Chapter 2 analyses the meaning of sociology in the 1960s. It traces the creation of the sociology degree in France, West Germany and Italy, and describes in detail the origins of the University Institute of Social Sciences in Trento. The chapter describes the first occupations in Trento over the discipline of sociology. The chapter shows how technocrats and modernisers envisaged in sociology a discipline that would provide managerial staff to administer and control social change. Students, however, most frequently chose sociology as a discipline that embodied a critical vision of contemporary society, personal emancipation and political change. I argue that this conflict explains the centrality of sociology to the revolts of 1968.