SOC221H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Negative Relationship, Pearson Education, Central Tendency
Document Summary
Theory is a set of propositions that have logic to them. They have something to say about empirical reality. The explanation why things happen the way that things happen. Method and theory go together, but theory and method get arranged in a different order/direction. Classical social theorists develop ideas describing how society works. Theory can be built at three levels of society: Levels of theory: macro social theory/ social scale. Highest level that tends to focus on structure. Explaining social life at highest level of abstraction. Focus on entire population: micro social theory. Ex. face to face interactions between individuals, way person makes meaning out of actions they take: miso level. Productive place for people to build middle ground theory. Agency idea that individuals do have freedom in the most oppressed situations, even at a time of distress, humans have an ability to find the freedom they have and do something. Central tendency in sociology, tension on agency vs. structure.
