ABSTRACT
What is society composed of? This has been a question for sociology at least since the eighteenth century. This chapter aims at tracking down a few specifi c inquiries to what modern societies are composed of. These forms of knowledge are situated in the intersection of what Foucault calls the epistemological and the philosophical fi elds (Foucault 1970), a tension that may have been overlooked as science studies traditionally has focused on the hard sciences. While the social sciences have debated their philosophical foundations in bursts, during certain historical episodes-highlighting topics such as the nature of social life, the relationship between individual, group, society, etc.—they have also necessarily been forced to render empirical facts and measurements knowledgeable in an epistemological fi eld. This fi eld may have certain boundaries, limitations, and possible ways of describing society, but it must hold together in certain shapes and confi gurations, otherwise the social sciences would appear as nothing but mere speculation.
