Sociological Perspectives Flashcards
(18 cards)
What is Sociology?
->A discipline that’s divided into two parts (Soci= society Ology = scientific study)
->Sociology is the scientific study of human society and social interaction.
->Study people and institutions that make up society
->helps us go deeper into societal structure
->Sociology as an imaginative, critical form of inquiry .
—>It inquires into troubles, issues and problems we encounter in life and analyzes how the roots of troubles and issues are connected to the structural arrangements and social institutions which make up our society and the changes they are undergoing.
What does sociology do?
→Help us decide what kind of society we want to live in (in future)
→Help us determine what kind of society we live in (nature of society) - is it equal, class, racist, sexist etc.
→Observe people
→Religion, ethnicity, race, gender impacts individuals behavior
→Do their experiments in society
Describe the origin of sociology
→Related/result of drastic social changes: Industrialization brought changes in rural life, it weakened traditions that guided community life.
- Development of a new industrial economy:
- Growth of cities and urbanization: Urban people started to experience an impersonal social world.
- Political change: Emergence of a new sprit of individualism.
- A new awareness of society in Europe
Where was sociology developed?
England, France and Germany where social changes were greatest.
Who’s Auguste Comte?
→Coined the term sociology; the founder of sociology.
→Believed that the social world can be understood through scientific inquiry, known as positivism.
—>Understanding society based on science instead of religion
—>Replaced the understanding of world view (no longer just religious beliefs)
—>Looking at cause and effect
→Society operates according to its own laws, same as the physical world operates according to gravity and other laws of nature.
What is social imagination? Who invented it?
->Charles Wright Mills (in his book ‘the promise’)
is the ability to understand the connection between individual lives and larger society, interplay of biography and history, or, of self and world.
→Once we make the connections we can see the relation between personal trouble and public issues.
→1 person = personal problem , 1,000,000 = public issue
EX. Unemployment - big issue in society, after grad if individual doesn’t get job they think it’s because of this, this, and this, it’s my fault = depression, anxiety etc., rate of jobs and number of graduates are not equal, manufacturing jobs getting relocated, Walmart only hires 4 cashiers instead of 20 as self checkout machines
How’s Harriet Martineau?
->British
->Popularized Auguste Comte, by translating his works in English
->Studied social customs of Britain and the US.
->Analyzed large-scale social structures and the social factors that influenced on marginal people in society (women, children, mentally ill, disabled, poor)
Who’s Emile Durkheim?
->French
->Argued that individuals are the products of their social environment.
->Theory of suicide: Suicide rates are related to the level of social solidarity.
->Social solidarity refers frequency of interaction and level of shared beliefs within a social group.
According to Durkheim why people commit to suicide in society? Can we still use Durkheim’s insights to understand suicide rates in contemporary society of Canada?
→People who are less socially integrated are more likely to commit suicide.
—>The more socially integrated a person is—that is, the more he or she is connected to society, possessing a feeling of general belonging and a sense that life makes sense within the social context—the less likely he or she is to commit suicide.
->While lack of integration in society can lead to suicide, excessively integrated societies can also have high rate of suicide (for example, 39 members of Heaven’s Gate cult had died from suicide in California 1997)
→Levels of regulation are also associated with suicide. When rules and regulation of society are weak individual feels anomic (a feeling of normlessness, less connection to society) that might lead them to anomic suicide.
→Lack of regulation can occur when society goes through a rapid social change.
→Excessive regulation in society can also lead people to commit suicide.
Who is Karl Marx?
-> German
->→ How does society change?
→The economy is the key to social change.
→Class conflict - a struggle between the capitalist class and working class
→Means of production (tools/method used for economic production/service) is the basis of understanding social class in society.
Who’s Max Weber?
->German
->One of the founders of modern sociology.
->The economic system is not only shaped by the economy/capital but also other factors, such as ideas, religious values.
->Protestant work ethic spreads capitalism.
What are the different sociological perspectives?
- Structural - Functional Approach
- Social - Conflict Approach
- Symbolic Interactionist approach
- Feminism and Gender-Conflict approach
- Race - Conflict approach
What’s the structural functional approach?
-> Society is a complex system in which it’s all parts work together to promote solidarity and stability.
-> Social structures or recurring behavioral pattern in a group relates, either directly or
indirectly, to fulfilling each other’s needs.
-> This general tendency of the social system to seek equilibrium keeps a society relatively stable, orderly and persistent.
->Functionalism
—> Society is heading towards equilibrium and is made from structures like Institutions (meet needs of society EX. education, business, marriage, law etc.) and Social Facts (ways of thinking and acting formed by society, will be there before and after humanity, can’t be influenced by an individual
EX. the law as it’s always there but we don’t notice it till we break it)
-> Recognized and intended consequences are called Manifest Functions
-> Unrecognized and unintended consequences are called latent functions
->Criticism: Structural functionalism focuses more on stability of society and ignores inequalities of social class, race and gender. It does not focus on explaining why society change.
What’s Social conflict theory
-> Society is viewed as an arena of inequality that creates conflict.
-> Conflict brings change in society.
-> Karl Marx is one of the pioneer of social-conflict approach.
—> He believed society evolved thru stages
1. Feudalism
2. Capitalism
-> Rich upper class = minority of pop. but still had the power
3. Socialism
—>Thesis (accepted state of society) causes formation of a rxn or Antithesis (opposed accepted state). Struggle from both sides leads to synthesis (aka compromise) which will eventually become the new thesis and new struggle will come etc.
-> Study society in way that focuses on inequalities of different groups
-> Doesn’t take into account the stability a society can experience or how a society is held together and really doesn’t like the status quo
What’s the Feminism and Gender-Conflict approach?
-> explores the ways in which society places men in a privileged position with power over women.
-> Focuses on inequality between men and women and questions patriarchic system.
-> Challenges social structures and social interaction processes that maintain male dominance over female;
-> Advocates for an ideal society by eliminating gender inequality;
-> Harriet Martineau, Dorothy Smith are pioneer feminist sociologists.
What’s the Race - Conflict approach ?
-> focuses on the inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories.
-> It questions the ways society provides advantages to White people over the people of color and visible minorities.
-> William Edward Burghardt Du Bois studied racial inequality in US.
What’s the Symbolic Interactionist approach?
-> is a framework of understanding society as a product of everyday interactions of individuals.
-> It focuses on micro-sociology (individual action, plans motivation, specific group) = small scale view
-> Society is nothing more than the shared reality that people construct through daily interaction.
->4. Max Weber, Erving Goffman, George Herbert Mead*.
—>Development of the individual was a social process as are the meanings people assign to things
—> Change is brought on by people’s interactions with objects, events, ideas, other people, etc. and assign meanings to things to determine how to ask (hence the term symbolic interactionism)
—> Proposed 3 tenants to explain SI
1. We act based on the meaning we have given something (action depends on meaning)
EX. On long walk and see a big tree which you associate with shade so maybe you go sit under it
- We give meaning to things base don our social interactions, different meanings for different people
EX. Sitting under that tree and someone says “all trees are infested with ants” but your content sitting there. Then something bites ur back and it was infested with ants so maybe won’t sit under the next one you find
- Meanings can change
EX. Meaning you give to trees has changed after your interaction with the infested tree
-> Sometimes considered supplemental and not full theory as restricted to studying small interactions between people
Summary of Major Theoretical Approaches
→Structural- Functional Approach : macro analysis, society is a system of interrelated parts, and how society functions.
→Social Conflict Approach : macro analysis, what factors create inequality.
→Symbolic- Interactionist Approach : micro analysis, how people experience social world.
→Feminist Approach : macro and micro, what factors raise gender inequality.
