The aim of the present article is to shed light on the background of the analytical frame that nas been developped by the author himself and his colleague L. Thévenot in De la justification. Les économies de la grandeur. It has been conceived as an instrument to be applied in the analysis of the critical operations (critism and justification in situations of confiict) carried out by the actors in their everyday life. Yet the position of the sociologist and therefore of his work is challenged at the same time. The critical actor and the "classical" sociologist that pretend to have access to a more genuine reality than ordinary people have and that thus assume a critical position, appear to be much closer to each other than it is usually believed. In order to make the analysis of the ciritcal operations possiible, this position of the "classical" sociologist must be abandoned. This is how our critical societies, in which actors are endowed with critical ressources and use them quasi-permanently, can be grasped as an object of sociological analysis. The author thn examines the conditions of possibility of such a sociology of criticism and the socilogist´s new position he is conducted hereafter to occupy., Luc Boltanski., and Obsahuje použitou literaturu