SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO PROSPECTIVE MONITORING (VEILLE PROSPECTIVE) THE PROBLEMATIC OF DEFINITION AND METHODOLOGY

Abstract

This article examines the epistemological and methodological problematics surrounding the concept of prospective monitoring (veille prospective) within sociology. It first addresses two main definitional issues: the multiplicity of terms used interchangeably (e.g., economic intelligence, competitive intelligence, strategic anticipative monitoring) and the question of whether “future” should be used in the singular or plural, arguing that the plural (“futures”) allows for multiple, adaptable scenarios rather than a single predetermined model. The article then reviews six sociological approaches to foresight: the positivist approach (Auguste Comte), which seeks to predict in order to control; the Marxist approach (Karl Marx), based on class conflict and linear stages of development; the Weberian approach (Max Weber), using ideal types and causal analysis; the phenomenological approach (Husserl, Schütz, Garfinkel), focusing on everyday lived experience and meanings; the Khaldunian approach (Ibn Khaldūn), centred on ‘aṣabiyyah (group solidarity) and the cyclical rise and fall of civilisations; and the critical approach (Bourdieu, Sporck, Malik Bennabi), which emphasises critique of the present to open up possible and desirable futures.