Classifying and Re-classifying Sociologies: A New Taxonomy

At the beginning of the 2000s both Boudon (whose views were subsequently refined by Goldthorpe) and Burawoy took a position on sociology’s current condition, state of health and external relevance, and produced two distinct classifications of the various ways in which sociology can be practiced. These exercises have both analytical and prescriptive purposes. After having assessed the previous systematisations, this paper proposes a new taxonomy made up of four ideal types (RS-research sociology, TPS-technical/professional sociology, PS-public sociology, PPS-public policy sociology), which fits easily also with other empirical social sciences, such as political science or economics.