Premesse socio-storiche, sviluppo, strutturazione e prima evoluzione della sociologia in italia (1861-1962)

Abstract

The research project proposes a chronological reconstruction of the birth, development and early stages of Sociology structuring in Italy, from national unification to the establishment, in 1962, of the Higher Education Institute of Social Sciences of Trento. The construction of a chronology imposes the assumption of a historical perspective, indispensable for an analysis that aims to outline, in a temporal sequence, the forms assumed by a knowledge linked to a history of individuals, ideas and facts and "their mutual relationships within a given society" (Mills, 1959, p. 16). The general goal presupposes the elaboration and implementation of a series of specific objectives, firstly based on the reconstruction of the "structure of that particular society as a whole", in its social, economic, political, cultural components and their relationships (ibid). The investigation tries to consider the socio-historical premises that determine, from the middle of the 19th century, even if in a contradictory and discontinuous way, the development of social analysis with its theoretical and methodological instruments, and the various legitimation and delegitimization phases faced by sociology in the scientific and academic fields. In the whole process related to the development of sociology, it should be taken into account that when a discipline rises, it is only the product of individuals not yet completely coherent with the theoretical apparatus - that is going to be defined - and to which they are also part, but it is supported - in its manifestation- by other closed disciplines (while others will clearly oppose its establishment), and then much of this initial process generally takes place outside the university. … [edited by Author]