Planning in the Context of a Sociology of Action

Theory-Practice Behaviorism in the Field of Sociology and Planning

Abstract

The purpose of this reflection is to base planning in the social sciences and more specifically in the context of a sociology of action. This object arises from the need to anchor the planning methodology, as I define it, in the field of sociology, understanding it as "a form of construction of collective action, within the context of the strategy of actors and with a view to consensualization of a desirable future". The conceptual model of this discussion is presented in the following diagramme and addresses several problematic dimensions of the social sciences. First, the heuristic dimensions articulated with the relationship between theory and empiricism that have traditionally opposed a "sociology of terrain" to an "abstract sociology" and which is at the origin of the production of different concepts, assumptions and methodologies that are now available for action of the professional. Secondly, the theoretical dimensions, which take up the paradigms that seek new explanatory models that best work the forms of collective action and, finally, a methodological dimension linked to the sociology of intervention.