Everyone's favorite quarterly journal, Sociological Theory, tackled in its latest issue the problem Carroll raises below. Sociologist Gabriel Abend at Northwestern University asserts that "theory"(as commonly referred to among scholars in the social sciences) may actually mean any one of seven things. Oft-times, when people discuss "theory," they are talking past one another; one side uses one of the seven definitions Abend details, while the other side uses another.
I only have this article in hard copy or I'd produce the seven definitions Abend has discovered researchers employ when speaking of the term.
-B.
Carrol Cox wrote:
"A couple observations. I think the discussion between you and Jerry on what 'theory' was didn't go far enough. We need, perhaps, two or three 'core' senses of Theory (with the upper-case T)m wutg eacg ibe if those senses covering a range. (It is probalby also useful to hold on to his distinction between 'theory' and 'world view': i.e., materialism is not a theory but a frame within which one articulates theories."