Chapter 1: The Sociological Perspective Flashcards
(30 cards)
Sociology
Systematic study study of human society
Sociology studies….
Social life and our behaviour as social beings
The sociological perspective
Differs from common sense
Sees the general in particular
What is strange in the familiar
How society shapes individuals
Emile Durkheim
Key founder of sociology, studies suicide
Who was more likely to commite suicide
Men! Protestant, rich, and single
Marginalized groups may feel…..
Outsiders to society
Heteronormativity
The assumption that heterosexuality is the default and normal sexual orientation
Global perspective
The study of the larger world and our society’s place in it
Global approach teaches us
What inequality looks like in other parts of the world
Origins of sociology
Traced back to significant changes in society (18th, 19th century) which reordered society
Examples of the origins of sociology
New industrial economy, growth of cities
Theory
A statement of how and why specific facts are related
August Comte
A French social thinker, “sociology”
Creates positivism
Positivism
A way of understanding based on science
Structural function approach
Looks at society as a complex system with working parts to promote solidarity and stability
Like a human body
Social structures give…
Shapes to our lives (family, work, economy, government, religion)
Manifest function
The recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern
Latent function
The unrecognized and unintended consequences of any social pattern
Functions vs dysfunctions
Social dysfunctions are patterns that may disrupt the operation of society
Social conflict approach
Looks a society as an area of inequality that generates conflict and change
Karl Marx and class conflict
Feminism and gender conflict theory
Focused on the inequality between men and women
Questions disciplines of society itself
Dorothy Smith
Class text, The Everyday World aa Problematic: a feminist sociology
Race conflict approach
A point of view that focuses on inequality between people of different race and ethnicity
William Du Bois
Researched experiences of black people and spoke as an activist
