SOCIOLOGY

1. BA Degree in Social Sciences
Level- V, Semester – I.
Article Review
Course Code:
SSU3207 – Sociological Theories & Research Methods
8/9/2013
The Open University of Sri Lanka
S.M.IRSHAD
Registration No – 30730163
BA Degree in Social Sciences
Level – V, Semester – I
Article Review

2. S . M . I R S H A D , B A ( O U S L ) . R e g . N o - 3 0 7 3 0 1 6 3
P a g e | 2
Course Code: SSU 3207
Subject: Sociological Theories & Research Methods
Title
A critical review of Maureen T. Hallinan, 1997, “A Sociological Perspective on Social Issues”, The
American Sociologist Journal, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Spring, 1997), pp. 5-14.
The Key Findings of the Study
 Author tends to investigate the real society in an empirical view of pointing the individual. But he
would not find the reality is there, because e cannot study an individual to formulate a powerful
theory to explain the whole social phenomena.
 There is a big confusion that how to formulate a sociological theory which suite to the real social
phenomena existing in the world. But the author is trying to say that the current sociological
theories were unable to identify the facts that which the author intended to see beyond his theories.
 Another important fact was pointed by the author which was the sociological theories should come
out with a micro perspective or macro level perspectives. The micro level study is an individual
perspective but macro level study is an study of the society ,so the author have produced an idea
micro level study is not so much prominent to use in sociological theorizing rather studying macro
level.
 There is a bit of argument among the sociologists that the sociology as a discipline and its
dynamic nature has paved the way to investigate the society in a macro perspective because the
society is the largest population in a sociological investigation although sociology is a study about
human society.
 The author identifies the practical issues with regard to begin the sociological investigations in a
larger scale that means a macro level, because it’s impossible to work with empirical data in a
large scale.
 Author discovered some critical barriers in formulating the sociological theories and in
practically also.

3. S . M . I R S H A D , B A ( O U S L ) . R e g . N o - 3 0 7 3 0 1 6 3
P a g e | 3
 The first barrier is absence of theoretical models – there is a huge inefficiency to formulating
sociological models to form such theories in sociology, because of the newness of the discipline
and still its expansions are on the way.
 The 2nd barrier was the lack of faith in the power of the discipline – this argues that the strength of
the disciplines because according to author the most risky function department in universities was
the sociology departments, especially in United States of America and other European universities.
 The 3rd barrier is that the sociology has a weakness to take over its tasks especially in formulating
theory is the difficult one. If there one to create and formulate a theory it should be creative,
comprehensive, heuristic, and it should utilize previous sociological understanding and some
insight demands, and emotions.
The Review
In my side I would say that any sociological theory failed to solve the existing social problems in the
modern times or either the theory that was formulated by any sociologists to understand the social
phenomena clearly. But in this article the author intended to create an arena for sociologists to
investigate in formulation of new effective sociological theories to define and settle down the social
problems in the modern society.
I would say that the authors mind is focused in this research is to identify the sociological perspectives to
be studied by not as an individual level rather macro level study on social problems.
In this study the author has identified that there is a bit of confusion which type of sociological
investigation should apply to the research. So the author says that the most preferable one is to study a
macro level experiment then to study how it is relating and linking to the individual level.
Another view that has been created by the author that is to formulation of new sociological theories in
which the social problems able to settle down. So I think this is the most dangerous and unrealistic
situation for and sociologists to form such a theory.
Another important concept that author intended to express that the interdependencies’ among the social
variables, which connect the macro level tasks and the micro level tasks together and find the real fact.
And finally the author has presented number of reasons for the failure of these theories to combat the real
social life of humanity. They were; absence of theoretical models – there is a huge inefficiency to
formulating sociological models to form such theories in sociology, because of the newness of the
discipline and still its expansions are on the way , the lack of faith in the power of the discipline, this
argues that the strength of the disciplines because according to author the most risky function department
in universities was the sociology departments, and also the sociology has a weakness to take over its asks

4. S . M . I R S H A D , B A ( O U S L ) . R e g . N o - 3 0 7 3 0 1 6 3
P a g e | 4
specially in formulating theory is the difficult one. If there one to create and formulate a theory it should
be creative, comprehensive, heuristic, and it should utilize previous sociological understanding and some
insight demands, and emotions.
Summary
 The author identifies the practical issues with regard to begin the sociological investigations in a
larger scale that means a macro level, because it’s impossible to work with empirical data in a
large scale.
 Author discovered some critical barriers in formulating the sociological theories and in
practically also.
 There is lack of practical experiments and no data were presented to review. There are some key
findings were done by the author to point out the weaknesses in the discipline of sociology.
 The first barrier is absence of theoretical models – there is a huge inefficiency to formulating
sociological models to form such theories in sociology, because of the newness of the discipline
and still its expansions are on the way. The 2nd barrier was the lack of faith in the power of the
discipline – this argues that the strength of the disciplines because according to author the most
risky function department in universities was the sociology departments, especially in United
States of America and other European universities.
 The 3rd barrier is that the sociology has a weakness to take over its tasks especially in formulating
theory is the difficult one. If there one to create and formulate a theory it should be creative,
comprehensive, heuristic, and it should utilize previous sociological understanding and some
insight demands, and emotions.
 Author has done this study by qualitative methods not in the quantitative methods which produce
sort of data’s and experiments in the society.
Further Recommendations
 The sociological perspectives should be studied by macro level and then link to the individual level
and must find out its relationship how changes an individual in the society.
 If there are some data were presented, which help full to understand the authors study more
meaningful will be a greater advantage of producing such qualitative study.

5. S . M . I R S H A D , B A ( O U S L ) . R e g . N o - 3 0 7 3 0 1 6 3
P a g e | 5
 The study need to improve its weaknesses and to improve the skills to adopt new methods of
investigations like survey methods and participant observations. There is a need for an
overemphasis on sociological perspectives on social issues to develop the new strategies of social
investigations and full scale study on social issues.
 In the Sri Lankan context, we need to identify the social and economic and also other dimensions
of social issues. The need to study the social issues in Sri Lanka and to find the explicit solutions
was timely important and needed.
 I suggest that if there is likely to this investigation on social issues will be a greater advantage to
our human society.
Bibliographical References.
Babbie, Earl. 2004. The Practice of Social Research.10th edition. Thomson Learning Inc, CA:
Wordsworth.

6. S . M . I R S H A D , B A ( O U S L ) . R e g . N o - 3 0 7 3 0 1 6 3
P a g e | 6
Cooper, Harris M. 1989. Integrating Research: A Guide for Literature Reviews. Newbury Park, CA: Sage
Denzin, Norman K., Yvonna S. Lincoln.1994.Handbook of Qualitative Research. Newbury Park, CA:
Sage.
Hart, C. 1998. Doing Literature Review. London: Sage.
Hart, C. 2001. Doing a Literature Search. London: Sage.
Pam Mort, Lyn Hallion, Tracey Lee Downey, Writing a Critical Review: The Learning Center, April
2005, Pdf, the University of New South Wales, Australia, (Cited from Google search).
Comments of the Lecturer –