ASOK15225U How to theorize?: On the art and role of theorizing in the social sciences

Education in the social sciences is often divided into courses in theory, on the one hand, and courses in methods (quantitative and qualitative), on the other. This distinction is usually treated as self-evident. We see it in every aspect of social science, e.g. conferences, networks, text books and journals. If we take a closer look at this business as usual, a rather surprising fact comes to the surface. Method in this distinction explicates how to conduct empirical research in the right way. Theory, on the other hand, presents and discusses the results of theorizing. There are of course also more specific courses about results in different subfields of empirical research, but there are seldom courses about how to theorize. Theorizing is a practice, i.e. a “know-how” rather than a “know-that”. Theorizing is learnt by doing and by being more or less unconsciously influenced by “the intellectual styles” of role models (“the master thinkers”) and their paradigmatic works, rather than by following some explicit methods of procedure. This seems to be a significant lack in view of the general recognition of the “theory-ladenness” of facts and of the significance of being reflective in every part of the research process. This course aims to counteract this lack. We will try to come to grips with what a “method”, “craft” or “art” of theorizing might be. The course will be divided in the following subtopics:

• Different conceptions of theory in the social sciences
• Competing conceptions of theory in the history of sociology
• The role of epistemology, ontology and normativity in theorizing and their relation
• Methods of theorizing
• Autonomous theorizing (Theory as a specific subfield of sociology)

Theorizing in empirical research