Conference "National traditions in the social sciences"

« Circulation of ideas » Network - I - Nationalisms

Location : Amsterdam [ May 6-7th, 2005 ]

Direction : J. Heilbron

Abstract : The first colloquium of the sub network “Circulation of scientific goods” is devoted to the national traditions in social sciences. The national enclosing of social sciences is widely perceived as an important characteristic of social sciences and as a major obstacle to its progress. Nonetheless, the national traditions are rarely analyzed in a strict manner – Objects of essays or commentaries, they are seldom treated in proper research works. Relying on the available historical reconstructions of social sciences it is even so apparent that modern social sciences are, from their beginning on, strongly distinguished by their national context. An important part of social sciences was constituted as “science of government”, i.e. as political or administrative knowledge on the service of the emerging states. The first social sciences took different forms in accordance with the different state structures: “Political Arithmetic” in Britain, “Statistic” and “Polizei- und Kameralwissenschaften” in Germany, “Moral and Political Sciences” in France. The special relation with the national states has equally influenced the formation and functioning of academies and scientific societies. In France, the Academy of Moral and Political sciences (1832-) has inaugurated a semi official social science with a strong tie to the regime. The same remark goes for its homologues in other countries: The National Association for the Promotion of Social Science (1857) in Britain, the American Social Science Association (1867) or the “Verein für Sozialpolitik” (1873) in the unified German Empire. When social sciences established themselves as academic disciplines on the verge of the 20th century, this moment is marked by the ascension of national rivalries and national movements. In countries in the midst of this movements (Germany, England, France, USA, Italy), national particularities have frequently been invoked in order to justify certain conceptions and discredit other. Emile Durkheim conceived sociology as a contribution to the moral and civic fundaments of the IIIe République. At the same time North-American social sciences were founded, as Dorothy has shown, on the premises of “the American exception”, a paradigmatic example of national ideology. Other examples like the “Austrian School” in economy or the Dutch “Sociography” can also be evoked.