Sociological theory

"Sociological Perspectives" redirects here. For the journal, see Sociological Perspectives (journal).

In sociology, sociological perspectives, theories, or paradigms are complex theoretical and methodological frameworks, used to analyze and explain objects of social study, and facilitate organizing sociological knowledge. Sociological theory is constantly evolving, therefore it can never be presumed to be complete.Sociological theories can involve analysis at a macro-level, which focuses on social structures shaping the society or a micro-level, a close-up study on social interaction taking place in specific situations. We can think of sociological perspective as our personal choice and how the society plays a role in shaping our individual lives.

A theory is a statement as to how and why particular facts are related. Perspectives also relate to core assumptions regarding the ontological nature of the social world. Theory is thus informed by historical debates over positivism, and anti-positivism, debates over the primacy of structure and agency, as well as debates relating to other fundamental key concepts in the social sciences and humanities in general (e.g. materialism, idealism, determinism, dialecticism, modernity, globalization, post-modernity, etc.).

Sociological Theory vs. Social Theory

Some researchers have suggested new subcategories because the field of sociological theory is so broad. Kenneth Allan suggested the terms sociological theory and social theory. Social theory, according to Allan, focuses on commentary and critique of modern society rather than explanation. Prominent social theorists include: Jürgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens, Erving Goffman, Michel Foucault, Dorothy Smith, Alfred Schutz, Jeffrey Alexander, and Jacques Derrida. Note however, that these authors' theories are very different. Several of the authors were in fact very empirical in their studies. For example, Erving Goffman had committed himself to a psychiatric ward in order to study the micro-sociology of institutionalized madness.

In contrast, the focus of sociological theory is an attempt to create abstract, testable propositions about society. Whereas sociological theory often heavily relies on the scientific method, aims for objectivity, and attempts to avoid passing value judgments. Social theory is often closer to Continental philosophy, more subjective, and is much more likely to use the language of values and judgment, referring to concepts as "good" or "bad". Prominent sociological theorists include Talcott Parsons, Robert K. Merton, Randall Collins, James Samuel Coleman, Peter Blau, Immanuel Wallerstein, George Homans, Harrison White, Theda Skocpol, Gerhard Lenski, Pierre van den Berghe and Jonathan H. Turner.

There are prominent scholars who could be seen as being in between social and sociological theories, such as Harold Garfinkel, Herbert Blumer, and Claude Lévi-Strauss.

Development of Sociological Theory

Sociological theory is constantly evolving and therefore can never be presumed to be complete. New sociological theories build upon the work of their predecessors and add to them, but classic sociological theories are still considered important and current.

The field of sociology itself and sociological theory by extension is relatively new, dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries (see history of sociology), it is closely tied to a much older field of social sciences (and social theory) in general. Sociology has separated itself from the other social sciences due to its focus on society, a concept that goes beyond nation, and includes communities, organizations and relationships.

Some of the key developments that have influenced sociological theory are: the rise of individualism, the appearance of the modern state (Elazar, Daniel J.), industrialization and capitalism, colonization and globalization, and the world wars. Those and similar developments challenged contemporary thinkers, inspiring them to question whether existing theories can explain the observed reality, build on them, and/or create alternate theories to do so.

Social forces effecting the development of Sociological theory

Many political revolutions had significant impacts on the development of sociological theory. Specifically, the French Revolution in 1789, caused dramatic political changes and forced many social theorists to reevaluate the social order at that time. The Industrial Revolution prompted many farmers in Western Societies to move to the city and consequentially indure long hours of labour and overpopulation in Urban settings.This shift to industrialization and capitalism led to the expansion of cities and development of labour movements. Higher populations in the expanded cities, caused a new set of social problems such as pollution, crime and homelessness. Early sociologists recognized and were intrigued by the vast differences in social interactions, views, and problems that came with capitalism and industrialization.

These revolutions inspired political and religious change. As an alternative to capitalism, people started to reach for socialism, a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. One of the most active opposer to capitalism was Karl Marx who participated in political activities to bring an end to capitalism. Also, feminism began to emerge from the revolutions, the abolitionist movements, and during the progressive era. Even though the female sociologists such as Harriet Martineau and Marianne Weber were considered on the margins, they still managed to contribute greatly to sociological theories studied today. Sociologists also had a desire to understand more about religion, and debate sociology's place in the sciences.

Intellectual forces and the rise of Sociological theory

During the 18th century, The Enlightenment was a period of great intellectual development as well as a change in philosophical thought. Sociologists began to think of people as individuals that conflicted with the Catholic Church, feudalism, and monarchies. This was a time of empirical thought, rational thinking and scientific proof. This type of thinking led to the symbolic-interactionism sociological approach. However, the Enlightenment also had opposers with a more conservative reaction to sociology. These sociologists believed in looking at society as a whole and viewed problems of society as a normal part of social dysfunction. As a result, the structural-functionalism sociological theory was developed.

List of Sociological Theories

Major Theories

Traditional/ Classical Theories

Conflict are perspectives in social science that emphasize the social, political, ideological or material inequality of a social group, that critique the broad socio-political system, or that otherwise detract from structural functionalism and ideological conservativism. Conflict theories draw attention to power differentials, such as class, gender and race conflict, and contrast historically dominant ideologies. It is therefore a macro level analysis of society. Karl Marx is the father of the social conflict theory, which is a component of the four major paradigms of sociology.

Structural Fuctionalism or Functionalism is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole. This approach looks at both social structure and social functions Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions and institutions. A common analogy, popularized by Herbert Spencer, presents these parts of society as "organs" that work toward the proper functioning of the "body" as a whole.

Interpretivism or Symbolic Interaction; Interactionism also known as interactionism, is a sociological theory that places emphasis on micro-scale social interaction to provide subjective meaning in human behavior, the social process and pragmatism. The approach focuses on creating a framework for building a theory that sees society as the product of the everyday interactions of individuals.

Contemporary Theories

Positivism is philosophy of science based on the view that in the social as well as natural sciences, data derived from sensory experience, and logical and mathematical treatments of such data, are together the exclusive source of all authentic knowledge. Society operates according to laws like the physical world. Introspective and intuitional attempts to gain knowledge are rejected. Though the positivist approach has been a recurrent theme in the history of western thought from the Ancient Egyptians to the present day, the concept was developed in the early 19th century by the philosopher and founding sociologist, Auguste Comte.

Antipositivism (also non-positivist or interpretive sociology) is the view in social science that the social realm may not be subject to the same methods of investigation as the natural world; that academics must reject empiricism and the scientific method in the conduct of social research. Interpretivists hold that researchers should focus on understanding the meanings that social actions have for the people being studied.

Middle-Range Theory is an approach to sociological theorizing aimed at integrating theory and empirical research,developed by Robert K. Merton. It is currently the de-facto dominant approach to sociological theory construction, especially in the United States. Middle-range theory starts with an empirical phenomenon (as opposed to a broad abstract entity like the social system) and abstracts from it to create general statements that can be verified by data.

Mathematical Theory is the use of mathematics to construct social theories. Mathematical sociology aims to take sociological theory, which is strong in intuitive content but weak from a formal point of view, and to express it in formal terms. The benefits of this approach include increased clarity and the ability to use mathematics to derive implications of a theory that cannot be arrived at intuitively. The models typically used in mathematical sociology allow sociologists to understand how predictable local interactions are often able to elicit global patterns of social structure.

Socialization is the means by which human infants begin to acquire the skills necessary to perform as a functional member of their society, and are among the most influential learning processes one can experience. Sociologists use the term socialization to refer to the lifelong social experience by which people develop their human potential and learn culture. Unlike other living species, humans need socialization within their cultures for survival.

Structure and Agency Theory The question over the primacy of either structure or agency in human behavior is a central debate in the social sciences. In this context, agency refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.[1] Structure, in contrast, refers to the recurrent patterned arrangements which influence or limit the choices and opportunities available.

The Foundations of Society

There are seven (7) different aspects/foundations of society:

1. Culture - Culture refers to a way of life, which includes what people do, think and what people have that has a particular meaning in their society. Thus culture is not only about what we see on the outside, but also includes what is inside - our thoughts and feelings. This can be summarized by the two components of culture: material and non-material culture. Material culture refers to the physical things created by members of society such as jewellery and clothes. By contrast, non-material culture refers to the ideas created by members of a society an example being religion and language.. Non-material culture also includes elements such as symbols, values, beliefs, and norms. Some symbols are used in the forms of words, gestures, and actions to express meanings and to communicate with one another. Values are abstract standards of behaviour and beliefs are specific statements that the culture holds to be true. The general guidlines of behaviour are called norms and they fall under two categories: mores (rules that have moral significance), and folkways (rules guiding casual interaction). Ideal culture is the social patterns mandated by cultural values and norms. Real culture is actual social patterns that attempt to approximate cultural expectations and ideals. Being exposed to alien cultures can result in Culture Shock where personal disorientation occurs when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life. This can be caused by immigration, travelling to a new country, or social movements within one's own country.
2. Society - Society refers to people who interact in a defined territory and share a culture . All human beings live in societies. Societies change or evolve over time, and differ around the world in many important ways. Some major sociologists that contributed to the understanding of the society are Gerhard, Jean Lenski, Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim.
3. Socialization - Socialization refers to lifelong learning, through social experience, that contributes to the development of the personality and allows full participation in society. Sociologists use the term socialization to refer to the long life social experience by which people develop their human potential and learn culture. The social experience is also founded upon personality which is a person's fairly consistent patterns of acting, thinking and feeling. It is also found that personality depends on the way that person develops which in turn depends on the role of nature as well as nurture.
4. Social Interaction in Everyday Life – Sociology points to the many rules that guide behavior in everyday situations. The more we learn about the rules of social interaction, the better we can play the game. The central concept in social interactions is the process by which people act and react in relation to others. The interactions that people face in everyday life are emotions, language and reality play.
5. Groups and Organizations – A social group is two or more people who identify with and interact with one another. We carry out much of our daily lives as members of small groups, such as sports teams, and large organizations, such as the businesses where we work. Both small groups and large organizations operate according to general rules. The social group is further broken into two types: the primary group (a small personal group) and the secondary group (a large impersonal group). People today are more engaged in formal organizations, which is the large secondary groups organized to achieve their goals efficiently, such as companies and government agencies. There are three types of formal organizations, utilitarian organizations, normative organizations and coercive organizations. Peter Blau points out that intergroup contact is influenced by social diversity in three ways. The first influence on intergroup contact is that large groups turn inward. The second one is that heterogeneous groups turn outward. The third one of the influences is that physical boundaries create social boundaries. In the process of evolution of formal organizations, there appeared a new structure of formal organization which is called as bureaucracy by Max Weber. Bureaucracy is an organizational model rationally designed to perform tasks efficiently.
6. Sexuality and Society – Sexuality is constructed by society and is an important part of our everyday lives. It is also a theme found throughout most areas of social life. Although sexuality is biological, society (including patterns of culture and inequality) shapes how we experience sexuality. The social issues and controversies involving sexuality these days are gay rights, teen pregnancy,abortion, prostitution,pornography, and sexual violence such as date rape. Sexuality does not just shape a person's thoughts about himself/herself but also creates others' thoughts on that person.
7. Deviance – standing out by not conforming to what is expected or normal – is a reflection of both individual choice and the operation and norms of society. Deviance is the recognized violation of social rules and cultural norms. Norms guide almost all human activities, so the concept of deviance is quite broad. It ranges from minor infractions such as bad manners to major infractions such as serious violence. There are two theories of deviance: biological and psychological theories. Biological theory helps explain human behaviour in context of biological instincts whereas psychological theories helps understand deviance in context of " unsuccessful socialization". While they both focus on individual abnormality. Both of these theories provide limited understanding of crime and other deviance because most violations are done by normal people. . The third theory of deviance is the sociological theory which views all behavior as well as conformity as the product of the society. These sociologists point out that what is deviant from place to place is according to cultural norms, behavior and individuals become deviant as others define them that way and what and who a society defines as deviant reflects who has and does not have social power.

Three Research Orientations in Sociology

1. Scientific sociology - Also known as positivist sociology, and is the study of society that is based on the systematic observation of social behavior on the basis of empirical behaviour. It sees objective reality as "out there" and uses quantitative data. It is more suited for laboratory research and focuses more on the things that people do (their actions). This type of research orientation corresponds to the Structural-Functionalist approach,by observing the different social structures that make up society itself.
2. Interpretive sociology - The study of society that focuses on the meanings that people attach to their social world. It sees reality as constructed by people in the course of their everyday lives. It favours qualitative data and is well suited to research in a natural setting . This type of research orientation corresponds to the Symbolic-Interaction approach and relies more on qualitative data. The founder of interpretative sociology was Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911). He gave the concept of understanding in people's world of meaning.
3. Critical sociology - The study of society that focuses on inequality and the need for social change. Critical sociology rejects the principle of objectivity by claiming that all research is political. Thus research is motivated by making this desired change . This type of research orientation corresponds to the Social-Conflict approach. The two important types of conflict analysis are gender-conflict approach and race-conflict approach.The gender conflict approach focuses on inequality between men and women while race-conflict approach focuses on conflict between people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. In addition, Karl Marx founded the critical orientation and does not believe that society functions as a "natural" system. By this, he claimed that the society cannot be changed.

The major Theoretical Perspectives

• Social-Conflict Theory: Reasons that civilization is a fight for power connecting groups that are struggling for limited means. Society is structured to benefit a few at the expense of the majority (acting as an arena of inequality, generating conflict and thus social change).. Social Conflict theory is studied on a Macro level. Some factors like social class, race, ethnicity, age, gender and sexual orientation can result in an unequal distribution of money, education, power, and social prestige. Most sociologists use this approach not just to understand society, but to make societal changes that would reduce inequality. For example, Karl Marx used this approach not only to understand society but to cause changes that will reduce inequality. He stated, "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it".
  • Gender-Conflict Approach: The inequality and the conflict between men and women are focused in this viewpoint. This approach is closely connected to feminism. This approach highlights the positions of power men hold over women in our society. This inequality can be seen in the home and in the workplace where the men usually hold more power. Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) is regarded as the first woman sociologist and she was particularly concerned about the position of women in society and fought for changes in education policy, so that women could look forward to more in life than marriage and raising children.
  • Race-Conflict Approach: The inequality and the conflict between people of different racial and ethnic groups are focused in this viewpoint. For example, white people in relation to people of colour, have several advantageous opportunities at schooling, income, social status and better health care. An important contribution to understanding race in the United States was made by William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963).
• Feminist Theory: Focuses on how gender inequality shapes social life . This approach shows how sexuality both reflects patterns of social inequality and helps perpetuate them. Feminism, from a social-conflict perspective, focuses on gender inequality and links sexuality to the domination of women by men.
• Critical Theory: Aims to critique and change society, not simply to document and understand it.
• Ethnomethodology: Examines how people make sense out of their social lives in the process of living, as if each individual were a researcher engaged in inquiry. It is the study of how people attempt to make sense of their everyday surroundings. . Harold Garfinkel (1967) is the one who devised this approach. It begins by pointing out that everyday behavior rests on a number of assumptions. Those assumptions are usually predictable due to the reaction of people or their behavior in everyday reality.
• Postmodernism: This theoretical perspective criticizes modernism with a core belief of being anti-theory and anti-method. Due to the human subjectivity, theorists believe that discovering the opinionated truth is unachievable. This is due to its belief that sees society as ever changing along with its assumptions and truths constantly subject to change. The theorists' purpose of collecting data is to achieve understanding, rather than collecting data. This approach analyzes on both micro and macro level. A question that is asked by this approach would be, "How do we understand societies or interpersonal relations, while rejecting the theories and methods of the social sciences, and our assumptions about human nature? or How does power permeate social relations or society , and change with the circumstances? "
• Interpretive sociology: This theoretical perspective, based on the work of Max Weber, proposes that social, economic and historical research can never be fully empirical or descriptive as one must always approach it with a conceptual apparatus .
• Network theory: A structural approach to sociology that is most closely associated with the work of Harrison White, who views norms and behaviors as embedded in chains of social relations .
• Social phenomenology: Social phenomenology is an approach within the field of sociology that aims to reveal what role human awareness plays in the production of social action, social situations and social worlds. In essence, phenomenology is the belief that society is a human construction. The social phenomenology of Alfred Schütz influenced the development of the social constructionism and ethnomethodology.
• Postcolonial Theory: A post-modern approach that consists of the reactions to and the analysis of colonialism.
• Rational Choice Theory: Models social behavior as the interaction of utility maximizing individuals.
• Social Constructionism: Is a sociological theory of knowledge that considers how social phenomena develop in particular social contexts .
• Structural Functionalism: Also known as a social systems paradigm, sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This theory focuses on how it is essential that elements of a society work together in order to function fully as a whole. Robert K. Merton (1910-2003) pointed out that any social structure has functions that are more obvious than others . Consequences of any social pattern that are recognized and anticipated are called manifest functions . latent functions are the unrecognized and unpredictable consequences of any social pattern . He also identified social dysfunctions as patterns that may disrupt the operation of society or produce undersirable results . The structural functional approach is a macro level orientation in terms of the level of analysis, as it focuses on broad social structures that shape society as a whole. It is also a classical approach. Questions that this approach may ask would be: "How is society held together? What are the major parts of society? How are these parts connected?and What does each part do to help society work?" Sociologists involved in this approach include Auguste Comte, Émile Durkheim, and Herbert Spencer.
• Symbolic Interactionism: Examines how shared meanings and social patterns are developed in the course of social interactions . Society and reality is constructed as people interact with each other. It is a micro level analysis becuase it focuses on individual patterns. Also, this approach perceives society as an "ongoing process". Social-Interactionists would ask a question such as: "How do people experience society? How do people shape the reality they experience? and How does behaviour change from individual to individual and meaning change from one situation to another?" Important sociologists related to this topic are Max Weber, George Herbert Mead, Erving Goffman, and Peter Blau.
• Dramaturgical Perspective: A specialized symbolic interactionism paradigm developed by Erving Goffman, seeing life as a performance. As "actors," we have a status, which is the part that we play, where we are given various roles. . These roles serve as a script, supplying dialogue and action for the characters (the people in reality). They also involve props and certain settings. For instance, a doctor (the role), uses instruments like a heart monitor (the prop), all the while using medical terms (the script), while in his doctor's office (the setting) . In addition, our performance is the "presentation of self," which is how people perceive us, based on the ways in which we portray ourselves. This process, sometimes called impression management, begins with the idea of personal performance.
• Anomie Theory: Also known as normlessness; where society provides little moral guidance to individuals.. It is difficult for individuals to find their place in the society without clear rules or norms to help guide them. Sociologist Emile Durkheim observed that social period of disruption. The economic depression results in greater anomie and higher rates of suicide and crimes. . Merton theorizes that anomie (normative breakdown) and some forms of deviant behavior derive largely from a disjunction between “culturally prescribed aspirations” of a society and “socially structured avenues for realizing those aspirations. In other words, a gap between people’s aspirations and their access to legitimate means of achieving them results in a breakdown of values, at both societal and individual levels. In lhe Division of Labor in Society, Durkheim described anomie as one result of an inequitable division of labour within the society; such inequality, Durkheim wrote, causes a breakdown or lack of rules in society and results in class conflict. In Suicide, Durkheim viewed anomie as an outcome of rapid social and economic change and hypothesized that it explained a particular kind of suicide that occurs when individuals experience marked and sudden changes in their social condition. Broadly speaking, then, during times of great upheaval, increasing numbers of individuals’ ‘cease to accept the moral legitimacy of society,” as sociologist Anthony R. Mawson, University of Keele, UK, notes.
• Grounded Theory: A systematic methodology in the social sciences involving the generation of theory from data.
• Thomas Theorem: Situations that are defined as real are real in their consequences. Suggests that the reality people construct in their interaction has real consequences for the future. For example, a teacher who believes a certain student to be intellectually gifted may well encourage exceptional academic performance.

Criminology

Criminology - The scientific study of crime and criminals.

Main article: Criminology

• The general theory of crime: States that the main factor behind criminal behaviour is the individual's lack of self-control.
• Differential association theory: The theory was developed by Edwin Sutherland and it examines the acts of a criminal from the perspective that they are learned behaviours.
• Labeling theory: It is the main idea that deviance and conformity result not so much from what people do as from how others respond to these actions. It also states that a society's reaction to specific behaviors are a major determinant of how a person may come to adopt a "deviant" label. This theory stresses the relativity of deviance, the idea that people may define the same behavior in any number of ways.
• Control theory: The theory was developed by Travis Hirschi and it states that a weak bond between an individual and society itself allows the individual to defy societal norms and adopt behaviors that are deviant in nature.
• Rational choice theory: States that people commit crimes when it is rational for them to do so according to analyses of costs and benefits, and that crime can be reduced by minimizing benefits and maximizing costs to the "would be" criminal.
• Social disorganization theory: States that crime is more likely to occur in areas where social institutions are unable to directly control groups of individuals.
• Social learning theory: States that people adopt new behaviors through observational learning in their environments.
• Strain theory: States that a social structure within a society may cause people to commit crimes. Specifically, the extent and type of deviance people engage in depend on whether a society provides the means to achieve cultural goals.
• Subcultural theory: States that behavior is influenced by factors such as class, ethnicity, and family status.
• Psychopath: serious criminals who do not feel shame or guilt from their actions. They do not fear punishment and have little sympathy for the people they harm. . These individuals are said to have a psychological disorder as psychopathy or antisocial personality disorder. They exhibit a variety of maladaptive traits such as rarely experiencing genuine affection for others. They are skilled at faking affection, are irresponsible, impulsive, tolerate little frustration and they pursue immediate gratification.. Robert Hare, one of the world's leading experts on psychopathy, developed an important assessment device for psychopathy, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. For many, this measure is the single, most important advancement to date toward what will hopefully become our ultimate understanding of psychopathy (McCann, Weiten, 641).
• Containment theory: when an individual has a stronger conscience it will make one more tolerable to frustrations and therefore are less likely to be involved in criminal activities..
• White-collar crime: defined by Edwin Sutherland as crime committed by persons of high social position in the course of their occupation (Sutherland and Cressey, 1978:44). The white-collar crime involves people making use of their occupational position to enrich themselves and others illegally, which often causes public harm. In white-collar crime, public harm wreaked by false advertising, marketing of unsafe products, embezzlement, and bribery of public officials is more extensive than most people think, most of which go unnoticed and unpunished.
• Corporate crime: refers to the illegal actions of a corporation or people acting on its behalf. Corporate crime ranges from knowingly selling faulty or dangerous products to purposely polluting the environment. Like white-collar crime, most cases of corporate crime go unpunished, and many are not never even known to the public.
• Organized crime: a business that supplies illegal goods or services, including sex, drugs, and gambling. This type of crime expanded among immigrants, who found that society was not always willing to share its opportunities with them. A famous example of organized crime is the Italian Mafia.
• Hate crime: a criminal act against a person or a person's property by an offender motivated by racial, ethnic, religious or other bias. Hate crimes may refer to race,ancestry,religion, sexual orientation and physical disabilities. According to Statistics Canada publication, "Jewish" community has been the most likely the victim of hate crime in Canada during 2001-2002. Overall, about 57 percent of hate crimes are motivated by ethnicity and race, targeting mainly Blacks and Asians, while 43 percent target religion, mainly Judaism and Islam. A relatively small 9 percent is motivated by sexual orientation, targets gays and lesbians.

Physical traits do not distinguish criminals from non criminals, but genetic factors together with environmental factors are strong predictors of adult crime and violence.. Most psychologists see deviance as the result of "unsuccessful" socialization and abnormality in an individual personality.

Sociology of Science and Technology

Main article: Sociology of science

Sociologists have been active in developing theories about the nature of science and technology:

• "Institutional" sociology of science (Robert K. Merton) (1960s)
• Sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) (1970s)
• Social construction of technology (1980s) - variant of SSK focusing on technology studies.
• Actor-network theory (1980s)
• Normalization Process Theory (2000s)

Social Movements

American Civil Rights Movement is one of the most famous social movements of the 20th century. Here, Martin Luther King is giving his "I Have a Dream" speech, in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

Main article: Social movements

Sociologists have developed various theories about social movements [Kendall, 2005]. Chronologically (by approximate date of origin) they include:

• Collective behavior/collective action theories (1950s)
• Relative deprivation theory (1960s)
• Value-added theory (1960s)
• Resource mobilization/Political process theory (1970s)
• Frame analysis theory (1970s)
• New social movement theory (1980s)
• New cultural theory (1990s) -- James M. Jasper, Jeff Goodwin et al.

Methods of Studying Sociology: Positivism: Social positivists believe that social processes should be studied in terms of cause and effect using 'the' scientific method.

• Also: Sociological positivism

Types of Social Movement:

Diagram showing types of social movement

See also

• Sociology
• Sociological perspective
• Sociological imagination

Further Reading

• Adams, B. N., & Sydie, R. A. (2001). Sociological Theory. Pine Forge Press.
• Babbie, E. R. (2003). The Practice of Social Research: 10th edition. Wadsworth: Thomson Learning Inc. ISBN 0-534-62029-9
• Hughes, M., Kroehler, C. J., & Vander Zanden,J. W. (2001). Sociology: The Core. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-240535-X Online chapter summary
• Goodman, D. J., & Ritzer, G. (2004). Sociological Theory: Sixth Edition. McGraw Hill.

External links

• American Sociological Association - Theory Section
• European Sociological Association: Social Theory Research Network (RN29)
• International Sociological Association: Research Committee on Sociological Theory (RC16)
• Sociological Theory (journal)
• Cliffs Notes - Three Major Perspectives in Sociology