Introduction: In Quest for Identity

This chapter introduces the subject matter by providing a thematic and conceptual overview of the study. I commence by outlining my approach against the two prevailing modes of historicizing Macedonian sociology. The historical account starts with the late nineteenth-century proto-sociological thought pertaining to Macedonia, which was both recognized as such by Macedonian sociological scholarship and informed the sociological developments in the upcoming years. The interwar period is discussed by focusing on the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje as an epistemic circle formatting the ways of thinking, writing, and discussing the social reality in Macedonia. The chapter ends with a brief overview of the research in and beyond Skopje before the Second World War that resorted to sociological argumentation in challenging the officialdom positions.