Research does not only have objects, it also has forms: text and language, but also theater, painting and even comic strips. By investing in this neglected dimension, we can initiate a modernization of the social sciences and fight against the crisis that is hitting them.
The social sciences – history, sociology, geography, ethnology, anthropology – have inherited millennia-old thinking and practice, but it is from the last third of the XIXe century that they structured themselves as disciplines. This methodical revolution, which has had enormous benefits for societies, has also marginalized reflection on the forms of research, in favor of a standard that is found today in journals around the world (regardless of the rise of English as a scientific language). But research is not just about objects. It also has forms: writing, language, narration, rhythm, tone, framing, scenography, supports, experiences, ruptures, hybridizations, etc.
Why have the social sciences been so little affected by cinema, photography or the modern novel, whereas Walter Scott and Chateaubriand, at the beginning of the XIXe century, had contributed powerfully to the renewal of history ? The first issues of Annals, from 1929, are contemporary with the Trial (1925), from Sound and the Fury (1929), from The Man Without Qualities (1930) and Journey to the end of the night (1932). Because of this missed meeting, the story has not completely broken with its narrative certainties of XIXe century, which it shared with the realistic novel. By linking scientific objectivity and contempt for “ literati », the social sciences have forgotten that they are embodied in a text.
Now writing is not a vain ornament, an aesthetic ecstasy. For the social sciences, the challenge is quite different: it is a question of clarifying their method, of recounting their investigation, of increasing their reflexivity, of improving their reception, of accepting subjectivity, of being more open to debate and criticism. On the pretext that they are modern in terms of method, should the social sciences refuse modernity of form? ? It is in this sense that we can call for their “ modernization “. This consists of thinking, collectively and experimentally, about the new forms that the intelligence of past or present societies could take in the future.
Not only is this modernization possible, but it is becoming urgent. The Internet and digital technology have revolutionized the way research is done. Above all, a multifaceted crisis is hitting publishing, bookstores and universities today: book sales are collapsing, bookstores are struggling to survive, students are deserting human sciences courses. Isn’t it up to researchers themselves to retain the public that is fleeing, to conquer new readers? ? Is it not up to research groups to propose conceptual and formal innovations, to vary the epistemological tools? ? Such a reflection cannot be expressed in the past, regressing towards the belles-lettres of the XVIIe century or the postmodern skepticism of the 1970s and 1980s ; it must be resolutely turned towards the future.
This modernization is already underway. From the time of the methodical revolution, at the end of the XIXe century, the geographer Élisée Reclus showed that one could be both a scholar and a writer, refusing jargon, protected areas and knowledge “ to cut “. In the interview he gave us, Martin de la Soudière, tireless surveyor of the highlands of the Massif Central, defines himself as an interdisciplinary researcher coupled with a writer: places, people, mountains are the subject of his research as well as of his literature.
In a “ further investigation », the ethnologist Françoise Zonabend returns to her work in Minot, in Northern Burgundy, to show that her logbooks bear the trace of an emotion, an intimacy, a freedom that academic conventions do not allow. not. Through their books, historians like Philippe Artières, Patrick Boucheron, Alain Corbin, Carlo Ginzburg, Nicole Loraux, sociologists like Didier Éribon and Nicole Lapierre have renewed the practice and the very language of research. Like the counterfactual, utopia offers an alternative way of understanding society, as our file “endorses to do so, in a half-playful, half-serious way. The world in 2112 “.
The social sciences are written, but they can also be filmed, sung, played, danced, painted, drawn. By projecting reasoning onto media other than the text, we give rise to new experiences, we produce new knowledge. This is what Susan Ossman, anthropologist and painter, recalls when looking back on her own artistic production. Researchers can also, without abandoning their requirements, join forces with comic book authors. Magazines like XXI And The comic magazinecrucibles of drawn reporting, open the way. The Life of Ideas itself benefits from the virtues of the Internet, images and video.
A plea for doing social sciences differently, this file suggests avenues, undoubtedly insufficient, perhaps open to criticism (like any social science text), but which have the merit of proposing something new, of reinventing the profession, of looking towards the ‘future. That research in social sciences is also research on its own forms, what could be more normal? ?
Summary
– Martin de la Soudière, “ Ethnology or the party of writing. Interview »
– Françoise Zonabend, “ The land of oneself »
– Christophe Brun, “ Élisée Reclus or the emotion of the world »
– Susan Osman, “ Visual anthropology »
– Ivan Jablonka, “ History and comics »
– Rémy Besson, “ Historian imaginations »
And also:
– Philippe Artières, “ When history passes through us. Interview »
– Patrick Boucheron, “ The invention of globalization. Interview »
– Alain Corbin, “ The story between dream and pleasure. Interview »
– Carlo Ginzburg, Invisible constraints. Interview »
– Paulin Ismard, “ Nicole Loraux, the audacity to be a historian »
– Nicole Lapierre, “ Praise of bastardy. Interview »
– Case “ The world in 2112. Utopias for the day after tomorrow », published in volume at PUF with an unpublished text by Alexis Jenni
– Case “ The book tomorrow »
Some notable experiences:
– The Archives of the Planet (1912), photographic and cinematographic collection brought together by the patron Albert Kahn and the geographer Jean Brunhes
– Chronicle of a summer (1961), a film by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin
– The Age of Cathedrals (1978), a documentary based on the work of Georges Duby
– The Central Children’s Commission (2008), a show by David Lescot
– Our Terror (2010), a show by Sylvain Creuzevault
– The Asylum of Photographs. The Red House (2010), an exhibition by Philippe Artières and Mathieu Pernot.