Social Change and Economic Life in Kirkcaldy, 1891–1987: Sources and Methods, a Historical Perspective

Abstract

The current state of the relationship between sociology and history appears to be very healthy. The interest shown by historians and sociologists in each other’s work and the common interests explored in that work hardly needs to be stressed. Many individual examples could be cited but the continuing success of journals such as Past and Present and History Workshop Journal testify to this, as does the recent appearance of new journals from the sociological side of the divide, Work, Employment and Society (issued through the BSA) and the appositely titled, Journal of Historical Sociology. This last-named more or less takes as a statement of principle the words of Philip Abrams (as well as the very title of his book):

In my understanding of history and sociology there can be no relationship between them because, in terms of their fundamental preoccupations, history and sociology are and always have been the same thing. Both seek to understand the puzzle of human agency and both seek to do so in terms of the process of social structuring […] It is the task that commands the attention and not the disciplines.