Essay Sample on Social Theories

Introduction

Sociological theory plays a crucial role in answering the questions of how and why human societies around the world form, change, and develop over time. The theory relies on scientific evidence rather than judging societies. Considering the question whether local knowledge on sexuality should be used to reconstruct sociological theories, the immediate answer would not be nor yes but somewhat that the local knowledge may inform but not largely constitute the universal sociological theories. Broadly, sociological theories are concerned with daily human interactions and their behavior. The concepts defining how such interactions happen can be derived from studies on the local populace. However, these studies may not be limited to a particular population because humans from different cultures behave differently. However, these experiences may also not be ignored because they serve to inform the universal sociological theories which is presumed to govern human interactions including individual groups in the societies. Neo-Marxism is an excellent example of how previous theories failed to address emerging issues in societies around the world. In particular, Neo-Marxists introduced the theory in order to address sociopolitical issues that traditional Marxist Theory failed to adequately address. While examining the Universalist theory, this paper will pick on neo-Marxism as the specific theory while in analyzing local knowledge on race and gender.

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The Theories of Universalist and Local Knowledge

According to McKinnon (1982), one of the theories that arose after Karl Marx and his Marxism was the neo-Marxism. Under these theories, the followers of Marxism realized the gaps that characterized the Marxist theories and thus endeavored to fill those gaps with ideas from the other schools of thought. Of great importance among these theories were the feminist theories that are a form of critical theory. Feminist theory is a type of critical theory that considers the issues that are gender related. This theory tends to examine in detail the critical gender roles and the inequalities that arise during the course of time. Within the feminist theory lies the radical feminist concept that maintains that the family as a unit helps in perpetuating and reinforcing the idea of male dominance in the society. In most societies, men appear or are seen as more valuable than women and thus the contributions from men are considered more valuable than from women (McKinnon 1982). Women are essentially the properties of men. While much progress has been done in breaking this property sense attached to the women, largely, the society still restricts women to the domestic roles while men take more outside and professional duties. Thus, women have their private spheres while men enjoy the public one. Given the long-standing history of women, being limited to their private roles of housekeeping, taking care of the young and the old while men take more productive public and institutional engagements, most contributions and suggestions from women are often considered invalid and inappropriate. While trying to adjust to the outside world, women often meet certain difficulties because there exists a difference between their private life and that requiring a public and institutional approach that is male-dominated.

In the local knowledge approach, this essay considers the work by Bourdieu and his Habitus theory. In his work, Bourdieu considers power as a function of culture and symbolically created. This power is constantly legitimized through the interactions of the agency and culture. He proposes that power shifts are guided by the Habitus or the socialized norms and practices that guide the manner of thinking and behavior. The habitus is the manner in which the society rests on the person in the form of long-lasting dispositions, trained abilities, and the possibility of thought, feeling, and even acting in only certain determined ways. Such ways once deposited in the person guides and influence their actions and perceptions. He maintains that this habitus is created through the social structure rather than the individual. This makes the habitus individualized but collectively effective (Social Theory Rewired 2016). This habitus is long lasting and transferable from one person and from one context to the next. This habitus is never fixed and thus can change depending on the situations and the time taken. Meaning, as times passes the habitus will change and thus wear out or be reinforced or modified depending on the prevailing circumstances. This habitus is not products of free will but rather interplay between the culture and the agents. They are dispositions that are created by events and the existing structures.

The other important concept while considering the work by Bourdieu is the capital, which extends beyond the idea of the common material assets. These capitals are in the form of social, cultural or symbolic. These forms of capital according to Bourdieu are important and even transferable from one person to the other or from one generation to the next. Cultural capital takes an important role in defining social interactions (Social Theory Rewired 2016). It offers the means through which certain things like domination and hierarchy are defined in society. The general shift from material capital to social capital is what harbors concepts like dominance and inequality as seen in other contexts.

The third idea that considered is the fields. These, loosely, are areas or just places or areas where people express their dispositions and even compete for the distribution of social capital. These fields may be educational institutions, religious places, and even cultural events among others. People often display their social capital differently depending on where they are. This differential power display among agents explains why some people may display social capital in one area and remain reluctant in another (Foucault 1995). The most common is the ability of women to exhibit authority in the workplace while remaining submissive in the house to the husband. The last and the most important concept by Bourdieu is the combination of the beliefs and norms called the doxa. This idea explains the connections between the limits that guide actions but result in inequality in society (Social Theory Rewired 2016). These forms and norms make dominant the ideas that are often taken for granted but forms the basis for our actions and how we treat members of the opposite sex.

The Idea of Sexuality and Feminism in Society

Sexuality in its strict sense implies the way one is attracted to the other partner. People who are attracted people of the opposite sex are called heterosexuals while those attracted to the members of the same sex are homosexual which can also be gay for men and lesbian for women. People may be attracted to either sex or none at all. McKinnon (1982) argues that sexuality is so central to feminism just like work was to the Marxists. Sexuality in this article is the social processes aimed at creating, organizing, expressing, and directing desires which creates the social beings thus called women and men in the society. The society, in its construction of the sexuality issues, offers guidance on its expression among other things. Feminism treats sexuality with the utmost importance and urgency. Feminism approaches the power distribution among the sexes in society, which creates inequality just as Marxists were using workers to construct economic inequality in society. Feminists are concerned with central issues affecting women like rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, prostitution, female slavery, and incest among other core issues. From their perspective, women have long been unsubordinated and subjected to male domination in society. The feminists also maintain that there are cases where the idea of capitalism could have led to the case of male domination in society. Women were victims of rape, incest, domestic battery, and the familiar notion that women are primarily there to stimulate men. This notion justifies acts like rape in the sense that perhaps it is the woman and her body and dressing that led to the rape. Feminism holds that women have been socialized to understand their existence as that which is only complimentary and supporting women. Women are there to be attractive to men and thus, they only exist to serve men. From their analysis, (McKinnon 1982) continues to state that sexuality is some form of power. Gender, which is a social construction embodies and perpetuates this. Women and men are divided into genders, male and female. These divisions and subsequent institutionalization reinforce the concept of male dominance. In this regard, sexuality is the main anchor that holds gender inequality together. A woman only exists for the males, the one whose only reason for existence is arousing the male.

The main question central to feminists thus is can liberated women enjoy any freedom if their only role in the society is attached to the males. It is by paying attention to this that we may evaluate individual cases of women struggling and tries putting these into their universal application, which in the end may justify or refute our earlier question. One particular case worth considering is the Black feminist thought. According to Collins (1986), the struggles by the black feminist offers a glimpse into the broader struggles that occur been race, gender, and even on economic fronts. The work by Collins (1986) tries to expose the struggles of black women to challenge the politically instituted stereotypes that continue to perpetuate male dominance and other forms of female insubordination in society. The article brings out two important terms, self-determination, and self-evaluation. These concepts seek to establish the identity of black women without externally motivated definitions derived from other perspectives. The black feminists have raised questions and challenged the credibility of the definitions and that of those defining the black women.

Importance of These Studies to Sociology

As it was noted earlier on, sociological theories are broad concepts that tend to explain human actions from a generalized standpoint. However, to achieve such generalized views, experts do study various groups of people before drawing conclusions. In this regard, sociological theories, just like other disciplines need constant regeneration. This regeneration needs new studies and facts (Collins 1986). From this point, individual studies will sum up and inform the current body of knowledge or dispute them, or just add to them. Thus, there is need to use local knowledge to dispute, reinforce, or formulate a new way of understanding. This stems from the fact that society is very dynamic, things are changing, and globalization is taking effect. The theories that defined human actions in the last century may need revaluation in this century. While these studies appear isolated, they employ very rigorously and standard methods of research and their applicability extend beyond the group of black women. This leads us to reflect on the importance of these studies and the general applicability to the struggles of women elsewhere in the world. There are various important points that sociological theorists can derive from the black feminists' thoughts. Firstly, the systems of knowledge are never complete and static but rather dynamic and continually building up. In this regard, the insight gained in this study may inform other studies regarding women elsewhere. Moreover, the inequalities and its demerits affecting women may not be limited to skin color; rather, the sufferings of the women world over tend to...