Artikel

De hedendaagse sociologie: onderzoeksmethoden op zoek naar een nieuwe theoretische inhoud

---

Abstract

Contemporary sociology : research methods in search of a new theoretical content - This paper is an attempt to start a renewed theoretical discussion among Dutch-speaking sociologists. Starting from the ascertainment that contemporary sociological theory has reached a deadlock, we try to find out why this has happened. First we review what is called the more „classical” approach to sociological theory. We try to assess, by means of some concrete examples, the pros and cons of this approach. Among other things attention is paid to the problems of conceptualization and verification. Next we describe the development of the formalization of sociological theory and methods in the early fifties. Ever since that time sociological theories have more and more been put in a hypothetical-deductive form, following in the footsteps of sociologists like Zetterberg, Merton and Homans. In this section of the paper we go into the merits of some concrete examples of model-building. One of our findings is that the enormous dissemination of quantitative empirical technics has hardly contributed to the growth of formalized theories. We arrive at the final conclusion that both the „classical” approach and the „formalization” approach are foredoomed to failure, if they do not succeed in producing a more critical interplay between sociological theory and research. That which at first sight seemed to be a crisis of sociological theory as such is, on closer investigation, rather an interaction problem of theory and research. In the last section of our article we suggest some possible remedies for the problematic situation which sociology has landed itself in. We only mention here the needs for a stronger connection between conceptualization and operationalization, for closer attention to the problem of data-gathering, for pulling down the much too high walls between fundamental and applied sociological research and for more generalized interdisciplinarity.

How to Cite:

Louckx, F., (1983) “De hedendaagse sociologie: onderzoeksmethoden op zoek naar een nieuwe theoretische inhoud”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 28(4), 249–264. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.94859