Specifics of ‘interest’ notion use in late XX – early 21stcentury Western sociologyis analyzed involving the process of the making of its semantic shadings and heuristic capabili-ties under conditions of methodological relativism, of plurality of approaches, and particularisticviews in academia. Sociologists ambitions to renovate the contents of the notion, to use it in anew way in explaining spatial and temporal ‘contours’ of social practice are described.