Toronto Theory Workshop
When and Where
Speakers
Description
TTW fosters theoretical dialogue, taking theory in a wide sense. We aim to maximize conversation. Papers, usually works in progress, are circulated prior to meetings, and all attendees are expected to come to the workshop having read the paper. Presenters typically provide only a 5-minute introduction and contextualization of the paper. Then two discussants (a graduate student and a faculty member) provide critical commentary, followed by open Q&A with all participants. Everyone is welcome, whether you see yourself as someone who works in theory or not, and whether you are new to the department or have been around for a long time.
We will circulate papers a week prior to meetings. Papers will be posted here:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/05rvybxflki582zy6fe5d/AFflSZ4NRdpdHFKmtgi...
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Title: A Chicago School of Sociological Theory?
Abstract: This paper asks what it would mean for there to be a Chicago School of Sociological Theory, were one to exist. It argues that Donald N. Levine’s career as a theorist in if not of Chicago helps suggest a potential answer the question. More specifically, I ask what it would mean to apply central Chicago principles — context, process, relations, and direct experience -- to the study of theory itself? I argue Don Levine’s career embodies a notion of theorizing in which those Chicago principles apply to theoretical activities and concepts themselves. I develop this argument in three steps. First, I briefly review what Abbott refers to as “the Chicago insight” – the centrality of context -- a deceptively simple idea with massive consequences. I do this with a view toward suggesting that Levine’s theoretical work can be understood as an effort to apply that insight to the domain of concepts, ideas, theories, and theorists. Second, I discuss what I take to be a striking fact about the way that Levine carried out the Chicago program in the domain of theory: that he, like Park and Burgess, was a prolific maker of diagrams and visualizations of theoretical ideas. I will argue, following CS Peirce, that Levine’s diagrammatic thinking represents an effort to make theory into a form of experimental learning. Last, I will highlight Levine’s lifelong concern with theory as a practical vocation. Here I bring his work on liberal education into the picture and feature his practicum on social theory. The significance of these and similar endeavors is that they realize in practice the proposition that, far from abandoning direct personal observation and experience, theory has its own forms of direct experience that can be cultivated and trained through practice. I conclude with some brief reflections on the potential for carrying forward this vision of sociological theory today.
Speaker Bio: Daniel Silver is Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. He receive his PhD from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.