Theory Section
  • Info
    • Theory Events ASA Virtual Engagement Meeting
    • Bylaws
    • Section officers
    • Announcements
    • For Students
    • Junior Theorist Symposium
  • Newsletters
    • Current Newsletter Online
    • PDF Archives
  • Awards
    • Awards Overview
    • How to Submit
    • Theory Prize
    • Junior Theorist Award
    • Best Student Paper Award
    • Coser Award
  • Resources
    • New Publications
    • Theory Journals
    • Teaching Theory
    • Theory Syllabi
    • Theory Webpages

Perspectives
A NEWSLETTER OF THE ASA THEORY SECTION


Using, Making, and Recovering “The Classics”: A Conversation between ASA Theory Section Award Winners

5/22/2015

3 Comments

 
Picture
Christian Borch, Copenhagen Business School
Picture
Angèle Christin, The New School for Social Research

Christian Borch: What use can we make of the classics today? There are different ways of producing interesting sociological theory, and (re-) engaging with classical sociology is clearly not the only one. Indeed, some insist that in order to really create new sociological theory, we need to leave behind the classics. That was the view, for example, of Niklas Luhmann (1995: xlv), who dismissed recourse to classical sociology as a practice of simply “dissecting, criticizing, and recombining already-existing texts” without really rocking the boat. Omar Lizardo (2015: 8) echoed this reasoning in last year’s Lewis Coser Memorial Lecture, where he described “the derivation of creative careful exegesis of the classics” as having been useful in a certain era, but not anymore. I am sympathetic to both arguments, but nevertheless believe that if one is a bit more modest than Luhmann (who wanted to provide sociology with an entirely new theoretical edifice), a return to the classics might not be that misguided.
Of course, there are various ways of reviving the classics for present-day theoretical purposes. Some produce interesting ideas by reinterpreting canonized texts by, say, Weber or Simmel. My own approach is to draw inspiration from the “misfits,” i.e., scholars (or strands of thinking) who are, for various reasons, considered marginal to the discipline. Without pushing the distinction too far, one might say that I am interested in those theories that might well count as “classics” but which were never properly “canonized.” 


Read More
3 Comments

    FALL 2022 Content

    Letter from the Chair: "Theory as Translation"

    "An Interview with Jordanna Matlon, author of A Man Among Other Men"

    Book Symposium on A Man Among Other Men by Jordanna Matlon
    • Jessie Luna
    • Annie Hikido
    • Yannick Coenders
    • Anna Skarpelis

    Colonialism, Modernity and the Canon: An Interview with Gurminder K. Bhambra

    ​Emerging Social Theorists Spotlight
    • Heidi Nicholls
    • Miray Philips
    • Feyza Akova
    • Davon Norris

    EDITORS

    Vasfiye Toprak
    ​Abigail Cary Moore
    Anne Taylor​

    Archives

    January 2023
    August 2022
    December 2021
    July 2021
    December 2020
    August 2020
    December 2019
    July 2019
    January 2019
    June 2018
    December 2017
    December 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    December 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014

    Categories

    All
    ASA Meetings
    Awards
    Big Data
    Book Review
    CFP
    Conference Recap
    Dissertation Spotlight
    Interactive
    JTS
    JTS2014
    Letter From The Editors
    News & Notes
    Notes From The Chair
    Pragmatism
    Prizes
    Recent Publications
    Teaching
    The Classics
    Winners Dialogue

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.