Theory In Social Science or
'The Trouble With Theory'

My exposure to Wittgensteinian philosophy has made me increasingly sceptical about the intellectual coherence of much ‘theory’ in social science. It has convinced me that such theory is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how human language works –  on what Wittgenstein called a ‘naming’ or ‘labelling’ conception of language. In this picture of language words are treated as names of objects, and abstract words in particular  (words like ‘society’, ‘politics’, ‘power’, ‘government’, ‘economy’ etc) are treated as names of peculiar sorts of abstract objects.

This conception of language leads people to think that, before you can say anything about any particular social or political or economic phenomenon, you must first ‘clarify’ the ‘fundamental’ social science concepts you are going to use ‘theoretically’. You do this by defining the concepts involved and then relating them together into a kind of abstract ‘map’ or ‘grid’. These theoretical maps are supposed to show how more specific ‘things’ or  ‘objects’ make up the most general or abstract ‘object’ you are going to study. Thus ‘things’ like families, occupational groups or ethnic or religious groups etc make up ‘society’, while ‘things’ like firms, consumers, banks etc make up ‘the economy’.  So, when you have defined the ‘things’ which make up human society, and the ‘thing’ which they form or create when put together (i.e. the society or economy itself), you have a ‘theoretical context’ or a ‘theoretical perspective’ ‘within which’ - as it is put - any empirical study can be ‘placed’ or ‘located’

All this embodies a fundamental misunderstanding of what people do when they describe and explain human activity -  including their own activity. Crucially, it omits the vital point that all description and explanation is purposive, and must therefore be assessed as much by reference to the objectives of the explainers/describers as by to the thing or things being described/explained. Therefore, such abstract ‘theoretical’ or ‘conceptual’ exercises not only do nothing to help students understand specific social, political or economic issues, they also fundamentally misconceive what is involved in such understanding.

My new book The Trouble with Theory: The Educational Costs of Postmodernism demonstrates all these points using a sample of undergraduate honours dissertations submitted in the School of Politics, University of New South Wales, between 1983 and 2006. All these dissertations had been strongly influenced by so-called ‘constructivist’ theory, and by the ‘post-structuralist’ version of this theory in particular. As a result they manifested a strong linguistic determinism - they consistently argued as if the language people use determines how they think and act. They also reached political conclusions which were either confused, or could have been reached much more quickly and easily without such theory.  In short, the theory used in all these dissertations was, at best, redundant to their political arguments and at worst actually damaging of them. In The Trouble with Theory I show, in detail, and with abundant quotations from the dissertations, why this was. I also offer some simple tips to students and teachers to avoid these problems in the future.

The Trouble with Theory was published by Allen & Unwin in Australia in August 2008 and by Penn State Press in North America and Europe in September 2008, It is available in hardback and inexpensive paperback. It is short and easy to read and is aimed at advanced undergraduate and graduate students and their teachers, rather than at specialist academic theorists. Because it is clear and accessible it has stirred a lot of debate and argument in Australia. For some of the media discussion it has generated see the following links:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/book-reviews/the-trouble-with-theory/2008/09/05/1220121506683.html

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/counterpoint/stories/2008/2338313.htm

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/current/audioonly/cpt_20080818.mp3

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24123258-12332,00.html

http://richardjking.blogspot.com/2008/07/review-of-trouble-with-theory.html

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24060118-5003900,00.html

http://iainhall.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/the-domination-of-postmodern-theory/

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24112587-25132,00.html

The Trouble with Theory is available in all good bookshops and an e version can be purchased online at www.ebooks.com/ebooks/book_display.asp?IID=357764.