Economic sociology and history
Résumé
As noted by Jean-Claude Passeron (2006) in his analysis of the assertoric spaces of social sciences, history and sociology share many epistemological principles: as general social sciences, they are distinguished from the more specialized ones (such as geography or demography), and since both rely on empirical work, more than on their ability to produce formal models, they work as sciences of inquiry (“sciences de l’enquête”) as opposed to sciences of models (“sciences du modèle”), such as economics. But in spite of this epistemological proximity, which one might expect to facilitate inter-field dialogue, the increasing divide in the dynamics of the social sciences has made the opportunity for discussion more and more unusual. This issue is specifically dedicated to the presentation of studies that organize heuristic discussions between history and economic sociology, provided either by sociologists or by historians. [first paragraph of the introduction]