Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon

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When writing their book, The Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon, the central theme of authors – Vineeta Sinha and Syed Farid Alatas – was the biases of androcentrism and eurocentrism. These biases include a lack of attention for female thinkers and non-western sources in developing the sociological theory (Alatas & Sinha, 2017). A sociological theory is a hypothesis formed via thorough observation of people’s social reality patterns and interactions to explain why society behaves and functions the way it does (Montón-Subías & Hernando, 2018). According to Alatas (2021), the omission of non-European intellectuals in narratives of sociological theory’s history is especially noticeable by its effects on the development of sociology in the West. With this regard, the book’s authors rightly argue that the early recognized sociological theory taught in higher institutions worldwide gave more voice to male theorists and was prevalent in Western cultural provenance. Therefore, the main goal of Sinha and Alatas’ book is to provide a new perspective on teaching classical sociological theory, devoid of androcentrism and eurocentrism.

There is an undeniable notion that most of the world’s social patterns are heavily influenced by Western culture, especially the common trend that people admire nowadays. According to Moosavi (2020), eurocentrism is a paradigm that emphasizes and prefers western civilization over non-western civilization. For instance, there is widespread agreement that anyone interested in studying sociology must be familiar with the writings of Weber or Marx, both of European heritage. In this regard, social thought and sociological theory courses are frequently restricted to discussions of their works and the works of many other Western scholars (Alatas & Sinha, 2017).

On the other hand, androcentrism is another kind of bias view that this book wishes to address, which is the practice of putting the masculine point of view as the center of one’s worldview. This practice, in turn, marginalizes the feminine perspective, putting it on the periphery of social theory (Kislenko, 2021). In this worldview that places the masculine view in the limelight, there is less attention given to the contributions of women thinkers. In this regard, Alatas and Sinha (2017) argue that women were present and instrumental in contributing to the formation and formalization of the sociological theory.

With these biases, Alatas and Sinha (2017) demonstrate that most of the early literature in sociological theory indicates that the pioneer of social ideas and theories were generally from Western people and men. Non-western and women theorists are rarely cited and became subjects of the study of Western male theorists. This notion gives an impression that no women and non-western theorists contributed to the social theory during its formative years. Alatas and Sinha (2017) rightly highlight the recognition that contributions to social thought come from a large pool of sources from multiple sites worldwide. To achieve this, the authors highlight some of the non-Western and female social theorists and thinkers that were often neglected in the social theory, such as Pandita Ramabai Saraswati, Florence Nightingale, and Harriet Martineau. Moreover, the authors explain the need to teach undergraduate sociological theory courses in non-Western regions while considering the students’ cultural practices and historical context.

In the world today, a considerable influence of Western culture is still evident: may it be on people’s brand preferences or their inclination to look or be like them. According to Hanafi (2019), most people’s preferences regarding the products used – whether skincare or shoe brands – usually have something to do with high regard for Western culture. Dawson (2017) theorizes that people tend to purchase products from overseas or Western countries over their own because it somehow symbolizes superiority and originality. Even in movies, people tend to patronize Western films over locally-produced ones.

Similarly, the same can be said to the music industry, where most societies today patronize Western music more than their own (Challand & Bottici, 2021). Worse still, people even tend to attempt to achieve clearer and whiter skin even though they may be naturally tan in general. Al-Hardan (2021) theorizes that most societies tend to show more appreciation to the Western culture than their own because this superiority is heavily engraved due to colonialism. As a result, this so-called over-appreciation and attachment to the Western culture have seemingly left the enrichment of non-Western products and arts in the dark.

In sum, eurocentrism and androcentrism are the two worldviews comprehensively tackled in Alatas and Sinha’s book regarding their modern influences. The two views have remained persistent in social science teachings despite being acknowledged as having bias orientations. As demonstrated by the authors, a glance at the course outlines and textbooks used for various disciplines reveals many eurocentrism and androcentrism characteristics. Seemingly, the growth of social theory, which will consider the non-western studies and voices of female theorists, has a long way to go since there were a lot of discrepancies that need to be fixed, including the biases of eurocentrism and androcentrism. By doing so, social sciences studies can be relevant to many people regardless of race or gender. Indeed, social theory is a complex subject that needs recognition as a multifaceted science and cannot be generalized only through a few selected perspectives.

References

Alatas, S. F. (2021). Deparochialising the Canon: The Case of Sociological Theory.Journal of Historical Sociology, 34(1), 13-27. Web.

Alatas, S. F., & Sinha, V. (2017). Sociological theory beyond the canon. Springer.

Al-Hardan, A. (2021). Empires, Colonialism, and the Global South in Sociology.Contemporary Sociology, 51(1), 16-27. Web.

Challand, B., & Bottici, C. (2021). Toward an interstitial global critical theory.Globalizations, 1-23. Web.

Dawson, M. (2017). Book review: Syed Farid Alatas and Vineeta Sinha, Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon. The Sociological Review, 65(4), 905–907. Web.

Hanafi, S. (2019). Global Sociology–Toward New Directions. Sociological Studies, 8(8), 3-7. Web.

Kislenko, I. (2021). Debates on Global Sociology:‘Unity and Diversity’of Interpretations. The American Sociologist, 1-12. Web.

Montón-Subías, S., & Hernando, A. (2018). Modern colonialism, eurocentrism and historical archaeology: some engendered thoughts. European journal of archaeology, 21(3), 455-471. Web.

Moosavi, L. (2020). The decolonial bandwagon and the dangers of intellectual decolonization. International Review of Sociology, 30(2), 332-354. Web.

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Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon

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