Why is Classical Theory Classical? Theorizing the Canon and Canonizing Du Bois
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18046/recs.i37.5607Keywords:
Canon, Classical Sociology, Durkheim, Du Bois, Marx, WeberAbstract
One of the most contentious debates coursing through sociology is what to do with the canon of Marx, Weber, and Durkheim: abandon the canon, start afresh with a new canon, or reconstruct the existing canon? In this paper I examine the claims of Connell, the foremost advocate of abandoning the cannon. She claims the canon is an arbitrary imposition that bears no relation to the actual history of sociology and we would be better off examining how the canon came to be. She does not consider the intrinsic value of the canon and instead advances the idea of Southern theory. It is not clear what is Southern about Southern theory nor what holds together the array of theorists she proposes. As an alternative I propose reconstructing the canon with the life and work of W.E.B. Du Bois who was propelled by precisely the issues that concern Connell. The canon is relational so that Du Bois is not simply added but brought into conversation with Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, leading to a rereading of each theorist.
Downloads
References
Anderson, Kevin (2010). Marx at the Margins. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Burawoy, Michael (2010). Southern Windmill: The Life and Work of Edward Webster. Transformation, 72-73, 1-25.
Burawoy, Michael (2012). Epilogue: Travelling theory. En Conversations with Bourdieu: The Johannesburg Moment (pp. 210-218), editado por Michael Burawoy; Karl Von Holdt. Johannesburg: University of Witwatersrand Press.
Camic, Charles (1989). Structure after 50 Years: The Anatomy of a Charter. American Journal of Sociology, 95(1), 38-107.
Connell, Raewyn (2007). Southern Theory: The Global Dynamics of Knowledge in Social Science. Cambridge: Polity.
Connell, Raewyn (2013). The Shores of the Southern Ocean: Steps toward a World Sociology of Modernity, with Australian Examples. En Worlds of Difference (pp. 58-72), editado por Saïr Amir Arjomand; Elisa Reis. London: SAGE.
Connell, Raewyn (1997). Why is Classical Theory Classical? American Journal of Sociology, 102(6), 1511-1557.
Du Bois, WEB (1915). The African Roots of War. Atlantic Monthly. Recuperado de https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1915/05/the-african-roots-of-war/528897/
Du Bois, WEB (1968). The Autobiography of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of its First Century. New York: International Publishers.
Du Bois, WEB (1989 [1903]). The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Penguin Books.
Du Bois, WEB (1996 [1899]). The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study. Philadelphia, PA: University of Philadelphia Press.
Du Bois, WEB (1998 [1935]). Black Reconstruction in America. New York: The Free Press.
Du Bois, WEB (1999 [1920]). Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. Mineola: Dover.
Du Bois, WEB (2002 [1940]). Dusk of Dawn: An Essay toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Du Bois, WEB (2007 [1911]). The Quest of the Silver Fleece. New York: Oxford University Press.
Du Bois, WEB (2007 [1924]). The Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Du Bois, WEB (2007 [1928]). Dark Princess: A Romance. New York: Oxford University Press.
Du Bois, WEB (2007 [1947]). The World and Africa. New York: Oxford University Press.
Du Bois, WEB (2007 [1952]). In Battle for Peace. New York: Oxford University Press.
Du Bois, WEB (2007 [1957]). The Ordeal of Mansart. New York: Oxford University Press.
Du Bois, WEB (2007 [1959]). Mansart Builds a School. New York: Oxford University Press.
Du Bois, WEB (2007 [1961]). Worlds of Color. New York: Oxford University Press.
Durkheim, Émile (1995 [1912]). The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York: Free Press.
Durkheim, Émile (2014a [1893]). The Division of Labor in Society. New York: Free Press.
Durkheim, Émile (2014b [1895]). The Rules of Sociological Method. New York: Free Press.
Fields, Karen (2002). Individuality and Intellectuals: An Imaginary Conversation between W.E.B. Du Bois and Emile Durkheim. Theory and Society, 31(4), 435-462.
Gouldner, Alvin (1970). The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology. New York: Basic Books.
Horne, Gerald (1986). Black and Red: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Afro-American Response to the Cold War, 1944-1963. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Itzigsohn, Jose; Brown, Karida (2020). The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois. New York: New York University Press.
Kuhn, Thomas (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakatos, Imre (1978). The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lewis, David Levering (1993). W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race 1868-1919. New York: Henry Holt.
Lewis, David Levering (2000). W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963. New York: Henry Holt.
Marable, Manning (2005). W.E.B. Du Bois: Black Radical Democrat. Colorado: Paradigm Publishers.
McAuley, Christopher (2019). The Spirit vs. the Souls: Max Weber, W. E. B. Du Bois, and the Politics of Scholarship. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Merton, Robert K. (1968). Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press.
Morris, Aldon (2015). The Scholar Denied: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.
Parsons, Talcott (1937). The Structure of Social Action. New York: McGraw Hill.
Parsons, Talcott (1950). The Prospects of Sociological Theory. American Sociological Review, 15(1), 3-16.
Rampersad, Arnold (1976). The Art and Imagination of W.E.B. Du Bois. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Reed, Adolph (1997). W.E.B. Du Bois and American Political Thought. New York: Oxford University Press.
Said, Edward (1983). Traveling Theory. En The World, the Text, and the Critic (pp. 226-247). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Stinchcombe, Arthur (1982). Should Sociologists Forget Their Mothers and Fathers? The American Sociologist, 17, 2-11.
Wright II, Earl (2016). The First American School of Sociology: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory. New York: Routledge.
Zimmerman, Andrew (ed.) (2018). The Civil War in the United States: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. New York: International Publishers.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Michael Burawoy
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
© Reserved Copyright
Material in this publication may be reproduced without authorization, provided the title, author and institutional source is acknowledged.
The content published in Revista CS is distributed under the Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 Attribution/Recognition-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.
You are free to:
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material.
Under the following terms:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
How to Cite
