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Malgorzata Basta
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What is social theory to you?
Theory is our collective memory ,the brain center in which we store the basic elements of
what we have learned and the strategies we have available to carry us into the
future./Collins/
We are living in Global Village now where anything can happen. Globalisation is
defined as the worldwide integration of economic, cultural, political, religious, and social
systems and that’s why the answer for question what is social theory for me it’s very
important nowadays.
First of all I would like to find out what is a definition of social theory. Generally it
refers to the use explain and analyze social action, social meanings and large-scale social
structures. ‘Theory is our collective memory ,the brain center in which we store the basic
elements of what we have learned and the strategies we have available to carry us into the
future.’ 1. It ‘s an amazing experience to have eyes to see and ears to hear –what theory
supplies .For me social theory is very interesting because I did Political Science in Poland
and I’ve been taught by prof. Jadwiga Staniszkis2 which is the most popular sociologist in my
country. She wrote Postkomunizm and Władza globalizacji which are describing social and
political matters.
According to K.Allan social theory was born out of the ferment of revolution ,social
change ,and science .‘People began to think that social things mattered and that society was a
thing in itself becouse of some very serious social changes.’3 like French Revolution followed
on American Revolution and Industrial Revolution.
Classical social theory is extremely important today becouse without it is unpossible to
understand the world and society. Each theory have a perspective a clear, definable way of
viewing social world. Two of the most resilient ,non-social approaches to human behaviour
have been naturalistic and indyvidualistic explanations. On the one hand naturalistic
explanetions suppose that all human behaviour is a product of the inherited dispositons we
posses as animals .We are ,like animals biologically programem by nature. On the other hand
indyvidualistic explenetions baulkat such grand generalizations about the ineviability of
behaviour. We are all ‘indyvidual’ and ‘different’.
Thinkers in the Englishment were very concerned with such as things like: religion ,
human rights ,economic relations and governments which is known as a modernity.This time
of period ‘brought on politics surrounding the nation-state ,industrialized capitalism ,
urbanisation ,Massie changes in communication and transportation technologies ,the
dominance of science and technology, the spread of rational organizational technologies
(bureaucracy )’.4
1
Collins ,(1988) p.8
Jadwiga Staniszkis’s biography : http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jadwiga_Staniszkis
3
K.Allan (2005) p.19
4
K.Allan (2005) p.20
2
-2Classical social theory emerged during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a
critical commentary on the major and political processes shaping the modern world.
The first “modern” social theories (known as classical theories) that begin to resemble
the analytic social theory of today developed almost simultaneously with the birth of the
science of sociology. Auguste Comte (1798 - 1857), known as the 'father of sociology', laid
the groundwork for one of the first social theories - social evolutionism. In the 19th century
three great classical theories of social and historical change emerged: the social evolutionism
theory (of which Social Darwinism forms a part), the social cycle theory and the Marxist
historical materialism theory. Another early modern theorist was Herbert Spencer (1820 1903) .
The standpoint of classical theory towards contemporary social change was critical,but
also ambivalent. On the one side, the twin forces of capitalist industralization and
democratization were seen as eroding traditional constrants upon economic expansion and
political freedom , enlarging the capacity of human societies to realizm the good life. On the
other ,the decline of religious authority ,village life,and traditional status hierarchie was seen
as deeply troubling.
Nisbet (1967) argus that a tension between „modern” and „traditional” values is
fundamental to the assumptions and conceptual structure of classical sociology.It is
represented ,above all, in the widespread use of conceptual individualism ,sacred and secular
or status and contrach.He goes on to argue that the preoccupations of key European classical
theorists such as Karl Marx ,Emile Durkheim ,Marx Weber and Georg Simmel involve a
paradoxical combination of „modern” values such as science ,reason and individual freedom
with a „a conceptual armoury deeply embedded in the conservative desire for order ,and the
restoration of community”5
Emile Durkheim postulated a number of major theories regarding anomie and
functionalism. Max Weber theorized on bureaucracy, religion, and authority. Karl Marx
theorized on the class struggle and social progress towards communism and laid the
groundwork for the theory that became known as Marxism. Marxism became more than a
theory, of course, carrying deep implications over the course of 20th century history
(including the Russian Revolution of 1917). Marx approaches the question of structure and
agency via the proposition that it is human actors rather then overarching social forces that
make history and thereby constitute society. Social action and the course of human history can
only be understood ,according to Marx ,in terms of impact os social structures upon social
groups. Property rights separate society into different social classes defined in terms of their
relationship to the sources of economic power consolidated within the mode of production .
A final aspect of the discussion that is typical of nineteenth –centaury classical theory is
Marx’s account of social change in terms of evolutionary processes. For Marx human hostory
can be seen as the progressive unfolding of an evolutionary logic .Rather ,Marx ‘s own
evolutionary logic is centered on approach developed with his colleague Friedrich Engles
,namely historical materialism.
5
Holton and Turner ,(1986): 209
-3-
Although the majority of 19th-century social theories now class as obsolete, they have
spawned new, modern social theories. Some modern social theories represent some advanced
version of the classical theories, like Multilineal theories of evolution (neoevolutionism,
sociobiology, theory of modernization, theory of post-industrial society) and various strains of
Neo-Marxism.
We can modify and exising theory in some way.There are a numbers of methods we
can use to make it .For example we can expend or reduce a concept deffinition .Also we can
synthethesize theories –to combine or put althogether.
Ideas drive the human world .Every major change and development in history has
been fostered and fueled by ideas and behind the great ideas of human epochs are theories.