The imaginary as method. “Lyrical sociology” as a heuristic of sociological description

The article draws on recent debates about empirical sociology’s lack of imagination in order to champion the strength and virtue of a peculiar type of close, but also thin description as a central mode of social scientific observation. A case in point for the evocation of a descriptive sociology is Andrew Abbott’s neologism lyrical sociology. Examining the lyrical-sociological approach, the article claims that the concept presents a distinct heuristic for the elicitation of a more colorful and vivid sociological imagination, namely, an emotional imagination in the empirical toolbox of the descriptive sociologist. After the article considers the potential of description as a specific type of sociological representation and thus discusses the concept of the social imaginary from a methodological point of departure, the article suggests three vantage points to qualify the lyrical mode as a sociological descriptive: First, it presents its central properties, thereby referring to the notion of a so-called “descriptive turn”; second, it examines the heuristic value of lyrical sociology. And third, the article juxtaposes lyrical sociology and the compelling work of French-American anthropologist Didier Fassin to evaluate the potential but also the limits of lyricism within the sociological craft.