Term Paper on "Views About Sociological Theory in the 21st Century"

Term Paper 8 pages (2675 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Sociological theory in the 21st century orients theorists just like architects to have theories existing in minds, with symbolic correspondence and explanations of social truths based on principals of directing thinking in an organized way of the social environment.

Sociological theory in current observation by scholars fails to connect with the reality of current social interactions.

Sociological theory is a representation of the sociologists' prevalent perspectives on the reality of social associations with the daily activities.

The outline of sociological theory in the 21st century relates to the nature of understanding of the locality in consideration that has a more formal approach.

Sociological theory has both deductive and inductive thinking, which sometimes can lead to conservative observations.

As social demands continue to change, sociological theories change to meet the demands, which at some point can cause differences.

There still exist unresolved differences on micro-macro division despite the micro occurrences leading to the macro sociological approach.

Views about Sociological Theory in the 21st Century

Although the sociological theory proves irresistible arousing to some extent, it fails to connect with the latest reality as far as social relations are concerned. In the event that there exists some sort of relation/interaction, explanation of the sociological theory turns out to be more complex hence difficulties in its understanding (Adams et al. 3). As there are accusations on sociological theories concerning its superfluous sophistications and hindrances, the theory has low support in motivating sociological debates. Looking back in the mid 20th century, one can establish a mixed perspective of the theoretical orientations at that time. There was for instance, the functional theorizing, which involved to later developing gradually to the current prevailing sociological perspective. It was a time when Marxist related conflict theory in the Western inclined to and enforced by the McCarthyism. In addition, the symbolic interactions greatly involved with the continual of George Mead's legacy (Calhoun et al. p.25). This is typically, what sociological theory was involved with. However, there are other particular theories of intermediate tasks that exist, like urban ecology and those associated with social psychology such as balance theories. It followed that after approximately 10 years (1970s), functionalism experienced challenges from European theorists who came with modified generation of the Marxist theorists. As structuralism was becoming known in the Europe continent and starting to influence America, the exchange theory was trying to emerge. Despite all these developments, there were few prevalent tentative proposes, but this was preparing way for new changes in the 1960s and 1970s, which gave a reproduction of the theoretical understanding that still exist up-to-date (Turner 1). Sociological theory in the 21st century orients theorists just like architects to have theories existing in minds, with symbolic correspondence and explanations of social truths based on principals of directing thinking in an organized way of the social environment.

Modern contribution on sociological theory interests in inquiring the reality and establishing the norms of civilization. From the understanding that modernization relieves the huge potentials of development at different localities, the general approach does not meet the expectations of early sociologists because "we are not really able to break free from our traditions and un-secular roots" (Dunlap 198). From the understanding that modernization forms a social situation to manage the prevailing challenges, it is vital to consider what one supports and what he/she denies. Thus, the most denial will result from complexity, thus the need to develop theories that have detailed explanations at all levels.

Currently, sociology has great number of differences constitution of theories representing a large number of views that contest for the available limited attention that can accommodate almost seven propositions (Turner 14). The indication from this statement is that there is a shrinking number of theories as time go by. However, this can be difficult as majority of the theoretical propositions has reference in research and academic publications. Therefore, this lessens the direct competition of the sociological theories irrespective of their coexistence. With regard to the hyper-differentiation influence, the large number of references existing, it gives the opportunity for researchers and other academic stakeholders to compromise justification of the significance of the sociological theories compared to other theories as the sociological theory does not enforce its examination with regard to observed realities.

In a fundamental nature, sociological theory is a representation of the sociologists' prevalent perspectives on the reality of social associations with the daily activities. For instance, considering that in our current societies, women have the greater task in household chores and child care compared to men, a practice that sociology explains men as family heads, there exists a cultural simulation that household chores does not represent a real task. Considering this statement, the general notion, and assumption creates a basis for sociological theory as far as gender connection is concerned. Since theorizing has been and will always be a constituent of human mode of reasoning, it shows how whenever an individual tries to establish the meaning of why a certain character is the way it is and not different, the individual is theorizing the social characteristic based on his/her understanding of the truth. This is the same approach of 21st century sociologists, only that they do it with more formality.

The outline of sociological theory in the 21st century relates to the nature of understanding of the locality in consideration. As all people continue to live in their specific locations, they are always trying to become aware of where they belong as well as their surroundings. This is an illustration of how human beings theorize the situation rather than just relating to them (Adam et al. p.4). Human beings generally review, understand, and significantly symbolize their actions and relations with each other. This is a similar observation as Karl Marx illustrates in Adam et al. that before building a house, it has to be conceptualized in mind before representing it in reality that is on paper and models, which has room for modification, if at all the intended plots do not proof reliable (4). Therefore, sociologists use theories just like architects and thus sociological theory exists in thought, with symbolic correspondence and explaining of social truth.

The perspective of sociological theorists will in addition involve a deductive and inductive thinking, which has organizations presented in levels. For instance, a sociological theorist can commence with typically a plan, or supposition on the character in the society. he/she then continues to create an abstract representation of the idea to explain the social character. This shows how sociologists can use deductive theorizing, where they come from a general idea and narrow down to specific details. On the other hand, sociologists can use observation to examine a certain character that can be difficult to understand, and then by looking closely into the character, they can derive a generalized understanding of that character. Thus, this approach therefore represents an inductive thinking (Adams et al. 4). Both the deductive and inductive theorizing gives the opportunity for sociologists to try to present a conclusive, easy, and refined accounting of the societal characteristics and their origins. Irrespective of this success, the society proves complex, and coupled by the human failure, the theories can fail to impress, thus, if some prove unreliable even after modifications, sociologists then can discard them giving room for more research for theories that best explain the society.

There are incidences when ideologies can express the difficulties of sociological theories despite them being on their own non-theories. It happens that sociologist, as many other people, can fail to acknowledge that what they represent as their understanding has prejudices and personal inclined ideologies that is, conservative observations. The indication of this approach is that whenever there is a disconnection of sociological understanding and individual ideologies, there exists a problem in what theorists present. As ideologies do not make irrelevant theories, their complication-free-content-lack in a theory cannot transform theories to become irrelevant completely. Moreover, sociologists understand that the risks of ideological influence and thus they will establish their way out to manage any hardships presented by the ideologies.

There is still a feeling that sociology presentation is compensating for the scientific determination to succeed and their failure to consider peoples' understanding (Tuner 6). As the scientific external opinions obtain the greater share of credibility, sociologists understand that whatever science presents, like for example, statistical data, it will always require theoretical explanations to ensure that they acquire meaning to non-sociologists. In addition, sociologists also understand that the need to free people from social or political constrains will at the same time need data to prove theoretical arguments as well as suggestions (Tuner 6).

Concerning sociological subjects and aspects of sociology, they are ever changing, and will undergo modifications to fit the social demands. For instance, in the event that in a society, the sociological concerns understand that there exists an observer, there exists a higher probability of these concerns/interests changing to achieve what they expect as the observer's concern. Thus, the philosophy war on knowledge revolves around reports, ideological teachings; faultfinding as well… READ MORE

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