Introduction

This introductory chapter shows how Tarde’s perspective challenges traditional disciplinary boundaries and does not fit neatly into the classifications of sociology, psychology, or social psychology. The text suggests that Tarde’s work was often misunderstood and relegated to the sidelines of social sciences, but can be productively recovered nowadays. Tarde’s perspective embraces the complexity, diversity and dynamism of social life. We argue that it challenges the idea of a deterministic, homogenous social order and emphasises the importance of understanding the multitude of social forces operating at the infinitesimal level. His neo-baroque approach rejects rigid dichotomies and embraces the interplay of simplicity and complexity, regularity, and irregularity in the study of social phenomena.