Alexandra Zarak

A social theory is the center of sociological imagination, that is the “ability to see how society
and the environment influence our lives, and how our personal experiences connect to larger
social structures.” Social theories exist to help us understand how we as a society work. It
also helps us explain our social behaviors, almost like a guide and we can use it as a tool to our
advantage.

The 1800s and Early 1900s were a time of change. From agriculture to Industry, from rural to
urban, and from monarchy to democracy, and on top of that early social theorists view social
issues differently. Karl Max, the founder of the socialist movements, mainly viewed the
economic parts and the conflicts between classes. And in 1848 he wrote” The Communist
Manifesto”. He studied capitalism and the conflicts between classes and thought the capitalistic
system would inevitably self-destruct. His primary social problems were exploitation and
domination. Emile Durkheim, the founding father of sociology, wrote ‘The Rules of Sociological
Methods”. He examines social facts that influence our human behavior, and his first rule is to
treat social facts as things explaining how we view our surroundings and how we make
assumptions and form different concepts about our lives and plans. His three points of view were
social solidarity, organic solidarity, and mechanical solidarity. He thought that shared activities
held premodern societies together. And our shared beliefs are what hold modern society
nowadays. Max Weber, introduced interpretative sociology when he wrote ‘Economy and
Society” in 1922.WWebber had a typology of motives for action that included four types of
social actions. Instrumental Rationality, Value Rationality, Affectual Motives, and Traditional
Motives. He thought that our actions shaped us into the society we are now. And at last, W.E.B.
Du Bois, founder of the NAACP, stands for “The National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People”. He believed that the main reason African Americans were turned aside was
purely because of racism. He also studied the black community in the late 1890s in Philadelphia.
He wrote “The Souls of Black Folks” in 1903. To conclude, new ways of approaching the issue
emerged, like the constructionist perspective.It is a theories that people construct their opinions
on the world through their interactions with other people.