The British Journal of Sociology
Volume 51 Issue No. 1 January/March 2000
pages 59-78
Abstract
This article shows the declining effectiveness of the sociological classics to make sense of the dramatically changing economy and society. However, the various 'post-something' analyses of such transformations, especially the post-modern emphases on language and discourse, are also shown to be inadequate. In their place the author advocates the use of various leitmotifs to establish certain constants, in order then to be able to describe and determine various patterns of variance. The article makes various recommendations for future sociology to be empirical and both diachronically and cross-sectionally comparative in order to comprehend those dramatic changes that currently surround us as sociologists. Sociology should establish such 'constants' and worry less about being 'theory-less'.
Keywords: Theory, comparative, empiricism, methodology, economic sociology
Gosta Esping-Andersen
Faculty of Sociology
University of Trento