Download Sociological Theory www.AssignmentPoint.com In sociology

Sociological Theory
www.AssignmentPoint.com
www.AssignmentPoint.com
In sociology, sociological theories are statements of how and why particular
facts about the social world are related. They range in scope from concise
descriptions of a single social process to paradigms for analysis and
interpretation. Some sociological theories explain aspects of the social world
and enable prediction about future events, while others function as broad
perspectives which guide further sociological analyses.
Sociological theory vs. social theory
Kenneth Allan proposed the distinction between sociological theory and social
theory. In Allan's usage, sociological theory consists of abstract and testable
propositions about society. It often heavily relies on the scientific method,
which aims for objectivity, and attempts to avoid passing value judgments. In
contrast, social theory, according to Allan, focuses on commentary and critique
of modern society rather than explanation. Social theory is often closer to
Continental philosophy; thus, it is less concerned with objectivity and derivation
of testable propositions, and more likely to pass normative judgments.
Sociological theory is generally created only by sociologists, while social theory
can frequently come from other disciplines.
Prominent sociological theorists include Talcott Parsons, Robert K. Merton,
Randall Collins, James Samuel Coleman, Peter Blau, Marshal McLuhan,
Immanuel Wallerstein, George Homans, Harrison White, Theda Skocpol,
Gerhard Lenski, Pierre van den Berghe and Jonathan H. Turner. Prominent
social theorists include: Jürgen Habermas, Anthony Giddens, Michel Foucault,
Dorothy Smith, Alfred Schütz, Jeffrey Alexander, and Jacques Derrida. There
are also prominent scholars who could be seen as being in-between social and
www.AssignmentPoint.com
sociological theories, such as Harold Garfinkel, Herbert Blumer, Claude LéviStrauss, Pierre Bourdieu and Erving Goffman.
History of sociological theories
The field of sociology itself--and sociological theory by extension--is relatively
new. Both date back to the 18th and 19th centuries. The drastic social changes
of that period, such as industrialization, urbanization, and the rise of democratic
states caused particularly Western thinkers to become aware of society. The
oldest sociological theories deal with broad historical processes relating to these
changes. Since then, sociological theories have come to encompass most aspects
of society, including communities, organizations and relationships.
Central theoretical problems
Overall, there is a strong consensus regarding the central theoretical questions
and the central problems that emerge from explicating such questions.
Sociological theory attempts to answer the following three questions: (1) What
is action? (2) What is social order? and (3) What determines social change? In
the myriad attempts to answer these questions, three predominately theoretical
(i.e. not empirical) problems emerge. These problems are largely inherited from
the classical theoretical traditions. The consensus on the central theoretical
problems is: how to link, transcend or cope with the following "big three"
dichotomies: subjectivity and objectivity, structure and agency, and synchrony
and diachrony. The first deals with knowledge, the second with agency, and the
last with time. Lastly, sociological theory often grapples with the problem of
integrating or transcending the divide between micro, meso and macro-scale
social phenomena, which is a subset of all three central problems. These
www.AssignmentPoint.com
problems are not altogether empirical problems, rather they are epistemological:
they arise from the conceptual imagery and analytical analogies that sociologists
use to describe the complexity of social processes.
www.AssignmentPoint.com