Andrei Negru, Perspectiva clujeană interbelică asupra Şcolii sociologice de la Bucureşti
The Interwar Perspective of the School of Cluj on the Sociological School of Bucharest
The sociological school of Bucharest was the pinnacle of interwar Romanian sociology. While on the face of it, the Romanian sociology of the period under discussion was almost entirely identified with monographic sociology, inside its field there were several “schools, groups or trends” advocating irreconcilable theories and unwilling to collaborate. This explains in part the dim impact of D.Gusti’s monographic school on the other Romanian, chiefly academic, centers.
In the case of Cluj, the response of academic sociology to D. Gusti and his sociological school oscillated between almost complete disregard (Virgil I. Bărbat) and critical analysis of sociological monograph in its twofold aspect of theory and method (George Em. Marica), accompanied by E. Sperantia’s rather balanced perspective. The latter valued Gusti’s extensive program of understanding social reality, emphasizing the new elements it contained in relation to the previous trends in sociological research, but also “recorded” the criticism of the method, and concluded that Gusti’s work was “manifold useful socially and nationally”.
- Gusti and his monographic school enjoyed a better reception among some intellectual circles of Cluj involved in sociological research. One of them, the “group around “Societatea de mâine” journal”, distinguished itself by a sociographic approach and certain scientifically noteworthy results in the field of rural social research. Sociographic research was conceived as an approach adjacent to monographic sociology. In spite of the fact that I. Clopoţel, the mentor of the group, applauded the monographic paradigm, he suggested and practiced another research approach with a purposely-asserted applied objective. Thus, according to the “group of “Societatea de mâine” journal”, far from being a “preamble” to sociology, sociography was in fact an autonomous discipline, at the crossroads of sociology and politics. Whereas this group wished to be independent of D. Gusti’s school, the group around the journal “Gând Românesc” (edited by “Astra”) explicitly adhered to the monographic trend. The group distinguished itself in the field of sociology by the monographic campaign of Măguri (Cluj county), carried on following an agreement between D. Gusti and Iuliu Haţieganu, the president of the Cluj department of “Astra” Society. Other less ample researches of the group around “Gând Românesc” were the campaigns of Borlovenii Vechi and Pătaş (Caraş county), where Gusti’s monographic “pattern” was not entirely pursued due to objective reasons, as well as the “field trips” in the Apuseni Mountains, with the view to investigate the social, economic and cultural situation of their inhabitants. Later on, the Social Service Bill integrated this group in the Cluj Branch of the Social Research Institute of Romania.
In conclusion, we believe that whereas in what concerns his doctrine D. Gusti was perceived differently in various cultural-scientific centers of our country or even within the same center, the impact of his personality and his monographic school on social research in the interwar age was obviously positive.
Keywords: D. Gusti, monographic sociology, interwar sociology in Cluj, sociography, “Societatea de mâine” research group, the group around “Gând Românesc”.
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