Diversity

Question 1

What is a theory?

Answer 1

Collection of interrelated concepts, assumptions and causal propositions to explain a specified set of phenomena

Question 2

What is a meta-theory?

Answer 2

Theory of different theories –> abstract discussion of the nature of theories

Question 3

Typical questions that concern meta-theoretical scholars

Answer 3

• What is the appropriate way to develop theory?
• What kind of theory is possible? Are we able to identify laws (of society, behavior, etc.)?
• What are critical problems sociological theory should concentrate on? (i.e. individual agency/structure, integration/conflict)

Question 4

Example: Meta-theoretical statement

Answer 4

• Sociological theories operate on the micro, meso or macro levels
• Sociological theories are about sociological phenomena

Question 5

Example: Theoretical statement

Answer 5

Toxic masculinity is due to socialization

Question 6

Sociological approaches that use theories as basis of causal explanations:

Answer 6

Social science, explanatory sociology, analytical sociology

Question 7

Theory 1:

Answer 7

General propositions about causal relationships

• General proposition or logically connected system of general propositions that establish a relationship between 2 or more variables
• Needs to be universally quantified - subject is no individual neither is it time-focus, this causal proposition is valid everywhere at any time, that’s why it is rather law-like
• Rational choice theories often of this kind, try more or less to be universally explicable
• Internal heterogeneity
• Example: the larger the social context/social field, the more people included, the stronger status differences will be aka more elite-building happens

Question 8

Theory 2:

Answer 8

Explanation of a particular phenomena

• Does not aim at same level generality like theory 1 meaning it does not have the ambition to explain all phenomenons alike, just wants to explain one specific contexualized phenomenon
• Explanation should identify a number of ‘factors’ or ‘conditions,’ which individually should pass some sort of counterfactual test for causal relevance, and whose interaction effects should be somehow taken into account

Question 9

Relationship between Theory 1 and Theory 2:

Answer 9

• The covering law/deductive-nomological or Hempel-Oppenheim-model: we can only explain specific stockmarket crash bc we know about the laws of stockmarket crashes (the specific under the general) –> Deducing the Explanandum from the Explanans
• Some researchers say we need to really have law like theories because they allow us to explain phenomena everywhere

Question 10

What are scope conditions?

Answer 10

• define the circumstances in which a theory is applicable
• therefore, refer to the generalizability, or lack thereof, of a theory
• Specific conditions could be place, time, but also IF additions (-> for which subset does the theory hold true?)

Example: Across generations, immigrant minorities will become more similar to the majority population:

1. Time: In the 20th century, across generations …
2. Place: In Germany, across generations…
3. Condition: Across generations - IF the state allows ( state-inforced discrimination = apartheid) - immigrant minorities …

Question 11

How general can one become?

Answer 11

Question 12

Does it pay to go all the way up to law-like theories?

Answer 12

Ambition to develop truly general theory comes at the price of abstraction/ detachment of actual empirical phenomenon -> finding the right balance is key

Question 13

The quest for causal propositions

Answer 13

• When engaging in empirical research, we can generate/apply theory by making our statements more abstract -> what is your case a case of? (i.e. historical analysis of crash, is the case itself interesting for sociologists or is there a much broader question behind it?)
• Theories vary in their scope/generality and need to explicate the class of phenomena / set of cases to which they apply
• Scholars disagree as to how general theories should be: universal vs contextualized theory building = meta-theoretical debate par excellence -> produces different styles of research, cross country study:

Question 14

Do we need laws or are middle-range theories enough?

Answer 14

There are different views on the necessity of laws (within analytical-empirical tradition)

Question 15

Theory 3:

Answer 15

Interpretation of certain social phenomena

• Scholars are not always interested in causal links or consequences but pursue a more qualitative hermeneutic interpretative approach, they want to understand its deeper meaning
• main goal of a theory 3 is to say something about empirical phenomena in the social world but not of the type “what x causes y”, it asks: ‘what does it mean that P?,’ or ‘what is P all about?,’ or ‘how can we make sense of or shed light on P?’
• While they are rarer in U.S. sociology, theories 3 are a staple of some Latin American and European sociological traditions

Question 16

Theory 3:

Examples

Answer 16

Graeber’s bullshit job “theory”:

• Argues that there are millions of people across the world — clerical workers, administrators, consultants, telemarketers, etc. — who are toiling away in meaningless, unnecessary jobs, and they know it. It didn’t have to be this way, Graeber says.Technology has advanced to the point where most of the difficult, labor-intensive jobs can be performed by machines. But instead of freeing ourselves from the suffocating 40-hour workweek, we’ve invented a whole universe of futile occupations that are professionally unsatisfying and spiritually empty
• BUT if you ask people if they have useful jobs, 95% will say yes, but this is very subjective

Zeitdiagnosen: interpretation of current times/ in which society do we live in? (i.e. capitalist, post-capitalist, class society?) BUT “just” opinion as intellectuals - not so much based on data

Question 17

Theory 3:

Critique

Answer 17

• Difficult to establish a priori, codify, standardize
• May strike one as conceptually vague, methodologically problematic, or just unscientific
• So, why do we have such theories in social sciences?
  1. Demand for easy, pleasant explanations, can be used for political agendas for someone, resonate with normative principle
  2. You can find publishing house and avoid peer-review system, not everything is bullshit that is not published in journals, could be groundbreaking theory but there is no quality control

Question 18

Theory 4:

Answer 18

The study of the writings of classic authors

• Such as Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmel, Parsons, Habermas, or Bourdieu
• Often described as ‘interpretations,’ ‘analyses,’ ‘critiques,’ etc. -> study of meaning
  1. First, they may ask what the author of a text ‘really’ meant
  2. Second, what the meaning of a certain text is in another sense, namely, what is its significance, relevance, usefulness, what was or is original about it
• Critique: Sociology not so much concerned with its own history, should not only be about texts, should also include data

Question 19

Theory 5:

Answer 19

Ways of looking at the world / Weltanschauung

• An overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world, not about the social world itself, but about how to look at, grasp, and represent it -> aka paradigms, theoretical approaches, traditions, etc. (ontological and epistemological positions)
• When one speaks of “system theory” or “methodological individualism” ‘postmodern theory,’ ‘poststructuralist theory,’ ‘feminist theory,’ ‘queer theory,’ ‘critical theory,’ ‘Marxist theory,’ ‘structural-functionalist theory,’ ‘network exchange theory,’ ‘game theory,’ and ‘rational choice theory,’ one is often using the word ‘theory’ in this sense
• Is always being used, whether we are aware of it or not

Question 20

Why is the macro-micro-macro model not theory 1?

Answer 20

Just a tool to build theory 1

Question 21

Theory 6:

Answer 21

Accounts that have a fundamental normative component

• meaning what society should look like
• For example, the contemporary projects of ‘critical theory,’ ‘feminist theory,’ and ‘postcolonial theory’ are explicitly normative ones, which usually reject the fact/value dichotomy, and hence the supposedly value-neutral sociological theory

Question 22

Theory 7:

Answer 22

The study of fundamental theoretical problems

• Even though sociology has encountered these problems, they are not empirical problems themselves (for example, they cannot be resolved by means of empirical methods)
• may be described as ‘philosophical’ problems, insofar as they call for reflection upon the nature of knowledge, language, and reality, and some sort of conceptual analysis
• Examples: how to connect macro and micro level of society (i.e. Coleman) or determinism/probabilistic relationships, structure and agency, social constructivism, etc.

Question 23

Exkurs: Macro-micro-macro model

Answer 23

Step 1: Bridge hypothesis - how does the situation affect relevant actors? (i.e. how do continued protests affect actors that have not yet participated?)

• links situational variables and proximate determinants of behavior
• how we conceptualize situational influences depends on our theorizing of step 2

Step 2: Action-formation mechanisms (staying at home or protesting or violently protesting? - how do actors choose those alternatives?)

• Theories of action or simpler assumptions

Step 3: Micro-Macro-Transition - what are the (unintended) collective consequences of purposeful action / actors‘ interaction? (i.e. revolution?)

• Sometimes really simple: Simple aggregation of individual choices (i.e. individual crimes computed to crime rate)
• As a complex process of interaction: Game theory, agent-based models (e.g., threshold models, dynamic network models), exchange models