The demise of social theory and the ‘promise’ of sociology

Abstract

For Wright Mills (2000 [1959]), the fundamental task of the sociologist is to identify how scopic socio-historical forces and individual biographies and agency intersect. A sociology that privileges either of these essential ingredients at the expense of the other, short-changes the discipline’s raison-d’être and vision. Such compartmentalisation incapacitates engaging theoretical inflection. It proscribes what Wright Mills (1959, passim) calls “the promise” of “the sociological imagination”. What is the state of theory generation in sociology and the social sciences today? Are we realising and reaping the potential that theory-driven social research possesses for enriching, intriguing and enduring sociological analysis? It is these pivotal questions that this piece aims to address. In the process, emphasis is made on identifying and explaining some of the currents that are stemming the development of social theory generation and thus curtailing sociology’s promise.