Readings in Methodology: African Perspectives

7. Moroccan Sociology: Epistemological Preliminaries

7 Moroccan Sociology: Epistemological Preliminaries Abderrahman El-Maliki The researcher interested in sociology is, after a certain period of investigations and reflections, undeniably faced with a series of interrogations and questions of an epistemological nature which shout out to him and which are based on his scientific practice and the status of this science in his country. These interrogations and questions are gaining more and more legitimacy and relevance today after the birth and proliferation of the so-called “national” sociologies. It is in this framework that we should ask ourselves whether a so-called “Moroccan” sociology exists. As sociology has become a plural science, it would be futile and even imprudent to want to return it to a single discipline (Balandier 1981). The ramifications and divisions which are ongoing within this discipline mean that it can only be conceived of today as the corpus of an infinity of sociologies: political, religious, economic, rural, urban, etc., but also French, English, Mexican, Indian, etc., according to the fields and diverse cultural realms that it takes as its subject. Nevertheless, within this plurality, there are specificities which result in each of these sociologies particularizing by method, subject, or purpose. How then Can We Describe Moroccan Sociology? In our opinion, it can only be characterized by the “national” ends and strategies which it makes its own. So when the native sociologist considers creating his own sociology, he is faced with a rich and cumbersome sociological literature: such a work is one by foreigners of which he is obliged to make the inventory and critique, in view of disentangling the scientific from the ideological. This task which first falls on the national sociologist, places him or her in front of the thorny problem of objectivity in sociology, a problem which still arises for both national and foreign researchers. 128 Readings in Methodology: African Perspectives From the Sociology of “The Other on Oneself” to the Sociology of “Oneself ” The fundamental problem with which the national sociologist is confronted when he considers the study of a social phenomenon is first his dependence and familiarity with the phenomenon, which could at times lead him to consider it as one of the daily trivial matters. And yet the everyday sometimes conceals the real, because “what is familiar is not necessarily known,” said Hegel. The national researcher, submerged by the social phenomenon that he is dealing with runs the risk of coming up short with respect to the exteriority guarantor of objectivity required by the “scientificity” of the 19th century. How, then, can a native make his own anthropology, some ethnologists asked themselves? Is it possible from the perspective of the social sciences to be object and subject at the same time? To attempt to provide some answers to these questions, we will content ourselves in the following pages with drawing up an outline of the “identity” of the sociologists who have been interested in Morocco, and we will then see the difficulties which lead to the fact that objectivity in sociology – the example of which is borrowed from physics – still remains a subject of controversies and allout debates. Sociologists who have examined the history of sociology in Morocco have agreed to divide it into two main periods: – sociology of the colonial period; – sociology post-independence. Sociology of the colonial period This sociology was the work of foreign researchers – mainly French – and had as its main objective the knowledge of Morocco, all the better to dominate it. With this backdrop came the establishment of the “Morocco Scientific Mission,” a research entity established in 1903 in Tangiers by Alfred le Chatelier, well before the creation of the protectorate in 1912. In 1913, the role of the scientific mission was made official by an order of the first resident general in Morocco, General Lyautey. We can read in this decree: The notices established in the various regions on the ethnographic, historical, sociological, economic and administrative of cities and tribes in Morocco, and the other work of agents of the protectorate on indigenous sociology or politics will be made available to the Morocco scientific mission, responsible particularly for the preparation of a documentary collection published under the auspices of the general residence (Nicolas 1961:187). 129 El-Maliki: Moroccan Sociology The establishment of this mission was also a part of the “new positivist confidence in social analyses (which) made a scientifically-based colonialism (pacifistic and inexpensive) possible” (Burke II 1979...