Durkheim as a sociologist of knowledge: Rudiments of a reflexive theory of the concept

Although Durkheim founded his sociology on his unique epistemology and his corresponding sociology of knowledge, it is the positivist and structuralist interpretations of his work which have mainly influenced sociology, while the foundational sociology of knowledge has languished. This article explores Durkheim’s sociology of knowledge and the theoretical grounding it offers to contemporary fields of inquiry that are focused on an empirical analysis of practical knowledge and its uses in action, particularly those initiated by Erving Goffman and Harold Garfinkel.