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Sociology
STRUCTURAL THEORIES – CONSENSUS THEORY
Sociological Perspectives
Sociology tells us:
There is no such thing as ‘human nature’.
We learn to become members of a particular society.
The most important forces involved in this learning process are social
– not biological or instinctual.
Sociological Perspectives
Sociology arose as a discipline and its development has not been
uniform, e.g. starting in France and Germany in the eighteenth and
nineteenth century, developing in America in the twentieth century
and only becoming established as an academic discipline in British
Universities in the 1960s.
Sociological Perspectives
Similarly, there is no single sociological perspective but rather a
variety of perspectives which share the emphasis of seeing social
behaviour as the product of social forces, social arrangements and
social conditions.
However, sociologists themselves disagree in how they explain
society and social behaviour because they start with different ideas.
Structural theories – society as constraint
Structural sociology argues that:
We are born into a social world which is just as real in its consequences as the
physical world
What we are as individuals is decided by the society and social groups we belong
to
Because:
The social world directs our actions constraining us to act in specific ways
As a result of this:
Regularities and patterns can be observed in the behaviour of different
individuals
What sort of things constrain our actions?
On my salary I can’t afford an Aston Martin
DB9 - Material Constraint
If I could afford one, in the UK I would have to
drive on the left side of the road.
Why? – it is the legal rule in the UK
What if I decide to break the rule? – I can be
prosecuted.
The rule constrains my actions very effectively.
A constraint of the world of ideas.
What sort of things constrain our actions?
If I could afford to buy a dozen Aston Martin
DB9s I still might not do so.
Why?
I might believe it is wrong to buy a British
sports car.
I would be constrained by my beliefs about
what is right and what is wrong.
Where would these beliefs have come from?
I would have learnt them within the society
and/or particular social group to which I
belong.
Consensus Theory
The ways in which ideas and beliefs in societies / social groups
constrain the behaviour of members is the main focus of consensus
theory.
Culture and socialisation are the key concepts in consensus theory.
Culture
Learned behaviour in any given society will include the ideas and
habits passed down from one generation to the next.
This learned behaviour of a society, or ‘social inheritance’, as Bilton
et al (1989) describe it, is called culture.
Socialisation
The way in which we learn what is considered acceptable in our
society - that is, the process by which we acquire the culture of the
society into which we were born is called socialisation.
Once individuals through socialisation have accepted the rules and
expectations that make up the culture of their society they are said
to have internalised society’s cultural rules.
Agencies of socialisation
Sociologists argue that although we are all constantly learning about ways of thinking and
behaving that are thought to be appropriate (or not) by those we come into contact with, it is
possible to identify specific agencies of socialisation.
The family
Peer groups
Education system
Mass media