Fellows of the Norbert Elias Foundation

That summer morning, Richard and I were discussing the subject of theory development in sociology. As many says, the "golden age" of sociology was before the First World War. Richard is more optimistic in stating that it is still to come. However, in recent years, theoretical debates have not reached the same level of liveliness they had in the beginnings of Sociology. It has expanded to include new topics, but recent sociological approaches lack a comparable ability to synthesize. I contradicted and defended contemporary sociology, which led to a lively debate.
We discuss Richard's thesis of a crescent development of possible sociology debates, the influences of other disciplines and the potential future of sociology in the multitude of scientific disciplines.