3

In this article, the authors first indicate the main reasons why a growing portion of social science researchers in France tend to put the concept of “race” at the centre of the sociological analysis. They then recall the scientific project at the heart of their book Race et sciences sociales. Essais sur les usages publics d’une catégorie (“race and the social sciences : an essay on the public uses of an analytical category”). Examining the stormy debates it unleashed, they point out the quasi-impossibility of a scientific discussion around the “class/race” issue. They conclude with a sociological sketch of the “theoretical struggles” that mobilise the French social science microcosm.