The two solitudes in the digital age: a comparative analysis of French and Anglo-Canadian sociology journals
Date
2025
Authors
Colin Arce, Alan Francisco
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Abstract
Canadian sociology is often described as two solitudes due to the separation between French and Anglo-Canadian sociologists. However, few studies have compared both languages to understand whether sociology is practiced differently in Canada depending on the language used for research. Therefore, this thesis explores whether Canadian sociology journals reflected the two solitudes over time. Using a computational methodology, I analyzed 14,528 French and English articles published in Canadian sociology journals between 1960 and 2021 to compare their publication trends.
The findings reveal that half of all articles addressed topics that were published about in the two languages. I also identified four core topics in Canadian sociology that were studied in both English and French between 1960 and 2021: theory, work, crime, and family. In addition to the common topics, the two languages experienced a fragmentation, delocalization, and feminization of their research topics over time. These similar social processes show that there is more
common ground between French and Anglo-Canadian sociology than is implied by the two solitudes metaphor.
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Canadian sociology, scholarly communication, scholarly journals