A Genealogy of Sociological Theories - An Attempt at General Reflection

Abstract: This article attempts to show the asymmetry in the framework of theoretical sociology. This asymmetry concerns the unambiguous domination of Western sociological theoretical systems over theoretical systems from outside the West's boundaries. We have in mind here the intellectual domination of representatives of countries of the North over countries of the South. It may be agreed simultaneously that such an asymmetry is acceptable and reasonable, and that it is unjust to ascribe unique truth and appropriateness to the theories of the North in explaining all the phenomena of the whole world-North and South alike. Thus in this article we present, in the historical perspective, selected sociological theories-in our opinion the most important ones-which confirm the validity of the domination of sociological theories of Europe and North America. We reach back to the first sociological systems of, among others, Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber, and the theories of social development. These latter are important in that it is precisely within their framework that two kinds of theories emerged with clear input from scholars of the South: dependency theory and endogenous theories of social development.Keywords: sociological systems and theories, world as North and South, modernizing development, dependent development, theories of endogenous developmentProlegomenaA few years ago we came across a book by Raewyn Connell, Southern Theory: The Global Dynamics of Knowledge in Social Science (2007), which addresses the question of social life from a different perspective than the North world. In Connell's opinion, theoretical sociology has been, and still is, dominated by scholars from this part of the globe. At the same time, analysis of the contemporary world's problems, which are mired in global processes, requires a holistic view, and thus a look at sociological theories that emerged outside of Europe and North America. In attempting to include Southern theories-as Connell defines theories that have developed in the South, outside of Western thought-we have to be conscious that, from the beginning, social concepts and theories have appeared in the northern part of the globe, which is universally acknowledged to be richer and better developed. This civilizational and economic primacy combines with the intellectual domination from which many theoreticians and analysts have described the transformation occurring in the South.The North-South dichotomy appeared in the 1960s, displaying the division of the world into the industrialized, mostly rich North and the poor, largely farming South, occupying, roughly, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.1 The real and clear differences in the levels of economic development between Europe and Africa, or the United States and Canada contrasted with Latin America, legitimized the use of the terms North and South to name the highly developed world on the one side, and on the other, a world that was for the most part-undeveloped. This distinction was made fairly often in appraising the scholarship of representatives of the two worlds. Within the social sciences in the broad sense, including sociology, we refer very often, as is natural, to such names as Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, or Talcott Parsons, and with unusual rarity to scholars from South regions of the world. Their work, is qualitative and valuable in the academic world. It is entirely obvious that the paradigmatic views-to use Thomas Samuel Kuhn's term here-emerged without competition on two continents-in Europe and North America-particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, in the last decade of the last century, ideas, concepts, and theories created in the South have appeared and are worth a closer look, critical analysis, and empirical application. We are thinking, for instance, of the post-colonial perspective (theory), which since the 1980s has aimed to change how relations between people of the North part of the globe and those outside it are perceived. …

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