log political scinc and anthropol-
og. On might add to this list as w shall s th so calld Ori-
ntal scincs ( calld Orintalism in English) dspit th fact
that thy slfconsciously did not consdr thmslvs social sci-
ncs . Whyw do not includ ggay,
psycholog and law in
this lis w shall xplainblow.
�
Th rst of th social scinc disciplins to achiv an au
EIGHTEENTH CENTRY TO 1945 5
tonomous institutional xistnc was history. It is tru that
many historians igorously rjctd th labl of social scinc
and som still do s o today. W howvr rgard th quarrls b-
tn th historians and th othr social scinc disciplins a s
quarrls within social scinc as w shall try to mak clar as w
procd. History was of cours a longstanding practic and th
trm itslf is ancint. ccounts of th past particularly accounts
of th past of on's o popl on's stat wr a familiar activ-
it in th world of knowldg. And hagiography had always bn
ncouragd by thos in powr. hat distinguishd th nw dis-
ciplin" of history as it dvlopd in th nintnth cntury
was th rigorous mphasis it put on th sarch to nd out wie es
eigenich gewesen ist (what rally happnd") in Rank's fa-
mous phras. opposd to what? Most of all as opposd to
tlling storis that wr imagind or xaggratd bcaus thy
lattrd th radrs or srvd th immdiat purposs of rulrs
or any othr powrful groups .
It is hard to miss how much this Rankian slogan rlctd th
thms usd by scinc" in its struggl ith philosophy" th
mphasis on th xistnc of a ral world that is objctiv andowabl th mphasis on mpirical vidnc th mphasis on
th nutralit of th scholar. Furthrmor th historian lik th
natural scintist was not supposd to nd his data in priorW1 >
ings (th library locus of rading) or in his own thought
cs ss (th study locus of rlction) but rathr in a plac whr
objctiv xtrnal data could b assmbld stord controlld
and manipulatd (th laboratory th archiv loci of rsarch) .
This common rjction o f spculativ philosophy drw his-
tory and scinc togthr as modrn" (that is not mdival)
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16 HISTORICAL CONSTRCTION
mods ofnowldg But sinc th histoians w also jcting
philosophy insofa as it ntaild th sach fo gnal schmas
which nabld on to xplain mpiical data thy flt that a
sach fo scintic laws" of th social wold would only lad
thm back into o It is this doubl maning fo histoians of
thi jction of philosophy that xplains how thy could in
thi wok not only lct th nw dominanc in Euopan
thought of th pimacy of scinc but also b th stong halds
and poponnts of an idiogaphic antithoiing stanc It is fo
this ason that thoughout th nintnth cntuy most his-
toians insistd that thy blongd in facultis of ltts and
tndd to b way of any idntication ith th nw catgoy
th social scincs that was slowly coming into fashion
hil it is tu that som ofth aly nintnthcntuy his-
toians statd outith som visions of a univsal histoy (a last
link ith tholog) th combination of thi idiogaphic com-
mitmnts and th social pssus coming om th stats as wll
as fom ducatd public opinion pushd histoians in th dic-
tion of witing pimaily thi own national histois th dni-
tion of the nation being more or less circumscribed by a pushback in tim of th spac occupid in th psnt by th stat
boundais in xistnc o in constuction. In any cas th m-
phasis of histoians on th us of achivs basd on an indpth
contxtual nowldg of th cultu mad histoical sach
sm most valid whn pfomd in on's own bacad Thus it
was that histoians who had not wantd to ngag any long in
justiing kngs found thmslvs e'l
ag ed in justing "na-
tions" and oftn thi nw sovignst
�\
popls
''
This was no doubt usful to th stats but only indictly in
EIGHTEENTH CENTRY TO 1945 7
tms of infocing thi social cohsion It did not hlp thm
to dcid on is policis in th psnt and ctainly od
littl isdom about th modatis of ational fomism B-
n 1500 and 180, th vaious stats had alady bcom ac-
customd to tuning to spcialists oftn ciil svants to hlp
thm fog policy paticulaly in thi mcantilist momnts
Ths spcialists offd thi knowldg und many ubics
such as juispudnc (an old tm) and law ofth nations ( a nw
on) political conomy ( also a nw tm indcating quit lit-
ally macoconomics at th lvl of th politis) statistics (an-
oth nw tm fing initially to quantitativ data about th
stats) and Kamelwissenschaften (administativ scincs)
Juispudnc was alady taught in th facultis o flaw of th
univsitis and Kamelwissenschaften bcam a subjct in
Gmanic univsitis in th ightnth cntuy Howv only
in th nintnth cntuy do w bgin to nd a disciplin calld
conomics somtims ithin th facult oflaw but oftn ithin
th facult (s omtims xfacult) of philosophy And givn th
pvailing libal conomic thois of th nintnth cntuy
th phas p olitical conomy" (popula in th ightnth cn-tuy) disappas in favo of conomics" by th scond half of
th nintnth cntuy By stipping away th adjctiv politi-
cal" conomists could agu that conomic bhavio was th
lction of a univsal individualist psycholog ath than
socially constuctd institutions an agumnt which could thn
b usd to asst th natualnss oflai ssfai pincipls
Th univsaliing assumptions of conomics mad th study
of conomics vy psnt ointd a sult conomic his-
toy was always lgatd to a mino plac in conomics cuic
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18 HISTORICAL C ONSTRCTION
ula, and the subdiscipline of economic history developed largely
out of (and partially separated itself from) history more than out
of economics. The one major attempt in the nineteenth century
to develop a social science that was neither nomothetic nor idio
graphic but rather a search for the rules governing historically
specic social systems was the construction in the Germanic
zone of a eld called StaatswissenschaftenThis eld covered (in
presentday terms) a mixture of economic history, urispru-
dence, sociolog, and economicsinsisting on the historical
specicit of dfferent states" and maing none of the dscipli-
nary distinctions that were coming into use in Great Britain and
rance The very name Staatswissenschaften ( sciences of the
state") indicated that its proponents were seeng to occupy
somewhat the same intellectual space that political economy"
had covered earlier in G rea t Britain and rance, and therefore to
serve the same funct!n of proiding knowledge that would beuseful, at least in the longer run to the states. This disciplinary
invention lourished part icularly in the second half of the nine-
teenth century but ultimately succumbed to attacks from ith-
out and cold feet from ithin. In the rst decade of the tentiethcentury, German social sc ience began to conform to the discipli-
nary categories in use in Great Britain and rance . Someofthe
leading younger gures in Staatswissenschaften such as M
Weber, took the lead in founding the German Sociological Soci-
et. B the 1920', the term Sozialwissenschaften (social sci-
ences" ) had displacedStaatswissenschaften
t the same time thatenmi
was
becoming an estab-
lished discipline in theuivesiies-
p}
sen
oriented and no-
mothetica totally new discipline was being invented, ith an
EIGHTEENTH C ENTRY TO 1945 1
invented name: sociolog. or the inventor, Comte, sociolog
was to be the queen ofthe sciences, an integrated and unied so-
cial science thatwas positiist," another Comteian neologsm.
In practice, however, sociolog as a dscipline developed in the
second half of the nineteenth century, principally out of the in-
stitutionalization and transformation thin the universities of
the work of social reform ass ociations, whose agenda had been
primarily that of dealing ith the dscontents and dsorders of
the muchenlarged urban worngclass populations . By mong
their work to a universit setting, these social reformers largely
surrendered their role of active, immediate legislative lobbing.
But sociolog has always nonetheless retained its concern th
orinary people and with the social consequences of modernit.
Partly in order to consummate the break ith its origins in social
reform organizations sociologsts began to cultivate a positiist
thrust, which, combined with their orientation toward the pres-
ent, pushed them as wellinto the nomothetic camp.
Political science as a discipline emerged still later, not be-
cause its subject matter, the contemporary state and its politics,
was less amenable to nomothetic analysis, but primarily becauseof the resistance of faculties of law to eld their monopoly in
ths arena. The resistance oflaw faculties may explain the impor-
tance given by political scientists to the study of political
ophy, sometimes under the name of political theory, at least
until the socalled behaiorist revolution of the post945 pe�
riod . Political philosophy allowed the new discipline of political
science to claim a heritage that went back to the Greeks and to
read authors that had long had an assured place in university
curricula.
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HSTORCAL CONSTRUCTON
Still, political phi losophy was not enough to justi ceating a
new discipine; it could, afte all, have continued to be taught
within philosophy depatments, and indeed it was. Political sci-
ence as a sepaate isci pline accomplished a futhe objective: it
legitimated economics as a sepaate discipline. Political econ-
omy had been ejected as a subject matte because of the agu-
ment that the state and the maket opeated and should opeate
by distinctive logics. In the long un, this logically equied as its
guaantee the establishment of a sepaate scientic study of the
political aena.
The quatet of histoy, economics, sociolog, and political
science, as they became univesit disciplines in the nineteenth
centuy (and indeed ight up to 945 not only wee pacticed
pimaily in the ve counties of thei collective oigin but wee
lagely concened with descibing social ealit in the same ve
counties. It not that the univesities of these ve counties
totally ignoed the est of the wold. It is athe that they sege-
gated thei study into dieent disciplines .
The ceation of the moden woldsystem involved the uo-
pean encounte with, and in most cases conquest of, the peoplesof the est of the wold. In tems of the categoies of uopean
expeience, they encounteed to athe diffeent inds of peo-
ples and social stuctues . Thee wee peoples who lived in ela-
tively small goups, who had no system of witten ecods, who
did not seem to shae in a geogaphically falung eligious sys-
tem, and who wee militaily weak in elation to uopean tech-
nolog. Geneic tems to descbe uh people s came into
use: in nglish, they wee usually alleie
In some othe
languages, they wee called aces" (although this tem late
EGHTEENTH CENTURY TO 94 5
dopped ou t of use, because of its confusions with the othe use
of ace s," efeing to athe lage goupings of human beings
on the basis of sin colo and othe biological attibutes). The
study of these people s became the domain of a new discipline
called anthopolog. sociolog had lagely begun as the activ-
it of social efom associations outside the univesities, so had
anthopolog lagely begun outside the univesit as a pactice
of exploes, taveles, and ofcials of the colonial seces of
the uopean powes. Like socio log, it subse quently became in-
stitutionalized as a univesit discipline, but one that was quite
segegated om the othe social sciences, which studied the
Westen wold.
hile some ealy anthopologists wee attacted to the uni-
vesal natual histoy of humankind (and its pesumed stages of
development ) , just as ealy histoians wee attacted to univesal
histoy, the social pessues of the extenal wold pushed an-
thopologists into becoming ethnogaphes of paticula peo-
ples , usually chosen fom among those found in the intenal o
extenal colonie s of thei county. This then almost ineitably
implied a quite specic methodolog, built aound eldwok(theeby meeting the equiement of the scientic ethos of em-
piical eseach) and paticipant obsevation in one paticula
aea (meeting the equiement of achieving he indepth
edge of the cultue equied fo undestanding, so difcult to
quie in a cultue vey stange to the scientist )
Paticipant obsevation always theatened toviolate the ideal
of scientic neutalit, as id the temptation fo the anthopolo-
gist (simila to that of the missionaies) to become a mediato
fo the people he/she studied with the uopean conqueing
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22 HSTORCAL CONSTRUCTON
wod, especiay since he anhopoogis ended o e a ciien
of he cooniing powe of he peope eing sdied ( e g , Biish
anhopoogiss in easen an d sohen Afica, ench anho-
poogiss in Wes Afica, U.S. anhopoogiss in Gam o sdy-
ing Ameican Indians, Iaian anhopoogiss in Liya I was
hei anchoing in he sces of he nivesi ha was mos
inenia in consaining anhopoogiss o mainain he pac-
ice of ehnogaphy wihin he nomaive pemises of science
hemoe, a seach fo he pisine peconac" sae of
ces pshed ehnogaphes owad a eief ha hey wee
deaing wih peopes wiho hisoy," in Eic Wofs pngen
fomaion This migh have ned hem owad a pesen-
oiened, nomoheic sance ain o economiss, and afe 945
sca anhopoog wod ake pecisey his n Bwha
ook pioi iniiay was he need o si he sdy of diffe-
ence and o defend heoa egiimacy of no eing Eopean
And heefoe, fooing he same ogic as ha of he eay hiso-
ians, anhopoogiss esised he demand o fomae aws,
pacicing fo he mos pa an idiogaphic episemoog
A nonEopean peopes cod no, howeve, e cassied asies" Eopeans had ong had co nac ih ohe socaed
high civiiaions," sch as he aIsamic wod and China
These ones wee consideed high" civiiaions y Eopeans
pecisey ecase hey did have iing, did have eigios sys-
ems ha wee geogaphicay idespead, and wee oganied
poiicay (a eas fo ong seches of ime in he fom of
age, eacaic empies Euopesuy of hese ciiia
ions had egn wih he medieva cl�s Beeen he hieenh and he eigheenh cenies, hese civiiaions" wee
si miiaiy sfcieny esisan o Eopean conqes ha
EGHEENTH CENTURY TO 945
hey meied espec, even someimes admiaion , and ye, o e
se , pemen a s we
In he nineeenh ceny, howeve, as a es of Eopes
fhe echnooica advances , hese ciiiaions " wee made
ino Eopean coonies, o a eas ino semicoonies Oiena
sdies, whos e oigina home was in he Chch and whos e oig-
ina sicaion was as an aiiay o evangeiaion, ecame a
moe seca pacice, evenay nding a pace in he evoving
discipinay sces of he nivesiies The insiionaia-
ion of Oiena sdies was in fac peceded y ha of he an-
cien Medieanean wod, wha in Engish was caed he cas-
sics," he sdy of Eopes own aniqi This was aso a sdy
of a civiiaion ha was diffeen fom ha of moden Eope ,
iwas no eaed in he same way as Oiena sdies. Rahe
i was co nsideed o e he hisoy of hose peopes who wee
dened as he ancesos of moden Eope, nike, say, he
sdy of ancien Egp o of Mesopoamia The ciiiaion of an-
iqi was expicaed as he eay phase of a singe coninos
hisoica deveopmen ha cminaed in moden Wesen"
ciiiaion I was hs seen as pa of a singe saga s an-iqi, hen ih aaian conqes he conini poided
y he Chch, hen ih he Renaissance he eincopoaion
of he GecoRoman heiage and he ceaion of he
wod In his sense, aniqi had no aonomos
ahe, i consied he pooge of modeni By conas,
foowing he same ogic , e ohe ciiiaions " had no
aonomos hisoy eihe ahe, hey ecame he soy of
hisoies ha wee foen , ha had no pogessed, ha had
no cminaed in modeni
Cas sics was pimaiy a ieay sdy, ahogh i oviosy
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HSTORCAL CONSTRCTON
overlapped ith the historical stdy of Greece and Rome In
seein to create a discipline separate om philosophy (and the-
olo) , the classicists dened their sbject matter as a combina-
tion of all inds of literatre (not merely the ind which philoso-
phers reconized) , th e arts (and its new adnct, archaeolo),
and sch history as cold be done in the mode of the new history
(which was not too mch, iven the pacit of primary sorces )
This combination made classic s close in practice to the simlta-
neosly emern disciplines that focsed on the national litera-
tres of each ofthe maor Western ropean states
The bellettristic tone of classics set the scene for the many
varietes of Oriental stdies that bean to enter the niversit
crricla. Given their premises, however, Orientalist scholars
adopted a very special practice. hat became of interest was not
reconstrcn iachronic seqences, as for Eropean history,
since this history was no� presmed to proress What was of in-
terest was nderstanin and appreciatin the set of vales and
practices that created civilizations which, althoh considered
to be hih" ciilizations, were nonetheless thoht to be im-
mobile. Sch nderstandin cold best be achieved, it was ar-ed, by a close readin of the texts that incarnated their wis-
dom; and this reqired linistic and philoloical sills, qite
ain to those that had been taditionally sed by the mon in
the stdy of Christian texts In this sense, Oriental stdies re-
sisted modernit altoether and was nottherefore caht p for
the most part in the scientic ethos. Even more than the histori-
ans, the Orientalist scholars saw no vr' e in social science, and
riorosly shnned association ith th e"
b
m a n, preferrin to
consider themselves part of the hmanities " Still, they lled
EGHTEENTH CENTRY TO 945
an important niche in the social sciences since, for a lon time,
Orientalist scholars were irtally the only ones in the niversit
who enaed in the stdy of social realities that related to China,
or Inia, or Persia There were, to be sre, n addition a few so-
cial scientists who were interested in comparin Oriental civi-
lizations with Western ciilizations ( sch as Max Weber, Arnold
Tonbee , and, less systematically, Karl Marx). Bt these compar-
atiist scholars, nlie the Orientalist scholars, were not con-
cerned ith Oriental civlizations for their own sae Rather,
their primary intellecal concern was always to explain why it
was the Western world, and not these other cilizations, that
went forward to modernit ( or capitalism )
word needs to be said as well of three elds that never qite
made it as principal components of the social sciences: eora-
phy, psycholo, and law Georaphy, lie history, ws an an-
cient practice In the late nineteenth centry, it reconstrcted
itself as a new discipline, primarily in German niversities,
which served to inspire developments elsewhere hile the con-
cerns of eraphy were primarily those o f a social science, it
resisted cateorization It soht to bride the ap th the nat-ral sciences throh its concern ith physical eoraphy, as
well as ith the hmanities throh its concern with what was
called hman eoraphy (in some ways doin wor similar
that of anthropoloists, thoh ith an emphasis on
mental inlences ) . rthermore, eoraphy was he one
pline in the period before 945 that in practice cons ciosly tried
to be trly worldide in terms of its sbject matter This was its
irte and perhaps its ndoin s the stdy of social realit
became increasinly compartmentalized in the late nineteenth
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HSTORCAL CONSTRUCTON
century into separate disciplines, ith a clear diision of labor,
geography appeared anachronistic in its generalist, synthesiz-
ing, nonanaltic penchants.
Probably in consequence, geography remained through all
this period a sort of poor relation in terms of numbers and pes-
tige, often serving merely as a ind of minor adjunct to history.
a result, treatment of space and place was relatively neglected
in the social sciences . The focus on progress and the politics of
organizing social change made the temporal dimension of social
existence crucial, but left the spatia dimension in limbo If
proces ses were universal and deterministic, space was theoreti-
caly irrelevant. If processes verged on being unique and un-
repeatable, space became merely one element (and a minor one )
of specicity. In the former iew, s pacewas see n as merelya plat-
fom upon which events unfolded or processe s operatedessen-
tially inert, just there ad no more In the latter iew, space be-
cam e a context inluencing events (in idiographic history, in e-
alist international relations, in neighborhood effects, even in
Marshallian externalities ) . But for the most part, these contex
tual effects were seen as mere inluencesresiduals that had tobe taken into account to get better empirical results, but ones
that were not central to the analysis.
Nonetheess , social science in practice based itself on a par-
ticular iew of spatiality, albeit one that was unavowed. The set
of spatial sructures through which social scientists assumed
lives were organized were the sovereign territories that collec-
tively dened the world pol itical map.N yall social scientists
assumed that these political boundaries ed the spatial paa-
meters of other key interactions the sociologist's society, the
EGHTEENTH CENTURY TO 945
macroeconomists national economy, the political scientists
polity, the historian's nation. ach assumed a fundamental spa-
tial conguence between political, social, and economic pro-
cess es. In this sense, social science was very much a creature, if
not a creation, of the states , taing their boundaries as crucial
social containers.
Psychology was a different case. Here too , the discipline sepa-
rated out of philosophy, seeing to recon stitute itself in the new
scientic form Its practice, however, came to be dened as lying
not in the social arena but primarily in the medical arena, which
meant that its legitimacy depended on the closeness of its as soci-
ation ith the natural sciences. urthermore, the positiists,
sharing the premise of Comte (the eye cannot look at itsel') ,
pushed psychology in this direction. or many, the only psychol-
ogy that could be scientically legitimate would be one that was
physiological, even chemical. Hence these psychologists s ought
to move beyond social science to become a biological sci-
ence, and consequently in most univesities psychology eventu
ally shifted its berth from faculties of the social sciences to those
ofthe natural sciences .There were, of course, forms of psychological theorizing
which placed their emphasis on the analysis of the individual in
society. These socaled social psychologists did try to remain ! {. ·i:
ithin the camp of social science. But social psychology was fo;: :
the most part not successful in establishing a full institutional
autonomy, and suffered visis psychology the same ind of
marginalization that economic histoy suffered visvis eco-
nomics. In many cases, it surived bybeing absorbed as a subdis
ci pline ithin sociology. There were, to be sure, various inds of
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HSTORCAL CONSTRCTON
psychology that were not postvstc for example, geisesis
senschfiche psychology and Geslpsychology.
The strongest and most inluential theorizing in psychology
that might have turned it toward dening itself as a social sci
ence, reudian theory, failed to do so for to reasons irst, it
emerged out of medical practice, and second, its initially scan-
dalous quality made it, as an activity, something of a parah
leaing psychoanalysts to create structures of institutional re-
production totally outside the university system This may have
preserved psychoanalysis as a practice and a school of thought,
but it meant that ithin the unversity reudian concepts found
their berth largely in departments other than psychology
egal studies was a third eld that never quite became a s ocial
scence or one thing, there already was a faculty of law, and its
curricula was closely linked to ts primary function of trainng
layers The nomothe}ic social scientists regarded jurispru-
dence with some skepticism It seemed too normative, too little
rooted in empirical investigaton. Its laws were not scientc
laws. ts context seemed too idiographic. Political science broke
away from analysis of such laws and their history in order to analye the abstract rules which governed political behavior, from
which it would be po ssible to derive appropriately rational egal
systems
There is one last aspect of the institutionalization of socal
scence that is important to noe. The proces s took place at the
very time that Europe was nally conrming its dominion over
the rest of the world. This gave rse tot
£
obvious question why
was this small part of the world able to fat
all rivals and m-
pose its wll on the Aericas, Africa, and Aia? This was a very
EGHTEENTH CENTRY TO 945
bg queston, and mos t answers to t were offered not at the leve
of the sovereign states but at the level of comparative civliza-
tions" (to which we have adverted previously) . It was Europe as
Western" civilization that had demonstrated superior produc-
tive and military prowess , not just Great Britain or rance or
Germany, whatever the sizes of their individual empires This
concern th how Europe expanded to dominate the world coin-
cided ith the Darinian intellectual transition . The seculariza-
tion of knowledge promoted by the Enlghtenment was con-
rmed by the theory of evolution, and Darinian theories
spread far beyond their biological origns lthough Netonian
physics as exemplar dominated socal science methodology,
Darnian biology had a very great inluence on social theoriz-
ing through the seemingly irresistible metaconstruct of evolu-
tion, ith a great deal of emphasis on the concept of the survival
of the ttest
The concept of the surival of the ttest was subject to much
use and abuse, and was often confused ith the concept of suc
cess through competition. loos e interpretation of evolution-
arytheory could be used to provide scientic legitimation to theassumption that progress culminated n the selfevident superi-
ority of contemporary European society: stage theories of so-
cietal development culminating in industrial civilization, hi · r i ; ,
interpretations of history, climatologcal determinism,Spen�
:
i
cerian sciology These early studies in comparative civiliza
tion were, however, not as statecentric as fully institutionalized
social science. They thus fell victim to the impact of the to
wod wars, which together undermined some of the liberal opti-
mism upon which the progressive theories of civilizations were
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HSTORCA CONSTRCTON
built. Hence in the twentieth century histor anthropolog and
geography nally marginalized completely what remaned of
their earlier universalizing traditions and the statecentric trin-
it of sociolog economics and political science consolidated
their positions as the core (nomothetic) social sciences
Thus between 1850 and 1945 a series o disciplines came to
be dened as constituting an arena of nowledge to which the
name social science" was accorded. This was done by establish-
ing in the principal universities rst chairs then departments
oering courses leading to degrees in the discipline . The institu-
tionalization of training was accompanied by the institutional-
ization of research: the creation ofjournals specialized in each of
the disciplines; the construction of associations of scholars
along disciplinary lines (rst national then international) ; the
creation oflibrary collections cataloged by disciplines
An essential element in this process of institutionalizing the
disciplines was the effort by each of them to dene what distin-
guished each from the other especially what dfferentiated each
from those that seemed closest in content in the study of social
realities Beginning ith Leopold von Ranke Barthold Niebuhrand Johann Droysen historians asserted their special relation-
ship to a special tpe of materials especially archival sorces
and similar texts They stressed thatthey were interested in re-
constructing past realit by relating it to the cultural needs of the
present in an interpretative and hermeneutic ay insisting on
studing phenomena even the most complex ones like whole
cultures or nations as individualitiesa
d
as moments ( or parts)
of diachronic and synchroniccontexts
·
Anthropologists reconstructed modes of social organization
EGHTEENTH CENTRY TO 1945
of peoples that were quite dfferent om the Western forms.
They demonstrated that customs strange to Western eyes were
not irrational but functioned to preserve and reproduce popula-
tions. Orientalist scolars studied explicated and translated
the texts of nonWestern high" civilizations and were instru-
mental in legtimating the concept of world religions" which
was a break with Christo centric views.
Most of the nomothetic social sciences stressed rst what df-
ferentiated them from the historical discipline: an interest in ar-
riving at general laws that were presumed to govern human be-
havior a readiness to perceive the phenomena to be studied as
case s (not individualities) the need to segmentalize human real-
it in order to analyze it the possibilit and desirabilit of strict
scientic methods (such as theoryrelated formulation of hy-
potheses to tested against evidence v strict and if possible
quantitative procedures) a preference for systematically pro-
duced evidence (e g survey data) and controlled observations
over received texts and other residuals
Once social science was distingished in this way from idio-
graphic histor the nomothetic social scientistseconomistspolit ical scientists and sociologists were also anxious to stake
out their separate terrains as essentially dfferent one om the
other (both in subject matter and in methodolog )
did this by insisting on the validit of a ceter paribus
tion in studying market operations Political scientists did it
restricting their concerns to formal governmental structures
Sociologists did it by insisting on an emergent social terrain ig
nored by the economists and the political scientists.
Al this it may be said was largely a success story The estab
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2 STRCAL CONSTRUCTON
lishment of the disciplinary structures created able, produc-
tive structures of research, analysis, and training, which gave
birth to the considerable literature that today we consider the
heritage of contemporary social science. By 1945, the panoply of
disciplines comprising the social sciences was basically institu-
tionalized in most of the major universities of the world There
had been resistance to (indeed, often refusal of) these classica-
tions in the fascist and communist countries. With the end of
the Second World War, German and Italian institutions fell into
line fully th the accepted pattern, and the Soietbloc coun-
tries did so by the late 1950' s. urthermore, by 1945 the social
sciences were clearly distinguished on the one hand from the
natural sciences, which studied nonhuman systems, and on the
other from the humanities, which studied the cultural, mental,
and spiritual production of civilzed" human societies.
ter the Second Wrld War, however, at the very moment
when the institutional structures of the social sciences seemed
for the r st time fully in place and clearly delineated, the prac-
tices of social scientists began to change. This was to create a
gap, one that wold grow, beteen the practices and intellectualpoitions of social scientists on the one side and the formal orga-
nization of the social sciences on the other
Debates Within the
Social Sciences� 1945
to the Present
Discipes costitute a system o cotro i theproductio o dscourse, its mits throuh the
actio o a ietit taki the orm o a permaetreactivatio o the rues.
Miche Foucaut
Three developments after 1945 profoundly affectedthe structure of the social sciences that had been put into place
in the preceding hundred years. The rst was the change in
the world political sructure The United States emerged from
the Second World War th overwhelming economic strengh,
ithin a world that was p olitically dened by to new geopoliti-
cal realities: the socalled cold war beteen the United Statesand the US.S.R, and the historical reassertion of the non-
uropean peoples of the world The second development was
the fact that, in the tentve years folloing 1945, the worl
had the largest expansion of its productive capacit and popul
tion that it had ever known, one that involved an expansion in
scale of all human actities The third was the consequent extra-
ordinary quantitative and geographic expansion of the univer
. Miche Foucaut, The Arch aeo logy ofKnowledge and the Discourseon Language (New York Patheo, 92), p. 22
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34 DEBATES WTHN THE SOCA SCENCES
sit system everwhere in the world, which led to a multipli-
cation of the numbers of professional social scientists. ach of
these three new social realities posed a problem for the social
sciences, as they had been historically institutionalized.
The enormous strenh of the U.S. visvis all other states af-
fected profoundly the denition of what were the most urent
issues to be adressed, and what were the most suitable ways
of addressin them. The overwhelmin economic advantae of
the U . S. in the fteen to twentve years folloin the Second
World Warmeantthat, for a while at least , social scientic activ-
it was located primarily within U.S. institutions to an unusual
deree, and this of course affected how priorities were dened
by social scientists. On the other hand, the political reassertion
of the nonuropean peoples meant that many assumptions of
social science would be called into question on the rounds that
they relected the politcal biases of an era which was now over,
or at least endin.
The rnaway expansion of the universit system worldide
had avery specic oranizational implication. It created a struc-
tural pressure for increased specialization simply because schol-ars were in search of niches that could dene their oriinalit or
at least their social utilit The most immediate effect was to en-
courae reciprocal intrusions by social scientists into neihbor-
in disciplinary domains, inorin in the process the various le
itimations that each of the social sciences had erected to justi
their specicities as reserved realms . And the economic expan-
sion fueled this specialization by p 'n the resources that
made it possible.
There was a second oranizational implication. The world
1945 TO THE PRESENT 35
economic expansion involved a quantum leap in scale for the
state machineries and for the economic enterprises, to be sure,
but also for the oranizations of research. The major powers,
larely stimulated by the cold war, bean to invest in bi science,
and this investment was extended to the social sciences. The
percentae allocated to the social sciences was small , but the ab-
solute ures were very hih in relation to anyhin that had
previously been available. This economic input encouraed a
further, fuller scientization of the social sciences . The result was
the emerence of centralized poles of scientic development
ith a concentration of information and sll, ith nancial re-
sources thatwere provided primarily by the U. S. andother major
states, by foundations (larely U.S based) , but also, to a le sser
extent, by transnational corporations
herever the institutional structurin of the social sciences
was incomplete, U.S. scholars and institutions encouraed, di
rectly and indirectly, folloin the established model, ith par-
ticular emphasis on the more nomothetic tendencies ithin the
social sciences. The massive public and private investment in
scientic research ave these poles of scientic development anunquestionable advantae over orientations that seemed less
riorous and polic oriented Thus, th e economic expansion re
inforced the worldide leitimation ithin social science
scientic paradims that underlay the technoloical
ments behind it t the same time, however, the endin of
political dominion of the Western world over the rest of the
world meant that new voices were enterin the scene not only of
politics but also of social science.
We shall discuss the conseuences of these chanes in the
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DEBATES WTHN THE SOCA SCENCES
world for three successive issues: the validit of the distinc-
tions among the social sciences; ) the degree to which the heri-
tage is parochial; ( 3 ) the utilit and realit of the distinction be-
teen the to cultures ."
The Validity of the Distinctions
mong the Socil Sciences
There were three clear lines of cleavage in the system of disci-
plines erected to structure the social sciences in the late nine-
teenth century: the line beteen the study of the modern/ civi-
lized world (history plus the three nomothetic social sciences)
and the study of the nonmodern world (anthropolog, pus Ori-
ental studies ); ithin the study of the modern world , the line be-
teen the past (history) and the present (the nomothetic social
sciences ) ; ithin the nomothetic social sciences , the sharp lines
beteen the study ofthe market (economics ) , the state (political
science), and civil socie (sociolog). ach of these lines of
cleavage came to be challenged in the post1945 world.
Probably the most notable academic innovation after 1945
was the creation of area studies as a new institutional category toroup intellectual work. This concept rst emerged in the
United States during the Second World War. It was widelyiple-
mened in the United States in the ten years folloing the end
of the war, and it subsequently spread to universities other
parts of the world. The basic idea of area studies was very simple.
A area was a large geographic zone which had some supposed
cultural, historic, and ofteniu s heene The list as it
emerged was very heterodox in haracte: the U.S.S.R. China
(or ast sia), Latin merica, the Middle ast, rica South
1945 TO THE PRESENT 3
sia, Southeast sia, astCentral urope, and, much later,
Western urope as well. In some countries, the United States ( or
North America) also became the object of area studies. Not
every universiy adopted exactly these geographic categorie s, of
course. There were many variations .
Area studies was suppose d to be an arena ofboth scholarship
and pedagog, one which brought together all those perso ns
primarily from the various social sciences , but often om the
humanities as well, and occas ionally even from some natural sci-
ences on the bas is of a shared interest in doing work in their
discipline about the given area" (or a part of it) . Area studies
was by denition multidisciplinary." The political motivations
underling its origins were quite explicit. The United States,
given its worldwide political role , needed owledge about, and
therefore specialists on, the current realities of these various re-
gions, especially since these regions were now becoming so po-
litically active. Aea studies programs were designed to train
such specialists, as were subsequent parallel programs rst in
the U.S.S.R. and in western urope, and then in many other
parts of the world (e.g., Japan, India, ustralia, and variousLatin Aerican countries) .
rea studies brought within a single structure (at least for
part of their intellectual ife) persons whose disciplinary H , _
tions cut acros s the three cleavages we have mentioned: the his
torians and nomothetic social scientists found themselves face
to face with the anthropologists and the Orientalist scholars, the
historians face to face ith the nomothetic social scientists, and
each tpe of nomothetic s ocial scientist ith the others. In addi-
tion, there were occasionally geographers, art historians, stu
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DEBATES WTHN THE SOCAL SCENCES
dents of national literatures, epidemiologists, even geologists.
These people constructed curricula together, sat o n the doctoral
committees of each other's students, attended conferences of
area specalists, read each other's books, and published in new
transdisciplinary journals specializing in the areas.
hatever the intellectual value of this cros sfertilization , the
organizational consequences for the social sciences were im-
mense. Although area studies was presented in the restricted
guise of multidisciplinarit (a concept that had already been un-
der discussion the interwar period) , its practice exposed the
fact that there was considerable articialit in the sharp institu-
tiona separations of social science knowledge. Historians and
nomothetic social scientists were for the rst time ( at least in any
numbers) engaging in the study of nonWestern areas. This in-
trusion into the nonWestern world of disciplines preiousy ori-
ented to the study ofte Western world undermined the logic of
the previous arguments justiing separate arenas calledethnog-
raphy and Oriental studies . It seemed to imply that the methods
and the models of history and the nomothetic social scienes
were applicable to nonWestern regions as well as to urope andNorth America. Within to decades, anthropologists began to
renounce ethnography as their dening activit, seeing alter-
native justications for their eld. Orientalist scholars went fur-
ther; they surrendered their very name, merging themselves
variously into departments of history, philosophy, classics, and
religion, as well as into newly created departments of regional
cultural studies that covered nem cultural production
as well as the texts Orientalist scholars ha traditionally studied.
945 TO THE PRESENT 39
Area studies aected the structure of the departments of his-
tory and the three nomothetic social sciences as well. By the
1960' s, a signicant number of members of the facult of these
departments had become committed to doing their empirical
work on nonWestern areas of the world. The percentage was
largest in history, smallest in economics, wth political science
and sociolog somewhere in beteen. This meant that internal
discussions within these disciplines were ineitably affected by
the fact that the data they were debating, the courses they were
asing students to take, and the subjects of legitimate resech
had become considerablyider in geographical terms. When we
add to this geographic expansion of the subject matter the geo-
graphic expansion of the source of recruitment of the scholars,
the social situation ithin the intitutions of knowledge may be
said to have undergone a signicant evolution in the post945
period.
The disintegration of the intellectual segregation beteen
the study of Western and nonWestern areas po sed a fundamen
tal intellectual question , with some larger political implications.
Were the to zones ontologically identical o r dierent? Th e pre-dominant preious assumption had been that they were suf-
ciently different that they required dfferent social science disci-
plines to study them. Was one now to make the opposite assump
tion, that there was no dfference of any ind that would warran
some special form of analysis for the nonWestern world? The
nomothetic social scientists debated whether the generaliza-
tions (laws) that they had been establishing were equally applic-
able to the study of nonWestern areas. or more idiographic
;. iJ
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DEBATES WTHN THE SOCAL SCENCES
historians, the debate was posed as the question, one that was
seriously asked: does rica have a history? or do n y historic
nations" have histories?
The intellectual response to these queries was es sentially an
uncertain compromise. It might be summarized as the argu-
ment that nonWestern areas were analyically the same as West-
ern areas but not quite The primary form that this argument
took was modernization theory. It of course built on many dis-
cussions and premises (explicit and implicit) in the earlier so-
cial science literature, but nonetheles s modernization literature
too a particular form and became very important in social sci-
ence theorizing. The key thesis was that there exists a common
modernizing path of nations/peoples/areas (hence they were
the same ) but that nations/peoples/areas nd themselves at f-
ferent stages on this path (hence they were not quite the same ) .
In terms ofpublic polcy, this was translated into a worldide
concern ith development," a term that was dened as the
process by which a country advanced along the universal path of
modernization. Organizationally, the concern with moderniza-
tion/development tended to bring the multiple social sciencestogether in common projects, and in a common stance visvis
public authorities The political commitment of the states to de-
velopment became one of the great justications for expending
public funds on research by social scientists.
Mo dernization/development had the characteristic that this
model could be applied to Western zones as well, by interpreting
the historical development of theW
world as the progres-
sive and precocious achievement of men zat on This pro-
vided a basis on which the previously presentoriented nomo
1945 TO THE PRESENT 4
thetic social scientists began to nd a justication for using data
that were not contemporary, despite the factthat such data were
more incomplete, whie historians began to consider whether
some of the generalizations put forth by nom othetic social scien-
tists might not help to elucidate their understanding ( even their
hermeneutic understanding) of the past. The attempt to bridge
the gap beteen idiographic history and nomothetic social sci-
ence did not begin in 1945. It has an earlier trajectory. The move-
ment called new history" in the United States in the earlyten-
tieth century and the movements in rance (Annaes and its pre-
deces sors) were explictly such attempts. However, only in the
post1945 period did such attempts begin to attract substantial
support among historians.
Indeed, it was only in the 1960' s that the quest for close coop-
eration and even mixing beteen (parts of) history and (parts of)
the social sciences became a very noticeable and noted phenom-
enon. In history, the conviction gained some ground that the
received prole of the discipline no longer fully served modern
needs . Historians had been better in studing past politics than
past social and economic life. Histoical studies had tended toconcentrate on events , and on the moties of individuals and in-
stitutions , and they had been les s well equipped for analyzing
the more anonymous processes and structures that were.vaLCU
in the ongue dure Structures and processes seemed to
been neglected. All this was to be changed by broadening the
scope of historical studies: by adding more economic and social
history, in its on right, and as a keyto understanding history in
general.
undamental changes in the discipline of history were advo
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DEBATES WTHN THE SOCAL SCENCES
cated ith the help of the neighboring social sciences. The so-
cial sciences had tools to offer in the study of dimensions of the
past that were beneath" or behind" historical institutions
events and ideas (dimensions such as economic change popula-
tion growh social inequali and mobili mass attitudes and
behavior social protest and voting patterns) tool s that the his-
torians did not posses s: quantitative methods; analyic concepts
lie class role expectations or status dscrepancy; models of
social change Some historians sought now to use such mass
data" as marriage registers election results and tax documents
and for this the turn to the social sciences proved indispensable.
history (and anthropolog) became more open to quanti-
tative research there was a process of circular reinforcement:
money numbers of scholars and social legitimacy all fed each
other and strengthened the sense of selfcondence in the intel-
lectual warran of the conceptual constructs of social science.
Sometimes the quest for change in the discipline of history
went hand in hand ith a desire to engage in social and cultural
criticism It was argued that the historians had overstressed con-
sensus and the fnctioning of institutions and had underesti-mated conlict deprivation and inequalities of class ethnicit
and gender. Criticism of the received paradigms combine with
challenges to established authorities inside and outside the pro-
fesion. Sometimes as in Germany such a revisionist mood re-
inforced the turn of historians toward the social sciences. Using
analyical concepts and theoretical approaches was in itself
a way of expressing opposition to
paradigm which stressed hemene pah and lan
guage as close to the sources as possi ble. Some social science tra
195 TO THE PRESENT 3
ditions see med to o er specic tools for developing a critical"
history or rather a critical historical socia science" But in
other countries like the US. which not only had other less
historicist" traditions in history bu t also a les s critical tradition
in the social sciences radcal reisionist historians felt less at-
tracted by social science approaches .
Economics sociolog and political science lourished in the
postwar period in part basing in the relection of the glories of
the natural sciences and their high prestige and inluence were
another reason why many historians found it interesting to draw
on their wor. At the same time some social scientists were be-
ginning to move into realms previously reserved to t he histori-
ans. This expansion of the nomothetic social sciences into his-
tory too however two quite dfferent forms On the one hand
there was the a pplication of relatively specic and narrow social
science theories models and procedures to data about the past
(s ometimes even from the past ) for example studies on voting
patterns social mobili and economc growh. Such data were
treated like other variables or indicators in the empirical social
sciences that is they were standadized (in time series) iso-lated and correated. This was sometimes called social science
history." These social scientists were expanding the loci from
which they drew their data but they did no t thinki t necessary
desirable to change their procedures in any way; they
did not become traditiona historians. Most of them neither ex-
pected nor found much that was dfferent about the past. Data
about the past seemed ather to corroborate or at most modi
slightly the general laws in which they were basically interested
Still sometimes the results of such work became very important
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44 DEBATES WTHN THE SOCAL SCENCES
for hisorians and conriued o a eer undersanding on heir
par of he pas.
There was however a quie dieren ur owrd hisory on
he p of some oher socia scieniss hose who were iner-
esed in descriing and expaining argescae socia change
someimes in a Weerian someimes in a Marxian radiion of-
en somewhere in eeen. They produced various pes ofwha
came o e ced hisorica socioog" They were criica of
he ahisoricism of heir coeague s who hey fe had os ouch
ih many of he es earier adiions in he socia sciences.
The work hey did was es s scienisic" and more hisoricis."
They ook specic hisorica conexs s eriousy and paced socia
change ino he cener of he sory hey od Their works did no
aim primariy a esing modiing and formuaing aws (for
exampe of moderniaion u raher used genera rues o ex-
pain compex and chging phenomena or inerpre hem in
he igh of hose genera paerns. In he 1960'S, his criicism
of ahisoricism ega n o e increasingy expressed y younger
socia scieniss as hey rned o socia criicism. Their crii-
cism of mainsream" socia sciences incuded he asserionha hey had negeced he cenai of socia change favoring
a mhoogy of consens us and ha hey showed a naive even ar-
rogan sefassuredness in apping Wesern conceps o he
anaysis of very ifferen phenomena and cures
In he case of socia science hi sory" socia scieniss were
moving oward hisory as a conseq uence of he ogic and he ex-
pansive dnamics of heir lne.'hey were seeking ess o
ridge he gap" ih hisory han o 61 e arger daa ases
This was no rue of he hisorica socioogiss" who se work in
1945 TO THE PRESENT 45
voved a criique of prevaiing mehodooges. A simiar moive
was a pay among many of he hisorians who were caing for
he use of socia scienc echniques and generaiaions. There
was a convergence of he riings of he hisorica (or hisorici-
ing socia scieniss ih hose of he srucurais" hisorians
which seem ed o hi is sride in he 1970s ahough here usu-
ay si remaned cerain differences in se: proximi o he
sources eve of generaiaion he degree of narraive presen-
aion and even foonoing echniques
This move oward a coser cooperaion eeen hisory and
he oher socia sciences remained noneheess a minori phe-
nomenon Furhermore in addiion o he hisorysocioog dis-
cussion here seemed o e separae ones eeen hisory and
each of he oher socia sciences: economics ( eg. he new eco-
nomic hisory" poiica science (e .g. he new insiuiona-
ism " anhropoog (hisorica anhropoog" and geogra-
phy (hisorica geography" In a of hese eds some of his
convergence came aou in he form of simpe expansion of he
daa domain of a paricuar socia science radiion and s ome o f
i ook he form of he reopening of fundamena mehodoogi-ca issues
The groing overap among he hree radiiona nomoheic
socia scienceseconomics poiica science and v nV'
was es s charged wih conoversy The socioogiss ed he way
mkng oh poiica socioog" nd economic socioog"
ino imporan and sandard su eds wihin he discipine as
ery as he 1950'S The poiica scieniss foowed sui They
expanded heir concerns eyond forma governmena insiu-
ons redening heir suec maer o incde a socia pro
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DE ATES WTHN THE SOCAL SCENCES
cesses that had political implications or intentions: the study of
pressure groups protest movements communit organiza tions
nd when some critical social scientists reived the use of the
term political econo my" other less critical political scientists
responded by tring to give the term and the subject matter a
more classically nomothetic lavor. The common result how-
ever was to engage the political scientists in a fuller concern
with economic proces ses . For the economists the early postar
dominance of Keynesian ideas reved concern ith macroeco-
nomic s " whereupon the diiding line ith political science be-
came le ss clear since the object of analysis was largely the poli-
cies of governments and intergovernmental agencies . Later on
some nonKeesian economists began to argue the merits of
using neoclassical economic analytic models for the study of
subjects traditionally considered sociological such as the family
or social deance.
l three disciplines were increasing the degree of their
commitment to quantitative techniques and even mathematical
modeling in the early postar years; as a result the distinctive-
ness of their methodological approaches seemed to diminishhen social criticism began to fuel the internal debates of these
disciplines the limitations that the critical social scientsts in
each discipline found in the positiist doctrines prevailing in
their discipline seemed about the same in each. Once again
there is no point in exaggerating. Organizationally the three dis-
ciplines remained quite distinct and there was no lack of voices
to defend this separation. owever the years in the case of
both the mainstream and the critical ns of each there be-
gan to be in practice an increasing overlap in subject matter and
methodolog among the three nomothetic disciplines.
95 TO THE PRESENT 7
The multiple overlaps beteen the disciplines had a double
consequence . Not only did it beco me less and less simple to nd
clear distinguishing lines beteen them in terms of either the
domain of concern or the ways in which the data were treated
but each discipline also became more and more heterogeneous
because of stretching the boundaries of acceptable subjects of
inquiry. This led to considerable internal questioning about the
coherence of the disciplines and the legitimacy of the intellec-
tual premises each had used to argue for its right to a se parate
existence. One way of handling this was the attempt to create
new interdisciplinary" names like communications stuies
administrative sciences and behaioral sciences .
Many consider the groing emphasis on multidisciplinarit
as the expression of a lexible respo nse by the s ocial sciences to
problems encountered and intellectual objections raised to the
structuring of the disciplines. They feel that the convergence of
parts of the social sciences and parts of history toward a more
comprehensive so cial science has been a creative approach that
has involved a fruitful cross fertilization and deserves to be fur-
ther advanced and developed. Others feel less sanguine aboutwhat has been achieved They believe tat the concession of
interdisciplinarit" has served as much to salvage the legiti-
macy of the existing disciplines as to overcome the waning
of their distinctiveness The latter have urged a more radical
construction to overcome what they perceive as intelectual
confusion.
However one appreciates the very clear trend to the theme of
multidisciplinarit the organizational consequences seem evi-
dent. hereas the number of names used to classi social sci-
ence knowledge actiit had been steadily reduced beteen 850
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DEATES WTHN THE SO CAL SCENCES
and 195 ending up ith a relatively small list of accepted
names fo