Positive Sociology as Enabling: A complementary disciplinary Lens

• In Event: History of Sociology and Social Thought Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Roundtable 2: Rethinking Power and Hegemony in Social Theory

Abstract

Sociology has a long and vital tradition of examining how social problems are produced and reproduced through power structures. While this critical orientation remains indispensable, it has also shaped a disciplinary status quo in which sociological inquiry is more often directed toward diagnosing social problems than toward examining enabling conditions, social goods, and human capacities relevant to solutions. In response to the 2026 ASA theme’s call to “disrupt the status quo and put sociology to work”, this article revisits the concept of positive sociology and proposes it as an enabling, complementary disciplinary lens.
The article examines the development of positive sociology and sociology’s participation in the positive movement in the social sciences since the 1990s. I argue that positive sociology has a broader scope of contribution beyond its current presentation as the sociological study of happiness or as a subdiscipline within leisure sociology. Instead, positive sociology is proposed as a framework and conceptual instrument that integrates human agency with social structure, highlighting the components, mechanisms, and social–cultural–historical systems that enable human and societal flourishing. While upholding sociology’s classical critical focus, this enabling perspective underscores the agency and capacity of individuals, collectivities, and institutions to enact individual and collective transformation. From a theoretical standpoint, positive sociology can be understood as a form of humanist enabling sociology.

Author

• Yan Z. Ciupak, Northern Michigan University