ABSTRACT
What is it about present circumstances that has precipitated yet another series of re-appraisals of the practice of sociology? Is it 'that for the first time in history there exists the possibility, if not probability, of the man-made end of all human beings, of all life, of the planet itself? (Wolff 1989: 321). The spectre of thermo-nuclear destruction and ecological devastation certainly continues to threaten the survival of humanity as a whole. But there are other aspects or elements of the present situation, other pressing problems and predicaments whose effects are more 'regional'. Specifically, I have in mind the dire problems of mass starvation and malnutrition, poverty and homelessness, and disease and ill health affecting substantial numbers, if not the majority, of people in the southern hemisphere, populations which have been relatively marginal within European and North American sociology. Other important features of the present, relatively neglected by modem forms of sociology preoccupied with contributing to the constitution of 'society', include the presence of armed struggles and military conflicts in formerly colonised territories, conflicts which in many instances follow directly from the installation of inappropriately constituted
'modern' nation-states, geopolitical unities which are at odds with longer-standing traditional, cultural, and/or tribal unities which have not only survived attempted processes of dissolution but now appear to be undergoing a regeneration. Signs of the reinvigoration of 'traditional' communities and 'local' identities are present on a global scale, across Europe and Asia, throughout the continent of Africa, in America, and in the region conventionally designated the Middle East. Here too there is very definitely a requirement to justify the practice of sociology. A need to recall the specific historical, cultural and geopolitical conditions of its emergence and development, that is post-Enlightenment Western Europe, and to contemplate its deconstruction and reconstitution.
