Solvay Institute of Sociology - Institutional History

Institutional History

In 1894, Solvay established ISS (Gaspari 2002: 602; IS 2005). In addition, in 1897, Solvay gave to “the School of Political and Social Sciences annexed to the Université de Bruxelles, a sum sufficient to assure its existence over three years” (Rey 1903: 196). However, in 1901, as a reflection of his views about the “close links which unite sociological phenomena to the biological phenomena from which they immediately derive” (Solvay 1902/1906: 26), Solvay disbanded ISS in order to organize SIS along lines more directly and intimately attached to those of the Solvay Institute of Physiology he had created in 1891 (Solvay 1902/1906: 26; Vatin 1996: 486; Gaspari 2002: 602; Ducenne 2004; IS 2005). SIS was due to become property of the Université Libre de Bruxelles twenty-five years after its creation (Rey 1903: 196); this transfer actually occurred only twenty-one years later, in 1923 (Anonymous 1960: 213).

Designed by Belgian architects Constant Bosmans and Henri Vandeveld, SIS was built on a hillside in Leopold Park not far from its sister, SIP, which latter had been designed by Jules-Jacques Van Ysendijck and completed between 1892–1894 (CRM 2000: II; Ducenne 2004; BS 2006).

From its inauguration in 1902, Émile Waxweiler, “one of Belgium’s leading thinkers” (Sarton 1917: 168), was installed as the first director of SIS. Waxweiler retained this post until his sudden and accidental death in 1916 (Sarton 1917: 168).

According to George Sarton, SIS “soon became one of the most hospitable places in Belgium: if a stranger applied for admission, nobody ever inquired into his religious or political ideas; all willing workers, big or small, were welcome. Waxweiler had taken great pains to organize this institute, to make of its library, catalogue, and collections an almost perfect instrument, to give to it that atmosphere of freedom and scholarship which is in itself an inspiration” (Sarton 1917: 168).

Sarton (1917: 168) furthermore states that the point of view guiding SIS during Waxweiler’s time was “essentially functional,” involving “the consideration of social facts, not under their formal, external, descriptive aspect, but rather under their genetic, internal, explanatory aspect.”

The ambitious course of research which SIS had embarked upon under Waxweiler’s guidance may readily be summarized by the rubrics under which his Archives Sociologiques arrayed and reviewed new works contributing either to the progress of human sociology or to its introduction (cited in Sch. 1912: 37):

• Introduction
  • Energetics and general biology in their relations with sociology
  • Ethology of interindividual relations among living beings other than humans
  • Human and comparative physiology and psychology in their relations to sociology

• Human Sociology
  • Social accommodation
  • Social organisation
  • Doctrine and method

In addition, thanks to Solvay’s largesse, Waxweiler’s expansive vision, and its implantation in an architectural space of its own, SIS — utilizing modern methodologies from its very beginning — was never enthralled by any particular school of thought, such as that cast by Durkheim on the bulk of Francophone sociology, and functioned as “a true ‘laboratory,’ conducting in-depth inquiries, often involving statistical instrumentation, on the conditions of urban life, labor organisation, economic development, or even the ethnography of the Belgian Congo” (Vatin 1996: 486).

Following Waxweiler’s death in 1916, SIS was run jointly by Maurice Anciaux and Georges Barnich until 1920, thence by Barnich and Georges Hostelet until 1923 (IS 2007), when the institute, in accordance with Solvay’s original plan (Rey 1903: 196), was ceded to the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Anonymous 1960: 213).

It seems that during the time Barnich and Hostelet served as directors, SIS was not immune to the eugenical movement that was inflaming minds the world over throughout the 1920s. In early October 1922, for example, The International Commission of Eugenics met in Brussels, where the commission’s chairman, Major Leonard Darwin, gave an address entitled “L’Eugénique” at SIS, as did a Professor Doctor Winner of Copenhagen, on “Mental Heredity” (Anonymous 1922: 626). On Tuesday, October 10, a meeting in the “large hall” of SIS inaugurated the institute’s “eugenics room” (Anonymous 1922: 626-627). In early 1923, apparently, this “small room” became the Belgian National Office of Eugenics (Anonymous 1923).

Following its incorporation into the Université Libre de Bruxelles, the directors of the Institute of Sociology have been eight in number: Ernest Maham (1923–1935), Georges Smets (1935–1952), Henri Janne (1952–1959), Arthur Doucy (1959–1980), Nicole Delruelle-Vosswinkel (1980–1989), Jacques Nagels (1989–1998), Alain Eraly (1998–2003), and currently, since 2003, Firouzeh Nahavandi (IS 2007).