Book Title: Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon

Authors: Syed Farid Alatas and Vineeta Sinha

Publisher and Date Published: Macmillan Publishers Ltd. (2017)

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

sociological theory[ CITATION Sye17 \l 1057 ]. A sociological theory is a concept developed

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

teaching of social theory[ CITATION Sye17 \l 1057 ].

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

generate awareness of Eurocentrism as a theme that is present in classical sociological theory;

(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

to the formation of social theory[ CITATION Sye17 \l 1057 ].

The book suggests introducing the social thought and method of inquiry of three women

thinkers – Harriet Martineau (1802–1876), Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), and Pandita

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

and practice in institutional settings [ CITATION Sye17 \l 1057 ].

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,

and mothers. [ CITATION Sye17 \l 1057 ].

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

enrichment of our very own products and arts in the dark.

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

to be whoever they want.

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

simply generalized through few and selected perspectives only.

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.

Chatterjee, D. K. (2011). Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer Nature.

Harrington, A. (2011). Social Theory. Oxford University Press.