La respécification : Les fondements empiriques de la méthode sociologique

In their scientific researches, sociologists perform interviews, observations, descriptions, interpretations and attributions of motivations. Such cognitive operations can also be found in everyday activities of lay people. For decades, American neopraxeologists have conducted studies of the common exercise of this “natural” sociology. More recently, the French pragmatic turn get involved in the same kind of empirical fields. These investigations of the common-sense activities that give their roots to the sociology contribute to the epistemological foundation of sociology; they are named respecification. Through the review of the empirical studies lead by both neopraxeologists and French pragmatists, this article clarifies their common (respecification-based) research program. Rather than arguing that the former influenced the latter, the similarity underlines that, far from relativist critics, these respecification-based researches are ultimately involved in founding and strengthen sociology.