Kimmel, Michael S., ed. Classical Sociological Theory.

• Author: Broad, David B.
• Position: Book review

Kimmel, Michael S., ed. Classical Sociological Theory. 2d ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. 432 pages. Paper $52.95.

This anthology of selections from original theoretical sources is an update of a 1998 collection more broadly conceived and titled Social and Political Theory: Classical Readings'. This text takes the narrower disciplinary approach of examining the sociological theoretical canon explicitly. After decades of jocular self-reflection about our predilection for the writings of "dead white men," Kimmel has broadened not only the demographics of the source writers, but also many of the basic theoretical assumptions from which their works proceed.

But first, a word about the idea of canon as reflected in the word "classical." In the Western tradition, this adjective is usually applied to things of Classical Greece and Rome and the European tradition of concert music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As we have globalized our thinking, we have become more accustomed to thinking in terms of classical antiquity of other cultural traditions, such as Classical Chinese language of the Zhou Dynasty which dates back three millennia, and Indian classical music with a history of over five centuries. More recently, we have the '57 Chevy. How, then, does something become classical, and what does the designation impart upon things it adjectively modifies?

The canon of sociological theory offers some clues as to how something becomes classical, and what happens to it once it gains this distinction. The answer lies partially in the assertions of sociologists that sociology is a science. To the extent that we are a science, our theories will encompass broad and detailed observations, suggest testable hypotheses, and be responsive to data. More than that, though, sociological theory will entail models of events and human behavior on a historical scale that generates generalizations such as "society consists of interdependent elements that contribute to its equilibrium," or "social life consists largely of patterns of competition for scarce resources," or "the self is shaped in interactions within roles and utilizing language." So writings and ideas become classical sociological theory if they fit one or more of these patterns.

Enter now the recent phenomenon of interdisciplinarity and its effects on sociology among other disciplines. Through the broadening of the visibility of existing texts that were once classified as literary...