Abstract
The dialogic sociology helped theories from diverse sciences to overcome the risk of being withdrawn from the main scientific programs of research. In the specific case of social sciences, the threat was also to disappear or to diminish even in the universities. The author of this book has been the leader of such overcoming in Europe. He was selected and hired as Chair of the experts from all sciences in the elaboration of Horizon Europe, the scientific program of the European Union. Michael Burawoy has written very interesting words about the author’s contributions to sociology: ‘It looks to me a brilliant formulation of so much of what you have contributed to the social sciences and humanity. So generous to so many people. (. . .) I’m so delighted you have written this and in such an accessible narrative style’.
To get such an achievement, the analysis of dialogic society needed to address four main critiques to sociology and other social sciences: theoretical errors, individualism, ethical problems and lack of social impact. The book brings to light important mistakes from some of the most cited sociological theories. For instance, errors in Habermas’ discussion of Austin and Searle’s contributions to his theory of communicative action are identified, among many others. Individualism is argued as one of the reasons that prevents sociology from correcting these errors. In the mentioned example, Habermas could have talked to Searle before publishing the book, or after that, but there is a lack of dialog between most theorists. Furthermore, policy makers and citizens have identified ethical problems in the positioning of some scholars. One example is the case of Giddens, who praised Muammar Gaddafi as a great thinker at the same time that there were public comments about the way Gaddafi’s son received a degree from the London School of Economics. The lack of social impact was very clear on theories like the liquid modernity; citizens’ criticisms stay that it is impossible to find any improvement of society based on such theory.
The theory of the dialogic society goes much beyond previous theories of social sciences and allows diverse social theories to overcome these four critiques. It does so in a way that is ‘wide-ranging and cultured’, as Burawoy stated. The author acknowledges that it has been elaborated in co-creation, which means in continuous dialogue with scientists from different fields (including Nobel Prize recipients of Physics or Medicine) and with very diverse stakeholders.
The book includes four parts. The first one is an introduction with the nine orientations for the transformation of different social science theories to be able to become liked and used by scientists and citizens: dialogue, improvement, truth, goodness, beauty, gender, cultures, universal, and forward-looking. Furthermore, there are two very interesting contributions for all sociologists. On the one hand, this is not a new sociological theory to be added or to refute the other ones, but rather a new contribution to all of them, opening the possibility to enrich them with a dialogic perspective. On the other hand, with this enrichment, some of these theories can meet the citizens’ motivations to read and use them.
The second part demonstrates that our society is increasingly dialogic. It analyzes diverse areas of current society, discovering in all of them two findings: that dialogue is increasingly present over time and that there is a will to become still more dialogic. This part elaborates on a range of dimensions which go from dialogic daily life to dialogic policy, including a profound reflection about the dialogic self. While doing so, this text overcomes the dilemma between descriptive or normative sociology, because it unveils, in the same description of society, citizens having normative objectives.
The third part is titled ‘The beauty of human creations’. It starts with three sections on ‘poetry, science, and rights’. The first one is dedicated to aesthetics (with the examples of Sappho and Scheherazade), the second to science (with Copernicus and Karikó), and the third one to ethics (with Rosa Parks and Desmond Tutu). After that, the book sociologically contextualizes the contributions by the painter Goya, the musician Beethoven and the novel Don Quixote, countering the elemental errors of the interpretation that Foucault had made of the three. This third part ends with a concluding section explaining that dialogic society advances toward the recognition of the social artists, the ones who analyze the creation of new social relationships and are contributing to this creation.
The fourth part includes the currently needed sociological developments within the context of present contributions from all sciences, such as the relation between sociology and neuroscience. The current contributions of neuroscience are limited due to its reductionism of social science to only one part of psychology (mainly behaviorism). The socioneuroscience instead overcomes this situation by developing interpretations of human beings and societies which include sociology and other social sciences. This part also elaborates on very innovative methodologies, like social media analytics, and how they set out new challenges to our societies.
This book inspires sociologists from all over the world to make our sociological contributions not only more relevant to our own discipline, but to all sciences and to society at large. It has already been translated into Spanish and soon it will be released in Chinese and other languages. It engages with controversies and clarifies purpose in social research and theory, putting dialogue and co-creation in the center. It is written in a rigorous and charming way, including nine crucial orientations in the introduction that brilliantly lead the reader throughout the text. It is a must read for scholars, citizens, and policy-makers who want to improve society with sociological knowledge at the highest scientific and theoretical level, with the deepest meaning and the greatest impact.