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Sociology
NOTES: III, IV, V
Applying the Social
Perspective
THE WAY YOU VIEW REALITY
PART III
Social Marginality
Being excluded
Becoming or living as an “outsider”
Social Crisis
Living through a rough period: Great
Depression
Having to deal with specific situations
affected by your place in society
Benefits
Helps us assess the truth of “common
sense”
Helps us assess both opportunities and
constraints in our lives
Empowers us to be active participants
in our society
Helps us to live in diversity
It plays a role in:
Shaping public policy & law
Personal growth and expanded
awareness
Preparation for the working
world
Origins
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN!
PART IV
th
17
&
th
18
Centuries
Rise of factory based industrial
economy
Emergence of great cities in
Europe
Political changes including
democratic ideas
Rise of factory based industrial
economy
Before the Middle Ages
◦Worked in homes and small scale
manufacturing
New sources of energy led to larger
machines/factories
◦Hydroelectric power
◦Steam power
Changed how communities were
originally established
Now people were anonymous and
worked for strangers instead of in a
close-knit community of families
Emergence of great cities in
Europe
Enclosure movement
More and more land was being
“fenced off”
This enabled easier control over
grazing animals
Sheep were important to the wool
needed in the factories
This led to more tenant farmers searching for
work elsewhere – factories in the cities
Cities grew with this influx of workers and their
families.
Social problems also grew:
◦Pollution
◦Crime
◦Homelessness
The world became very impersonal
Political changes including
democratic ideas
Enlightenment ideals grew
Locke, Hobbes and Smith – brought up new
ideas that differed from the old theological
view of society
Before (Middle Ages) – Everyone played a
part in the “holy plan”
Royalty to serfs – everyone had an
obligation
Enlightenment brought ideas:
Pursuit of self-interest
Individual liberties and
freedoms
Individual rights
Resulting ideas:
“Life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness” – Thomas Jefferson
French Revolution
Alexis de Tocqueville – “nothing
short of the regeneration of the
whole human race”
Leaders of Sociology
August Comte
Karl Marx
Herbert Spencer
Emile Durkheim
Max Weber
August Comte
French philosopher
Founder of sociology
Coined the term “sociology”
Favors positivism – understand
sociology through science
Tried to find solutions to the chaos
caused by the French Revolution
Influenced by the scientific method
Believed that sociologists should
concern themselves with the
problems of order and change
Never completed college
Suffered from depression
Karl Marx
Born in Germany to middle-class parents
Received doctorate from the University of Berlin
Worked as a writer and editor for a racial
newspaper
Believed that overall structure of a society is
influenced by how the economy is organized
Thought that people who own the means of
production control society
Stated that imbalance of power leads to conflict
between owners and laborers
Was deeply troubled by social conditions produced
by capitalist systems
Believe that the task of social scientists was to
transform society
Emphasized that conflict is the primary cause of
social change
Herbert Spencer
English
Worked as a civil engineer for a railway
Received large inheritance in his thirties
Was influenced by views of Charles Darwin
Viewed society as a system of
interdependent parts that work together to
maintain system
Believed that social change and unrest were
natural occurrences in society’s evolution
towards stability and perfection
Asserted that the fittest societies would
survive over time
Believed in “Social Darwinism”
Emile Durkheim
French
Taught philosophy
Taught first social science course in
France
Systematically applied methods of
science to the study of society
Developed the idea of a function –
positive consequence that an element
of society has for the maintenance of a
social system
Study only aspects of society that are
directly observable
First sociologist to test theories through
statistical analysis
Max Weber
German with middle class parents
Received doctorate from University of
Berlin
Founded the German sociological
society in 1910
Was interested in groups within a
society more than in society as a whole
Believed that sociologists should
uncover the feelings and thoughts of
the individuals
Verstehen – sociologist places himself in
the place of others and attempts to see
things through their eyes
Used concept of idea type – essential
characteristic of some aspect of society
Major goal
Goals of sociologists – especially
Comte
Understand society as it operates
Use positivism – the “science behind
it”
Sociology is a product of three main
stages of historical development
3 stages of historical
development
Theological stage (religious)
Metaphysical stage
(transitional)
Scientific stage
Theological Stage
Religious – all people took their
“signals” from “God’s will”.
From beginning of human
history to the Middle Ages
Society expresses God’s will
Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, etc
Metaphysical Stage
This is a transitional stage
Renaissance affected this change –
forced people to look at the world
differently
Saw society as a natural rather than a
supernatural system
Hobbes, Locke, etc
Scientific Stage
Starting with Copernicus, Galileo,
and Newton
Positivism
◦Understanding society based on science
◦Society operates according to its own laws
just like the physical world operates
according to gravity and laws of nature
Sociological Theory
“ITS ALL THEORETICAL!”
PART V
Theory
Statement of how and why
specific facts are related.
Sociological Theory –
explain social behavior in
the real world
Theoretical Paradigms
Sets of assumptions that guide
thinking and research
Two basic questions:
◦What issues should we study?
◦How should we connect the facts?
Theoretical Approach
Think of these as “road maps”
Basic images of society that
guides thinking and research
◦Structural-functional approach
(paradigm)
◦Social-conflict approach (paradigm)
◦Symbolic-interaction approach
(paradigm)
Structural-Functional
paradigm
Framework for building theory that see society as a complex
system whose parts work together to promote solidarity
and stability.
Our lives are guided by social structures (relatively stable
patterns of social behavior)
Each social structure has social functions (consequences) for
the operation of society as a whole.
Shares a macro-level orientation with the social-conflict
paradigm (focus is on broad social structures that shape
society as a whole)
Key figures
Auguste Comte
Emile Durkheim
Herbert Spencer
Talcott Parsons
Three concepts (by Robert Merton):
◦Manifest functions – the recognized and
intended consequences of any social
pattern
◦Latent Functions – Largely unrecognized
and unintended consequences
◦Social dysfuntions – undesirable
consequences of a social pattern for the
operation of society
Critical Evaluation
it focuses on stability – which
ignores the inequalities of social
class, race and gender.
Social – Conflict Paradigm
Framework for building theory that sees society as an arena
of inequality that generates conflict and change.
It helps you understand society but help to reduce social
inequality.
Shares a macro-level orientation with the structuralfunctional paradigm
Example: the rich in relation to the poor (dominant vs
disadvantaged)
◦ People on top trying to protect “what is theirs” while the
people on the bottom are trying to gain “what the believe is
theirs too”.
Gender OR Race-Conflict
Paradigm
A point of view that focuses on
inequality and conflict between:
◦Men and women
◦Racial and ethnic categories
Key Figures
Karl Marx
W.E.B. DuBois
Ida Wells Barnett
Jane Addams
Critical Evaluation
Several Weaknesses:
◦Ignores social unity based on mutual
independence and shared values
◦Because it is explicitly political, it
cannot claim scientific objectivity
◦Looks at society with broad
abstractions
Symbolic-Interaction Paradigm
Framework for building theory that
sees society as the product of the
everyday interactions of individuals.
Micro-level orientation – focuses on
patterns of social interaction in
specific settings
Key Figures
Max Weber
George Herbert Mead
Erving Goffman
George Homans
Peter Blau
Critical Evaluation
Attempts to explain more clearly how
individuals actually experience society
Two weaknesses:
◦ By focusing on a patterns, one loses sight of the
influence by the larger social structures
◦ By emphasizing the unique, it risks overlooking
the effects of culture, class, gender, and race.