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The aim of this article is to explore the historical genealogy and the process by which social citizenship was constituted in Spain. Because its origins lie in nineteenth -century social reformism, the reasons why it appeared and the repercussions it had require analysis. This analysis clearly reveals that social reformism emerged as the result of the internal crisis of the imaginary of classical liberal individualism and its ensuing reframing in organicist terms. Given the incapacity of the liberal regime to attain the promised social, economic, and harmonious egalitarian political order, the new individualist organicism promoted the adoption of new ways of reaching this objective. The most important was the announcement of social reforms, which required state intervention in economic and labour relations. With time, these measures of reform would acquire the condition of social rights and give rise to the institution of so-called social citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on the developments in contemporary Spanish historiography. Historical research in Spain, as in other countries, has been deeply affected by the historiographical revolution of the twentieth century. The transition to social history started later in Spain than elsewhere, and it was largely brought about by foreign influences. Indeed, Spain's historiographical dependence on the outside continues even at present. Spanish historians are more often beneficiaries than creators of historiographical innovations. This article was translated by Edwin Tudsbery.

Discusses the concept of the social crisis. Assumption that society constitutes an objective structure; Idea that implies that individuals are rational and autonomous agents whose intentions and desires are the causal foundation of their actions; Pervasiveness of the subjectivist view of human interaction.

This article outlines the theoretical developments experienced in historical studies over the last two decades. As a consequence of the growing critical reconsideration of some of the main theoretical assumptions underlying historical explanation of individuals' meaningful actions, a new theory of society has taken shape among historians during this time. By emphasizing the empirical and analytical distinction between language as a pattern of meanings and language as a means of communication, a significant group of historians has thoroughly recast the conventional notions of society, experience, interests, culture, and identity, and has developed a new concept of social action. Thus, historiographical debate seems to have started to transcend, for the first time, the longstanding and increasingly futile contest or dilemma between objectivism and subjectivism, between materialism and culturalism, between social and intentional explanation, or between social constraints and human agency. The groundwork has now been laid for an alternative to the declining paradigm of social history that does not entail a revisionist return (be it partial or complete) to idealist history but opens a quite different path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses an alternative to the paradigm of social history proposed by Gareth Stedman Jones in his 1996 article in `History Workshop Journal.' Social causality; Development of social history; Jones' concept of language games; Confrontation between objectivism and subjectivism.