Download Professor David M. Long

• Sociology: The scientific study of social behavior
in human groups.
• Sociology encourages us to see individuality in
social context, such as:
Professor David M. Long
[email protected]
• A sociological perspective allows us to look
beyond the outer appearances of our social world
and discover new levels of reality
– The material world is comprised of systems, and at
each level of complexity, new properties emerge that
are irreducible to the components existing on preceding
levels
– Society exists on a scale that transcends the human
system
• Reciprocity
– Basis of social ties and other relationships
– Increases perceived interdependent utility
• Relevance
– Individual’s are motivated by a desire to achieve or
maintain relevance.
– Relevance involves both personal and social
recognition, as well as a capacity for empathy
• Roles
– Expected actions and beliefs based on one’s social
status/position
– Increases perceptions of predictability and homophily
– How relationships influence people’s attitudes and
behavior
– How societies develop and change
– How society is divided into groups and cultures
– Detecting cultural patterns in the behavior of particular
individuals
– Assessing both opportunities and constraints in our
own lives
• Humans are conscious in a manner unlike other animals,
i.e., we are self aware and communicative
• Human society is a complex game in
which agents (i.e., people) engage in a
constant exchange of symbols and
objects
• Agents often have different
motivations and abilities when
interacting
• The value of products
exchanged is determined by
intersubjective agreement
• Three major social changes during the
Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries are
important to the development of sociology:
1.The rise of a factory-based industrial economy
– Industrialization: The process by which societies
are transformed from dependence on agriculture
and handmade products to an emphasis on
manufacturing and related industries
• Process initiated by the Industrial Revolution in 1760 and
continuing through the end of the Nineteenth century
• Many agricultural workers needed to relocate from their
deeply embedded social relationships in rural communities to
seek employment in cities as workers in the factories owned
by the emerging industrialists
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2. The emergence of great cities in Europe
– Urbanization: The process by which an increasing
proportion of a population lives in cities rather than in
rural areas
• Most people shifted from being producers to being consumers
• Wage labor and rental lodging become standard
• Social problems become prevalent, such as overcrowded
housing, poverty, crime, disability, lack of sanitation, and
dangerous working conditions
3. Political changes, including a rising concern with individual
liberty and rights
– The French Revolution symbolized this dramatic break
with political and social tradition
• Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825)
– Profoundly affected by upheavals during the French Revolution
– Developed the philosophy of Positivism
• Society is moving through stages of increased technological
sophistication, and technology improves society
• Auguste Comte (1798–1857)
– Student of Saint-Simon
– Was the person who coined the term “sociology”
– Theorized that societies contain both social statistics (forces for the
social order and stability) and social dynamics (forces for conflict
and change)
– Comte saw sociology as the product of a three-stage historical
development:
1.The theological stage, in which thought was guided by religion
2.The metaphysical stage, a transitional phase
3.The scientific stage
• Georg Hegel (1770-1831)
– Developed the concept of the dialectic as underlying principle of
social change
• Thesis generates antithesis, which combine through a process
of negation to form synthesis
• Immanence = Physical reality
• Transcendence = Ideological reality
• Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
– Emphasized an evolutionary perspective on social order and social
change known as “social Darwinism,” which thought that attempts
at social reform were always flawed
• Theorized that society (similar to a biological organism) is
composed of interdependent components that stabilize society
and promote improvements
• Theorized that societies develop through a process of “struggle”
(for existence) and “fitness” (for survival) and equated the
Darwinian process of natural selection with ideas of progress
• For most of human history, the vast majority of
people lived in small, isolated groups
– By 2050, however, nearly three of every four people in
the world will live in urban settings
• The development of technology, especially tools
for improving communication and travel,
continues to alter our basic expectations and
understanding of human life
• Globalization affects all of us every day, both as
individuals and as members of nation-states,
economic markets, and more.
• Émile Durkheim (1858–1917)
– Influential French sociologist, educator, and public official.
– Student of Saint-Simon and Comte
– Behavior must be understood within larger social context, i.e.,
social institutions.
– Introduction of statistical techniques in social research and
intercultural comparison,
– Studied the ties that bind society together, particularly social and
moral order as major concerns:
• Mechanical Solidarity: Traditional societies are united by
social similarities (superstitions & tribalism).
• Organic Solidarity: Modern societies are united by
interdependence rational thought & modernism).
• Anomie: Loss of direction felt in a society when social control of
individual behavior becomes ineffective because of rapid social
changes
• Karl Marx (1818-1883)
– German philosopher, writer, and social critic
– Personally involved in social change movements and
believed social scientists should help to improve society
– According to Karl Marx, the motivating force in history is
the manner in which men relate to one another in their
struggle to wrest their livelihood from nature in order to
take care of primary needs
• Unlike other animals species, humans use technology to
produce sustenance from the environment and thereby
“make history.”
• Social theory had to deal with more than just ideas, it must
be grounded in “the existence of living human individuals,”
who have material needs that must be satisfied through
production
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• Since production technologies are periodically
improved, they constantly yield more plentiful and
better quality consumer goods
– Thus, the processes of production and consumption
always feed back on each other in a cumulative fashion,
so that as one set of needs is satisfied, a new set of
needs emerges
– These forces shape society into distinct social classes
that develop through a process of material dialectic
• Social change is driven “materially” &
“economically,” not ideologically
– Struggle occurs between owners and workers
– Capitalist owners will oppress ordinary people
– People become alienated and lose control over their
lives
• The division of society into classes gives rise to
one’s views of the world; views which express
existing class relations and tend either to
consolidate or to undermine the power and
authority of the dominant class.
• The Chicago School were a group of sociologists
associated with the University of Chicago (where the
first department of sociology in the United States was
established in 1892) who dominated sociology for the
first half of the 20th century and were noted for study
of urban problems and cities
– George Herbert Mead (1863–1931)
• Mind develops from an understanding of symbols, primarily
language
– Jane Addams (1860-1935)
• Combined intellectual inquiry, social service work, and political
activism
– Charles H. Cooley (1864-1929)
THE MATERIAL
DIALECTIC
THESIS
NEGATION
SYNTHESIS
NEW
THESIS
ANTI
THESIS
• Max Weber (1864–1920)
– German scholar who studied wide variety of topics
– Like other sociologists of the time, he studied the impact
of industrialization on peoples’ lives
– Support for value free studies and objective research
• Rationalization
– Traditional societies emphasize emotion and personal ties
– Modern societies emphasize calculation, efficiency, self
control
– Personal ties decline and people become “disenchanted”
• Verstehen: To comprehend behavior, one must learn the
subjective meanings people attach to actions
• In the United States, sociology and the modern
university system rose together, and was
generally optimistic and rooted in a belief in
progress, the value of individual freedom, civility,
and concern for the welfare of others
• Exceptions to the general optimism of most
American scholars were the works of W.E.B.
DuBois and Ida Wells-Barnett, both of who used
research in the field to take sociology out of the
university
• Used sociological perspective to examine face-to-face group
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• W.E.B DuBois (1868-1963)
– Emphasized an analysis of everyday lived experiences
that focused on explicating processes of power and
inequality
– Revealed social processes that contributed to
maintenance of racial separation
– Double Consciousness: The term is used to describe an
individual whose identity is divided into several facets
• Ida Wells-Barnett (1862–1931)
– Argued that societies can be judged on whether the
principles they claim to believe in match their actions
– Used her analysis of society to resist oppression
• Intellectual analysis requires introspection and
retrospection.
• C. Wright Mills described sociological imagination
as providing:
– An awareness of the relationship between an individual
and the wider society.
– The ability to see our private experiences and personal
difficulties as being entwined with the structural
arrangements of our society and the times in which we
live.
Sociology is an intellectual endeavor, comprised of
both theory and practice
• Science: Body of knowledge obtained by methods based
on systematic observation
– Physical Sciences: Study of physical features of nature and the
ways they interact and change
– Social Sciences: Study of social features of humans and the
ways they interact and change
• Theory: Set of statements that seeks to explain
problems, actions, or behavior
– Effective theories have explanatory and predictive power.
– Theories are not the final statement about human behavior.
– Theories are not “true,” they seek to guide us toward truths
• Sociological Imagination is similar to Weber’s idea
of verstehen, which can be loosely translated as
“contextual understanding.”
– Understand social marginality, which is the state of
being excluded from social activity as an “outsider.”
• People at the margins of social life are aware of social
patterns that others rarely think about
• Meaningful understanding also requires the
concept dasein, wherein one seeks an authentic
sense of “being there.”
• Epistemology: A type of theory about how our
knowledge of reality is made
• Ontology: A type of theory about the basis of
reality and being
• Rational: Process of analysis independent of
one’s instincts, emotions, personal preferences,
traditions
• Logical: Process of analysis that seeks to
maximize consistency, soundness, and
completeness between evidence and result
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• Deduction: Process in which a conclusion follows
necessarily from the premises presented, so that
the conclusion cannot be false if the premises are
true
• Induction: Process of estimating the validity of
conclusions applied to an entire group based on
observations made from only a single example of
that group
• Paradigm: An innovative perspective or approach
to reasoning that radically differs from all prior
conceptions of the world , and profoundly
changes subsequent social and scientific thought
– Examples: Positivism, Material Dialectic, Psychoanalysis, et al.
• All contemporary sociology is guided by four
distinct perspectives, referred to as meta-theories
1.Structural-Functionalism
2.Critical-Conflict Theory
3.Symbolic-Interactionism
4.Social Exchange Theory
• Each meta-theory can also be placed within the
context of macrosociology (structural functional
and critical conflict) or microsciology (symbolic
interaction)
– Macrosociology: Concentrates on large-scale
phenomena or entire civilizations
– Microsociology: Stresses study of small groups, often
through experimental means
• A meta-theory does not have the breadth or depth
of a paradigm, but it does allow sociologists the
means by which to build a coherent framework to
analyze complex social phenomena
– The sociological meta-theories each provide a different
emphasis on how society and groups operate
– One gains broadest understanding of society by
drawing on all three perspectives, noting where they
overlap or diverge.
– A researcher’s work is always guided by a theoretical
viewpoint
• The structural-functional theory is a framework for
building theory that sees society as a complex
system of connected parts, each of which helps
maintain the system as a whole by promoting
solidarity and stability
– Individuals are guided by social structures (relatively
stable patterns of social behavior)
– Institutions cause individuals to perform social functions
through norms and roles
– Social change in predictable and conflict is rare and
easily corrected
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• Each social structure has social functions (i.e.,
consequences) for the operation of society as a
whole
– Manifest Functions: The recognized and intended
consequences of any social pattern
– Latent Functions: Largely unrecognized and
unintended consequences that may reflect hidden
purposes of an institution
– Dysfunctions: Undesirable consequences of a social
pattern that may disrupt a social system or its stability
• Key figures in the development of this paradigm
include Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim, Herbert
Spencer, Talcott Parsons, and Robert Merton
• While Structural Functionalism has historically
been the most dominant meta-theoretical
framework in sociology, its influence has declined
since the mid-Twentieth century.
• It has been generally criticized for its overemphasis on social stability, thereby minimalizing
issues of social inequalities related to class, race,
and gender
STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALIST MODEL
• Framework for building theory that suggests social
behavior is best understood in terms of conflict and
change caused by the tension between groups
competing for scarce resources
– Stratification leads to hierarchy, and subsequent social
inequalities
• Formal Stratification Categories: Gender, sex, race,
ethnicity, age, socio-economic status…
• Informal Stratification Categories: Attractiveness,
intelligence, frugality, fashion sense, style…
– Power allows some to dominate others and authority is
maintained through force
– Dominance leads to conflict
Conflict and change are
inevitable
– Conflict holds society together as new alliances are formed
and others fail
• Most sociologists who favor the critical conflict
perspective attempt to not only understand society,
but also to reduce social inequality
• This theoretical perspective has come to dominate
sociology since the mid-Twentieth century, but has
some weaknesses:
– It ignores social unity based on
mutual interdependence and
shared values
– Since it is explicitly political, it is
difficult to claim scientific objectivity.
– Like the structural-functional
paradigm, it envisions society in
terms of broad abstractions.
• Major sociologists in this tradition
include Karl Marx, W.E.B.
DuBois, and Anthony Bourdieu
• Social Inequality: Condition in which members of
society have differing amounts of wealth, prestige, or
power
• Hegemony: Concept that describes and explain how
a diverse society can be dominated by one subgroup
– Dominance is accomplished by the ruling group acquiring
some degree of consent from the subordinate group (as
opposed to dominance purely by force).
– The ability of the dominant class to persuade other classes to
see the world in terms favorable to the dominant group’s own
ascendancy.
– Everyday practices and shared beliefs provide the foundation
for complex systems of domination
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• A framework for building theory in which humans
are viewed as living in a world of meaningful
objects, in which individuals construct a “self” or
“identity”
• Individuals construct the nature of their social
world through interaction with others in society
– The meaning of things is derived from (or arises out of)
the social interaction
– Social life is possible only because humans can
communicate through symbols
• Juniper Street
→
Courtland Street
• Argonne Ave
→
Central Park Place
• Charles Allen Drive →
Parkway Drive
• Monroe Drive
→
Boulevard
• Glen Iris Drive
→
Lakeview Avenue
• Briarcliff Road
→
Moreland Avenue
• All human communications take place through the
perception and interpretation of symbols
– How people define situations is important, and there is a
general consensus on how to define situations
– We do not respond directly to reality but to the symbolic
meanings we attach to the world
– Human beings act toward things on the basis of the
meanings they ascribe to those things
• Key figures in the development of this perspective
include George Herbert Mead, Erving Goffman,
George Homans, and Peter Blau
• Explains social change and stability as a process
of negotiated exchanges between parties
• Social behavior is an exchange of goods, material
goods but also non-material ones, such as the
symbols of approval or prestige
• Human relationships are formed by the use of a
subjective cost-benefit analysis
• The basic concepts addressed in social exchange
theory are: Cost, Benefit, Outcome, Comparison
Level, Satisfaction, and Dependence
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• Benefits: Include things such as material or financial
gains, social status, and emotional comforts.
• Costs: Generally consist of sacrifices of time, money,
or lost opportunities.
• Outcome: Defined to be the difference between the
benefits and the costs
• Comparison Level: Refers to the fact that since
individuals have different expectations of
relationships, an individual's satisfaction with a
relationship depends on more than just the outcome
– Satisfaction is formalized as the difference between the
outcome and the comparison level
– For any two people with the same outcome, their level of
satisfaction may differ based on their expectations
• Whether an individual remains in a relationship is
determined by the set of alternate relationships
available
• Dependence is formalized as the difference between
the outcome and the comparison level of alternatives
– If there are many alternatives available, then an individual is
less dependent on the current relationship
– Both intrinsic and extrinsic factors affect the set of people
available to an individual for forming an alternate
relationship, and thus affect the level of dependence of the
individual on the current relationship
– Other considerations include factors such as the investments
that an individual has made in the relationship or barriers to
leaving the relationship
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