(CHS1) New Paths in comparative and historical sociology

Comparative and historical sociology has a vast and rich literature upon which many studies rely today. Going from the transition to capitalism, state formation, ethnic violence, and ideology, to revolutions, social movements, inequality and culture, comparative and historical sociology addresses historical phenomena that echoes our contemporary era. This session aims to give a general perspective of this peculiar field of research and welcomed papers that consider theoretical issues as well as case studies within this framework. Tags: Race and Ethnicity, Social Movements, Theory

Organizers: Andrew Dawson, York University, Matthew Lange, McGill University, Guillaume Durou, Université de l'Alberta; Chair: Matthew Lange, McGill University

Presentations

Sébastien Parker, University of Toronto

Cohort Dynamics and Social Cleavages: A Comparative Analysis of Political Identification and Engagement in Europe

This paper presents an innovative diachronic, cohort-based analysis of political identification and political engagement. Leveraging data from the European Social Survey (2002-2020) and focusing on a historical-comparative analysis of France, Hungary, Spain, and Sweden, the study examines dealignment, realignment, and alignment trends, grounded in distinct socio-political contexts. The four cases selected are based on expected variations in cleavage politics and cohort patterns: in France, the declining importance of religion and a supposed realignment in terms of educational groups paired with an increasing center-periphery cleavage; in Spain, the often discussed enduring importance of class, religion, and agrarian-regional cleavages recently challenged by the Eurozone crisis; in Sweden, persistent class cleavages but increasing urban-rural divides; and, finally, in Hungary, the significant realignment across economic and cultural dimensions, notably for class and education cleavages. Methodologically, the paper introduces significant innovations by decomposing overall trends into intra- and inter-cohort trends, enabling a distinction between social and life-cycle change. Employing descriptive age-period-cohort (APC) models with smoothing splines, it captures nonlinear patterns dynamically without relying on strong assumptions. There are few significant advantages to the proposed analytic strategy. Unlike period-based models and synchronic generational analyses, the proposed model provides estimates of inter-cohort (or social change) trends that are adjusted for intra-cohort (or life-cycle) trends, allowing to develop a more complete and less distorted account of how socio-political attitudes have changed over time and across contexts. The study leverages the proposed model to test theoretical expectations regarding cohort trends across key social cleavages like class, education, geography, religion, ethnic identity, and gender, offering insights into the patterning of social change across the four cases under scrutiny. In the case of France, for example, the paper critically assesses various narratives and theoretical claims about the country’s socio-political trajectory. The findings reveal deep social inequalities widening the gap between citizens, particularly in terms of political interests, political engagement, and the capacity to engage in politics. Individuals from higher social classes, the more educated, urban dwellers, and those leaning towards the right, we find, increasingly distinguish themselves from the rest of the population. Moreover, the findings reveal that recent protests do not stem from an intergenerational shift towards more assertive and critical citizenship. Instead, we show that the trends arise from a growing sense of indifference and alienation reaching a tipping point, prompting citizens, many for the first time, to take to the streets to express their discontent – trends largely in support of a generational dealignment rather than a realignment. The findings are contrasted with that of Sweden, Spain, and Hungary, helping forward a long-term, cohort-based understanding of shifting socio-political landscapes where traditional cleavages based on class, education, and geography continue to play a crucial role but are being reconfigured in new ways. We end the paper by discussing the implications of our proposed approach to studies broadly in the areas of historical, comparative, and political sociology: specifically, we highlight how employing a cohort perspective offers a vital lens by distinguishing between generational shifts and age-related changes. We contend that this help consider distinct experiences and attitudes of successive cohorts, informing theorization about long-term generational trends in a comparative fashion, while helping avoid inherent issues with period-based evaluations.

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Non-presenting author: Ethan Fosse, University of Toronto

Amin Perez, Université du Québec à Montréal

Sociology against Empire. Pierre Bourdieu's thought on colonialism and revolution

How can we think from the Empire’s entrails in a counter-imperial direction? How can sociology play a progressive role in the context of colonization and a war of liberation? This presentation focuses on Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological studies on colonialism, forged mainly amid the Algerian liberation war against the French Empire. Drawing on Bourdieu’s personal papers and his published and unpublished work, I propose to restore the unorthodox scientific practices (in collaboration with native writers, indigenous schoolteachers, and anticolonial activists) that brought him to outline an alternative sociology of colonialism. More importantly, I’m interested in showing the components of the sociology of domination and emancipation he forged during the anticolonial struggle. First, the historical sociology developed by Bourdieu in the Algerian form of settlement colonization was as interested in analyzing the military, legal, political, and economic mechanism that made this domination happen as in studying the Imperial reason that grounded it. Second, Bourdieu also sought to understand the means of liberation and social emancipation. During the Algerian decolonization struggle, other anticolonial thinkers and activists from other colonies and the metropole took that particular moment of extreme domination to think about social change and a postcolonial society. I replace how Bourdieu put these theories to work in the sociological field. As distanced from colonial mythologies without falling into anti-colonial mysticism, Bourdieu’s sociology offers the means to develop a social revolution. This presentation proposes a reflection on an unknown Bourdieu as a sociologist of colonialism, race, revolution, and emancipation. By historicizing Bourdieu’s work developed from the bowels of Empire, my goal is to provide a new analytical perspective on the historical past of colonization and decolonization and contemporary debates.

Kathryn Barber, York University

Finding social gravity: Adolphe Quetelet's formative influence on the International Statistical Institute (ISI)

The ‘long 19th century’ was marked by dramatic changes to to understanding the social world. Academic disciplines were founded, dramatically changed or eliminated such as sociology, political economy or phrenology. During this period, the practice of statistics began transitioning from the methodologically ambiguous study of all facets of the state to applied mathematical discipline driven overwhelmingly by Belgium’s Astronomer Royale, Adolphe Quetelet search for social gravity. In this presentation based on an analysis of primary historical texts, I reconstruct Adolphe Quetelet’s now defunct science of la physique sociale, and describe its epistemological influence on the premier statistical organization of the day, International Statistical Institute.

Amy Kaler, University of Alberta

Creating a "Culture-Cohort": Methodological Challenges in Historical Sociology and the Case of West China Missionaries

This paper examines the epistemological and practical challenges of delineating a cohort of individuals for the purposes of generating a “group biography” or collective account of experiences. These challenges include identifying both the essential characteristics of the cohort for the purposes of study and the inclusion criteria. For the purpose of cultural history, these inclusion criteria may not be limited to time and space, or demographic co-ordinates, but also involve individuals’ affiliation with particular institutions and their identification with particular social and political projects. As an example, we discuss the creation of a cohort for a forthcoming book on the political imaginary of North American Protestant missionaries who were active in Sichuan, China, in the late 19th and early 20th century. Focusing in particular on the Canadian members of this cohort, in this paper we describe how this cohort was defined not only by who they were and where they went, but also by their shared connection to specific Canadian educational institutions (such as Victoria College, UofT), denomination and inter-denominational Christian churches and networks (such as the YMCA and the Student Volunteer Movement), identification with a particular ethnic identity (as Scottish-descended settlers of the second or third generation) and perhaps most elusive, as adherents to political and intellectual projects understood as “progressive” or “modern” within a religious context, such as pacifism or attachment to the promise of science and impartial rationality to mend the problems of the world. We argue that these shared characteristics make up a “cultural cohort”, and we consider what it means to be part of a historically significant group like a cultural cohort, and why this sort of cohort analysis matters for doing sociology at the intersection of history and biography, in C Wright Mills’ words.

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Non-presenting author: Cory Willmott, University of Southern Illinois - Evansville