What Assumptions Do You Make About the Nature of Society and the Purpose of Social Theory

"Theory is a way of seeing and not seeing the world" says Alan in his "Explorations of Classical Sociological Theory" book. This supports my idea of society's perceptions being dominant over one's intentions, and the idea of social themes being played out differently according to the period and political factors affecting different theorists at the time.

When I first started University in September I experienced social theory. After attending an independent girls' school from a kindergarten to sixth form level which was densely occupied by white students, I saw a difference. I saw the people that my peers at school had once "looked down on" and realised that my perceptions of people had been strongly influenced by my fellow students. I also saw that the perceptions we had of those who dressed in a different manner or listened to different music to us did not have bad intentions, but it was the social surrounding and the dominant perceptions that we had over them that created this rather dense view.

Being a very open minded character I try not to stereotype people in society, therefore my ability to form relationships has not been hindered. My relationship experience amongst the student community has been balanced, but despite this I feel that these "oddities" or "problems" that create theory are essential in our perceptions of others and how we form relationships in a subconscious manner. We may not intentionally judge our peers but we do seem to attract ourselves to others who we feel we would get along with. This is a way shows that we do in fact perceive people in a judgemental manner, thus causing us to create stereotypes and effecting our ability to form relationships with others.

Alan writes about "perspectives" and how we form our own perspectives because of the way we have experienced the world. Such an idea fascinates me as it is something that we wouldn't think of when forming our perceptions of society, consequently subconsciously affecting our relationships within life.

"Theory is our collective memory the brain center in which we store the basic elements of what we have learned and the strategies available to carry us into the future" says Alan quoting Collins, 1988 p.8.

I feel that the idea of stepping into the shoes of other theorists and viewing the world how they did most intruiging. Genuinely, I could not decide which aspect of Classical Theory I find most interesting, as the idea of looking at themes from another perspective is what fascinates me most. Such an idea stimulates the mind to look through different ways and times of life allowing one to form numerous different opinions without feeling biased. However, after talking about my first conscious and personal experience of social theory , I believe that Weber's ideas of race and gender as status groups seem most appealing.

Even in our "postmodern society," themes such as gender and race discrimination are alive and they do inevitably force us to stereotype, thus creating these "status groups." I feel that being an ethnic woman in a Britsh society may cause me to be placed in a group in society that may unfortunately lead to discrimination or lack of opportunity later in life.

This arises with my future job prospects of being a British Asian working for the British Broadcasting Communications. It is seldom that we see an established Asian woman on the television or writing for a leading newspaper, which encourages my desire and interest studying race and gender.

With Weber we see interpretist themes that are crucial to the postmodern society we live in today. Judgements and perceptions have become part of life and seem to play an enormous role in one's role in society. "Classes, status groups and parties are phenomena of the distribution of power within a community" says Weber, supporting the idea that people