The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory

Despite failing to establish the source of the classical social theory’s founding fathers, this companion attempts to provide justification based on the need to have continuity from classical theory changes to contemporary issues (Aune, 2006:87). The theory concludes that there is a need to move from classical social theory issues to a contemporary social theory development mainly because the social science disciplines have changed with time (Lewis-Beck and Bryman, 2007:45). This paper will seek to develop a critique of this theory.Obviously, it is ultimately hard to understand the aspects of contemporary social theory without having a grasp of the classical social theory disciplines, founding fathers, and its origins. Turner’s chapter 1 gives a description of classical social theory with which he applies a basis of self-consciousness to develop his arguments (Turner, 2009:120). Critically, to understand the contemporary social theory, Turner refers to the works of other great sociologists such as Max Weber, Gerrard Delanty, and Georg Simmel. In Gerard’s account, classical social theorists continue to appear in various points within the Companion whereby they persist in being relevant to contemporary social theory developments (Ritzer, 2007:50). According to the sociology of action by Max Weber, for instance, his classical social theory developments have direct relevance to a number of changes including the formulation of rational choice theory. Similarly, an intense outlook into Georg’s analysis of postmodernism indicates that concrete cultural forms and practices still have a substantial role to play in modern cultural studies (Lawrence 1979:4).Particularly, Turner points out that “companion” is an emphasis on contemporary developments regarding social thought (Lewis-Beck and Bryman, 2007:66). Further, the choice and usage of the axiom “social theory” indicate Turner’s Companion is an emphasis of social developments, issues, and changes in social theory as opposed to specific reference on political, sociological, and cultural theory (Aune, 2006:94). In his account, Turner maintains that social theory encompasses current issues and goes hand in hand with the developments taking place in modern society (Lawrence 1979:5). It is a broad-spectrum, which incorporates the general concern for modern nature and it provides general insights into social theory in its broadest sense hence covering other theories that describe the political, cultural, and feminism arena (Turner, 2009:146).