2.7 Conclusion
Let’s return to the Haitian Revolution. C. L. R. James, a postcolonial theorist from Trinidad, provided a thorough interpretation of the Haitian Revolution in his book The Black Jacobins (1989 [1938]). James described how the enslaved people formed a class. Pushing against the sole focus on class, he pointed to how race and colonialism also played a role in the events of the revolution. While comparing slavery to the slave revolt, he argued, “The cruelties of property and privilege are always more ferocious than the revenges of poverty and oppression. For the one aims at perpetuating resented injustice, the other is merely a momentary passion soon appeased” (James 1989:88–89).
James’s account of the Haitian Revolution provided a theory of capitalism that showed capitalism was “rooted in colonialism and the exploitation of the racialized masses” (Itzigsohn 2013:179). Simultaneously, James provided a “theory of emancipation and democracy based on the action of these masses” (Itzigsohn 2013:179). In The Black Jacobins, he shows how class struggle and racial struggle are connected and that the racialized, colonized people had to emancipate themselves. They could not wait for the French White working class or anyone else to save them (Itzigsohn 2013). He even wrote a play based on the revolution, called Toussaint L’Ouverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History (James 1992). However, American sociologists continue to ignore James’s contributions, just as they have done with the work of Du Bois (Itzigsohn 2013; Morris 2017). How might we explain this given what we have learned about sociology in this chapter? What might postcolonial theory, critical race theory, or intersectional feminism have to say about this? What additional theoretically rich events might have sociologists overlooked?
Sociologists utilize a variety of different theoretical perspectives to help make sense of human behavior and identify patterns. Some classical theories provide frameworks that contemporary sociologists built on as our world continues to change. Now that you have a sense of what sociology is, you might be asking how sociologists “do” sociology. The next chapter will explore how sociologists use social science research methodology to understand more about human interactions within various contexts.
Review of Learning Objectives
Key Terms
- Bourgeoise: in Marx’s theory, the wealthy owners/capitalists that control economic production.
- Colonialism: when a dominating country creates settlements in a distant territory.
- Conflict theory: a macro-level theory that proposes conflict is a basic fact of social life. It tends to argue that the institutions of society benefit the powerful.
- Critical race theory: a theoretical framework that examines how racism is embedded in American social life through its systems and institutions.
- Feminist theory: a theoretical framework that argues women suffer discrimination because they belong to a particular sex category (female) or gender (woman), and that women’s needs are denied or ignored because of their sex.
- Intersectionality: the idea that inequalities produced by multiple interconnected social characteristics can influence the life course of an individual or group. Intersectionality, then, suggests that we should view gender, race, class, or sexuality not as individual characteristics but as interconnected social situations.
- Positivism: Comte’s theory that suggests science produces universal laws, science controls what is true, and objective methods allow you to pursue that truth.
- Postcolonial theory: a theoretical framework that explores colonial relations and their aftermath. The framework tends to focus on subjugated people.
- Postmodern theory: a set of theories that emphasize heterogeneity, subjectivity, plurality, and pragmatism while questioning previous modes of theorizing that focus on objectivity. It is a broad and somewhat intentionally difficult to define term. Postmodern theory tends to be skeptical of “objective” universal explanations of how society and culture operate.
- Proletariat: in Marx’s theory, the workers that must sell their labor.
- Social location: your position within society. This often includes your position in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, ability, religion, and geography.
- Structural functionalism: a macro-level theory that proposes society is made up of stable institutions and each institution has a function for the society.
- Symbolic interactionism: a micro-level theory that emphasizes the importance of meanings and interactions in social life.
- Theory: a statement that proposes to describe and explain why facts or other social phenomena are related to each other based on observed patterns.
Discussion Questions
- Select one of the theories discussed in this chapter. What are some of the strengths and limitations of this theory? How might another theory covered in this chapter help address some of the limitations you identified in the theory you selected?
- Pick one of the theories discussed in the chapter. How might it be applied to the Pendleton Round-Up discussed in Chapter 1? What would it emphasize? What might it miss?
- Which historical events were important to the development of sociological theory? Are there events besides the Haitian Revolution that should be theorized? What contemporary events might shape future sociological theorizing?
- How does the social location of individual theorists influence the theories they produced? How does your social location influence what you know about the world and how you see the world?
Licenses and Attributions for Conclusion
Open Content, Original
“Conclusion” by Matthew Gougherty is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
“History of Sociology and Social Theory Question Set” was created by ChatGPT and is not subject to copyright. Edits for relevance, alignment, and meaningful answer feedback by Colleen Sanders are licensed under CC BY 4.0.
a set of people who share similar status based on factors like wealth, income, education, family background, and occupation.
a category of identity that ascribes social, cultural, and political meaning and consequence to physical characteristics.
when a dominating country creates settlements in a distant territory.
something of value members of one group have that members of another group do not, simply because they belong to a group. The privilege may be either an unearned advantage or an unearned entitlement.
a combination of prejudice and institutional power that creates a system that regularly and severely discriminates against some groups and benefits other groups.
a statement that proposes to describe and explain why facts or other social phenomena are related to each other based on observed patterns.
the scientific and systematic study of groups and group interactions, societies and social interactions, from small and personal groups to very large groups and mass culture; also, the systematic study of human society and interactions.
a theoretical framework that explores colonial relations and their aftermath. The framework tends to focus on subjugated people.
a theoretical framework that examines how racism is embedded in American social life through its systems and institutions.
a perspective based on the idea that women and men should have equal legal and political rights. Feminism views the systematic oppression of people based on gender as problematic and something that should be changed. Also discussed as a feminist movement or a series of political campaigns for reform on a variety of issues that affect women’s quality of life