Talk:Sociological theory

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 14 January 2019 and 18 May 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Alexisarnett.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:42, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 26 August 2019 and 11 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Sadiemacd. Peer reviewers: Madisonf01.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:42, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Social Systems Theory
It seems that the article ignores the major theoretical approach from Niklas Luhmann, despite the author is one of the most famous german sociologists. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:C22:8C00:4100:6478:CA43:721D:607A (talk) 20:56, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

The Grand Theory
Social Phenomena Tengwang777 (talk) 05:12, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

Too Repetitive
With all the sudden changes to this page, I have noticed a lot of repetitive paragraphs that could just either be combined or deleted all together. For example, The three theories were explained under "Traditional/Classical theories" and then again under "the major Sociological Perspectives." Also, feminism and many sociologists are being defined and listened over and over again. We need to remember we are trying to make this as easy as possible for readers to understand and not bombard them with a bunch of repetitive information. In general the categories "list of sociological theories" and "The major theoretical perspectives" are essentially the same and should be combined. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Farahk (talk • contribs) --Farahk (talk) 21:14, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Not a disambig
This should not be a disambiguation page - it is not a listing of unrelated concepts under the same name (e.g. Mercury, the car, Mercury, the planet, Mercury, the god, Mercury --Sequei35 (talk) 14:37, 24 February 2012 (UTC), the record label), but simply three ways of restating the same broad concept of a theory about society. Any comments on de-disambiguating it? bd2412 T 18:11, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Would you like to be an article? Because--Sequei35 (talk) 14:39, 24 February 2012 (UTC), yes, I agree that that it's not a listing of un-related topics. Kilo-Lima Vous pouvez parler 19:44, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Indeed, I'd rather it be an article than a disambig page - it simply doesn't serve the purpose for which disambiguation pages are meant. bd2412  T
 * An article would surely be better, however care should be taken with redirects. Social sciences tend to use some synonyms--Sequei35 (talk) 14:42, 24 February 2012 (UTC) which can be quite confusing.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 01:51, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

Content moved here from
To expand the stub article here, I moved the content of Sociological paradigms here as sociological theory is a more common term for theory in sociology. "Social theory" is also used, but the WP social theory article is about theory which is used across the social sciences, humanities and philosophy (which is the case). --Reswik 19:24, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Have changed the redirect from Sociological paradigms due to reasons discussed on Talk:Sociological paradigms. Will come back and try and remove duplication very soon. JenLouise 04:33, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
 * This page has been edited since the redirect. And various links on other pages point to this page by name. I suggest we leave content on this page until the issue of "paradigm" vs. "theory" is resolved at the Talk:Sociological paradigm page. --Reswik 19:33, 27 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Bearing in mind 'sociological theory' is so close to 'social theory', the word 'paradigm' or 'perspective' is much more appropriate. Social theory may form a very general and rather historical article relating to the entire social sciences, whereas rather than doing the same thing, 'sociological perspectives' can provide a list of key theoretical positions and methods. --Tomsega (talk) 10:22, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Origin of sociological theories
I removed this sentence from intro to list of soc theories: "Most of the major sociological theories are developed from a particular sociological paradigm (a broad school of thought in sociology)." This is questionable in that a number of sociological theories are syntheses across or combinations of various broad types of social theories. --Reswik 18:33, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

criminology
Is criminology a sub-discipline of sociology or is it inter-disciplinary? If it is the latter I would suggest putting the sociology areas first after the general theories area and then inter-disciplinary areas, such as criminology, last. Or, if they are all sociological theories in the interdisciplinary--Sequei35 (talk) 14:44, 24 February 2012 (UTC) field of criminology, I would put a little intro sentence at the beginning of the list stating this. JenLouise 02:03, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Cut & paste repair
Having been alerted to cut & paste issues in the history of this article, I have done a history merge to put the attribution back where it belongs. At the same time, per request on my talk page, I have moved it back to Sociological theory. I have no opinion whether the article belongs here or at Sociological perspectives, but it does not belong at Sociological Perspectives in any event, as it is not a proper name. Interested contributors are encouraged to discuss the proper location of this article and reminded, please, to move the article if a different title is preferred. This ensures that licensing requirements are met by providing due credit to content contributors. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:06, 2 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I believe that sociological theory is the best name, as long as we are merging articles on theory, perspective and paradigms. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 17:53, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

social theory vs sociological theory
I think this section should go into more detail to further explain the differences between these two terms because they sound similar but mean completely different things. Maybe it should be mentioned that social theory is subjective and the proposed theories are usually not testable, whereas sociological theories are very testable, in turn making them falsifiable. Ler321 (talk) 14:26, 19 May 2011 (UTC)Lauren
 * I disagree. The difference between social- and sociological theory stems, as the reference states from "a modest proposal" and is not broadly recognised as a theoretical dividing--Sequei35 (talk) 14:48, 24 February 2012 (UTC) line. I would propose instead to e.g. use quantitative and qualitative social science, as these terms are more value neutral. However - I would really suggest--Sequei35 (talk) 14:48, 24 February 2012 (UTC) the paragraph deleted as it makes a difficult and not at all clear distinction not likely to shed light on the subject matter. E.g. Whereas--Sequei35 (talk) 14:48, 24 February 2012 (UTC) Habermas is a classical continental armchair thinker, Bourdieu is very much concerned with empirical realities. The two are so very different that the effort to put them in the same category is mostly esoteric and not relevant for the typical reader of this article. --Achristoffersen (talk) 08:40, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

I agree with user Ler321, the sociolgical theories should be more in depth and in detail. In order for an individual to grasp the concepts and to understand the difference between the two, it is essential that they are provided with valid explanations--Sequei35 (talk) 14:50, 24 February 2012 (UTC) of every key word.
 * Well another perspective on this difference is that sociological theory is of interest primarily to sociologists (including perhaps political scientists) whereas social theory is of broader significance as general theories about society used by humanists and anthropologists, not about how to analyze specific problems of interest to modern sociologists - e.g. crime, migration, political behavior etc. Marxism or practice theory for example are a social theories, but Rational choice theory or Labeling theory are sociological theories. ·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 01:31, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

-I agree, the definitions of social theory and sociological theory should be defined more clearly. I'm a first year sociology student, and the only thing I really understood is that sociological theory involves testing things, while social theory involves critiquing things about society. The difference between the two could be better explained with examples of some kind. My guess is that maybe sociological theory involves tests like surveys, but social theory is about just looking at something and saying why it should or should not be so. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Namjan (talk • contribs) 21:47, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Who is editing this article?
I've noticed that over the past few days this article has been edited by dozens (!) of new editors. The edits are constructive and appreciated, but I am curious what is going on here. Is this article a subject of an educational project? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; talk to me 21:21, 23 February 2012 (UTC)


 * It became a small project in an introductory sociology course in University of Toronto, Mississauga, to edit wikipedia pages related to sociological theory. If we make changes, we get uo to 5 bonus marks. Lizette92 (talk) 22:16, 23 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Can you tell us more about it, in particular, who is your instructor? It seems to me the instructor is not aware that Wikipedia has a large program (or two) designed to help instructors and students who contribute to Wikipedia. I'd be more than happy to get in touch with him and explain how we can help you. Please mention to your instructor that we (I) would like to get in touch with him if he has any questions. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; talk to me  17:14, 25 February 2012 (UTC)


 * It is a little technology project assigned over our reading week to those who wanted to get up to 5 bonus marks added to their final for editing Wikipedia pages related to sociology. It was due yesterday (Friday) at 5pm, the professor is Dr. Suzy Casimiro. Lizette92 (talk) 23:00, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Foundations of sociology - Social Interaction in Everyday Life?
I don't think making a separate page for "Social Interaction in Everyday Life" is necessary; its definition is covered in the section on this page already. Lizette92 (talk) 22:16, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

-In reference to the comment above, I agree and disagree in some ways. I agree that social interaction is something that can be generally overlapped under sociological theory. However social interaction also discusses some topics specifically, like the types of roles that people have in society, as well as what status they may have. In relation to roles, you can also begin to discuss role conflicts and role strains. This goes more in depth about sociology and/or sociological theory. By making everything into 1 page, it may look be a little too much information. However all this depends on how much in depth you can talk about any particular topic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Namjan (talk • contribs) 21:00, 24 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Social interaction in everyday life (note the lowercase which is preferred on Wikipedia per our MoS) seems to specific for an article. You may want to debate whether Social interaction should (as it does now) redirect to Social relation and contribute a section to one of those articles instead. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; talk to me 17:17, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Most of article poor quality and redundant
Much content on this page deals with sociology in general, as opposed to the purported topic of sociological theory. The two topics are difficult to distinguish clearly, since most sociological research can count as relating to some "theory". So the content here mostly repeats content on other pages, and is usually far lower in quality than on other pages. (The problems include everything from incomplete sentences to incorrect statements cited to a general sociology textbook, though I have cleaned up some of the most egregious cases already). The only material that actually seems fully specific to this page is the small section contrasting social and sociological theories. All of this suggests to me that this page should be pared down to just an organized list of sociological theories, with a brief introductory paragraph plus brief descriptions of how the theories relate to one another. - Darwin/Peacock  [Talk] 00:10, 22 April 2013 (UTC)