Download Sociological Schools of Thought

Sociological Schools
of Thought
Different Ways of Looking at Sociology and
Theories of the Foundations of Society
Structural
Functionalism
• Theory:
Institutions or structures shape
society and work together to meet the
needs of individuals
• Institutions exist because they have a
positive function
Structural
Functionalists
Conflict Theory
• Society is shaped by the conflict
between different groups for power.
• This theory is shaped by the theories of
Karl Marx
• According to Marx the conflict is
between the wealthy and the working
class
• others have shifted the place of
conflict to gender, race or other
factors
Feminist Sociology
• This school of thought focuses on
gender inequality in power, economics,
even their own bodies
• they examine symbols, values and
norms of their society
• Dorothy Smith:
women are “alienated
from their experiences”
• global feminism
1890's caricature of gender role reversals (satire of the "New Woman"), with a smoking woman aggressively pursuing a coy man.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kvinde-emancipation.gif
Symbolic
Interactionism
• focus is on the micro (individual) level
• theory is individual is at the centre of
society and social values and roles are
formed by individual interpretation
• we need to see ourselves in social roles
and see ourselves reflected in the
experiences of those around us
• behaviour is rooted in how others
respond to us
• we can adjust our personality to
different situations
• How would a symbolic interactionist
interpret the experiences of immigrants
adjusting to life within a new society?
• How would you adjust to a new
job/school/ university or college?
Max Weber
• rationalization:
social actions motivated
by efficiency or benefit, not custom or
emotion
• liberation through bureaucracy (large
administration or agency that pursues a
wide variety of goals)
• bureaucracy can de-humanize (make
us cogs) or it can elevate (social
services)
Chicago School
• focus:
how physical environment and
social structures determine individual
behaviour
• how does community shape behaviour
• The sociologists would immerse
themselves in urban environments and
conduct ethographies and participant
observation: study social trends in their
setting
Charles Cooley, George
Herbert
Mead
and
the
• society and individual are
Looking-Glass Self
interconnected
• individuals shape society as society
shapes individual through the primary
group
• a primary group is a set of people with
whom an individual has strong
emotional and personal connections
• we influence through these
relationships
The Looking-Glass
Self
• The primary group is essential to
developing social identity - we become
a reflection and a representative for the
primary group.
• OUR SENSE OF SELF IS MIRRORED
AND REFLECTED BY OTHERS.
• like our avatars
•
There are three main
components of the lookingglass self (Yeung, et al. 2003).
1.We imagine how we must appear to
others.
2.We imagine the judgment of that
appearance.
3.We develop our self through the
judgments of others.
George Herbert
• looked at theMead
way that language,
symbols, and communication influence
relationships
• Mead suggests we take on a variety of
roles depending on the social situation
(masks)
• these theories provide a basis for
analysis of individual socialization (the
process where an individual learns
appropriate behavioural patterns, skills,
values)
C. Wright Mills and
Sociological
• sociological
imagination is the ability to
Imagination
connect experience to social reality,
where we need to understand the
society and structures as well as
historical forces that create the sense of
imagination
• society is a living organism capable of
change where problems can be
eradicated in time
Conclusion
• schools of thought provide different lens
or philosophies through which to view
how we are socialized in society, from
the macro or whole society level, to the
micro or individual level