What is Wrong with Social Theory?
Herbert Blumer’s 1953 critique of social theory stressed the disconnection between theory and empirical reality. Social theories often exist in isolation, relying on abstract concepts that lack clear definitions and practical application in research, Blumer wrote. These theories can’t really guide meaningful inquiry and can’t be tested against real-world data.
Blumer introduced the idea of sensitizing concepts, which provide a flexible guide to explore the empirical world without forcing phenomena into fixed categories. These concepts offer direction rather than prescriptions, so theory can adapt and refine itself through interaction with empirical findings.
A modern parallel to Blumer’s notion of sensitizing concepts can be found in Le Coze’s Systemic and Dynamic Sensitising Model of Safety, which offers an alternative approach to traditional safety management models. Like Blumer’s critique, Le Coze’s model addresses the limitations of existing methods that fail to account for the complexity of socio-technical systems. Le Coze’s model incorporates insights from managerial, social, and political sciences, focusing on the influence of technology, cognition, culture, and power across micro, meso, and macro levels.
By merging a managerial and sociological framework, Le Coze developed a sensitizing model that helps identify areas of investigation concerning organizational changes and their impacts on safety. This model provides a dynamic and systemic view, in order to understand how leaders, operational personnel, safety departments, and external reviews interact to maintain control over safety barriers in the face of ongoing transformations.
Both Blumer and Le Coze use(d) sensitizing concepts in dealing with complex, evolving systems—whether in sociology in general or safety management. These concepts, when grounded in empirical reality, offer a way to explore and refine our understanding of the world through a flexible, adaptive lens.
Le Coze also incorporated the visual side of sensitizing, in addition to Blumer, as a result of considering the impact visual models had in safety (Reason, Rasmussen).
Blumer, H. (1954), What is Wrong with Social Theory?, in: American Sociological Review Vol. 19, No. 1 (Feb., 1954), pp. 3-10 .
Le Coze, J.C. (2013), New models for new times. An anti-dualist move, in: Safety Science Vol. 59, November 2013, pp. 200-218.
Blumer introduced the idea of sensitizing concepts, which provide a flexible guide to explore the empirical world without forcing phenomena into fixed categories. These concepts offer direction rather than prescriptions, so theory can adapt and refine itself through interaction with empirical findings.
A modern parallel to Blumer’s notion of sensitizing concepts can be found in Le Coze’s Systemic and Dynamic Sensitising Model of Safety, which offers an alternative approach to traditional safety management models. Like Blumer’s critique, Le Coze’s model addresses the limitations of existing methods that fail to account for the complexity of socio-technical systems. Le Coze’s model incorporates insights from managerial, social, and political sciences, focusing on the influence of technology, cognition, culture, and power across micro, meso, and macro levels.
By merging a managerial and sociological framework, Le Coze developed a sensitizing model that helps identify areas of investigation concerning organizational changes and their impacts on safety. This model provides a dynamic and systemic view, in order to understand how leaders, operational personnel, safety departments, and external reviews interact to maintain control over safety barriers in the face of ongoing transformations.
Both Blumer and Le Coze use(d) sensitizing concepts in dealing with complex, evolving systems—whether in sociology in general or safety management. These concepts, when grounded in empirical reality, offer a way to explore and refine our understanding of the world through a flexible, adaptive lens.
Le Coze also incorporated the visual side of sensitizing, in addition to Blumer, as a result of considering the impact visual models had in safety (Reason, Rasmussen).
Blumer, H. (1954), What is Wrong with Social Theory?, in: American Sociological Review Vol. 19, No. 1 (Feb., 1954), pp. 3-10 .
Le Coze, J.C. (2013), New models for new times. An anti-dualist move, in: Safety Science Vol. 59, November 2013, pp. 200-218.