The following comment is intended to clarify, as best I can, some confusion regarding your first essay assignment. As many of you have probably observed in reading that section of the text on Harriet Martineau, the authors seem to focus almost entirely on her methodological insights and it is harder to pick out her "theories." Of course, it was the authors of the text who entitled this section "Martineau's Central Theories and Methods." And I believe they are using "theory" in a very broad sense to refer to any ideas or statements ABOUT society (as opposed to ideas or statements on HOW to study or look at society). Now these two questions are not always easy to separate. Indeed, their definition of sociological theory seems to include both ABOUT & HOW: "Sociological theory is an abstract, symbolic representation of, and explanation of, social reality. But when we talk about sociological theory, we are talking about guidelines for thinking in a disciplined manner about the social world." (p. 4) The latter sentence in that definition seems to include methods as well. This is a pretty deep issue which I am not fully prepared to address in this blog; however, if you keep in mind the distinction I made above between ABOUT & HOW, I believe you should be able to complete this essay. In general, I am interested in seeing how well you understand some of Martineau's ideas and can see their relevance to modern society.
Finally, let me remind you this first essay is due on Tuesday, 2/26. Good luck.
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