Doing Sociology. Between Relational Investment, Professional Constraints, and Social Utility
Confronted with processes of standardization and competition, but also with a loss of legitimacy in the public space, sociology seems to be in difficulty despite a growing number of organizations and social actors asking researchers to help them solve their problems. The authors invite us to engage both in sociology, by developing a demanding practice of this discipline, and for sociology in order to defend the specificities of science, in terms of investigative procedures and speeches in the public space. In order to draw up an inventory of the difficulties encountered by the discipline and those who practice it, as well as its strengths and assets, the article first presents the changes affecting the profession of the sociologist, as well as the ways a sociologist can commit in relation whether with the social actors, in the society, with organizations and in the public sphere.