Page 495 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

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466 THE ISA HANDBOOK IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY

continuing referential literature. We encour- contributors to the Handbook. Hogsbro, Pruijt,
aged our authors to contextualize their analy- Pokrovsky, and Tsobanoglou say:
ses and, if possible, to incorporate material We need to address issues of innovation, social
from and about more than one society. Thus, security and social integrity. Sociology must com-
where the literature examined is primarily bine the empirical study of social phenomena, and
Anglo-European, this is acknowledged (rather the critical analysis of social forms and processes
with the production of policy guidelines directed
than silenced, with the implication of univer-
to both governments and social movements. These
sal coverage). Moreover most chapters are guidelines should aim at guarding fundamental
characterized by references to more than civil rights, while facilitating negotiated change
one society or sociological literature. Of par- and the accommodation of aspirations of diverse
ticular interest however, in view of the exis- communities .... The practical sociologist must
master a multiplicity of sociological approaches to
tence of the Anglo-European intellectual
gain a more realistic understanding of the com-
hegemony, are chapters which draw on litera- plexity of the changing social world, and must do
ture from both the economic (and political) something about it.
North and South, or are firmly anchored in
Still, this does not mean that sociological
their theorizing, methodology, or analysis in
theorizing is done. With respect to the disci-
the South. The conclusion by Webster and
pline as we still know it, there are challenges
Lambert of the inadequacy of Northern theo-
that have not been adequately met and
rizing about the labour movement of the South
aspects of theory that remain to be clarified.
(and perhaps of the North as well), the Latin
Although the processes that were set as the
American research initiatives described by
challenge to the contributors have been
Jimenez, and the recognition by Donnermeyer,
approached from a variety of angles, the actual
Jobes and Barclay of the challenge of develop-
work of building a social milieu, the principles
ing analyses of rural crime which are pertinent
that stem from the work of ethnographers, the
in the South as well as the North are just three
nuts and bolts of encounters that are suffused
examples from the Handbook of challenges
with conflict, competition and cooperation
to the Northern hegemony.
still remain to be described and analyzed
There is another theme that emerges from
in full.
even a summary leafing through the collection.
And finally, there remains the constant
We see that research in depth of the kind noted,
challenge of locating conflict, competition
if only because of the topics tackled, the
and cooperation within the discipline of soci-
methodologies supported and the tenor of the
ology. Struggling to cope with the relentless
explanation, seems to show that sociologists
developments that surround our lives, sociol-
as a community are intensely interested in
ogists have not yet found exhaustive ways of
making the world a better place. The platform
describing and analyzing the connections
for public sociology (Burawoy, 2005;
between how the focal processes operate in
Calhoun, 2005) turns out to be the specifica-
the running of the world with what goes on
tion of an agenda which, although apparently
within the disciplinary community or com-
widely supported, is held in privileged con-
munities (relationships) and, more tantaliz-
cealment – betimes even from ourselves.
ingly, what goes on within the discipline
Under the different chapter titles, sociologists
(epistemology). Finding how these connec-
from all the continents unabashedly press for
tions emerge and interweave would be a leap
the acceptance of difference, for extending and
forward in sociology.
securing human rights, for expanding the
scope of society beyond the boundaries of the
nation-state and even well beyond the exclu-
sivities of scientific communities. The plat- NOTE
form enunciated in the concluding remarks of
the chapter on socio-technics can easily be seen 1 Authors’ names are listed alphabetically, since
to be suitable to the points of view of other both contributed equally.