Commercially produced lamps of various types are assembled from parts and pieces in factories. That means that, in general, they can also be disassembled, repaired and reassembled by consumers. That’s “in general”.
If the connections aren’t welded, peened or otherwise mechanically stopped from unscrewing (the normal method of assembly) or otherwise crimped or “boogered” (that’s a technical term for you) to prevent it, then I’d recommend:
0. You have a defective switch, which probably needs to be replaced.
1. Unplug the lamp. Before you do anything else, do that!
2. Take out the “bulb”. (This is actually “the lamp”, but people colloquially call it “the bulb”.)
3. Disassemble the socket. Most sockets are designed for disassembly with minimal effort. Find the crimped base of the socket and pull-and-twist the upper part until they come apart. By “the upper part” I mean the section of the socket with the screwed lamp base – for the bulb / lamp.
4. Unscrew the screws holding the wire ends to the different parts of the socket. Release those wire ends. Don’t lose the screws for now. (NOTE: If these wire ends are touching at any time in the assembled lamp, then that’s your primary problem. Fixing the “touching wires” problem might resolve the entire issue with the lamp. Maybe.)
5. Look at the base to see if there’s a nut holding the wire there. That is, holding the base to the column or stalk, and holding the wire in place.
6. Loosen / remove that screw (the wire should still hold it in relative position to the stalk, but the lamp can now be taken apart and the wire pulled out of the stalk).
7. Remove the entire socket assembly at the top of the lamp and see if you can find an equivalent replacement socket at the electrical / lighting supply shop of your choice. Someone had to make it, and someone will supply a replacement if you can find it. (They’re not that exotic, after all.)
8. Find the replacement socket and reassemble the lamp in reverse order to the disassembly process.
I may have missed some details, but as long as you have the lamp unplugged when you start, you should be okay.
EDIT: I recommended the complete disassembly because when you’re replacing the socket it’s a good idea to pull the entire wire out of the column and look for bare spots in the wire that can occur for various reasons: insect or rodent damage, pinching during the assembly process (or just bad workmanship that you hadn’t been able to see) or other defect. That will assure you that the complete cord and not just the visible tail at the bottom of the fixture to the wall, is good to go. You can usually replace a socket without a complete disassembly.
Composing members:
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