What Use is Sociology?: Conversations with Michael Hviid Jacobsen and Keith Tester

by Zygmunt Bauman, Michael Hviid Jacobsen, Keith Tester

What's the use of sociology? The question has been asked often enough and it leaves a lingering doubt in the minds of many. At a time when there is widespread scepticism about the value of sociology and of the social sciences generally, this short book by one of the world's leading thinkers offers a passionate, engaging and important statement of the need for sociology.

In a series of conversations with Michael Hviid Jacobsen and Keith Tester, Zygmunt Bauman explains why sociology is necessary if we hope to live fully human lives. But the kind of sociology he advocates is one which sees 'use' as more than economic success and knowledge as more than the generation of facts. Bauman makes a powerful case for the practice of sociology as an ongoing dialogue with human experience, and in so doing he issues a call for us all to start questioning the common sense of our everyday lives. He also offers the clearest statement yet of the principles which inform his own work, reflecting on his life and career and on the role of sociology in our contemporary liquid-modern world.

This book stands as a testimony to Bauman's belief in the enduring relevance of sociology. But it is also a call to us all to start questioning the world in which we live and to transform ourselves from being the victims of circumstance into the makers of our own history. For that, at the end of the day, is the use of sociology.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Academic, Social Science

180 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Zygmunt Bauman was a world-renowned Polish sociologist and philosopher, and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds. He was one of the world's most eminent social theorists, writing on issues as diverse as modernity and the Holocaust, postmodern consumerism and liquid modernity and one of the creators of the concept of “postmodernism”.

Reviews

[Ulas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zygmunt Bauman’ın iki sosyoloğun sorularına verdiği cevaplardan oluşan bu kitap, 4 bölümden oluşuyor. Bauman’ın sosyolojiye bakışı, izlediği filmler, okuduğu isimler ve neden tarafsız bir sosyoloji benimsediği, ayrıntılı bir şekilde aktarılmakta. Sosyolojiye yeni başlayanlar için değil de daha ileri bir seviye bir kitap olduğunu düşünüyorum. Ayrıca neden herkes sosyoloji bilmeli bunun cevabı da kitapta gizli.

[ozgurluk kurdu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kitap, Bauman ile 2012-2013 yıllarında gerçekleştirilen dört farklı söyleşiden oluşuyor. Bu söyleşilerin ana başlıkları şunlar:

(1) Sosyoloji nedir?
(2) Sosyoloji neden yapılır?
(3) Sosyoloji nasıl yapılır?
(4) Sosyoloji neyi başarır?

Kitaba bir de önsöz ve giriş bölümü eşlik ediyor.

Bu dört başlık özelinde Bauman'ın fikir dünyasını aralamakla kalmıyor, sosyolojiye ilişkin ortaya koyduğu temel kuramlarla da tanışmış oluyoruz. Sadece bu temel kuramlarla değil bunların ilişki örüntüsünü de öz bir biçimde izlemiş oluyoruz.

Kitabın arka kapağından bir alıntı yapmanın bu noktada oldukça faydalı olacağına inanıyorum.

"Sonuçta sosyolojinin işi, Milan Kundera'nin alegorisini kullanırsak, onları sahte temsillerle örterek gerçeklikleri gözlerden saklayan 'perdeleri yırtmaktır'".

Sanırım bu alıntı benim Kundera ile olan tanışmamı da pekiştirmiş oldu.

Akıcı çeviri ise Akın Emre Pilgir'e ait.

Bu kitabı sosyolojiye merak duyan herkese öneririm.

Kitaplarla kalın!

[stadtfisch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nützliche, aufschlussreiche Aufsätze. Die vermeintliche Neutralität des Autors gegenüber der neueren menschlichen Geschichte hat mich allerdings gestört. Vor allem wenn man nur "westliche" Soziologen rezipiert, sollte man sich dessen bewusst sein und zumindest auf diese Leerstelle hinweisen. Trotzdem ein empfehlenswertes Buch, das sich die meiste Zeit sehr gut gelesen hat.

[Ziyad Hasanin]

كتاب موجه بالأصل لممارس أو لدارس علم الاجتماع، ليتني عرفت هذا قبل قراءته فهو يتطلب معرفة مسبقة بكتابات باومان ومعرفة بالحراك السياسي والفكري الحداثي وما بعد الحداثي بل وما بعد بعدها ربما، الحوار لغته صعبة وتتطلب درجةً من التخصص، ناهيك عن أن المحادثات تمت على مدار سنتين تقريبًا كما كُتب فتوزيع الفقرات والفصول لا يتعلق بمحتواها الحقيقي إلا قليلًا.

لكن معرفةر باومان وهو من كبار علماء الاجتماع في هذا العصر ومعرفة تصوره عن المجتمع والاجتماع والبحث الاجتماعي حفزني أكثر للإطلاع على هذا المجال البحثي وعلى أهمية الاجتماع لدى مجتمعاتنا وحراكنا السياسي
وأذكر هنا مقولة بن نبي أن السياسية التي تجهل قوانين الاجتماع هي مجرد رطانة وثرثرة

أود مشاركة اقتباسٍ من الفصل الثاني، حين سأل المحاوران باومان عن "الإذلال"
humiliation
الذي قد يشعر به الرجل أو المرأة حين تصادم أو تعبث السوسيولوجيا بالقيم التي يمتلكونها والتساؤل ما إذا كان بإمكانها تقديم بديل.. يرد باومان (والترجمة لي):

"ليست وظيفة أو مهمة السوسيولوجية أن تفرض اختياراتٍ قيمية، بل حتى إن أرادت السوسيولوجيا أن تفعل ذلك فليس بمقدورها. ... السوسيولوجيا ليست ضد تشكيلة معينة من القيم، بل إنها ضد التأكيد على أنه "لا بديل" (There Is No Alternative).
إن كشف وتعرية الخيوط غير الجذابة الموصولة بالسلوكيات المطبقة إلى الآن والتي يعتقد أنها بلا عيب قد -وربما في الغالب- يؤدي إلى "خزي [أو إذلال]، ألم طويل المدى وندبة صعبة المحو. ... الخوف من [هذا] الإذلال هو تربة خصبة للأصولية الشعبوية وللشمولية. تلك المحاولتان اليائستان لقطع الإتصال وإيصاد الأبواب وإغلاق النوافذ من أجل استباق مجرد إمكانية تعرضهما للاختلاف otherness، وتفويت فرصة على أي وسوسة بإعادة التفكير في منطقية وجوهر هوياتهما الذاتية.
كيف يمكنني الإجابة على تساؤلاتك؟ بطريقة واحدة: نعم أنت محق، التسبب في شعور الإذلال هذا قاسٍ، ولكنها قسوة يجب أن تخاطر السوسيولوجيا بفعلها لو أنها تريد أن تبقى وفيّة لرسالتها ومسؤولياتها الاجتماعية."

ربما سأعود لهذا الكتاب في العام المقبل، حين أكون قد كونت أرضيةً ما في علم الاجتماع الذي أقتنع -ورسخ هذا الكتاب اقتناعي- بأنه وسيلة أساسية لا مفر منها لفهم مجتماعتنا ووعينا وحالنا الحالية

[astrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book that I would recommend to those interested in studying sociology, or more broadly feeling confronted with many of the long-standing confusions and qualms within the discipline - what is sociology? Why do it? How to do it? What does it achieve? In many ways, Bauman answers these questions in a pretty humanistic way, and is critical of calls to increasingly render sociology 'scientific' through the endless quest for empiricism (although obviously he sees a methodological role for all of sociology's many tenets and manifestations, just the inherent untenability of some who are desperately yearning for us to 'be a science' in any meaningful way). Probably a lot of this stems from his role in a (possibly currently unfashionable?) tradition of social theory, but also inevitably from what he deems inherent challenges within sociology, and challenges to the granting of its academic legitimacy ('being taken seriously'), which is admittedly easily questioned: these challenges can be found by looking at the heart of what sociology is and does. For one, how can we confidently say that we know more about subjects than they know about themselves? Bauman rightfully points out that the lines between expert and layperson, and 'sociological' and simply 'human' knowledge, are extremely blurry and much more unclear than in other fields, where, for example, a physicist can be said to concretely know more about, or have a degree of specific expert knowledge, over others outside of their field. This question might become increasingly prescient with calls for public sociology by the likes of Michael Burawoy, which I think are critical (sociology is, after all, about human societies, and we are crucially reliant on not fading into irrelevance with the social publics and arena upon which our knowledge and study is contingent), but undoubtedly present dilemmas for the 'academy' and muddy this boundary further. And then there is the question of the subject matter itself, human beings - is reality ever truly available to us, with the subjectivity and ambiguity inherent in human relations, communication, and reflexivity? Can we, societally, be trusted, or are we too unreliable, too unpredictable, too constantly changing and too unstable in the esoteric knowledge we have and (perhaps faultily) communicate about ourselves and others? This is just one of many lines of inquiry explored that I find interesting, and I think Bauman's interviewers do a great job of guiding the conversation, asking about pressing topics, and letting him talk eloquently as he does. There are some far less surprising or remarkable takes, but nevertheless important ones - society as something we make instead of just being made by (cf David Graeber?), sociology as useful in helping us to generate knowledge about ourselves, and to also systematically locate issues of individual suffering and strife outside of the individual and into the realm of wider social ills and societal failings, sociology as being all about exposing what is normative or taken for granted and, as such, denaturalising that, and additionally, perhaps more uniquely, about the reorientation of sociology from being a science and technology of unfreedom to a science and technology of freedom. Bauman is very concerned with questions of human freedom, and this as a priority for his work but also as a profound issue within sociology and sociological objectives (cf Talcott Parsons' Hobbes Problem). One final point of discussion before I wrap up this incoherent review: I came into this familiar with some of Bauman's other work (namely 'Modernity and the Holocaust' and 'Liquid Modernity'). This book did have some interesting follow-up on the concept of liquid modernity and what this means for human civilisation - for Bauman, liquid modernity (wrongly, he argues, dubbed 'postmodernity' by some) is "the growing conviction that change is the only permanence, and uncertainty the only certainty." Modernity is no longer about having reached a point of stability, perfection, and finality, but about the chronic status of progress and complete lack of a 'final state.' Liquidity can thus be seen as a consequence of prior solidity (or the quest for it within the realm of Enlightenment modernity), not a point of opposition. And furthermore, this has included a recognition of the fact that liquidity, or liquid urges, have always somewhat been at the core of the project(s) of modernity - human society, at least in its Western/'modern' variety, has always been partially imbued with a "fear of things that are fixed too firmly to permit dismantling." Acknowledging this as a crucial source in the movement of human history is hence integral to what Bauman deems to be the "liquid modern" condition and era. Reminds me, perhaps erroneously, of one of my many favourite quotes from Tony Kushner's 'Angels in America' - “It's the price of rootlessness. Motion sickness. The only cure: to keep moving.”

[Marcos Vieira · Rating 5 out of 5]

O livro “Para que serve a sociologia?-diálogos com Michael Hviid Jacobsen e Keith Tester” com o título original “What Use Is Sociology?-segue com a primeira tradução autorizada da edição inglesa, publicada em 2014 por Polity Press, de Cambridge, Inglaterra. Já na publicação realizada no Brasil pela editora Zahar em 2015, contém tradução de Carlos Alberto Medeiros, e revisão de Carolina Sampaio. Não existe nenhum material ou entrevistas relacionado ao Bauman no qual tive alguma insatisfação, todos os pensamentos e abordagens realizados pelo professor mediante aos aspectos sociológicos neste mundo pós-moderno foram elucidativos, importante na minha compreensão das rachaduras sociais e seus efeitos colaterais, especialmente nos últimos anos. 

Este material, com suas cento e trinta e duas páginas, contém valor em cada detalhe, tendo sua importância no início das escolhas acadêmicas feitas por mim, e neste sentido, posso dizer que alcançou o propósito e despertou uma vontade em ler novamente. O objetivo desta obra é atingir o público com o firme propósito de iniciar a carreira em sociologia, podendo também ser convidativo aos graduandos em qualquer área de humanas e profissionais. Temos neste trabalho Zygmunt Bauman na sua melhor fase, em uma entrevista, que consiste em quatro diálogos em 2012/13, em encontros com Michael Hiivd Jacobsen (prof. do dep. de soc. do trabalho na Uni. de Aalberg, Dinamarca, e Keith Tester (prof. de soc. na Uni. de Hull, Inglaterra) foram registros de cartas, fragmentos de trabalhos publicados por Bauman, o qual compõe este belo documento sociológico.

– @buenoslibrosblog –

[Rain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bauman reminds us that the task of sociology--and the direction it should take if it wants to become relevant in the public consciousness--is to "change reality through changing its perception."

These substantial interviews are a must-read for sociologists who are seemingly struggling in re-tracking their responsibility to the society and locating where sociology should stand in this age of free-flowing information.

Despite not being linguistically accessible as I hoped it would be, "What Use is Sociology?" definitely answers the question the book holds, but as for finding the solutions to the problems raised in it, Bauman indirectly turns this task back to the readers (and more especially to practicing sociologists), for if we want the sociological imagination to permeate our society, we might as well as do it collectively.

[Angel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zygmunt Bauman is a name that carries considerable influence in the field of social research. Currently Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Leeds, the Polish exile is an international bestseller with works translated into more than 30 languages.

The book's title may present itself as something of an accusation and Bauman does not doubt that the social world is "capable of carrying on without the insights of sociology."

But in the conversations he holds with his contemporaries Michael Hviid Jacobsen and Keith Tester, a sociological inquiry becomes both a reflective and an active discipline.

Bauman strongly feels that in seeking alternatives currently unknown to us the vocation of sociology is worthwhile in itself. It is a useful tool to "help people in their fight against the double plague of ignorance and impotence."

Organised into four exploratory chapters, the conversations commence with Bauman's definition of sociology as an ongoing "dialogue with human experience." In this, he is at pains to differentiate between what is subjective - what the individual lives through - and experience - what happens to the individual - which holds the potential to be objective.

With a nod to C Wright Mills, Bauman believes that it is the sociological imagination that "makes the personal political."

Most interestingly, Bauman's methodology draws on creative writing and literary devices and he insists on the usefulness of metaphors when talking about the human condition.

For those seeking alternatives, metaphors can be the first step in creating a new understanding and elsewhere Bauman illustrates his own approach with a metaphor - entering the same room via different doors, so that his perspective differs each time.

Rather than viewing metaphor as a mere figure of speech, Bauman argues for its potential as a bridge between imagination and comprehension. In this way, he rejects Plato's stringent association of art with untruth.

But what can sociology achieve? Bauman reiterates that the discipline may not have a direct effect on the world but that its study can, at the very least, cause a shift in perception.

Thus its principle purpose is to rouse people out of indifference and into action and it is this transition from inert to active knowledge that Bauman convincingly argues can bring about real change.

[Beata · Rating 2 out of 5]

To niegłupia książka, ale jak dla mnie bardzo nudna.

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

So good that it was inaccessible at times

[Nicol Puga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contenido informativo. Sin embargo, realiza un recorrido superficial por los principales aspectos sociologicos.