Common ground between sociological theories

S. No.	Name of the  theory	What does it state?	Key concepts	Its weaknesses
1	Structural Functionalism	Sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability	Consensus, social order, structure and function in society.	Emphasis on stability and order while neglecting conflict and changes which so vital in any society
2	Social conflict theory	Sees society in a framework of class conflicts and focuses on the struggle for scarce resources by different groups in a given society	Class conflict; alienation; competition; domination	For its overemphasis on inequality and division, for neglecting the fact of how shared values and interdependence generate unity among members of society; it is also criticized for its explicit political goals.
3	Symbolic Interactionism	Stresses the analysis of how our behaviors depend on how we define others and ourselves. It concentrates on process, rather than structure, and keeps the individual actor at the center.	Symbols; processes; interaction; meaning	Too much emphasis on microlevel analysis; neglect of larger social processes
4	Feminism	Feminist sociology focuses on the particular disadvantages, including oppression and exploitation faced by women in society	Women; gender; exploitation; male supremacy	Some extreme views such as radical feminism seem unrealistic
5	Social Exchange Theory	Focuses on the costs and  benefits which people obtain in social interaction, including money, goods, and status. It is based on the principle that people always act to maximize benefit.	----	----
6	Rational choice theory	Assumes that individuals will operate in rational way and will seek to benefit themselves in the life choices they make	----	----
7	Structuralism	Denies any basis for humans being active, since human consciousness is no longer seen as the basis of meaning in language	Underlying structures; language	Views societies as static and do not help very much in explaining variation among societies; treats culture as a given order and fails to explain the adaptive dimensions of culture.
8	Poststructuralism	Argues that humans cannot arrive anything they can confidently call the (universal) truth. There is no link between the words (language) ideas, and the real world	----	----
9	Postmodernism	Argues power has become decentralized and fragmented in Contemporary societies	Modernity; postmodernity; subjective reality	Denial of objective, sociological knowledge