Structural Theory essay plans Flashcards
(4 cards)
Usefulness in understanding Marxism.
P1.
AO1: Marx – infrastructure dictates
superstructure (everything built on the base) and they spread R/C
ideology. Marx argues that the superstructure exists to justify and perpetuate the system of (Base) production that forms the base.
A02: 2008 global recession led to austerity
policies (institutions lost funding and
suffered)
Austerity Policies(2008) as a Response by the Ruling Class - These policies generally involve cutting public spending, increasing taxes, and reducing government debt to stabilize the economy.
A03 Analysis: This leads to polarisation and significant divide between the classes.
A03: Evaluation - Marx is economically deterministic and – assumes
the economy is the driving force in
society.
P2.
A01:Althusser – 3 levels. Economy,
Ideological and Political. ISA RSA. Spreads ruling class ideology to proletariat.
A02: 2011 London Riots, RSA engaged to take caution to maintain capitalism. RSA acts as a barrier to capitalism.
A03: analysis: Maintains this false class consciousness and shelters capitalism
A03: Evaluation - Postmodernists would argue that this argument is deterministic as society as agency and free will to know that they are not controlled and that are active and not put in a false class consciousness.
P3.
A01: Gramsci – ruling class hegemony is
spread in society
A02: Institutions do this. But we have dual
consciousness – e.g. Willis study
A03: Analysis - Willis Lads saw through the illusion and proves that - rejected a label
A03: Evaluation: Gramsci over-emphasizes the role of
ideas, and under-emphasizes the role
of material factors like economic
crisis and collapse, fear of poverty
and unemployment in influencing
people’s behaviour
Usefulness in understanding Functionalism.
P1.
A01: Parson’s Primary and Secondary socialisation and integration into society.
A02: Hidden Curriculum - Bowles and Gintes - teaching norms and values via secondary socialisation.
A03: Submission to authority, it doesn’t integrate us into society fairly, it integrates us into capitalism and to be workers in low-paid jobs and to consume ruling class ideology.
P2:
A01: Organic Analogy - institutions work like a body. (One cannot function with the other). + GAIL model - How the institutions adapt and innovate to a problem.
A02: Covid and the links to the institutions of healthcare and education was effected. Adaptation of home learning and face masks was implemented.
Lead to the stabilisation of the institutions.
A03: Althusser would argue that the ISA (Institutions do not help keep society stable but instead works as a unit of capitalism to put society in a false class consciousness.
P3:
A01: Social behaviour is influenced by social facts through the role of social institutions such as the family, Social behaviour impacting peoples behaviour.
Done via quantitative data.
A02: Durkheim’s suicide study - How integrated one was in society meant lower chance of committing suicide.
A03 Analysis : Positivist would like his approach in using official statistics as it allows trends and patterns to identify cause and effects.
A03 Evaluation: Interpretivists would argue that suicide is personal and needs qualitative methods in order to gain more of a validity.
Evaluate the view that structural approaches are more useful than social action approaches to our understanding of social behaviour.
P1.
Functionalism - Parsons/Durkheim
A01: Organic Analogy - institutions work like a body. (One cannot function with the other). + GAIL model - How the institutions adapt and innovate to a problem.
A02: COVID-19 and the links to the institutions of healthcare and education was effected. Adaptation of home learning and face masks was implemented.
A03:Lead to the stabilisation of the institutions and social order to maintain social cohesion and maintain the interconnectedness of society to keep it running.
A03, Evaluation:
P2.
A01:Marxism: Althusser – 3 levels. Economy,
Ideological and Political. ISA RSA. Spreads ruling class ideology to proletariat, controlling social behaviour.
A02: 2011 London Riots, RSA engaged to take caution to maintain capitalism. RSA acts as a barrier to capitalism, maintaining social behaviour.
A03: analysis: Maintains this false class consciousness and shelters capitalism, social behaviour is capitalised to maintain social order by the bourgeoise and how easily influenced and brainwashed society is.
A03, Evaluation:
P3.
A01: Symbolic interactionism. Goffman - (Dramaturgical model), life is a stage and we use crops to act out scripts. - Autonomy does this, allows us to manipulate audiences of others to carry out the staged approach and this is done via gestures, languages and clothes which reflects how we want to present meanings.
A02: Paul Willis: “the lads” chose to rebel, put on a show through gestures to show their manipulated approach to look tough and masculine - superior to reject label.
A03: Shows how autonomy is reflected and how it leads to reflexivity in our actions.
A03 Evaluation: Feminism, Radical feminist would dislike as autonomy and scripts allow men to take advantage of women. e.g expressive roles.
Usefulness in understanding social action theories.
P1:
A01: Symbolic interactionism. Goffman - (Dramaturgical model), life is a stage and we use crops to act out scripts. - Autonomy does this, allows us to manipulate audiences of others to carry out the staged approach and this is done via gestures, languages and clothes which reflects how we want to present meanings.
A02: Paul Willis: “the lads” chose to rebel, put on a show through gestures to show their manipulated approach to look tough and masculine - superior to reject label.
A03: Shows how autonomy is reflected and how it leads to reflexivity in our actions.
P2:
A01: Mead suggests that people actively interpret the world through their interactions with others. Rather than being controlled by society, individuals
attach meanings to symbols and make sense of social behaviour through interpretation. To understand society, Mead argues, we must focus on symbols, the self, social roles, and interactions.
A02: For example, children develop their sense of self through role-playing. When
they pretend to be a parent, teacher, or doctor, they are learning to take the role of the other, understanding how different people in society behave and what is expected of them. Initially, they imitate significant others (such as parents), but as they grow, they adopt
the perspectives of the generalized other, learning broader social expectations.
A03 Analysis: This highlights how individuals have free will in interpreting and responding to social roles, rather than simply following fixed social structures.
A03: Evaluation: functionalists argue that
Mead’s theory overemphasises individual interpretation and ignores the importance of shared norms and values in maintaining social order. Durkheim, or example, believed that society functions because individuals follow collective norms, not just their own subjective meanings. Without these structured rules, social interactions could become chaotic, undermining stability.
P3:
