This is my presentation in the XVIIth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences. The general topic was "At the Crossroads of Paradigms. Considering Heterodoxy in the Social Sciences". Here I discuss, following Bauman, the limitations of the positivistic paradigm and propose to combine it with the humanist approach, more in line with paying attention to the free social agent.

1. HumanismasHeterodoxSociology:
anApproachtoZygmuntBauman's
Hermeneutics
Elena Álvarez-Álvarez
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
Universidad Internacional de La Rioja

2. The Dilemma
ofSocial
Science
 Origins in Positivism
 Claim for Humanism in the context
of “Instrumental Reasoning”
(Adorno)
 Human being as an object of the
social science
 Recent critics to Bauman’s
approach – lacking of empirical
evidence (Rattansi 2017; Best)

3. TheWarsaw
Humanism
 Communist authority and
positivism
 Humanism as reaction – Julien
Hochfeld
 Interdisciplinarity, protagonism of
the agent
 Creativity to change society
 Reason for exile in 1968

4. The Relevance
of the “first
Bauman”
 Before “liquid modernity”, Bauman made
remarkable research about the nature and
status of the social science
 He thought that positivism was insufficient
to explain subjectivity
 He analyzed the philosophical currents of
social thought in depth
 Towards a Critical Sociology (1976)
 Hermeneutics and Social Science (1978)
 The key question: making space for
freedom

5. “Whatisofprimaryconcernishowtoadjustsociety
toindividualneeds,notthereverse;howtoextend
therangeoffreedomofindividualchoice;howto
provideroomenoughforindividualinitiativeand
non-conformity.[…]Asfarasresearchmethodsare
concerned,theirmeritsandshortcomingscanbe
reasonablyjudgedsolelyinlightofthevolumeand
competenceoftheinformationtheyleadto.The
choiceofcognitivemethodsalwaysis,orshouldbe,
secondarytothechoiceofproblemsonethinks
importantenoughtobe”
ModernTimes, Modern Marxism, 1967, 404-406

6. Critical remarks
on “Orthodox
Consensus”
 Durkheim, Parsons,Weber
 Society as a “second nature”
 Sociologists as “legislators”, bearers of an
ultimate truth (“up” to “down”)
 Language distant from common individuals
 A “sociology of unfreedom” –Works on the
control of external behaviour
 Built at the measure of a society of
producers, and to the modern homogenizing
intent
 Unfit to a fragmented and ambivalent world

7. Finding
Hermeneutics
 Previous assessment of ethnomethodology
and structuralism
 In Leeds – Gadamer and Habermas
 Truth as a finding and as a result: akin to
society
 Look for values and truth – unveiled with
time
 Bauman’s self-revision
 From “consensus” to “common good”
 Increasing emphasis on negotiation and
inclusion

8. A Humanist
Hermeneutics
ofSocial
Sciences
 Simmel, Gramsci
 Sociologists as “interpreters” (working “side
to side” to common people and common
sense)
 Linking individual experience to social
context, and back
 Interdisciplinarity:
 Closeness to philosophical hermeneutics
 Closeness to literature – a narrative
 The importance of metaphors
 Interpretation as open-ended and provisional
 Stress the critical sense of the free and
autonomous agent

9. Concluding
Remarks
 Methods are not absolute
 Humanism does not exclude empirical
research
 Bauman sharpened his criticisms to
positivism with time
 Contributions of a holistic approach
 Inclusion of ambivalence of thought is
fit for a plural world
 “Liquid modernity” writings are an
intent to put into practice previous
methodological assumptions

10. Elena Álvarez-Álvarez
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
Universidad Internacional de La Rioja
elena.alvarez@unir.net