Bruno Latour is a vehement critic of the sociology of knowledge in general, and the Strong Program in particular. For those who are familiar with his books Science in Action (Latour, 1987), The Pasteurization of France (Latour, 1988) and We Have Never Been Modern (Latour, 1993) the pivotal role played by these criticisms in Latour’s writing will be evident. To those who only know his work by re...

Design and Sociology are disciplines that rarely interact, but both share significant common concerns, particularly when it comes to matters of inclusivity and “designing out” exclusion. While some of the qualitative methods used in sociology are already a common part of studying user interactions with products, this paper argues that further benefits could be achieved through closer interactio...

sociology is a multi-paradigm science. the main components of the paradigm include epistemic system, theoretical schools, raised patterns, research strategies, research methods and techniques, and facts under investigation. to be able to reach a satisfactory achievement, sociology has to obtain two main components, i.e. to be part of a paradigm and institutional autonomy. iranian sociology of t...

contemporary sociology in many ways still depends on the classical theories. the emergence of new phenomena and their increasing importance in the modern society requires new explanations. the qualitative and quantitative growth of sciences, especially humanities, in the last hundred years has made various scientific disciplines dependent on each other. this is what makes the work of contempora...

Precis: The writings of Manuel Castells are centrally concerned with the development of a Marxist urban sociology. This article provides a critical examination of the central concepts of these writings. The article begins with some preparatory remarks on Castells's critique of conventional urban sociology and on the Althusserian variant of historical materialism which he adopts. This is followe...

Christian Smith's paper "The Incoherence of 'Culture' in American Sociology" is a valuable provocation that can prompt us to reflect on the role of concepts and on the role of agreement on the definition of concepts in scientific research. In this comment paper, I raise questions about Smith's empirical expectation that sociologists should agree on a concept of culture based on debates in the s...

This article examines the book Social class and mental illness: a community study by A.B. Hollingshead and F.C. Redlich as it marks the fifty year of its publication. It highlights the role of these researchers who, with distinct educational backgrounds (sociology and psychiatry), were part of the pioneering group in the 1950s that initiated the construction of medical sociology. Their careful ...