Looking for a place for sociology. Between persistence in change and the emancipatory potential of immutability

Abstract

We would like to draw attention to the fetishisation of change in sociology and identify its sources, tracing this imbalance as symptomatic of how we think about and study social reality. We will also consider the possible consequences of preferring this kind of one-sided perspective, noting that one of the paradoxical consequences of its practice is the loss of the significant cognitive potential inherent in the category of immutability. To recover it, we would like to determine how immutability can be apprehended and identify its possible aspects, dimensions and forms. We are also interested in showing what it gives us to look at social reality from the perspective of this concept by looking at such critical categories in sociology as action or causality. We are also interested in the ambivalent nature of immutability, meaning, that it is at the same time a basis, a foundation, but also something not eliminated; something that gives security, a sense of continuity, but also something over which we have no influence; something that offers a basis for action, but also means rigidity, difficulty in adaptation. An essential aspect of our article is also the question of whether looking at social reality from the perspective of immutability necessarily pushes researchers toward reactionary, conservative and universalist positions.