This document discusses different theoretical perspectives in sociology and provides a rationale for classifying sociological theories. It explains that theories provide frameworks for understanding social phenomena and analyzing aspects of social life. The document also discusses how early sociological theories responded to the rise of modern society and changing political theories. It notes debates around classifying theorists and theories, given transformations in perspectives over time. In the end, it references several works on social theory classification.

1. MODERN THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES IN
SOCIOLOGY:RATIONALE FOR
CLASSIFICATION

2. “The eyes sees only what the mind is
prepared to comprehend”
— Henry Bergson

3. ▸ Theories?? What are they?
▸ A spectacles through which you understand phenomena
▸ Provides framework for analysis
▸ Critically analyse Segregation of different social groups-how
you make friends- when you eat lunch, certain types of
students sit together and share lunch; why is that so?
▸ Why do you think that people tend to sort themselves into
groups and stay with people they see as similar to themselves?

4. ▸ Sociology Vs Common sense!
▸ Theoretical analysis vs common sense statements
▸ Theories attempt to explain why groups of people choose to perform
certain actions and how societies function or change in a certain way
▸ Too many theories in sociology
▸ Can we classify these theories into different paradigms??
▸ Different levels of analysis- for integrating and coordinating existing
sociological knowledge

5. ▸ Theories provide broad perspectives that help explain
many different aspects of social life
▸ Paradigms- philosophical and theoretical frameworks used
within a discipline to formulate theories, generalisations
and experiments performed in support of them
▸ “The emergence of social theory coincides with the
emergence of modernity” (Turner, 2009)
▸ How about classical theories? (to understand the totality of
forces at work in the making of modern society; it was a
both a product of modernity and at the same time an
attempt to reflect critically to its problems)

6. ▸ Early social theory was a response to the rise of civil society and the
recognition that society was an artefact produced by human action
as opposed to being part of the preordained nature of the world
▸ According to Talcott Parsons, (The Structure of Social Action, 1937),
modern sociology is essentially an attempt to find an answer to the
problem posed by political theories, namely how social order is
possible (Hobbes’ and Locke’s political theories)
▸ Sociology was concerned with - society in a reality itself
▸ Secure and consensual foundations for sociology established,
distinguishing scientific from ideological or normative expressions

7. TEXT
▸ Classical theories- centred on the theme of crisp and a certain
cultural pessimism
▸ This criticism was take on an enhanced momentum after the end of
World War I
▸ Durkheim died in 1917; Simmel- 1918; and Weber in 1920
▸ Early 20th century European social theory influenced by the theories
of Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Martin Heidegger
▸ Disenchantment with modernity led to a redirection of social theory
away from the classical tradition as represented Classical theorists

8. TEXT
▸ American social theory- pragmatism- had a huge influence
on sociology- link ideas to action
▸ Clear cut demarcation from social theory to sociological
theory
▸ As part of modernisation, increasing disciplining of the
subject
▸ compartmentalisation

9. ▸ Modernisation- tendency to classify everything
▸ Criticised for being reductionist, arbitrary- limiting the scope
▸ Especially American Sociology
▸ Can we classify a theorist? Or the theory?
▸ How can we address the problem of transformations or
changing perspectives of a theorists?
▸ Epistemological breaks!!!! For instance, Karl Marx was a
humanist in his early works but after the publication of Das
Capital he turned out to be a structuralist
▸ therefore, the rationale for classification must be reconsidered

10. ▸ Derek R Layder - Understanding Social Theory, 2nd edition
(2005)
▸ Bryan S. Turner - The New Blackwell Companion to Social
Theory, Wiley-Blackwell (2008)
▸ Wagner, H. R. (1963). Types of Sociological Theory: Toward
a System of Classification. American Sociological Review,
28(5), 735. doi:10.2307/2089911
REFERENCES