What’s in a subtitle? “History, social sciences”
Fabiani, Jean-Louis
What’s in a subtitle? “History, social sciences” - 2021.
88
In 1994, in the wake of their “critical turn,” the Annales changed their subtitle, replacing the triptych “Economies, Societies, Civilizations” with the dyad “History, Social Sciences.” Far from signifying the adoption of a new unitary or hegemonic paradigm for history, the journal was seeking to explore and experiment with new objects and modes of reasoning by opening itself more widely to the approaches and methods of other social science disciplines. Starting from a rapid sketch of the forms and limits of interdisciplinarity in the Annales, this article reflects on the evolving epistemological configurations that have traversed the social sciences more broadly over the last thirty years. It underlines the growing recognition of the historicization of categories and the historicity of the phenomena studied in different social science disciplines. It also emphasizes new configurations of knowledge, and in particular the important role played by the emergence of “studies” in the theoretical redefinition of new critical and scientific programs beyond the traditional disciplinary boundaries and intellectual divisions inherited from the nineteenth century. In so doing, the Annales stake their claim that history and historicity are a crucial resource for the epistemological debates of the coming years and create a shared space of experimentation and circulation between the sciences in the broadest sense.
What’s in a subtitle? “History, social sciences” - 2021.
88
In 1994, in the wake of their “critical turn,” the Annales changed their subtitle, replacing the triptych “Economies, Societies, Civilizations” with the dyad “History, Social Sciences.” Far from signifying the adoption of a new unitary or hegemonic paradigm for history, the journal was seeking to explore and experiment with new objects and modes of reasoning by opening itself more widely to the approaches and methods of other social science disciplines. Starting from a rapid sketch of the forms and limits of interdisciplinarity in the Annales, this article reflects on the evolving epistemological configurations that have traversed the social sciences more broadly over the last thirty years. It underlines the growing recognition of the historicization of categories and the historicity of the phenomena studied in different social science disciplines. It also emphasizes new configurations of knowledge, and in particular the important role played by the emergence of “studies” in the theoretical redefinition of new critical and scientific programs beyond the traditional disciplinary boundaries and intellectual divisions inherited from the nineteenth century. In so doing, the Annales stake their claim that history and historicity are a crucial resource for the epistemological debates of the coming years and create a shared space of experimentation and circulation between the sciences in the broadest sense.
Réseaux sociaux