Chapter Overview

We all develop theories to make sense of our experiences in the social world, such as our relationship with our parents or the chances that our favorite football team will win the Super Bowl, but generally our speculations are less systematic than the manner in which sociologists theorize. Sociologists develop theories more self-consciously than we do in our everyday lives. They also base their theories on the work of other social thinkers and try to build upon the ideas of social theorists who came before them. Some sociologists collect and analyze data when developing theories about the social world, and unlike laypeople, they hope to publish their work so that other social thinkers can build upon their theoretical insights. Furthermore, unlike most of us, social theorists focus on broad social issues and their implications for society, not personal issues like their relationship with their parents. This is not to say that social theorists are not reflective about their personal experiences. Indeed, feeling strongly about a personal issue is often the motivation for social theorists to begin to systematically examine a social phenomenon.

Sociological theory is defined in this book as a set of interrelated ideas that allow for the systematization of knowledge of the social world. This knowledge is then used to explain the social world and make predictions about the future of the social world. It is important to realize that not all of the theories presented in this book meet all of the criteria of this definition. Some theorists focus more on developing knowledge about the social world than on making predictions. Furthermore, not all social theory is created by sociologists. In this book you will read about how social thinkers from a wide variety of academic disciplines, including feminist studies, psychology, and philosophy, theorize about the social world. However, all of the theories discussed in this book meet two important criteria: (1) they have stood the test of time, and (2) they have a wide range of applicability.

In recent years social thinkers have come to an understanding that creating theories about the social world is far from a perfect process, and they have engaged in a number of critiques about the social theories and theorists discussed in this book. Sociological theory, like other fields of knowledge, is influenced by political factors. For example, feminist theorists have critiqued the centrality of the classical masters of sociological theory because they have historically been white males, a fact which has silenced the theoretical voices of women and other minority groups. Sociological theorists who have held powerful positions within the discipline, and the students whom they have mentored, have dominated the type of theorizing that is deemed legitimate. Furthermore, some political orientations have influenced the canon of sociological theory more than others, such as the politically conservative structural functionalist theory over more radical Marxian or conflict theories. These critiques have given rise to a new type of social theory, multicultural social theory.

The goal of multicultural social theory is to increase diversity by including different kinds of voices and perspectives, which have traditionally been silenced in the canon of sociological theory. Feminism, queer theory, Afrocentric theory, and Native-American theory are just a few of the new voices that are finally being heard in sociological theory. For example, the work of one black intellectual, W.E.B. Du Bois, who wrote during the turn of the 20th century, is finally being discussed in most sociological theory classes. Multicultural social theory is characterized by a rejection of universalism, a struggle to empower those who lack clout, a self-critical edge, and a recognition that it is limited by historical, social, and cultural contexts.

This sociological theory book is organized around three theoretic orientations: grand theories, theories of everyday life and portraits of the social world. Grand theories, such as those developed by the classical sociological theorists Karl Marx and Max Weber, are vast, highly ambitious efforts to tell the story of a great stretch of human history. Grand theories are characterized by an attempt to explain the changing nature of the social world. Theories that focus on everyday and seemingly mundane activities, such as individual thought and action, the interaction between two or more people, and the small groups that emerge from such interaction, are referred to in this book as theories of everyday life. Theoretical portraits of the social world can be characterized as "snapshots" of the social world, as they are static descriptions of the social world at one particular point in time. Throughout this book, you will learn the differences between these three theoretical orientations through discussions of the work of individual social theorists.