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Sociological Practice and the

Sociotechnics of Governance

Kjeld Hogsbro, Hans Pruijt, Nikita Pokrovsky,
and George Tsobanoglou 1

INTRODUCTION management gurus and political ideologues
offer concepts, models and advice. The goal
In many fields of practice (such as the organ- of this chapter is to examine the possible role
ization of work, industrial relations, eco- for sociology, as policy and practice, in this
nomic development, housing, social services, field of intervention. The point of departure
public administration, public safety, conflict is the debate on ‘sociotechnics’, which was
resolution, anti-poverty policy, health care) once driven by the bold proposition of a
the emphasis on top-down control for a long unique, universal, systematic, scientific
time repressed interaction-centered para- method for intervention based on citizen-
digms. But in the last twenty years a greater driven humanistic values. We will trace
emphasis has been put on bottom-up pro- how and why this vision tended to give
grams, users’ participation and developmen- way to pragmatic, contextually dependent
tal programs mobilizing actors in civil approaches. Next, we will introduce a per-
society. Driving forces behind this swing are spective which puts sociological theory and
varied and include: demands for autonomy, practice into an ‘intertextual relation’ with
disillusionment with inefficient centralized discourses of governance as they appear on
bureaucracy, and the neo-liberal agenda of the global scene and, by doing this, look at
curtailing the redistributive functions of the sociology as integrated in the development of
state. As a result, many professionals have modern society. Finally, we will draw some
become – in their own ways – experts in conclusions from this history with respect to
stimulating, structuring and managing inter- the request for a practical sociology in a
action. Intellectual entrepreneurs such as globalized world.