Theoretical Research Programs

Abstract

AbstractA theoretical research program has three components: a set of interrelated theories, a set of substantive and methodological working strategies used to generate and evaluate these theories, and a set of models for empirical investigation and analysis based on these theories. Theoretical research programs are important to our understanding of how sociological knowledge grows. Programs are distinct from the broad, overarching metatheoretical strategies, such as functionalism and interactionism, which orient the construction of individual theories. Programs are more dynamic than strategies, the latter growing only very slowly and seldom in response to assessment of the theories that they generate. Programs are also distinct from individual theoretical arguments, or unit theories, such as Davis and Moore's theory of stratification or Lenski's theory of status crystallization. Although programs generally originate in a unit theory, they become much more complex as a network of interrelated theories emerges over time. Theoretical research programs provide accounts of social phenomena as diverse as affect control, status organization, network exchange, resource mobilization, revolution, and coalition formation in political action. They have become particularly common in recent work in sociological social psychology and in the study of group processes.