Sociological Theory Beyond The Canon (Sociology)
Sociological Theory Beyond The Canon (Sociology)
Sociological Theory Beyond The Canon (Sociology)
The key point of Syed Farid Alatas and Vineeta Sinha’s Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon
were the biases of the views of eurocentrism and androcentrism which entails the lack of giving
due recognition to the Non-western sources and female thinkers to the development of the
through careful observation of people's interactions and patterns of social reality in an attempt
to explain why society works and behaves as they do [CITATION Har21 \l 1057 ]. The accepted
sociological theory being thought to universities worldwide nowadays has been taken to be
generally of Western culture origin and gives more voice to male theorists. This book aims to
offer a fresh approach to teaching classical sociological theory [CITATION Sye17 \l 1057 ]
Eurocentrism is a worldview that highlights western civilization and favors it over non-western
civilization [ CITATION Cha11 \l 1057 ]. There is a universal acceptance that anyone, anywhere
who wants to study sociology must "know" the writings of Marx and Weber who were of
European descent. Courses in sociological theory and social thought are often limited to
discussions of their works and some other Western scholars [ CITATION Sye17 \l 1057 ].
Sociological theory courses have been taught at several Asian universities without putting into
consideration the historical context and cultural practices of the students enrolled in the
courses. Course outlines of undergraduate sociological theory courses offered in Asia and
Africa would show the theory is taught in the same way as it is offered in western universities.
The topic that is often discussed in these courses may have little or no historical relevance or
cultural meaning to the students. These lead to two found discrepancies in this mode of
First, non-western founders of social thought and social theory are neglected and not given
importance. Secondly, the classical sociological theory was not contextualized in a manner that
is relevant to non-Western students. The book tries to formulate an alternative way of teaching
sociological theory that would address these discrepancies. These approaches were: (a.) to
(b.) to separate the eurocentric from the universalistic aspects of classical theory and (c.) to
introduce Non-western social thinkers to universalize the canon [ CITATION Sye17 \l 1057 ].
The need to re-orient the teaching of sociological theory is held to be all the more important
because we note that eurocentrism is not only found in European scholarship but has affected
the development of the social sciences in non-Western societies in several ways [ CITATION
Sye17 \l 1057 ]. There is an undeniable notion that most of our social patterns are heavily
influenced by Western culture especially on the common trend that people admire nowadays.
Meanwhile, androcentrism, on the other hand, is another kind of bias view that this book
wishes to address. Androcentrism, on the other hand, is the practice of putting the masculine
point of view as the center of one's world view, which in turn, marginalizes the feminine view
[ CITATION Bai18 \l 1057 ]. In this worldview that puts the masculine view in the limelight, there
is less attention given to the contributions of women thinkers. They were present before the
birth of the formalized discipline of sociology and were instrumental channels in contributing
The book suggests introducing the social thought and method of inquiry of three women
Ramabai Saraswati (1858–1922). The failure to notice the contributions of women thinkers is
possible because not only are they absent from the historiography of the discipline, they also
were not featured in too many under-graduate or postgraduate sociology courses. By now,
there is a wealth of published and ongoing research about women thinkers from different socio-
cultural subjects. However, this material has not entered the mainstream sociological discourse
It is vital to note that in this book, freedom was the underlying theme of the discussed thinkers.
For Karl Marx, it is the alienation that is the low degree of social integration of an individual
and thereby the lack of freedom to develop human potential as a group. For Max Weber, it was
enslavement in the iron cage of rationality (bureaucracy concept) where people have to follow
certain rules and the leadership of higher authorities. Harriet Martineau valued the freedom to
think and act autonomously and having the right to work, political emancipation, and
empowerment. Pandita Ramabai Saraswati advocated freedom of thought and action so that
equality and progress could be achieved for Hindu women. Florence Nightingale wanted
women to exercise freedom of thought, and be self-determined actors, have the right to be
educated, and expand their horizons beyond the socially acceptable roles of wives, daughters,
The additional goal of this book is more about opening the door to a serious consideration of a
larger pool of contributors in addition to existing names. There are no doubt numerous others,
men and women, located in different societal contexts – European and non-European – across
timeframes whose contributions and insights for sociological theorizing were not given much
attention. It is time this lack of attention be acted upon by its practitioners[ CITATION Sye17 \l
1057 ].
In sum, eurocentrism and androcentrism are the two worldviews that are being tackled in this
book. The two views have remained persistent in social science teachings despite being
acknowledged as having bias orientations. A glance at the outlines of the course and textbooks
used for various disciplines reveals many eurocentrism and androcentrism characteristics.
With these biases, it seems that the pioneer of social ideas and theories were generally from
Western people and men. Non-western and women theorists are rarely cited and became
subjects of the study of Western male theorists. This gives an impression that there were no
women and non-western theorists that have contributed to the social theory during its
formative years. This book wishes to highlight the recognition that contributions to social
thought come from a large pool of sources from multiple sites around the world. This book also
highlighted some of the non-Western and female social theorists and thinkers that were often
neglected in the social theory discourse but have potentially contributed to the social science
paradigm. Other than them, there were still a lot of theorists that were not mentioned in social
sciences discourses.
In the Philippines, the huge influence of Western culture is still evident nowadays may it be on
our brand preferences or our inclination to look or be like them. Most of our preferences in
terms of the products that we are using, may it be a skincare or shoe brand, usually has
something to do with our high regard for Western culture. We tend to purchase products that
are from overseas or Western countries over our own because it somehow symbolizes
superiority and originality. Even in movies, we tend to patronize Western films over Philippine-
produced. We celebrate the elegance of their films while we deliberately scorn our movies for
being overly romanticized, repeated storylines, or for being low-budget-themed. The same
thing can be said to the music industry where we patronize Western and other culture’s music
more than our very own. We have this tendency to achieve clearer and whiter skin even though
we are naturally tan in general. We tend to show more appreciation to the Western culture than
our own because their superiority over us is heavily engraved since colonial times. This so-
called over-appreciation and attachment to the Western culture of some Filipinos have left the
In light of androcentrism, though women have the liberty now to enter different careers
nowadays compared to the old times, there are still a few areas in the Philippine society that
favors men's view over women. Some jobs in the Philippines, especially corporate jobs, were
only limited to men applicants. Though some occupations are now gender-oriented, there are
still only a few rooms open for women in male-dominated areas such as in public service and
manufacturing companies. On the good side, women now are not limited to earn on their own
while taking care of their families. The stereotype caging women of being a stay-at-home
mother and staying low profile in the public has somehow been uplifted. They can now manage
The growth of social theory which will put into consideration the non-western studies and
voices of female theorist has a long way to go since there were a lot of discrepancies that need to
be fixed which includes the biases of eurocentrism and androcentrism. By doing so, social
sciences studies can be relevant to many people regardless of race or gender. Truly, social
theory is a complex subject that needs to be recognized as multifaceted science and cannot be
Bibliography
Alatas, S. F., & Sinha, V. (2017). Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon. London, United Kingdom:
Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
Bailey, A., LaFrance, M., & Dovidio, J. (2018). Is Man the Measure of All Things? A Social Cognitive
Account of Androcentrism. SAGE Journals.