WHY SOCIAL THEORY?

SOCY340:
FOUNDATIONS OF MODERNITY: AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL
THEORY
PROF. ALAN SCOTT: LECTURE ONE
Pieter Brueghel the Younger, The Fight Between Carnival and Lent (1559). Kunsthistroisches Musum, Vienna.
For a discussion, click here.
WHAT IS SOCIAL THEORY?

Social Theory is an attempt to make sense of the world by

drawing together relationships between numerous social
phenomena.

It is not simply a matter of describing the world, but

understanding it.

It is interdisciplinary in that it draws from philosophy, history,

political theory, psychology and so on. But it is based out of
sociological inquiry and uses the sociological method.
WHY SOCIAL THEORY?
SHORT ANSWER:

All observation of the world is informed by interests, values,

prejudices, theories. Observation is theory impregnated
(Popper 1976).

Without social theory sociology would appear as a list of

perhaps interesting but only loosely connected topics.

If research consisted only of data collection, it would lack all

order and sense (Harrington 2005: 5). Theory sets research
agendas.

We need theory when we do not know how to go on either in

our actions or in our research.
SOME AMBIGUITIES

Social theory or sociological theory?

Things are clearer in political studies where there is a
threefold distinction between political science, the history of
political thought and political theory/philosophy.
It is political theory/philosophy that is normative (what is the
best political regime? etc.). In contrast, social theory can be
either normative or analytical (or both).
SOME CONTRASTING STYLES OF
THEORIZING

Grand theory = marco-level search for a general model of society. Examples: Talcott Parsons (1902-
79), structural functionalism; Nikolas Luhmann (1927-1998), systems theory; Jrgen Habermas
(1929-), universal pragmatics; Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002), theory of habitus; early work of Anthony
Giddens (1938-), structuration theory; Margaret Archer (1943-), critical realism.

Middle-range theory (Robert Merton, 1910-2003) = theory intended to generate empirically testable
hypotheses. Examples: rational actor theory (RAT), analytical sociology; Mary Douglass Cultural
Theory(?).

Formal theory = search for abstract and universal social forms. Examples: Georg Simmel (1858-1918),
formal sociology; network analysis; mathematical modelling.

Historical theorizing: search for long-term historical trends and developments (e.g. the rise of the
state). Examples: Norbert Elias (1897-1990), Charles Tilly (1929-2008), Michael Mann (1942-) and
Theda Skocpol (1947-).

Social theory as Zeitdiagnose (diagnosis of the times). Examples: Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017): later
work of Anthony Giddens; George Ritzer (1940-); Ulrich Beck (1944-2015).
FOUNDATIONS

A science which hesitates to forget its founders is lost (Alfred North Whitehead, The
organization of thought, Science 22, September 1916)

In contrast to the natural science and many social sciences (e.g. economics), sociology
remembers its founders.

In this respect is it more like a humanities subject (e.g. philosophy) than a science
(narrowly understood). One other social science has this characteristic: social/cultural
anthropology.

This suggests that sociology is not progressive in the sense of the natural sciences; that
there is a continuity of concerns; that older classical- texts still have much to teach us.

These classical texts date from the mid-late 19th and early 20th centuries and are
associated above all with the names Marx, Weber and Durkheim (canonical works).
THE QUALITIES OF THESE
CANONICAL TEXTS
(SEE CHARLES TURNER 2010: 17 -21)

1. Intellectual authority.

2. Aesthetic power: reduces complexity, rendering it

manageable and provides the intellectual tools with http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/
Emile_Durkheim.jpg
which this can be done (Turner 2010: 17).

3. Foundationality: attempting to place social inquiry on

firm foundations (ibid: 18).

4. Inexhaustibility: they can be reread with gain;

5. Superiority of canonical texts over others and over

secondary accounts.*
* The first three Turner takes from Baehr and OBrien 1994. The forth he adds and fifth is my stab at capturing his
final point.
By original unknown ; edited by
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de:B

ia/commons/a/a1/Veber.jpg
enutzer:Tets [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

.
 8
IN SUM, WE CANT FORGET OUR
FOUNDERS BECAUSE:

We are still trying to develop their arguments and resolve

the problems they set.
Humans are reflexive beings who can only act on an
understanding of their situation and attribute meanings to
their actions.
The social science are in certain respects merely a
specialized reflection on those situations and meanings.
For some 2000 years that endeavour was called
philosophy. Now philosophy has been joined some
would say displaced by the social sciences as a
reflection on our social condition.
CANONS AND CONTROVERSIES

But canons are always controversial:

The question of Eurocentrism and/or a western bias;

Exclusion: of women, of those outside the metropolitan core, the

Global South, etc.

Much contemporary social theory feminist, postcolonial, queer,

postmodern, etc. can be understood as a challenge to, or
extension of, the classical canon of social thought.

But here we need to know something of the context of the

emergence of social/sociological thought.
THE CONTEXT OF FIRST WAVE
SOCIAL THEORY:
A EUROPE THAT WAS SHAPED BY:

Artistic and intellectual movements:

18th century: the Enlightenment.

Late 18th-19th centuries: industrialization and the triumph of capitalism.
18th-20th centuries: political and social revolutions: the French Revolution (1789); class
revolutions and attempted revolutions (1848, 1870, 1905, 1918); the Russian
Revolution (1917).
19th-20th centuries: mass warfare, mass democracy plus nationalism and colonialism.
Late 19th-20th century: welfare state.
First wave social the theory (and sociology) was an attempt to understand a
European, capitalist modernity that went global via the mechanism of European
colonialism and the rise of the US power (NB. the first modern political revolution was
in the US 1770s and the first modern mass war was the American Civil War (1861-
65)).
WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT?
IMMANUEL KANT 1784

Enlightenment is the human

beings emergence from his self-
incurred minority [or tutelage or
immaturity]. Minority is inability
to make use of ones own
understanding without direction
from another. This minority is
self-incurred when its cause lies
not in lack of understanding but
in lack of resolution and courage
to use it without direction from
another. Sapere aude! [dare to
be wise] Have courage to make
use of your own understanding!
is thus the motto of
enlightenment.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Immanuel_Kant_(portrait).jpg#filelinks
MARX & ENGELS: THE
COMMUNIST MANIFESTO (1848)

Bourgeoisie:
Owning class.
Generate wealth from already having wealth. Not from
labour.
Collect the surplus labour from the proletariat.
Have control of the state, the media, the law and
education systems.
Proletariat:
Survive by selling their labour. They work for the owners,
not themselves.
All aspects of society exist to reinforce their exploitation.

Are the vast majority of modern society.

BUT, one cannot exist without the other. They form what
Hegel called a Master/Slave Dialectic.
MARX & ENGELS CONT.
'The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of
class struggles.' (1848)

'The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims.

They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by
the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the
ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The
proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a
world to win.' (1848)

'The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various

ways; the point is to change it.' (1844)
UNIT STRUCTURE

Weeks 2-5:

What is Modernity? What is Modernisation?

Week 6:

Gender, ethnic and 'Eurocentric' bias in Social Theory

Weeks 7-8:

Macro Vs. Micro analyses of society? Ways of theorising.

Weeks 9-11:

What kind of modernity are we in now? 1968, Globalisation and Postmodernism

THIS UNIT:
RATIONALE AND STRUCTURE

Contextualization of social theory as a response to (capitalist)

modernity (from the medieval Latin Modernus and modernitas =
present):

'[Modernity is] a cultural orientation [] that turns its back on the

achievements of the past, embracing the new present with a view
to constructing a novel, this-worldly future (Gran Therborn 2011:
55).

This unit is necessarily selective. It offers one lens through which

to view, or one door into, social theory.
SOME ADVICE

Read your required readings (most to be found in Appelrouth

& Edles (2012) Classical and Contemporary Social Theory).
Take notes. Take your time with them.
The primary source readings in your textbook can be dense,
but the introductions and background pieces will help you.
While there is no substitute for primary sources, use all that
you have available to you to understand the material.
Use Moodle discussion boards to ask questions/discuss ideas
Assessment: Start thinking about it now.
The lectures will help you, but do the readings beforehand.
REFERENCES

Appelrouth, Scott and Edles, Laura D. (2012) Classical and

Contemporary Social Theory, 3rd edn. London: Sage.

Baehr, Peter and OBrien, Mike (eds) (1994) Current Sociology 42/1,
special issue on canons.

Harrington, Austin (2005) Introduction. In A. Harrington (ed.) Modern

Social Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Therborn, Gran (2011) The World: a Beginners Guide. Cambridge: Polity

Press.

Turner, Charles (2010) Investigating Sociological Theory. London: Sage.