all-1716139383 Flashcards

Question

outline factors affecting the success of sociological research influencing social policy

Answer 1

1.Electoral popularity-research might point to policies that are unpopular with voters. 2. Ideological & policy preferences of governments-researchers have more chance of influencing policy if their perspective aligns with the political ideology of the government. 3. Globalisation-international organisations can like the EU can influence individual government's social policies, which may go against what sociological research says. 4. Critical sociology- sociologists like Marxists are critical of states/powerful groups can be regarded as too extreme/hostile, and therefore less likely to influence social policy. 5. Cost- governments may not have the funding to implement certain policies even if they agree with the sociologist's research, or may need to prioritise other things. 6. Funding sources-sociologists may have to tone down findings/policy recommendations to fit with their paymaster's wishes, or policymakers will recruit sociologists who share the same political values, because then the research will generally justify what the policymakers intend to do.

Answer 2

-essentially opposes marxs view that WCR as it states that there has been gfragmantation into multiple different social movements -pro - relates socail changes to capitalism so builds upon postmodernity theories

Answer 3

harvey- argues postmodernism (time that constantly devleops new tech / ways of gaining profit) rose from the capitalist crisis of the 1970s flexible accumulation -crisis gave way to new way of achieving profit (post-fordism + flexible accumulation) -these changes brought about the cultural characteristics of post-modernism - diversity, choice and instability -part of fordism is expectation for workers to be flexible -fordism allows production of goods for niche markets -proudction in niche markets promotes cultural diversity] -leisure / culture and identitites have be turnt into commodities (music / movies)and sold for profit -jameson - argues postmodernity represents a more developed form of capitalism that commodifies all aspects of life politics and progress -jameson + harvey - argue that flexible accumulatoin has brough postmodern political changes (e.g. less power to socialist movement and put power in other movements based on gender/race however they believe eventually they will create a 'rainbow alliance' to bring about social change) -therfore marxists agree w postmodernists that we have entered modernity but they differ in 2 ways 1. argue goal of enlightenment project can still happen 2. use marxism as explanation for these chanegs

Answer 4

* Rustin (1994)- criticises Beck, arguing that it's capitalism and its pursuit of profit at all costs that is the source of risk, not technology. * Hirst (1993)-rejects Beck's idea that environmentalism will bring about change because it's too fragmented to challenge capitalism.

Answer 5

giddens - reflexivity argues we now in late stage modernity where rapid change is occouring due to 2 features of modernity: 1) disembedding -no longer need face-to-face contact in order to interact- disembedding breaks down geographical barriers and makes interaction more impersonal. 2)reflexivity - giddens argues that traditions / customs are less important in late modern society - we are forced to reflect on our actions and evaluate them because of this as nothing is fixed beck - risk society -claims late modern socity is risk society that faces many dangers -past = dangers are from inability to control nature e.g. drought famine and disease -present = dangers are manufactered risks from our own acticities e.g. global warming -back believes in individualism (where tradition no longer governs our acts) - beacuse of the lack of tradition we must constantly reflect on possible risks of our actions (reflective modernisation) -Therefore, 'risk consciousness' becomes central to society's culture- we are more aware of risks and try to minimise them. giddens - we face high consequence risks (military risk of nuclear war economic risk of a crash and enviormentak risk of global warmimng) that are human made yet rejects postmodernist view that we cant intervene as we can reduce the consequences / risk

Answer 6

-postmodernity is unstable, fragmented media saturated global villages -postmodernists argue that within society there are no sure foundations to knowledge (similar to foucault theory of discourse) therefore there is no objective criteria from which we can prove if a theory is true - this is known as anti-foundationalism and has 2 consequences 1 - enlightenment project of achieving progress via true scientific knowledge is dead , if we cannot prove knowledge to be correct we cannot use it to improve society 2 - any theory that claims to have the truth on how to create better society such as marxism is cap and is just a 'big story' ('meta-narrative') -lyotard 1992 - postmodern society with its many competing views of the world is preferable to modern society where meta-narratives claimed a monopoly which they could use to impose force e.e.g meta-narrative of marxism leading to soviet union Baudrillard 1983 - simulacra -argues people struggle to distinguish between image and reality -argues knowledge is central to postmodern society arguing society is no longer based on production of goods but rather buying and selling of knowledge in form of images and signs (unlike signs of past society those today are meaningless) -signs that stand for themselves are known as simulacra e.g. tabloids discussing soap opera characters are 'signs about signs' -he is critical of tv which he sees as main source of simulacra and source of our inability to distinguish between image and reality culture / identity / politics changes * The media produces an endless stream of ever changing images, values and versions of the truth- which makes culture fragmented - there is no longer a coherent/fixed set of values shared by society's members. * Instead of having a fixed identity ascribed by our class, we're now able to make our own

Answer 7

1 technological change * Satellite communications, internet and global tv have helped to create time-space compression, closing the distance between people * Tech also brings risk - greenhouse gases * ulrich beck(1992) argues that we are now living in 'risk society' where increasingly the threat to our well-being come from human made tech rather than natural disatster 2 economic changes -global economy is increasingly becoming an electronic economy - shift away from producing physical goods to production of information (tv / music) these commodieitis are consumed on global electronic networks -sklair (2003) - separate global capitalist class exist -most TNCs are western based, top 500 companies account for half of commodities produced in the world leads to alot of power being concentrated to a small number of people 3 political changes -Ohmae (1994) - undermined nation state (which is key characteristic of modern society) we now live in borderless world where TNCS have more economic power than government (this lack of power from gov is known as disorganised capitalism according to lash and urry) 4 changes in culture and identity -globalisation makes it harder for cultures to exist in isolation from one another -today we live in global culture where western owned media companies spread western culture to the rest of the world -TNCS like nike sell same products worldwide -Undermines traditional sources of identity such as class (e.g. shift of manufacturing from west to east fragments the western working class)

Answer 8

4 key characteristics of modern society 1. Nation-state - bounded territory ruled by a powerful centralised state 2. Capitalism 3. Rationality, science and technology - rational ways of thinking, decline of magico-religous explanations (explaining rain by being like god vex or sum) 4. individualism -ability to choose own course in life

Answer 9

Fordism - the system of mass production that was pioneered in the early 20th century by the Ford Motor Company - division of labour

Answer 10

Enlightenment project - the idea that society can progress through the use of human reasoning

Answer 11

archer (1995)- claims he underestimates structures capacity to resist change e.g. workers dont abolish capitalism

Answer 12

structuration - relationship between what he argues to be the duality of structure (structure and action) e.g. if we want to be understood (action = communication) when we talk we have to obey the rules of language (structure) reproduction of structure via agency (action) structures are made of 2 things: rules - norms / customs resources - money / power -actions have the ability to change structres (obey law = follow structure make new tech which cayses change in law = new structure) yet people generally end out reproducing the structure for 2 reasons: 1)we reproduce exisiting structure through our routines in life e.g. using money when we shop 2)we have a need for ontological security (when the world is as it seems to be and is orderly) changes to structure through agency (action) change occours in 2 ways: 1) we relect and monitor our past actions to see results they had which could give us enough information to choose a new course of action 2)Our actions can change the world in ways we didn't intend, such as Calvinists adopting the Protestant work ethic intending to glorify god, but actually created modern capitalism.

Answer 13

overview - grafinkel (1967) - take opposites view to functionalists arguing society is made bottum up not top-down -social order and meanings isnt achieved bcs we are puppers to social system rather these are things accomplished by members of society using their common-sense -Ethnomethodology is therefore different to interactionism because it does not focus on the effect of meanings, but instead how meanings were created in the first place. indexicality & reflexivity : -they see meaning as always potentially being unclear -indexicality means nothing has a fixed meaning it j depends on context -indexicality is a threat to social order as meanings being unclear can make co-operation and communication difficult - making social relationships to break down -in reality we act as though everything has clear fixed meaning - we are enabled to do this through reflexivity (the use of common-sense in everyday interactions to construct a meaning and orevent indexicality) eval - Marxists argue that commonsense knowledge is just ruling class ideology, with the order it creates serving capitalism.

Answer 14

husserl -argues the world can only make sense beacuse we impose meaning by constructing mental categories that file info coming from senses -we can only get knowledge about the world through our mental act of categorising and then attaching a meaning based on expirences schutz phenomenological sociology -applied the above ideas to general world - arguing categories we use arent unique to ourself but shared w members of a society -schutz calls categories typifications -he argues meaning of any given expirience varies as a result of the social context in which it occours -the meaning therfore isnt from action itself rather context the phenomenological view argues that society has a shared life world/stock of commonsense/ knowledge/ typifications that allow society to be orderly. e.g. rasing hand in class vs auction hosue

Answer 15

some argues its aloose collection of arguments rathger than atheory Focuses on face-to-face interactions, ignoring wider social structures like class inequality goffman ignores that interactions are often improvised/unrehearsed, especially Weber's affectual actions.

Answer 16

contains 3 key concepts definition of situatiuon thomas (1966) - when we label sumtn as real we give it real consequences e.g.is teacher labels pupil as trouble-maker they will punish them more harshly the looking glass self cooley (1992) - argues we see ourselves as others see us which can lead to self-fuffiling prophecy career: EG: for mental illness, the individual has a career running from pre-patient, labelling by psychiatrist, to discharge. Each stage has its own stats and problems, but 'mental patient' may become their master status in the eyes of society.

Answer 17

labelling theory - shows how the self is shaped through interaction making individuals passive victims of labels applied to them goffman, however states we activley construct our 'self' by manipulating others perception of us impression management: -we present certain image of ourself to control the impression they get -we are social actors using body language / tone e.t.c as impression managment techniques

Answer 18

built upon meads work theorised 3 tenets to explain how society can change 1)We act based on the meaning we have given something - symbolism causes our behaviour 2)we give meaning to things based on social interactions so diff people have diff meanings for things 3)meaning we give something is not permanent blumer argument is that although our actions are partially predictable (beacuse we internalise expectations of other) it is not completely fixed an element of choice exists

Answer 19

-behaviour isnt result of pre-determined instincts -we respond to workd by giving meaning to things significant to us (this is achived by attaching symbols to things) -we respond to stimulus in an interprative way not instincutal -peoples ability to put themselves in others shoes devlops over time through soical interaction -mead argues this ability is needed in order to function as members of soicety

Answer 20

Individualistic - ignores group behaviours (schutz 1972) Categorisation is ambiguous - actions dont always have a concrete singular obvious box an anction can fall into We cant understand someone elses motives without being them

Answer 21

Calvenism (sect of christianity) encouraged diff attitude to work, they believed in predestination (people are alr assigned place in heaven) - one indication they were on guest list is if they worked hard and contributed to society -Important to growth of capitalism in north of europe and reinforced capitalism Capitalism is a product of structure and action

Answer 22

overview - 2 levels are needed to fully understand human behaviour 1) level of cause - structural factors that shape behaviour 2) level of meaning -meanings individuals attatch to their actions types of actions people can attach infinite subjective meanings to their actions - weber classifies them into 4 categories: 1. Instrumental rational action - the actor calculates the mist efficient means of achieving a goal 2. Value-rational action - the actor does it because it is desirable for its own sake e.g. praying to god 3. Traditional action - a customary routine action e.g. brushing teeth in morning 4. Affectual action - expression of emotion

Answer 23

walby (1992) -agrees there is differnce amoung women yet states all woman expirice patriarchy universally

Answer 24

walby (1992) -agrees there is differnce amoung women yet states all woman expirice patriarchy universally outlining womans differences has the risk of dividing feminist into infinate sub-groups - this would lower feminists ability to make change in society as they are less centralised segal (1999) - downplays power of social structures and up-plays importance of discourses - oppresion is resulting from inequality in these social structures

Answer 25

-concerned with discources and power/ knowledge -Discourses enable its users to define others in a certain way, which puts power over them. • EG: by defining childbirth as a medical condition and women as patients, medical discourse empowers doctors and disempowers women. enlightenment project : postculturalists see this as a discourse -Butler criticises the project because its ideas as they're a form of knowledge/power that now legitimised White, Western, MC in dominating feminism -rejects essentialism beacuse there is no fixed essecnce of woman hood as the identity of woman-hood changes cross culture, cross-temporally and through different discourses

Answer 26

overview: -dont see woman as homogenous group -race / class interacts w gender to create unique levels of opression -false universality - other feminist claim to be for all women but only benfit white middle class women e.g.regarding family as oppresive ignores the fact that bleck feminist see family as shield from racism problem with essentialism -this is the ides that woman are all essentially the same- this fails to reflect all womans problems e.g. Western feminists pre-occupation with sexuality is irrelevant to women in poor countries where the pressing problems are water and health care.

Answer 27

-fails to explain sub-ordination in non-capitalist societies -Though unpaid domestic labour may benefit capitalism, that doesn't explain why women perform it and not men. Hartmann (1981) argues this is because Marxism is 'sex blind'. downplays the extent to which men opress woman for their own gain

Answer 28

women subordination is rooted in capitalism (due to unpaid domestic work that makes them economically dependant) though individual men often benfiit from this subordination the main benificiary is capitalism barett (1984) the ideology of familism: economic factors are cause of the oppresion yet no-economic factors are needed to fix it -we should give more emphasis to role of ideology in opressing women -ideology of familism prsents family and sexual division of labour as normal and natural and only way woman can feel fuffiled is via motherhood -this ideology keeps woman oppressed and influences them to join nuclear families how women serve capitalism women are cheap exploitable labour - employers pay them less as they are dependant on husband woman reproduce the labour force -via unpaid domestic labour (socialising the next gen of workers) dual-system feminism -combines features of radical feminism and marxist feminim into one theory -Hartmann (1979)- a dual feminist sees capitalism and patriarchy as 1 intertwines system- patriarchal capitalism.

Answer 29

marxists would say main form of oppression is capitalism not men deterministic - ignores how race and class interact pollert (1996) - explanation is circular because iyt explains male-violence by the concept of patriarchy but this concept is also said to be held uo by male-violence sepretism is too utopia-like to occour irl - somerville (2000) says heterosexual attraction means nuclear households will be here to stay ignore positive changes for woman e.g. voting and equal pay

Answer 30

overview patriarchy is universal - exists in all societies firestone argues that the cause of this is womans biological capacity to have and care for children which makes them dependant on men men are womens enemy all men oppress women - benfit from womans unpaid labour change sepretism - men opress woman in relationships so greer (2000) wants all woman househodls to be alternative conciousness raising - women need to come together in groups to share expirinces which leads to collective action political lesbianism -heterosexual relationshipsa re inevitabily oppresive the personal is political -rad fems believe that patricrchal oppression is direct and personal -opression occours in public sphere(work) and private (relationships) -personal relationships are political as men dominate women through them - sexual politics -men use fear of rape and threat of violence to control women -sexuality - mainstream society sees this as a natural biological urge rich(1981) argues men continue to force womans 'compulsary hetersexuality' which is unsatisfying and narrow

Answer 31

critisised (by marxist and radical feminist) for rose-tinted march of progess viewwhich ignores deep rooted ways in which women are oppresed such as capitalism or patricrchy which require more than attitude and law changes to overcome

Answer 32

overview gender equality can be reached via gradual reforms in society: laws & policies - e.g. equal pay act cultural changes - stereotypes and prejudice are barriers to equality oakley (1972) -distinguishes between sex and gender -gender differences vary across-culture so role

Answer 33

-claims to critisise economic determinsm but rather he simply replaces it w strcutural detrminism gouldner (humanist) - claism this approach discourages political actvism by telling individuals in society that due to structural factors there is nothing they can do ignores active struggles of w/c and what they can do to change society

Answer 34

althusser came up w theories on ISA and RSA criticisms of the base super-structure model -in marx base-superstructure model, societies economic base determines its superstructure of institutions, ideologies -contradictions in base cause changes to super-structure which eventually will bring downfall of capitalism althusser rejects this model in favour of structural determinism, where capitalist society has 3 structures: * 1)economic level - comprised of all activities involved in production * 2)political level - comprising all forms of organisation * 3)ideological level - involving ways people see themselves and their world according to base-superstructure the economic level is responsible for determinig everything about the other levels - in althusser model the political and ideological levels have relative autonomy criticism of humanism -structuralist marxist belive that our senses of choice / free will are an illusion and everything about is is born from underlying social structures -althusser criticises huamnists who belive that people can use their creativity and free will to change society -althusser - states free will is false conciousness created by ISA

Answer 35

eval - over emphasised the role of idea and under-emphasisng the role of state coercion and economic factors e.g. workers may sse through ideas and want to overthrow capitalism but dont due to fears of force, reccesion or unemployment

Answer 36

hegemony is the ideologcal leadership of society - which is how r/c maintain power gramsci argues proletariat need counter-hegemony to win leadership of society how the ruling class maintains dominance over society : coercion - use of army police e.t.c to force acceptence consent (hegemony) - use of ideas / values to pursuade subordinate classes hegemony & revolution -r/c relies alot on consent to maintain their rule -gramsci + marx agree noting existence of schools / religion role in making w/c accept -they're a minority - to rule they must ally w other groups like m/c so they make ideological compramises to account for the new groups interest -proletariat have dual conciousness - the w/c manage to see through capitalist ideology due to exploitation they faced

Answer 37

marx view of class- view of inequality is too one-dimensional seeing class as the only improtant division - webber argues that differences in power can cause inequality too e.g.powerful elites in soviet union make inequality worse despite not owning the means of production -feminist argue that gender is a more fundemental source of inequality view of 2 class model is too simplistic -Weber instead divides the proletariat into skilled and unskilled and capitalists into white-collar office workers and petty bourgeoisie. economic determinism -seeing economic factors as the sole cause of everything -fails to recognise that humans have free will and change their concious actions the 2 marxism gouldner (1975) - establishes 2 types of marxism after some marxists rejected the base-superstructure model and its economic determinsim 1- humanistic marxism - similar to interpretevists sociology 2 - sytuctural marxism - similarities w positivist approach

Answer 38

historical materialism - -materialism is the view that humans are beings w material needs like food or water and use means of production to achive them -social relation of production - the way people come together to achive these needs -overtime growth of means of production causes social relation of production to change (division of labour which leads to division of class) class society and exploitation marx identified 3 succesive class societies that have emerged as forces of production have grown 1) ancient society - based on exploitation of slaves legally tied to owner 2) feudal society - based on exploitation of serfs leggaly tied to land 3) capitalist society - based on exploitation of labourers capitalism - creates unequal exchange where woekrs are given enough to survive despite making the products - overtime the distribution of income would get worse class consciousness capitalism enables its own destruction - this is done by polarising classes , bringing proletariat togteher + bringing down their wages leading to workers developing a class conciousness ideology -those who own means of production own mental means of production (they ahve ability to shap esociety ideology) -ideology creates false-class conciousness maintaining inequality alienation -refers to loss of control over our labour and the products it creates -reaches peak under capitalism -division of labour has reduced people to unskileld labourer the state, revolution and communism -marx defines the states as an armed bodies of men (army, courts) -the ruling class use state wepons to protect their property , supress opposion and prevent uprising -believes one day wc will win a revolution where the state will be abolished

Answer 39

logical criticisms- -criticised for being teleological (they explain existence of the family in terms of something that could only be considered an effect - socialisation) -criticised for being unscientfifc - unable to be falsified as they see devience as both functional + dysfunctional conflict perspective criticisms - -marxist criticise for inability to explain conflict and change -conflict theories see frunctionalism as conservative ideology that legitimises the status quo -focusing on harmony / stability instead of change / conflict as well as assumptions of indiespensibility all help to justify existing social order as inevitable + desirable action perspective criticisms - -wrong (1961) - claims functionalism is deterministic as it sees people as puppets manipulated by social system -functionalism is fundementally mistaken because of this as they beleive - indivduals create society through their actions postmodernist criticisms - -functionalists assume socity is stable therfore they dont acct for instability in society -functionalism is another metanarrative that tries to create a model of the workings of society as a whole which they belive is impossible to do bcs society is so fragmented

Answer 40

overall critisies parsons for asuming that society is always and neccasarily a smooth-running system criticises 3 assumptions of parsons 1) indespensability - assumes everything in society (like family religion) are indespensible (absolutely essential) when in reality alternatives exist e.g. other family types can socialise as well as nuclear 2)functional unity - assumes all parts of society are tightly intergrated and changing one will cause a knock on effect functional unity - when in reality functional autonomy exists as parts of society are often distantly related 3)universal functionalism - parsons assumes that everything in society performs a positive function for society as a whole - when in reality it only benefits certain groups of people Merton theorises manifest and latent functions e.g. in times of drought hopi native americans perform rain dances - the manifest function is aim of getting rain and the latent function is promoting sense of social solidarity this helps us see hidden connections between social phenomena

Answer 41

ORGANIC ANALOGY -parsons argues socierty is alot like human body -institutions in society like education, religion and the family are like organs sutaining the body value consensus and social order -social order is achieved through shared norms and values -gives individuals a framework to co-operate and support society intergration of individuals -value consesnus makes social order possible -done by intergrating people into social system which directs them to meeting systems needs -system makes us need material good which makes us need money which makes us work 2 ways in which indivduals conform: 1) socialisation - taught to do what the system requires of us 2) social control - positive + negitrive sanctions social change -identifies traditional and modern society as having diff norms -modern = universalistic standards + individual goals -traditional = particularistic standards + collective intrest goals 4 basic needs of the system -adaptation - meet members needs via - economic sub-sytem -goal attainment - set goals and reach achived by political sub-system -intergration - diff systems must intergrate together (share same values) - this is achived via education + religion sub-sytem -latency - maintaining society over time

Answer 42

Feminism- sees society as based on gender inequality, promotes women's rights. Functionalism-sees society as harmonious and supports conservative values that favour the status quo. Marxism- sees society as conflict-ridden, stives for a classless society.

Answer 43

Funding & careers: • Most sociological research is funded by someone else, such as government departments, businesses and voluntary organisations. • The funding body often controls the direction the research takes and the kind of questions it asks (and fails to ask). This means the work is likely to embody the values/interests of their paymasters, and can even be blocked from publication if they don't approve of findings. • Sociologists may also choose certain topics or censor themselves because they have their reputation/career in mind. • Gouldnertherefore believes all research in inevitably influenced by values.

Answer 44

WEBBER 1) Values as a guide to research -weber took up idea of phenomenology (social reality is made up of a meaningless infinity of facts that make it impossible to study in a whole) henceforth the best a researcher could do is select certain facts and study them -webber argues we will only select topic which we regard as import in our own values e.g. feminists 2) Data collection and hypothesis testing -weber argues we must be as objective as possible when collecting facts (no leading questions) 3) Values in the interpretation of data -when presenting information researchers need to present facts in a theoretical framework to illustrate the significance of the data -webber argues that our choice of theoretical framework is influenced by our values -because of this researchers must be explicit in their values in order to let others see if unconscious bias is illustrated (peer-review) 4) Values and the sociologist as a citizen -research findings often have very real effects on people's lives, researchers often hide behind the excuse of 'it's my job to do objective work' -weber argues that they must take moral responsibility for the harm their research does (e.g. einstein's theories helped make a-bomb but he then spoke out about nuclear weapons) Weber distinguishes between facts and values, and says we can't derive one from the other. • EG- research may show divorcees as more likely to commit suicide, but this fact doesn't show the truth of the value judgement that we should make getting a divorce harder. This is because we can argue/accept other values, like making marriage harder, or that people have the right to kill themselves. Weber's view therefore shows that no value judgements are 'proven' by an established facts.

Answer 45

Value viewpoints: positivists and modernists - we need to discover truth with objective certainty (value-free) * Gouldner (1975) argues that sociologists were 'spiritless technicians' willing to leave their own values behind in order to please their paymasters. 1) desire to be scientfific - bcs science is concerned w objective facts sociologists should stay morally neutral (eval - critics would see this as desire to make sociology respectable as science has prestige in society) 2) social position of sociology - gouldner (1975) - socioilogists ahev become spiritless technicians -hence sociologists must leave their values behind making a promise not to critisise their paymasters Marxist / interactionist / feminist - illustrate importance of values in reserach (commited sociology) * Mydral - sociiologists should openly take sides by making values and interests of particular group known * gounldner - value-free sociology is impossible because of paymasters values + its undesirable as if value-free research is j sociologists selling themselves to highest bidder

Answer 46

VALUES - intangible qualities or beliefs accepted and endorsed by a given society VALUE FREEDOM - ability of researcher to keep own personal bias out of research they are conducting What forms our values: Gender ethnicity Class Upbringing Experiences

Answer 47

Argue science studies both observable phenomena and underlying unobservable structures, which would technically make Marxism and interpretivism scientific.

Answer 48

paradigm - -paradigm is essentially the norms and values of a scientific group e.g. physicists -framework of assumptions and methods the resesarchers use sciencific revolution -science has undergone a pardimn shift where old central ideas are replaced -pre-science refers to period of time w out a paradigm and normal science is period of time with a paradigm is sociology a science : -sociology is pre-paradigmatic and prescintific -no shared paradigm/ dominant perspective meansd it cant be a science till there is one eval - Postmodernists argue that a paradigm isn't desirable anyway because it's essentially a metanarrative that silences minority views.

Answer 49

-argues inducuctive reasoning and verificationism arent distinctive features of sciene -fallacy of induction - verification ignores that new evidence can come in at any time and prove theory wrong falsification - popper says a good theory is one that is fasifiable in principle but stands up to all attempts to disprove it is sociology a science : no beacuse most theories cant undergo fasification (e.g. we cant disprove marxism) but some theories can which opens debate back up (Ford (1969) hypothesises that comprehensive schooling would cause mixing of social classes, and then tested and falsified this idea though her research.)

Answer 50

believe sociology is not a science - cliams positivists approach are inadeuqte for the study of humans subject matter - subject matter is social action - only way to study sell is interpresting the meanings / motives of actors involved - means it isnt a science as it deals w human meaning, not laws of cause and effect (our actions are based on interpretation of stimuli not automatic reaction to stimuli) verstehen & qualitative research - qualitative is needed as we need to see world from an individuals viewpoint to understand why they interpret stimuli in such a manner -this is why we must put ourself in others shows (verstehen) types of interpretevism - interactionalists - we can have casual explanations instead of the positivist approach of a definite hypothesis phenomenologists & ethnomethologist - reject use of casual explanations for human behaviour + takes anti-structural approach (society doesnt determine our actions) -social reality is shared knowledge of its members (society only exisst in consiousness of people) -of sociology is the interpretative procedures we use to make sense of the world, which can't have the cause-and-effect relationships with external forces that positivists claim. douglas (1967) - rejects view that external social facts determine our behaviour and instead argues that individuals have free will and actions are based on interpretation -rejects durkhiem sscuicide study - beliving sociolohgists have to uncover the meanings of those involved to understand suicide. links to feminism Poststructuralists feminists agree, arguing a dominant, scientific feminism excludes many groups of women, and some argue quantitative methods are oppress and don't actually portray women's experiences.

Answer 51

'sociology' was coined by comte (positivists) who believed we can apply logic and methods of natural sciences to society -positivists argue reality is patterned + we can observe these patterns (e.g. water boils at 100 degree) -inductive reasoning - sociologists should observe, identify and measure patterns in society and then explain them -verficicationism - after theory is developed from observation we can confirm/ verify the thoery which leads to discovery of new 'law' -use objective quantitative research methods - allows production of mathmatically correct statements on relationships between factors they investigate -researchers should be detached and objective - not letting subhjective view influence research Durkheim (1897)studied suicide to show that sociology was a science with its own distinct subject matter. • He believed that if he could prove an act as individual as suicide had social causes, sociology could be established as a scientific discipline. • The study used quantitative data from official stats, where Durkheim found patterns in the suicide rate like higher Protestant rates than Catholics. • He concluded that the levels of integration and regulation were the social facts responsible for this pattern.

Answer 52

TIME * must account for holidays + home time + club timinig + break timing + exam timing e.t.c ACCESS AND GATEKEEPER * possible issues with gaining + maintaining access to building * require DBS check * certain students may be protected from studies as they may have prirority of leaning as they are behind * parents cba to respond to surveys (only mc parents respond + w/c parents dont attend parents evening as much) ETHICS * informed consent for u-16 must come from parents + privacy of identity * Researcher could end out causing psychological harm (imagine study on anti-schl subculre all ppt would be anti-authority and could be trigered by talking on sensitive topics, teachers are trained to de-esculate these situations so the reaseracher should be also) * trained in child protection laws (always keep confidential unless risk of harm to themselevs or other) IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT * parents want to come across as best parent possible VULNERABILITY DETACHMENT AND OBJECTIVITY * people choose to resaerch something they are passionate about + funding bodies have wants of what they want to be studied - these values migh influence resaercher to use sumtn like leading questions AUTHORITY STRUCTURES * teachers behave different in and out of staff rooms - when leadership enter they act up same as when head of year walks in class * teachers may be shook to critisise school too much out of fear of boss finding out PEER GROUP PRESSURES * anti-school subcultres + subject choice involve peer pressure * may only get voice of loudest person in the room PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS CONTEXT AND SETTING * you dont know the dynamics of the school - unaware of how people are reffered to like teachers have teacher code (erd = emma rickford) LANGUAGE * Kids dont talk elaborated code

Answer 53

ethical is most important must Uphold ethical moral highgorund bcs of regardless of benifit of significance of reaserch the most important aspect is saftey due to risk of work not being published lord humpherys tea room trade

Answer 54

sociologists need to submit their research to ethics committees that work on the guidlines of british sociological asosiation

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