Gabriel Tarde and the end of the social

Gabriel Tarde was, together with Emile Durkheim, the founder of French sociology. He has, however, almost completely disappeared from mainstream sociology as an actually used theoretical resource, and his appearance is usually limited to historical footnotes. The re-publication of his work in French, however, has allowed a profound reappraisal of his importance. The paper tries to briefly outline some of the reasons why his work can become central to a sociology which is not obsessed-as Durkheim's was-with the social. The attention paid to networks and their significance, the importance of the sociology of science and technology, the disregard for the nature/culture-divide, the fusion of psychology and sociology, the absence of any break with philosophy and especially with metaphysics: all those features made it impossible, a century ago, to acknowledge Tarde as a genuine professional sociologist; but those same features make him one of the most exciting sociologists of today.