What Theory Is, What Theory Was: Whence and Whither Theory

This essay offers a critique of Gabriel Abend’s call for more action and less abstraction in social theory. The critique questions Abend’s insistence on pragmatic presentism—research that can be used tomorrow—and his implicit rejection of our time-honored commitment to construct clarity and rigor in theory. Abend’s insistent focus on the present ignores a long history of pragmatism in both social and management theory that has served our profession well. More importantly, his argument misinterprets pragmatism as a rejection of theory when, in fact, pragmatism suggests precisely the opposite.