humanistic sociology
humanistic sociologyThose sociologies which are opposed to (as they see it) mechanistic, overly technical, abstracted, and career-seeking approaches, and which attempt instead to provide a social analysis ‘in the service of humanity’, acting as ‘critics, demystifiers, reporters and clarifiers’ (see Alfred McClung Lee, Sociology for Whom?, 1978). C. Wright Mills is often cited as a major example, and since the 1970s there has been an Association for Humanist Sociology based in the United States, with its own journal Humanity and Society. Ken Plummer, in his introduction to the problems and literature of a humanistic method (Documents of Life, 1983), outlines four criteria for humanistic sociology: it pays ‘tribute to human subjectivity and creativity showing how individuals respond to social constraints and actively assemble social worlds’; deals with ‘concrete human experiences—talk,...
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