Reading and speaking

Pre-reading task

1. Once Robert Merton said: “Sociology is a very young science about a very ancient subject of knowledge”. What do you know about the history of this science? Name the first sociologists.

2. The centre of the world sociology at the first stage of its development is considered to be three European countries: France, Germany and England. Will you name the most prominent sociologists of these countries?

3. What do you know about British sociology?

4. Read the text.

British sociology

In a global age, the concept of British sociology poses an interesting question with regard to the viability of national sociologies. Neither academic disciplines nor the subjects studied fit easily into national boundaries. An academic's closest colleague may be in New York or Delhi rather than in Lancaster or Birmingham. Key figures in British sociology, such as Dahrendorf, Westergaard, and Bauman are not British but have spent some or all of their careers working in British institutions (Halsey 1989). As sociologists working in Britain they were well placed to investigate questions related to British society. Then there are the British sociologists who have left Britain to research and teach elsewhere; John Goldthorpe to Sweden and Germany, and John Hall and Michael Mann to the United States, for example. British sociologists have often studied other nations too: Ronald Dore focuses on Japan, David Lane on Russia, and John Torrance on Austria to name a few. With all of these international influences exemplifying the present status of sociology in Britain, how ''British'' then is British sociology? This entry briefly explores the range of sociology that has developed in Britain from its origins to the present day, and ends by noting possible implications for its future.

The discipline of sociology in Great Britain has a history that stretches back to the early 1900s. Martin White and the London School of Econo­mics (LSE) figure prominently in the development of British sociology. In 1907, White effectively founded the study of sociology in Britain by investing about £1,000 to fund a series of lectures at the LSE, as well as to establish the Sociological Society. The first annual report of the society indicated 408 members distributed throughout Great Britain, and thirty-two overseas. Early members of the society included an interesting variety of prominent public and literary figures, such as H.H. Asquith, Hilaire Belloc, and the Bishop of Stepney; British academics including Bertrand Russell, Gra­ham Wallas, and Beatrice Webb; as well as international academics such as Emile Durkheim and Ferdinand Tonnies, among others. Also in 1907, White gave the University of London £10,000 for a permanent chair in sociology to be located at LSE. White also donated additional funds for lectureships, bursaries, and scholarships in sociology. Because of White's prominence in supporting these early initiatives, Dahrendorf has argued that ''it is not too much to say that one man, Martin White, established the discipline of sociology in Britain.”

Despite this promising start, by 1945 the LSE remained the only university with a department of sociology in Britain. Several reasons have been identified for this late development. Among these was the long-standing opposition to the creation of sociology as a university subject by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which were at the top of the educational establishment in Britain. In addition, two other disciplines had claims on similar social research that predated the emergence of sociology. Anthropology and political economy both focused on social research that suited the interests of Britain at the time.

Studies of foreign shores while Britain was still a major empire was of greater interest than social research focused on issues closer to home. Empirically based scholarship on the political economy was preferable to the theoretical emphasis of many sociologists because of its perceived lack of application to the real world. The purported lack of credibility of those promoting the study of sociology, many of whom were either located on the outside or on the margins of academe, did not lend a helping hand to the development of sociology either. But, the most persistent obstacle was the hierarchical social structure of British society that prevented the effective interrogation of its social structures.

Answer the following questions

1. Speak about the British sociologists. What do they do? Where do they work?

2. Who is considered to be the founder of British sociology? What did he do?

3. What were the main reasons for such a slow development of sociology in Britain afterwards?

4. Do you agree that the achievements of science are not sufficient to ensure adequate support for science? Why? Why not?