Towards a Counterhegemonic Sociology; Crises, Conditions, and Possibilities

• 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

In this paper, we develop a framework for what we are calling a “counterhegemonic sociology,” a collective project to pursue an agenda that rejects neoliberalism in its entirety, while contributing to building an alternative social order that is more just, democratic, and egalitarian. Just as an earlier version of critical sociology emerged in the context of internal crises to the capitalist order that challenged the production of knowledge, a contemporary version of counterhegemonic sociology emerges out of our current context of neoliberal polycrisis: sharp inequalities, authoritarian attacks on liberal institutions of knowledge production, the privatization of universities, and the environmental crisis. This paper proceeds in three parts: first, we traced the disciplinary roots, in four key phases corresponding to the political economy of capitalism: the origins between the late 1800s-1920s; the establishment of sociology as a discipline before and after WWII between 1945 and 1980; the neoliberal university from the 1980s – 2020s; and sociology in the era of AI from 2020 to the present. In each phase, we examine how the broader political economy of capitalism has shaped sociology’s research and teaching agenda. Second, we advance a framework for counterhegemonic sociology, attentive to the conditions of its production in the current moment. Specifically, we focus on the necessity of creating conditions of its production outside from and autonomous from universities, on establishing conditions of democratic dialogue and knowledge co-creation with social movements, and on engagements beyond the borders of nation-states. Finally, we contrast counter-hegemonic sociology with earlier generations of critical sociologies and recent calls for renewals, including public sociology, problem-solving sociology, and activist sociologies.

Authors

• Yuly Chan, New York University

• Gianpaolo Baiocchi, New York University