Deep Roots and a Promising Harvest
Michael E. Marotta
SOCL 403: Modern Sociological Theory
Dr. Fatos Tarifa
Due: November 27, 2007
When it comes to theories, sociology suffers from an embarrassment of riches. It is not
just that different phenomena or events are amenable to specific generalizations that are
testable and falsifiable. Rather, the entire field, the overarching curriculum of sociology
itself, begs explanation. Many have been called but none has been chosen. This plethora
of sociological macrotheories and microtheories gave rise to sociological metatheory.
The rich array of theories in sociology has three broad causes. First, people are more complicated than billiard balls. So, robust generalizations are harder to formulate and verify. Second, while the planets and atoms do not care what we think about them, just discussing sociology can change society and thus change the nature of what we study. Finally, there is the consequence of mass communication which allowed sociology to evolve rapidly. Theories were proposed and discussed and then accepted, modified or abandoned, literally at the speed of light.