Presentation Schedule
Awards, Office and Authorisation: René Worms’ Communication Strategy for the International Institute of Sociology as a “World Academy” of Sociology (109450)
Session Chair: Yaniv Hagbi
Tuesday, 16 June 2026 14:45
Session: Session 2
Room: Room 116 (1F)
Presentation Type:Oral Presentation
The French sociologist René Worms (1869-1926) is recognised as a brilliant organiser who managed to recruit prestigious collaborators across borders and vocations for his International Institute of Sociology. This achievement is also held against him, i.e., the expectable failure to produce anything substantial at a propositional or methodological level from such an assemblage of academics, statesmen or even novelists. Worms’ recruitment policy can nevertheless be analysed as a communication strategy, which contributed to the institutionalisation of sociology as an academic discipline through a logic of academisation. Worms referred to his International Institute of Sociology as a “special academy” or “world academy”, an “authorised guardian” as well as a “regulating centre” for sociology. His communication strategy was coherent with his belief that sociology consisted above all in scientific legislation, at a time when there was no established understanding on what the profession of sociologist consisted of. Worms’ communication strategy also speaks to wider topics, e.g., the vocational challenge regarding sociology, or the role of award and ceremony, office and authorisation in science and specifically in the history of sociology and its institutionalisation. This paper supports its argumentation by identifying four fields in which Worms monitored events and developments as signs of an inexorable path towards the recognition of sociology: 1) awards and titles, 2) politics, 3) academia, 4) his own organisations. The goal is to complement recent studies that have already been challenging an overall dismissive 20th century historiography on Worms and his organisations.
Authors:
Christopher Montel, Charles University, Czech Republic
About the Presenter(s)
Christopher Montel is a doctoral student at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.
Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-montel-9ba142a
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