Download Sociology 12 – Introduction: Origins, Early Thinkers, and Perspectives

Sociology 12 – Introduction: Origins, Early Thinkers, and Perspectives
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Industrialization and urbanization led to new ways of thinking about society.
Reason and rational thinking – Enlightenment.
Applying the methods developed by the natural sciences could discover the laws to
solve social problems.
Auguste Compte (1798-1857)
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French Philosopher.
Coined the term sociology (“founder of
sociology”). Latin socius (“social, being
with others”), Greek logos (“study of”).
 New science that would engage in the
study of society.
 Societies contain social statics (forces for
social order and stability) and social
dynamics (forces for conflict and change).
 Primary interest in studying society was
social reform.
 Positivism – a belief that the world can
best be understood through scientific
inquiry.
 Objective, bias-free knowledge was
attainable only through the use of science
rather than religion.
 Scientific knowledge was “relative
knowledge,” not absolute and final.
 Positivism had two dimensions: 1)
Methodological – the application of scientific knowledge to both physical and social
phenomena. 2) Social and political – the use of such knowledge to predict the likely
results of different policies so that the best one could be chosen.
The nature of human thinking and knowledge passed through several stages as
societies evolved from simple to more complex.
Law of the three stages: Theoretical, Metaphysical, and Scientific (or Positivistic).
Knowledge began in the theoretical stage – explanations were based on religion and
the supernatural. Kinship most prominent unit of society.
Knowledge moved to the metaphysical stage – explanations were based on abstract
philosophical speculation. The State most prominent unit of society. Group – state >
military > law.
Scientific or positive stage – explanations are based on systematic observation,
experimentation, comparison and historical analysis. Industry most prominent unit of
society.
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Shifts in the forms of knowledge in societies were linked to changes in the structural
systems of society.
Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)
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British Sociologist
Until recently, received no recognition in the field
because she was a woman in a male dominated
discipline and society.
Translated and condensed Compte’s work.
Studied social customs of Britain and U.S. and
analyzed consequences of industrialization and
capitalism.
Read Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the
Rights of Women.
Advocated racial and gender equality.
Wanted to create a science of society that would be grounded in empirical
observations and widely accessible to people.
Believed that a better society would emerge if men and women were treated equal,
enlightened reform occurred, and cooperation existed among people in all social
classes.
Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903)
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British Social Theorist
Evolutionary perspective on social order and social
change.
Theory of General Evolution – society, like a
biological organism, has various interdependent
parts (such as the family, the economy and the
government) that work to ensure the stability and
survival of the entire society.
Societies developed through s process of
“struggle” (for existence) and “fitness” (for
survival), with he referred to as “survival of the
fittest.”
Spencer’s view of society is known as Social
Darwinism – the belief that those species of animals (including human beings) best
adapted to their environment survive and prosper, whereas those poorly adapted die
out.
Equated this process of natural selection with progress.
Strongly opposed any social reform that might interfere with the natural selection
process and thus, damage society by favouring its least worthy members.
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Critics said that many of Spencer’s ideas had serious flaws: societies are not the same
as biological systems. Survival of the fittest can easily be used to justify class, racial
– ethnic and gender inequalities.
Views were applauded by wealthy industrialists.
Social Darwinism served as a rationalization for some people’s assertion of the
superiority of the white race. Justify the repression and neglect of African Americans
as well as the policies that resulted in the annihilation of Native American
populations.
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
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French sociologists
People are the product of their social environment
and behaviour cannot be fully understood in terms of
individual biological and psychological traits.
 Limits of human potential are socially, not
biologically, based.
 Saw religious traditions evaporating in his society,
searched for a scientific, rational way to provide for
societal integration and stability.
 Wrote The Rules of Sociological Method – societies
are built on social facts (social facts are patterned
ways of acting, thinking, and feelings that exist
outside any one individual, but that exert social
control over each person).
 Social facts must be explained by other social facts –
by reference to individual attributes.
Lived during the period of rapid social changes in Europe resulting from
Industrialization and Urbanization.
How do societies manage to hold together?
Preindustrial societies were held together by strong traditions and by members’
shared moral beliefs and values.
Industrialization made people interdependent on one another.
Rapid social change and a more specialized division of labour produce strains in
society.
These strains lead to a breakdown in traditional organization, values, and authority
and to a dramatic increase in anomie – a condition in which social control becomes
ineffective as a result of the loss of shared values and of a sense of purpose in society.
Most likely to occur during a period of social change.
Founding figure of the functionalist theoretical tradition.
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
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German economist and philosopher.
History is a continuous clash between conflicting
ideas and forces.
Conflict (especially class conflict) is necessary in
order to produce social change and a better
society.
Most important changes were economic.
Capitalist economic system was responsible for
overwhelming poverty at the beginning of the
Industrial Revolution.
Class conflict is the struggle between the
capitalist class and the working class.
Capitalist Class – bourgeoisie – comprises of
those who own and control the means of
production – the tools, land, factories, and money for investment that form the
economic basis for a society.
Working class – proletariat – those who must sell their labour because they have no
other means to earn a livelihood.
Capitalist class controls and exploits the masses of struggling workers by paying less
than the value of their labour.
Exploitation results in workers alienation – a feeling of powerlessness and
estrangement from other people and from oneself.
Predicted that the working class would become aware of its exploitation, overthrow
the capitalists, and establish a free and classless society.
Combined ideas derived from philosophy, history and social sciences into a new
theoretical configuration.
Society should not just be studied but changed, because of the oppression of most of
the population by a small group of wealthy people.
Max Weber (1864-1929)
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German social scientist.
Disagreed with Marx about economics
Protestant Reformation produced a social
climate in which capitalism could exist and
flourish.
Sociology should be value free – research
should be conducted in a scientific manner and
should exclude the researcher’s personal values
and economic interests.
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Verstehen (German for “understanding” or “insight”) the ability to see the world as
others see it.
Large-scale organizations were becoming increasingly oriented toward routine
administration and a specialized division of labour – he believed this was destructive
to human vitality and freedom.
Rational bureaucracy, rather than class struggle, was the most significant factor in
determining the social relations among people in industrialist societies.
George Simmel (1858-1918)
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German Sociologist.
Society as a web of patterned interactions among
people.
Main purpose of sociology should be to examine
these social interaction processes within groups.
Social interactions vary depending on the size of
the social group.
Interaction patterns differed between a dyad
(social group with two members) and a triad
(social group with three members).
Formal sociology, an approach the focuses
attention on the universal, recurring social forms
that underlie the varying content of social interaction. These forms “geometry of
social life.”
Forms of social interaction (such as cooperation or conflict) and the context of social
interactions in different contexts (for example between leaders and followers).
Analyzed impact of industrialization and urbanization on people’s lives.
Class conflict was becoming more pronounced in modern industrial societies.
Ultimate concern was to protect the autonomy of the individual society.
Development of Sociology in North America:
 From Western Europe, Sociology spread in the early 1890’s to the U.S., and in the
early 1900’s to Canada.
 It thrived in both countries as a result of the intellectual climate and the rapid rate of
social change.
George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)
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Sociologist and social psychologist
Founder of the Symbolic Interaction perspective.
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Sociology became male-dominated, and social work became female-dominated.
Jane Adams (1860-1935)
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One of the best known early women sociologists.
Awarded Nobel Peace Prize for contributions to the field
of social work.
W.E.B. Du Bbois (1868-1963)
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Researched Philadelphia’s African American community and
stressed the strengths and weaknesses of a community
wrestling with overwhelming social problems.
Frustrated with the lack of progress in race relations and
helped found NAACP (National Association for the
Advancement of Coloured People).
The first Sociology department in Canada was established in 1925 at McGill
Universtiy.
1970’s was a period of “Canadianization” of sociology in Canada.
Talcott Parsons (1902-1979)
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Most influential contemporary advocate of the
functionalist perspective.
All societies must make provisions for meeting
social needs in order to survive.
Robert K. Merton (1910-2003)
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Distinguished between manifest and latent functions of
social institutions.
Manifest functions – intended and or overtly recognized
by the participants in a social unit.
Latent functions – unintended functions that are hidden
and remain unacknowledged by participants.
Dysfunctions –undesirable consequences of any element
of society.
C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)
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Key figure in the development of contemporary
conflict theory, encouraged sociologists to get
involved in social reform.
Value-free sociology was impossible because social
scientists must make value-related choices –
including the topics they investigate and the
theoretical approaches they adopt. Look beneath
everyday events in order to observe the major
resource and power inequalities that exist in society.
Most important decision are made largely behind the
scenes by the power elite – a small clique composed
of the top corporate, political, and military officials.
Herbert Blumer (1900-1986)
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Symbolic Interactionism – Society is the sum of the interactions of
individuals and groups.
Focus on the process of interaction.
Post-modern theories emerged after World War II (late 40’s) and reflected the belief
that some nations were entering a period of postindustrialization.