Sociology and liberalism: A reconsideration

Sociology has often been defined in opposition or contrast to liberalism. However, a new postliberal historical revisionism may challenge this view. According to the postliberal position, liberalism should be understood as a broad political culture which contains both the “left” and “right” tendencies of contemporary politics. From this view, all modern politics, whether state-centered or market-oriented, forms a complementary whole dedicated to the liberation of the individual. This article uses this postliberal critique to reconsider the history of sociology. Revisiting sociological theories from the classical to the contemporary era, the article contends that the discipline’s seemingly contradictory impulses form a complementary, liberal project. This new perspective suggests that sociology is not so divided as is often supposed. However, if sociologists want to develop truly radical social theories, they must be attuned to liberalism as a historical force and the influence of liberalism on the history of sociological thought.