The Sociology of Guy Bajoit: between a Relational Paradigm and Relational Individualism

Guy Bajoit was the first French-speaking sociologist, and one of the first sociologists in the world, to publish a volume specifically dedicated to relational sociology (1992). His analytical approach was systematically formulated and developed in the years thereafter, leading to the publication of his most recent work La maison du sociologue. Pour une théorie sociologique générale (Bajoit 2015). This essay does not purport to offer an overview of all of Bajoit’s work; as this would be an overly ambitious given the space available. My aim is to try and offer answers to the following questions: what is it that specifically characterises the relational sociology of Bajoit? Is his theoretical scheme really new, or is it simply a form of sociology whose point of departure consists of classical sociological paradigms (be they actionist or structuralist paradigms), and which then attempts to formulate a more relational version of such paradigms? If the latter is true, which approaches is Bajoit most indebted to? By adopting the paradigm of the individual-subject-actor, Bajoit (2015) would seem to be acknowledging, in an intellectually rigorous manner (for which he deserves recognition),that the true matrix of his studies is in fact the actionist approach: an actionist approach that is expressed in more relational terms, interpreted in terms of greater integration, but which remains, deep down, more actionist than relational.