Sociology without Societies

Abstract

Sociology is the study of societ(ies): this expression sounds so obvious that it has not even been discussed. Most people have agreed, moreover, that a society is defined by a correspondence between institutions, values and forms of authority, on one side, and internalized norms and agencies of socialization and maintenance of normal behavior, on the other. Very few people today use these words or this general frame of reference, because societies, to a large extent, have disappeared, fallen into pieces or faded away. We are in a constantly changing world and there is no general, integrated process of change. We live in social settings in which the autonomization of various components of social life is so complete that it is useless to consider them as subsystems. Many sociologists are satisfied with notions like mass culture, individualization, fragmentation or dissocialization processes, or are fascinated by a spreading violence, internal or international wars and our capacity for self-destruction, etc. But this approach is too limited, because it is entirely negative. Thus, a high priority for sociologists is to propose one or various images of social actors collective or individual. But is it possible to propose an analysis of actors completely separate from a theory of social systems? This article proposes a positive answer to this difficult question.