The Webbs and Social Theory

Discusses whether sociologists Beatrice and Sidney Webb were social theorists at all. They substituted generalisations, which they supposedly derived from their various researches, for social theory proper, abstractions for which they had little enthusiasm. However, their influential contribution to social thinking and sociological investigation over fifty years must mean that they had some conviction or vision of how society works. The exception is the special and particular case of their long work 'Soviet Communism' which derived primarily from emotional conviction

Communism · Conviction · Enthusiasm · Epistemology · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Social thought · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology