N

SA 150 - Lecture 2

What is Theory?

  • Theory (capital T) is the core concept of explaining how the social world works, not just a casual guess.
  • Common public notion: theory = an unproven proposition or guess; can be seen as something barely defensible.
  • Scientific notion (in sociology): a unified and systematic body of knowledge that explains how X relates to Y, i.e. the relationship between variables. A typical formulation can be captured as a functional relationship between variables:
    Y = f(X)
  • In social science, theories are partial and pluralistic: there is no single grand theory that explains everything; multiple frameworks compete and complement each other.
  • Theory is a tool for pattern recognition and coherent explanation, not just a collection of isolated facts.
  • Theories provide logics, assumptions, and concepts that help evaluate, compare, and critique social explanations.
  • Theories are built on (and rely on) prior knowledge and the collective work of other scholars; they are cumulative and socially constructed.
  • Everyday life already involves theory (implicit expectations about how the world works), e.g., predicting bus arrivals or social interactions; sociology makes these implicit theories explicit and subject to critique.
  • Distinction: theory vs. concept
    • Concepts are building blocks of theory; they are ideas or labels used to describe phenomena (e.g., class, gender).
    • Concepts help define what we are talking about and provide heuristics or mental shortcuts to grasp reality.
    • If different scholars define a concept differently (e.g., status as socially constructed vs. biologically derived), the resulting theory will diverge.
  • Theoretical frameworks (or paradigms) are coherent packages of concepts, assumptions, and logics that organize how we understand social life.
  • It is legitimate and necessary for theories to have assumptions; these frameworks allow scientists to build, compare, and criticize explanations.
  • Theory vs. data: theory helps weave facts into patterns and patterns into explanations; otherwise, we risk spinning out a list of disconnected facts.

Sociological Imagination (Mills) and the Everyday

  • The sociological imagination connects personal troubles with public issues and historical structures.
  • Personal decisions (e.g., what to wear) are not purely private acts; they are shaped by social structures, culture, norms, and institutions.
  • Dressing yourself this morning as a sociological question reveals how culture, gender roles, class, consumer media, geography, weather, availability of laundry, and mood influence choices.
  • Factors shaping dressing choices (illustrative list from lecture):
    • Culture and norms; roles and statuses; gender expectations.
    • Media and consumer culture (Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat) and fashion industry influence.
    • Geography and weather; climate-related clothing norms.
    • Economic factors and class; what is affordable or deemed appropriate for a given social setting.
    • Color theory and fashion aesthetics; what looks coherent within a cultural world.
    • Personal factors: emotions, mood, energy levels, or how one feels that day.
    • Household routines (laundry), chores, or personal responsibility.
  • Sociological imagination emphasizes that decisions are not purely autonomous; they are shaped by collective life and social structures.
  • The metaphor of the body (functionalism) and other frameworks helps explain how social order might be maintained or challenged.
  • Mills argues that the main task of sociology is to illuminate the connection between biography and history, and to see private troubles as public issues.
  • The point is not to deny agency but to show how agency operates within, and is shaped by, social structures and cultural scripts.

The Sociological Imagination in Practice

  • Everyday life as a site to practice theory (e.g., getting dressed, commuting, education, work, media consumption).
  • Patterns, not isolated acts: sociology seeks patterned explanations rather than one-off observations.
  • Relevance to policy and social life: understanding patterns helps critique and improve social institutions and policies.

Why Sociology Emphasizes Patterns, Not Just Individual Acts

  • Social life is patterned; theory helps identify, describe, and test patterns.
  • Without theory, social science risks producing disconnected facts rather than explanations of how and why those facts co-occur.
  • Social science theory supports the creation of coherent, testable explanations based on evidence.
  • It also enables critical appraisal and comparison across different explanations (e.g., comparing conflict vs. functionalist accounts of inequality).
  • The concept of reactivity (Espeland & Mitchell Sauter): people alter behavior when they know they are being observed or measured; theory must account for this dynamic feedback between research and social life.

The Role and Value of Theory in Social Science

  • Theory enables naming and conceptualizing social forces (e.g., power, inequality) so they can be analyzed and addressed.
  • Theories offer interpretive schemas, guiding how we view processes, institutions, and social change.
  • Theory acts as a cumulative intellectual space where ideas are built, tested, revised, and extended through collaboration.
  • Theoretical work helps abstract from the concrete to identify broader processes (e.g., class, race, gender, colonialism) that structure social life.
  • Theoretical frameworks provide shared ground for researchers to criticize, compare, and refine explanations.
  • The aim is to move from concrete cases to generalized understandings of social processes, while recognizing contextual limits.

Core Concepts and the Relationship Between Theory and Practice

  • Theories are not simply “big ideas” but are grounded in evidence and aimed at explaining observable patterns.
  • The concept of “frames” or “lenses” helps researchers approach the same phenomenon from multiple angles (e.g., symbolic interactionism vs. conflict theory vs. functionalism).
  • Concept formation is central to social science; precise definitions ensure researchers are talking about the same thing when comparing theories.
  • Concepts as heuristics help researchers simplify complex reality to identify core features and relations.
  • The boundary between theory and practice involves applying theoretical insights to real-world problems (law, policy, education, inequality, etc.).

The Traditional Theoretical Perspectives (Frameworks)

  • There are four traditional theoretical perspectives that anchor much of undergraduate sociology, with postmodern and decolonial variants added in later discussion:
    • Functionalism
    • Conflict Theory
    • Symbolic Interactionism
    • Feminist Theory
    • Postmodern Theory (and related critiques)
    • Decolonial/Decolonizing Theory (and Indigenous theory and theology) – discussed as a current and important thread

Functionalism

  • Core idea: society as a system with interconnected parts that work together to maintain stability and cohesion.
  • View of social structures: based on shared values and norms; social order arises from functional interdependence of social institutions.
  • Central metaphor: the body. Different parts (organs) have functions; equilibrium represents social stability; dysfunction leads to disequilibrium.
  • Key concepts: social structures, stability, cohesion, equilibrium, manifest vs. latent functions (implicit in functionalist analyses).
  • Strengths: helps explain how institutions contribute to social stability and continuity.
  • Critiques: risks viewing society as overly mechanical; can obscure inequality and power dynamics; may justify status quo and overlook conflict and change.
  • Typical questions: What functions does a social practice serve? How does an institution contribute to social order?
  • Important caveat: “order for whom?”—whose interests are served by social cohesion.

Conflict Theory

  • Core idea: society is organized around inequality and power; social order is a result of domination by powerful groups.
  • Focus: macro structures, class, race, gender, capitalism, and power relations; how resources and opportunities are distributed unequally.
  • Key figures: Karl Marx (class conflict, capital accumulation, bourgeoisie vs. proletariat); Max Weber (power, status, and the Protestant work ethic); W. E. B. Du Bois (racial inequality, race as a social construct and driving force of social life).
  • Central concepts: power, domination, exploitation, class struggle, ideology.
  • Weber’s contribution: capitalism cannot be understood by class alone; status (prestige) and culture (religious ideas) also shape economic life.
  • Du Bois’s contribution: race and racism as central to social relations; concepts like double consciousness.
  • Strengths: highlights inequality, power, and structural causes of social change; informs critique and liberation-oriented projects.
  • Critiques: can overlook micro-level interactions and individual agency; may underemphasize culture or everyday interaction in some variants.

Symbolic Interactionism

  • Core idea: macro structures are built from everyday interactions; meaning is created through social interaction.
  • Focus: micro-level processes; how people interpret and respond to social cues; how self and social reality are constructed in interaction.
  • Key concepts: symbols, meanings, roles, norms, civil inattention, social construction of reality.
  • Strengths: rich account of everyday life and identity formation; highly attentive to language, symbols, and interaction.
  • Critiques: can overlook macro-level power and structural constraints; may underplay systemic factors like class, capitalism, or state power.

Feminist Theory

  • Core idea: gendered power relations shape social life; critique of androcentrism and gender-based inequalities.
  • Focus: intersectionality, patriarchy, gendered division of labor, representation, and body politics.
  • Variants include liberal, radical, socialist/Marxist, and postmodern feminist perspectives, each with different emphases on structure, agency, and culture.
  • Strengths: foregrounds gender and power, integrates experiences of marginalized groups, highlights everyday inequalities.
  • Critiques: can risk essentializing gender or neglecting other axes of oppression; needs to be integrated with other theories for a fuller view.

Postmodern Theory (and related critical approaches)

  • Core idea: questions the possibility of universal grand narratives; emphasizes discourse, power/knowledge, and plurality of truths.
  • Highlights how knowledge is contextual, contingent, and produced within power relations.
  • Often engages with deconstructive approaches and critiques of objectivity.

Decolonial/Decolonizing Theory (Indigenous and colonial contexts)

  • Emphasizes knowledge produced outside and against colonial and settler frameworks; centers indigenous perspectives and epistemologies.
  • Seeks to dismantle colonial power/knowledge structures and to valorize indigenous ways of knowing.
  • Intersects with critical race theory, gender, and other axes of oppression to analyze how colonial histories shape present social life.

The Practice of Theory: How to Think with and Across Frameworks

  • Theory as lenses: put on different lenses (functionalism, conflict, symbolic interactionism, feminism) to illuminate the same social scene from different angles.
  • The same classroom or social setting can look very different depending on the lens used:
    • Symbolic interactionism: focus on micro-interactions, meaning-making, role-taking, and everyday symbols.
    • Conflict theory: focus on who is excluded or advantaged, power dynamics, and structural inequalities.
    • Functionalism: focus on stability, cohesion, and how institutions contribute to the functioning of social systems.
  • Theory as a tool for criticism: allows explicit articulation of assumptions, enables comparisons, and clarifies what a theory can or cannot explain.
  • Theories are not absolute truths; they are ways of understanding and explaining social life, often with trade-offs and partial coverage.
  • Social science is a collective enterprise: built on prior work, shared concepts, and ongoing dialogue among theorists.
  • The reactivity issue reminds us that social research itself can alter the very phenomena studied; theory and research design must account for that dynamic.

The Relationship Between Theory and Change

  • Theories can guide practical intervention and social policy by explaining how and why inequalities arise and persist.
  • Marx’s theory of class struggle contributed to movements for unions, social reforms, and in some contexts, revolutionary change.
  • Weber’s inclusion of status and culture shows that economic life is inseparable from religious beliefs, cultural norms, and prestige hierarchies.
  • Du Bois’s analysis of race and racism laid groundwork for critical race theory and ongoing anti-racist scholarship and activism.
  • The utility of theory lies in generating explanations that can inform action while remaining open to critique and revision.

Key Takeaways for Your Studies

  • Theory is a systematic attempt to explain relationships between variables; it is not a single absolute truth but a set of useful, testable propositions.
  • The sociological imagination helps connect personal experiences to larger social and historical forces; it is a tool for understanding how everyday actions are socially shaped.
  • Concepts are essential building blocks of theory; clarity about definitions enables effective analysis and communication.
  • The major traditional frameworks (functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, feminism) each offer distinct ways to interpret social life; they can be used in combination to gain a fuller understanding.
  • Be aware of the ethical and political implications of theory and research, including power dynamics, inequality, and the potential for social change.
  • Theory evolves: it is adaptive to changing social contexts and is enriched by including decolonial, indigenous, and critical perspectives that challenge dominant narratives.

Quick Reference: Key Terms and Figures (in context)

  • Sociological imagination: Mills. Connects personal troubles to public issues; biography to history.
  • Personal troubles vs. public issues: Individuals’ problems vs. structural forces.
  • Concepts vs. Theory: Concepts (building blocks) → Theory (systematic explanation).
  • Functionalism: body metaphor; stability and cohesion; equilibrium/disequilibrium; critique: may justify inequality.
  • Conflict theory: power, domination, inequality; Marx (class struggle); Weber (status, Protestant work ethic); Du Bois (race).
  • Symbolic Interactionism: micro-level meanings, symbols, everyday interactions.
  • Feminist theory: gendered power, inequality, intersectionality.
  • Postmodern/decolonial theories: challenges to universal narratives; foregrounds discourse, power, indigenous knowledge.
  • Reactivity (Espeland & Sauter): the effect of being observed on behavior.
  • Durkheim, Marx, Weber, Du Bois: foundational figures shaping major frameworks.
  • Concept formation (Mundane Mure / Tepperman): specify and define key terms for coherent analysis.

Terminology and Notation (LaTeX-friendly references)

  • General theory relationship: Y = f(X)
  • Conceptual clarity example: "status is socially constructed" vs. "status is biologically derived"; different definitions lead to different theoretical implications.
  • Biography-history linkage: Mills’ framing of personal troubles ↔ public issues.
  • Power and inequality: central in conflict theory and in Weber/Marx analyses.
  • Cultural and gender scripts shaping behavior: part of the sociological imagination and feminist theory considerations.

End of Notes