Everyday-language analysis alone cannot reveal the underlying causes of social trends
Evidence
Social scientists will nevertheless continue to maintain that any analysis of events that is grounded in popular consciousness and everyday language will never be sufficient to identify the underlying causes of social trends. These causes, and the complex interrelations between them, will be uncovered only by formulating theories that provide more powerful explanations of the phenomena. The presently available conceptions of race relations, whether they start from discrimination, from racism, or from some other key concept, will have to be subsumed within some more powerful sociological theory, such as, perhaps, the theory of collective action (Banton, 1998:196-235), which will explain the special features of race relations within a framework that also explains other kinds of group relations. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 683
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Connects to the recurring theme across this companion volume that race relations and racism are rival ‘problematics’ that must eventually be subsumed in broader theory.
Related
- Race relations theories must be subsumed into a broader theory of collective action (similarity 0.83)
- Race studies spread across disciplines, displacing class-centered analysis and its sociological monopoly. (similarity 0.82)
- Ancient notions of race as biology do not match reality (similarity 0.79)
- Microsociology of everyday life must link micro events to macro power structures (similarity 0.79)
- Open questions remain about why race and ethnicity retain their mobilizing power. (similarity 0.78)
- Understanding racism requires abandoning commonsense language for a new conceptual framework. (similarity 0.78)