IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ulp/sbbeta/2025-29.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Durkheim and the Roots of Cliometric Reasoning

Author

Listed:
  • Jean-Daniel Boyer
  • Claude Diebolt
  • Michael Haupert

Abstract

In the final chapter of The Rules of Sociological Method (1895), Émile Durkheim, the principal founder of French sociology, stresses the importance of adopting systematic quantitative comparisons in sociological research. First, quantitative methods enable the detection of previously unrecognized causalities and social laws that remain imperceptible through observation alone. Second, they assist in establishing and substantiating causal links. Durkheim even outlines two types of applications for serial quantitative analysis, distinguished by both static and dynamic perspectives. In this article, we argue that cliometrics offers a way to fulfill Durkheim’s initial (but soon abandoned) ambitions and transform sociology from a narrative discipline to one that incorporates quantitative methods and the precision they can bring to the treatment of social facts. This epistemological shift could open new avenues for both sociology and cliometrics.

Suggested Citation

  • Jean-Daniel Boyer & Claude Diebolt & Michael Haupert, 2025. "Durkheim and the Roots of Cliometric Reasoning," Working Papers of BETA 2025-29, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2025-29
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://beta.u-strasbg.fr/WP/2025/2025-29.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • N01 - Economic History - - General - - - Development of the Discipline: Historiographical; Sources and Methods
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2025-29. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask the person in charge to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bestrfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.