Decline of disciplines: Struggle in the field or over the field of sociology?

Abstract

In this article, I present an attempt to analyse the current situation of sociology in the context of the distinctive features of the discipline, comparing four areas in which it functions: an educational area, a research area, a career promotion area and an administrative and a legal one. In the educational area, I present the effects of the Bologna process and the competition for educational offers between universities and faculties. In the research area, I focus on the concept of the classicist episteme (Foucault), from which the disciplines emerged (taxonomy) and the late modernist horizon of science “outflowing” from the framework of the academia and disciplines. In the area of professional promotions, I illustrate the efforts of the community to validate inter- and transdisciplinary work, along with the accompanying ambivalences. Finally, in the administrative and legal area, I interpret the statutory provision for the possibility of obtaining a doctorate in the field of science, and not in a scientific discipline. The research material on which I base my conclusions comes from two sources: from several years of ethnomethodological and hermeneutic studies on reviews of doctoral and habilitation theses, and from 22 years of experience as a member of Scientific Councils awarding scientific degrees.