Към науката за „обществото“
Toward the Science of ‘Society’

Summary/Abstract: This text provides a review of the role of sociology and the importance of the sociological knowledge in the modern societies of the 21st century. In the context of different theoretical concepts and approaches (Urry, Scott, Beck, Giddens and others) it analyses the intensified trend towards specialization, internal differentiation and fragmentation in sociology. The main issue this analysis seeks to answer is how far this trend should be perceived as a threat to the identity of sociology and its distinction from the other social sciences. In the text the thesis is argued that specialization, internal differentiation and fragmentation in sociology are an inevitable consequence of the theoretical and methodological growth of sociological science itself in the course of its permanent competing with the other social sciences for the research object, society. Moreover these phenomena result from the intense professional integration of sociologists in the various social spheres and the production of expert (not necessarily academic) knowledge on the individual fragments into which the present-day modern society is breaking down.

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