THE VARIATION OF CONTEXTS IN THE FIELD OF SOCIAL-SCIENCES - EPISTEMOLOGICAL REMARKS

In the field of social sciences, the notion of ''context'' is both one of the vaguest notion and one of the more useful. Vague, because the way contexts are framed and their theoretical status are often implici t and ver), variable from one research to an other. Useful and central , because social sciences are based on a contextual reasoning empirica lly founded Interpretation in the field of social sciences assumes to pass on from the abstract evocation or invocation of the ''social or h istorical concert'' to the description of limited and relatively singu lar contexts. In front of the various scientific uses of this notion, searchers are tempted to separate the ''good'' definitions of context from the ''bad'' ones, the ''relevant'' scales of context from the ''i rrelevant'' ones. However, if we are conscious of the constructed scie ntific nature of all ''social or historical contexts': we may discover the specific knowledge effects adapted to each construction's mode of contexts. Each scale of context squares with specific social complexi ty order and the different authors of sociological or historical studi es do not talk about the same social and historical reality. From one research to another, the searcher may try to vary experimentally the a perture of his lens, to combine different methodological languages, an d may attempt each time to delimit the field of pertinence of his inte rpretations depending on the choice of the point of view, the observat ion's methods and the scale of context.