Saturday, October 2, 2021

What is Sociological Theory?

What is Sociological Theory?



 What is Sociological Theory? I'll give you some information about what social theory is. Let's find out what social theory is.

Sociology is a social science that examines the elements that produce social reality in the context of social reality. Sociologists who are engaged in sociology and trying to access the knowledge of the social reality they are interested in do not have the opportunity to directly examine and investigate the social reality and its elements in their own way. Sociologists who try to access the knowledge of social reality try to explain the events and facts that take place within social reality from within certain models and acceptances. 



  • Can social reality be explained by emphasizing the differences of the people living in society; or their similarities? 
  • Is social reality a regularity or a conflict? 
  • (Is it necessary to focus on macro organizations such as institutions produced by people to explain social reality; or on the interactions and behaviors of individuals? 

It is possible to increase questions similar to the above. In order to answer all these questions, sociologists need to have some acceptance of social reality. Because research on social reality and the information to be obtained from these researches should focus on a basis.

This basis is theory. 

The sociologist approaches an issue within social reality with his theoretical acceptances and tries to reach the information of the subject he is heading to. Therefore, theory can also be seen as a precondition for the sociologist to turn to social reality. In general terms, sociology theory can be defined as a set of interconnected ideas that make information about the social world explain and predict, systematically.

Abend (2008:177-18) grouped the different theoretical approaches used throughout the history of sociology into seven categories: 


  1. The theory was considered a general proposition or a system based on a consistent union of general propositions that formed the relationships between two or more variables. 
  2. The theory is the explanation of a particular social phenomenon. 
  3. The main purpose of a theory is to be able to say something about the observable phenomena of the social world. 
  4. Some derivatives of theory and theory are based on the work of sociologists and their audiences such as Marks, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, Parsons, Habermas, or Bourdieu. 
  5. A theory is "Weltanschauung" (worldview) as a general perspective that allows the adopter to perceive and interpret the world. 
  6. The authors of the dictionary have determined that the term theory means to look, observe, see and design by following the etymological traces. The connotations of these meanings include the meanings of impartiality, viewership, foresight, and opinion. 
  7. Many sociologists have written about "micro-macro", "structure and intermediary" or "social order" in relation to theory.

Robert Merton (1945:463) found that the literature of "sociological theory" was covered in connection with the following topics: 


  1. Methodology 
  2. General sociological trends 
  3. Analysis of sociological concepts 
  4. Sociological comments after the incident 
  5. Generalizations based on observation in sociology 
  6. Sociological theory

Merton's above analysis drew attention to the issues that usually contribute to sociology theories. At the same time, each of these issues is handled differently according to the theory discussions. A theoretical acceptance also determines the methodology in its own way. 

According to the underlying theory, the topics of interest in sociology and the concepts discussed also change. Many sociological interpretations of a social event can be made. Theoretically, sociologists who interpret the event from different places can relate to each other in other ways. Generalizations based on empiric data and the differentiation of theories are also closely related to each other. As in other sciences, there are traditions of theories in sociology. 

In other words, theories in sociology have emerged as a continuation of the sociological knowledge and theories produced in the past, or as the product of reckoning with them. In addition, the change of societies and the differentiation of the relationship between sociology and society lead to the formation of new sociology theories or the reorganization of existing sociology theories. 

In the late nineteenth century and in the first half of the twentieth century, Karl Marks, Emilé Durkheim, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel, who made important contributions to the institutionalization of sociology as a scientific discipline with their ideas and works, left an important theoretical legacy to the sociologists who came after them.

At the same time, it should be noted that the founding fathers of sociology and therefore the sociological theory tradition was influenced by the thinkers who came before them, the historical events experienced, the structure of the society in which they lived, etc. 

This effect is reflected in the tradition of sociological theory and thought. For example, in order to understand the theoretical contribution of Emilé Durkheim, it will not be enough to look only at the works he produced or the ideas he came up with. Because in order to understand Durkheim, who made one of the most serious contributions to the institutionalization of sociology as a scientific discipline, the ideas of Saint-Simon and Auguste Comte, who strongly expressed the idea that a science called sociology should be established before him, the effects of positivism in the world of science and thought, the political instability that continued in France after the French Revolution and similar factors, how Durkheim interpreted these issues with understanding. Must also be detected. This also applies to another sociologist who lived in the same period or at another time.

Saint-Simon and Auguste Comte, who could be considered the first founders, for example, claimed that a new science should be created that tends to explain the industrial society, while at the same time arguing that this science should model the natural sciences that discover and formulate the laws of functioning in nature. So much so that these two founders of sociology used terms such as "social physiology" and "social physics" for this new science. 

Later, Auguste Comte named this new science "sociology". A similar situation can be seen in Herbert Spencer's understanding of "Social Darwinism", which is influenced by biology. Spencer likened society to an organism that lived with its institutions and subordinations, using the analogy of an organism from biology.

One of the most important issues that contribute to the development of sociology as a science is the issue of structural difference between natural reality and social reality. This issue is also noted especially as an issue that the first sociologists or the founders of sociology tried to overcome. Is it possible to find the cause-and-effect relationships that natural sciences detect in the natural order and theoretically explain in social reality? Is changing societies and history subject to a legal process? Can social reality be considered a reality that exists outside of social people? Is it possible to discuss and explain the phenomena in nature and the phenomena in society in scientifically similar styles? It can be determined that classical sociologists specifically seek the conditions of sociology being a science and being able to produce theories in such questions. However, it is clear in the history of sociology that this issue cannot be clearly resolved. Different answers to these questions contributed to the emergence of classical sociology theories and the institutionalization of sociology as a social science. In addition, the sociological theory has developed further in the twentieth century with the contributions of more diversified schools and new sociologists from these schools.





No comments:

Post a Comment