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Assignment: 1SUBMITTED TO: Mrs. Uma Rani
SOCIOLOGY
1.)Define & Explain Scope of sociology?
Introduction:
Sociology is a social science that studies society and the individual
in perspective of Society. The origins of Sociology lie in the 19th
century but during the 1960-70s, it became a major social science
subject, taught in universities and colleges, and schools. The scope
of sociology has only become more scientific with time.
Definition:
"Sociology is the study of human social life, groups and societies. It
is a dazzling and compelling enterprise, having as its subject matter
our own behaviour as social beings. The scope of sociology is
extremely wide, ranging from the analysis of passing encounters
between individuals in the street up to the investigation of world-
wide social processes". Anthony Giddens ("Sociology", 1989)
Sociology is the study of society. It concerns itself with the social
rules and process that
Bind and separate people not only as individuals, but as members of
associations, groups, and Institutions. Sociology is both topically and
methodologically a very broad discipline. Its traditional focuses have
included social stratification, social class, social
mobility, religion, secularisation, law, and deviance. As all spheres of
human activity are sculpted by social structure and individual
agency, sociology has gradually expanded its focus to further
subjects, such as health, military and penal institutions, the Internet,
and even the role of social activity in the development of scientific
knowledge.
The term was coined by Auguste
Comte in 1838 from Latin socius (companion, associate) and
Greek logia (study of, speech). Comte hoped to unify all studies of
humankind including history, psychology and economics. His own
sociological scheme was typical of the 19th century; he believed all
human life had passed through the same distinct historical stages
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SOCIOLOGY
and that, if one could grasp this progress, one could prescribe the
remedies for social ills.
Scope of sociology:
There are two schools of thought with different viewpoints regarding
scope and subject matter of sociology- formal school and synthetic
school. According to formal school sociology was conceived to be a
social science with a specifically defined field. This school had
George Simmel, Ferdinand Tonnies, Alfred Vierkandt and Leopord
Von Wiese as its main advocates. On the other hand the synthetic
school with Durkheim, Hobhouse and Sorokin advocated a synthesis
in form of coordination among all social sciences.
Formal school of sociology:
Formal school argued in favor of giving sociology a definite subject
matter to make it a distinct discipline. It emphasized upon the study
of forms of social relationships and regarded sociology as
independent. According to Simmel sociology is a specific social
science which describes, classifies, analyses and delineates the
forms of social relationships or in other words social interactions
should be classified into various forms or types and analysed.
Simmel argued that social interactions have various forms. He
carried out studies of such formal relationships as cooperation,
competition, sub and super ordinate relationships and so forth. He
said however diverse the interests are that give rise to these
sociations; the forms in which the interests are realized may yet be
identical. He emphasized on the process of abstraction of these
forms from human relationship which are common to diverse
situations. Vierkandt maintained that sociology should be concerned
with ultimate forms of mental or psychic relationship which knit the
people together in a society. According to Von Wiese there are two
kinds of fundamental social processes in human society. Firstly the
associative process concerning contact, approach, adaptation etc
and secondly disassociate processes like competition and conflict.
Apart from these two processes a mixed form of the associative and
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SOCIOLOGY
dissociative also exists. Each of these processes has sub-classes
which in totality give approximately 650 forms of human
relationships. Sociology should confine itself to the discovery of the
fundamental force of change and persistence and should abstain
from a historical study of concrete societies. Tonnies divided
societies into two categories namely Gemeinschaft (Town ) and
Gesellschaft (association) on the basis of degree of intimacy among
the members of the society. He has on the basis of forms of
relationship tried to differentiate between Town and society. Max
Weber also makes out a definite field for sociology. According to him
the aim of sociology is to interpret or understand social behaviour.
But social behaviour does not cover the whole field of human
relations. Indeed not all human interactions are social. Sociology is
concerned with the analysis and classification of types of social
relationships.
Synthetic school of sociology:
Synthetic school wanted sociology to be synthesis of the social
sciences and thus wanted to widen the scope of sociology.
According to Durkheim, sociology has three principal divisions'
namely-Social morphology, social physiology and general sociology.
Social morphology is concerned with geographical or territorial basis
of life of people such as population, its size, density and distribution
etc. This can be done at two levels -analysis of size and quality of
population which affects the quality of social relationship and social
groups. Secondly the study of social structure or description of the
main forms of social groups and institutions with their classification.
Social physiology deals with the genesis and nature of various social
institutions namely religion, morals, law and economic institutions
etc. In general sociology the main aim is to formulate general social
laws. Attempt is made to find out if there are links among various
institutions which would be treated independently in social
physiology and in the course to discover general social laws.
Hobhouse perceived sociology as a science which has the whole
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SOCIOLOGY
social life of man as its sphere. Its relations with the other social
sciences are considered to be one of mutual exchange and mutual
stimulation. Karl Mannheim's divides sociology into two main
sections-systematic and general sociology and historical sociology.
Systematic sociology describes one by one the main factors of living
together as far as they may be found in every kind of society. The
historical sociology deals with the historical variety and actuality of
the general forms of society. It falls into two sections-comparative
sociology and social dynamics. Comparative sociology deals mainly
with the historical variations of the same phenomenon and tries to
find by comparison general features as separated from industrial
features. Social dynamics deals with the interrelations between the
various social factors and institutions in a certain given society for
example in a primitive society. Ginsberg has summed up the chief
functions of sociology as it seeks to provide a classification of types
and forms of social relationships especially of those which have
come to be defined institutions and associations. It tries to
determine the relation between different parts of factors of social
life for example the economic and political, the moral and the legal,
the intellectual and the social elements. It endeavours to
disentangle the fundamental conditions of social change and
persistence and to discover sociological principles governing social
life.
Thus on the basis of viewpoints of different sociologists we can get a
general outline of the scope of sociology. Firstly the analysis of
various institutions, associations and social groups which are results
of social relationships of individuals should be the concern of
sociology. Secondly the links among different parts of society should
be studied. This objective is dealt with justice by functionalist school
of sociology and Marxist school also gives importance to this
viewpoint. Thus social structure should be given adequate
importance in subject matter of sociology. Thirdly sociology
addresses itself to the factors which contribute to social stability and
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social change. Fourthly sociology should also explain the trend of
the changing pattern and the aftermath of the changes in the
society.
2.)Relation Between sociology & town planning:
Town planning is a branch of sociology that focuses on larger social
systems and social change. It has often been referred to as Macro
Practice and has been recognized for many years as one of the main
methods. Sampson (1999) has opined that Town planning is “The
ability of a Town structure to realize the common values of its
residents and maintain effective social controls." Town
development seeks to empower individuals and groups of people by
providing them with the skills they need to effect change in their
own communities. These skills are often concentrated around
building political power through the formation of large social groups
working for a common agenda. To work with communities
experiencing disadvantage, enabling them to collectively, identify
needs and rights, clarify objects and take action to meet them
within a democratic framework, which represents the needs and
rights of others.”
In order to comprehend where Town planning stands today, it is
helpful to view its history. Town Development has often been an
unequivocal and inherent goal of people, aiming to achieve, through
cooperative effort, a better life and has occurred throughout history.
Currently, the field of Town planning encompasses Town organizing,
social planning, human service management, Town development,
policy analysis, policy advocacy, evaluation, mediation, electronic
advocacy and other larger systems interventions and has
considerable overlap with many other applied social sciences, such
as urban planning, economic development, public affairs, rural
sociology and non profit management. Work can be generic or
specialized. It takes place in a given geographical area, focusing on
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working with the Town to identify their needs and issues and jointly
formulating strategies to address those issues. The context is either
urban or rural, with rural Town development work increasingly
attracting attention in recent years. Specialized Town work focuses
on either specific groups within a region (such as the homeless, the
long-term unemployed, families with young children or ethnic
minorities) or on particular concerns (such as public transport,
mental health or drugs action). A good deal of the work is project-
based, which means that Town planning usually have a remit of a
specific location or social issue.
Specialized Town planner tasks typically involve identifying
Town issues, needs and problems; developing new Town -based
programmes and resources; evaluating and monitoring existing
programmes; enlisting the co-operation of government bodies, Town
planners and sponsors; helping to raise public awareness on issues
relevant to the Town ; providing leadership and co-ordination of
programmes; acting as facilitator to promote self-help in the Town ;
preparing reports and policies; networking to build contacts and
fundraising; developing and agreeing strategies; liaising with
interested groups and individuals to set up new services; mediating
and negotiating with opposing parties; recruiting and training paid
and voluntary staff; planning, attending and co-ordinating meetings
and events; overseeing the financial management of a limited
budget; encouraging participation in activities; challenging
inappropriate behaviour and political structures; carrying out
various administrative tasks.
Town -based social work practice embraces an inclusive
definition of Town , values Town as process, views the individual in
the context of a pattern of relationships that includes family, groups,
organizations, and communities, integrates Town and individual
practice, builds interventions on the strengths and assets of
individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities,
emphasizes participation, teamwork, collaboration, and partnerships
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at all levels, recognizes that comprehensive interventions are
shaped by all interactions and exchanges within the social ecology,
involves interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches,
facilitates empowerment through a reciprocal, educational process
of lifelong learning, encourages innovation and improvement of
services.
Certain fundamental characteristics which underline Town
planning are Firstly and mostly importantly, the Town is the client.
The needs of the Town are dominant and these needs are spelled
out in issues that affect large numbers of people. Town work is
methodical and purpose-oriented work aimed at change, the
purpose of which is to solve problems prevailing in the area. Town
work is carried out in a residential area according to the residents'
needs for instance a Town affected by escalating criminal activities
may unite to form neighbourhood watch groups. The residents,
associations, organizations and authorities of a given area develop
social activities and resources together, aiming to improve their
social conditions by means of various work activities and methods.
Town developers must understand how to work with individuals and
also how to affect communities' positions within the context of
larger social institutions. The planners are to identify groups,
individuals and families within applicable legislation in order to
protect and improve the social well-being and functioning of families
and individuals. The worker must have and understanding of how
policy guides human service programs, both in organizations and
communities and must be able to transform those policies and
programs to be more responsive to human needs, whether by
developing programs which strive to satisfy Town needs or enacting
some form of social change.
Social workers need to analyze and apply knowledge of bio-psycho-
social variables that affect individual development and behaviour.
But they also need to understand and intervene in the patterns of
interaction that generate or perpetuate problems involving multiple
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system levels such as family, neighbours, school, and social service
or justice systems. Town -based social work practice sees lasting
solutions to problems as arising from the strengths of the Town and
culture of the individuals and families concerned. It recognizes that
clients are involved in larger patterns of formal and informal helping
that may involve social networks including family, church or temple,
friends, neighbours, or Town planners as well as other professionals.
Social work practice sees itself as one part of this larger pattern of
helping, its effectiveness depending on how the whole pattern works
to ensure that individual, family, and Town needs are met.
planners support individuals, groups and organizations on the
basis of certain values and commitments. These values include
social justice, participation, equality, learning and co-operation.
Social justice enables people to claim their human rights, meet their
needs and have greater control over the decision-making processes
which affect their lives. Participation involves facilitating democratic
involvement by people in the issues which affect their lives based
on full citizenship, autonomy, and shared power, skills, knowledge
and experience. Equality entails challenging the attitudes of
individuals, and the practices of institutions and society, which
discriminate against and marginalize individuals. Learning requires
recognizing the skills, knowledge and expertise that people
contribute and develop by taking action to tackle social, economic,
political and environmental problems. Co-operation is working
together to identify and implement action, based on mutual respect
of diverse cultures and contributions
Rubin and Rubin have defined four essential roles of the social
worker in Town development. They are organizers as teachers,
organizers as catalysts, organizers as facilitators and a linking role.
According to Rothman there are three types of Town models
which include locality development, social action and social
planning. Locality development typifies the methods of work with
groups used by settlement houses and in 'colonial' Town
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development work. A major focus is on the process of Town building.
Working with a broad, representative cross section of the Town,
workers attempt to achieve change objectives by enabling the Town
to establish consensus via the identification of common interests.
Leadership development and the education of the participants are
important elements in the process. In this approach great store is
set by the values of both participation and leadership. Social action
is employed by groups and organizations which seek to alter
institutional policies or to make changes in the distribution of power.
Civil rights groups and social movements are examples. Their
methods may be and often are, abrasive and participation is the
value most clearly articulated by those who use this approach. Both
leadership and expertise may be challenged as the symbolic
'enemies of the people'.
Social planning is the method of Town planning traditional to
health and welfare councils, city planners, urban renewal authorities
and the large public bureaucracies. Effort is focused primarily on
task goals and issues of resource allocation. Whereas the initial
emphasis of this approach was on the co-ordination of social
services, its attention has expanded to include programme
development and planning in all major social welfare institutions.
Heavy reliance is placed on rational problem solving and the use of
technical methods such as research and systems analysis. Expertise
is the cherished value in this approach, although leadership is
accorded importance as well.
Processes provide an excellent framework for the operation of the
Town planning in order to effect successful Town development. The
most commonly utilized are research, planning, coordination,
organization, financing, administration, committee operation and
advocacy and social action. To begin, social research is the process
of obtaining facts regarding social phenomena, social problems and
their solutions. Various research methods are used as statistical
studies, surveys and case studies. If a social problem is researched
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then it can be better understood and strategies can be implemented
to solve the issue. Planning is intentional formulation of future
action and ways of procedure. It is usually carried out by
representatives of various group meeting and making decisions
regarding social difficulties and their solutions. Coordination is the
process of working together to avoid unnecessary duplication, effort
and conflict. On the positive side, it is the joining of people,
agencies and forces to support and compels them to strengthen
each other thus enabling effective services that surpass what could
be done independently. Organization is the process of establishing
a structure to accomplish certain goals. In Town planning it is the
method of formulating a structure to consider Town needs,
resources and the utilization of the resources to satisfy the needs.
Without it activities occur on a hit or miss basis. There are several
underlying principles in Town planning. McNeil has postulated
several principles that are universally applicable. Firstly, Town
planning for social welfare is concerned with people and their needs.
Its objective is to enrich human life by bringing about and
maintaining a progressively more effective adjustment between
social welfare resources and social welfare needs. The community
may be a neighbourhood, city, country, state or nation. In recent
times, the ‘international’ Town has emerged It is a maxim in Town
planning that the Town is to be understood and accepted as it is
and where it is and all of the people of the Town are concerned in
its health and welfare services. Representation of all interests and
elements in the population and their full and meaningful
participation are essential objectives in Town planning.
According to McNeil the fact of ever changing human needs and
the reality of relationships between and among people and groups
are the dynamics in the Town planning process. Acceptance of the
concept of purposeful change and John Dewey’s philosophy of the
“ever enduring process of perfecting, maturing, and refining” as
goals in Town planning is basic. In addition, he opines that
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interdependence of all threads in the social welfare fabric of
organization is a fundamental truth. No single agency can usefully
“live unto itself alone” but is constantly performing its functions in
relation to others. Finally, he outlines that Town planning for social
welfare as a process is a part of generic social work.
In concluding, social work practice is broadly defined. Social
workers intervene at all levels, with individuals, families, groups,
organizations and communities with the aim of building partnerships
of those involved to strengthen the caring capacity of communities
as they work to resolve issues of immediate concern. Professional
social work practice focuses not only on an individual’s intra-psychic
concerns since the individual client is viewed as part of multiple,
overlapping systems that encompass the person’s social and
physical environment. As a result, in many instances, an effective
helping relationship on a micro level is only possible only through
macro intervention strategies. Hence, micro and macro practices
are interwoven by the worker/agency to produce effective casework
services. It is therefore important for macro practitioners to
understand the import of individual and group interventions as it is
for micro-practice workers to understand the implication of
organizational, Town and policy change.
3.)Write short notes on:
Social institutions:
A social institution is a complex, integrated set of social norms
organized around the preservation of a basic societal value.
Obviously, the sociologist does not define institutions in the same
way as does the person on the street. Lay persons are likely to use
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SOCIOLOGY
the term "institution" very loosely, for churches, hospitals, jails, and
many other things as institutions. Sociologists often reserve the
term "institution" to describe normative systems that operate in five
basic areas of life, which may be designated as the primary
institutions.
In determining Kinship
In providing for the legitimate use of power
In regulating the distribution of goods and services
In transmitting knowledge from one generation to the next
In regulating our relation to the supernatural.
In shorthand form, or as concepts, these five basic institutions are
called the family, government, economy, education and religion.
The five primary institutions are found among all human groups.
They are not always as highly elaborated or as distinct from one
another as into the United States, but, in rudimentary form at last,
they exist everywhere. Their universality indicates that they are
deeply rooted in human nature and that they are essential in the
development and maintenance of orders. Sociologists operating in
terms of the functionalist model society have provided the clearest
explanation of the functions served by social institutions. Apparently
there are certain minimum tasks that must be performed in all
human groups. Unless these tasks are performed adequately, the
group will cease to exist. An analogy may help to make the point.
We might hypothesize that cost accounting department is essential
to the operation of a large corporation. A company might procure a
superior product and distribute it then at the price which is assigned
to it, the company will soon go out of business. Perhaps the only
way to avoid this is to have a careful accounting of the cost of each
step in the production and distribution process.
Social associations:
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Men have diverse needs, desires and interests which demand
satisfaction. There are three ways of fulfilling these needs. Firstly
they may act independently each in his own way without caring for
others. This is unsocial with limitations. Secondly men may seek
their ends through conflicts with one another. Finally men may try to
fulfill their ends through cooperation and mutual assistance. This
cooperation has a reference to association.
When a group or collection of individuals organize themselves
expressly for the purpose of pursuing certain of its interests
together on a cooperative pursuit an association is said to be born.
According to Morris Ginsberg an association is a group of social
beings related to one another by the fact that they possess or have
instituted in common an organization with a view to securing a
specific end or specific ends. The associations may be found in
different fields. No single association can satisfy all the interests of
the individual or individuals. Since Man has many interests, he
organizes various associations for the purpose of fulfilling varied
interests. He may belong to more than one organization.
Main characteristics:
Association: An association is formed or created by people. It is a
social group. Without people there can be no association. It is an
organized group. An unorganized group like crowd or mob cannot be
an association.
Common interest: An association is not merely a collection of
individuals. It consists of those individuals who have more or less
the same interests. Accordingly those who have political interests
may join political association and those who have religious interests
may join religious associations and so on.
Cooperative spirit: An association is based on the cooperative spirit
of its members. People work together to achieve some definite
purposes. For example a political party has to work together as a
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united group on the basis of cooperation in order to fulfil its
objective of coming to power.
Organization: Association denotes some kind of organization. An
association is known essentially as an organized group. Organization
gives stability and proper shape to an association. Organization
refers to the way in which the statuses and roles are distributed
among the members.
Regulation of relations: Every association has its own ways and
means of regulating the relation of its members. Organization
depends on this element of regulation. They may assume written or
unwritten forms.
Association as agencies: Associations are means or agencies
through which their members seek to realize their similar or shared
interests. Such social organizations necessarily act not merely
through leaders but through officials or representatives as agencies.
Associations normally act through agents who are responsible for
and to the association.
Durability of association: An association may be permanent or
temporary. There are some long standing associations like the state;
family, religious association’s etc. Some associations may be
temporary in nature.
Social community:
The term community is one of the most elusive and vague in
sociology and is by now largely without specific meaning. At the
minimum it refers to a collection of people in a geographical area.
Three other elements may also be present in any usage. (1)
Communities may be thought of as collections of people with a
particular social structure; there are, therefore, collections which are
not communities. Such a notion often equates community with rural
or pre-industrial society and may, in addition, treat urban or
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industrial society as positively destructive. (2) A sense of belonging
or community spirit. (3) All the daily activities of a community, work
and non work, take place within the geographical area, which is self
contained. Different accounts of community will contain any or all of
these additional elements.
We can list out the characteristics of a community as follows:
Territory
Close and informal relationships
Mutuality
Common values and beliefs
Organized interaction
Strong group feeling
Cultural similarity
Talcott Parsons defined community as collectivity the members of
which share a common territorial area as their base of operation for
daily activities. According to Tonnies community is defined as an
organic natural kind of social group whose members are bound
together by the sense of belonging, created out of everyday
contacts covering the whole range of human activities. He has
presented ideal-typical pictures of the forms of social associations
contrasting the solidarity nature of the social relations in the
community with the large scale and impersonal relations thought to
characterize industrializing societies. Kingsley Davis defined it as
the smallest territorial group that can embrace all aspects of social
life. For Karl Mannheim community is any circle of people who live
together and belong together in such a way that they do not share
this or that particular interest only but a whole set of interests.
Social organisation:
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Ogburn and Nimkoff have defined organization is an articulation of
different parts which perform various functions; it is an active group
device for getting something done.
Eliott and Merrill says, organization is a state of being, a condition in
which the various institutions in a society are functioning in
accordance with their recognized or implied purposes.
According to H.M Johnson, organization refers to an aspect of
interaction systems.
At present the term social organization is used to refer to the
interdependence of parts in groups. These groups may vary in size
and nature from workers to the factories. Many sociologists prefer to
use the term social system to refer to the society as such rather
than social organization.
The term is used in sociological studies and researches today to
stress the importance of arrangement of parts in which the parts of
society are related to each other and how each is related to the
whole society. Organization makes possible the complex activities in
which the members of a complex society participate. A small body
of organized police can control a very large crowd. A small number
of men constituting themselves as a government can rule a country.
Sometimes the word organization is used to refer to the
associational groups. It includes corporations, armies, schools,
banks and prisons. The society consists of many such organizations.
A state is frequently called a political organization. A school may
represent an educational organization and so on. They are all social
organizations. According to Ogburn and Nimkoff entire society
represents a wider organization; a social organization. But society is
also quite generally an organized group of interacting individuals.
Characteristics:
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An organization has its own definite purpose. Without any purpose
or goal individuals come together and establish among themselves
a definite pattern or system of interaction. The smooth running of an
organization depends much on the mutual understanding,
cooperation and consensus among its members. The family as an
organization can run smoothly only when its members have mutual
understanding, cooperation and consensus among themselves. An
organization is understood as a mechanism that brings different
people together into a network of interaction to perform different
functions.
The organization assigns statuses and roles to the individuals and
makes them to assume statuses and enact roles. The organization
can function without any problem if harmony prevails between the
acceptance of the statuses by the members and their enactment of
the related roles. An organization maintains its control over the
behaviour of its members and regulates their activities. It makes use
of various formal as well as informal means of social control for this
purpose.
Social stratification:
In sociology and other social sciences, social stratification refers to
the hierarchical arrangement of individuals into divisions of power
and wealth within a society. Stratification derives from
the geological concept of strata - rock layers created by natural
processes. The term most commonly relates to the socio-economic
concept of class, involving the "classification of persons into groups
based on shared socio-economic conditions ... a relational set of
inequalities with economic, social, political and ideological
dimensions."
In modern Western societies, stratification is broadly organized into
three main layers: upper class, middle class, and lower class. Each
class may be further subdivided into smaller classes (e.g.
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occupational). These categories are particular to state-based
societies as distinguished from, for instance, feudal societies
composed of nobility-to-peasant relations. Stratification may also be
defined by kinship ties or castes. For Max Weber, social class
pertaining broadly to material wealth is distinguished from status
class which is based on such variables as honour, prestige and
religious affiliation. It is debatable whether the earliest hunter-
gatherer groups may be defined as 'stratified', or if such differentials
began with agriculture and broad acts of exchange between groups.
One of the ongoing issues in determining social stratification arises
from the point that status inequalities between individuals are
common, so it becomes a quantitative issue to determine how much
inequality qualifies as stratification.
Social stratification has been shown to cause many social problems.
A comprehensive study of major world economies revealed that
homicide, infant mortality, obesity, teenage pregnancies, emotional
depression and prison population all correlate with higher social
inequality.
3 main characteristics:
1. The rankings apply to social categories of people who share a
common characteristic without necessarily interacting or identifying
with each other. The process of being ranked can be changed by the
person being ranked.
Example: The way we rank people differently by race, gender, and
social class.
2. People's life experiences and opportunities depend on their social
category. This characteristic can be changed by the amount of work
a person can put into their interests.
Example: The greater advantage had by the son or daughter of a
king to have a successful life than the son or daughter of a
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minimum-wage factory worker, because the king has a greater
amount of resources than the factory worker — The use of resources
can influence others.
3. The ranks of different social categories change slowly over time.
This has occurred frequently in the United States ever since the
American Revolution. The U.S. Constitution has been altered several
times to contain rights for everyone
Social Control:
Social control refers generally to societal and political mechanisms
or processes that regulate individual and group behaviour, leading
to conformity and compliance to the rules of a given society, state,
or social group. Many mechanisms of social control are cross-
cultural, if only in the control mechanisms used to prevent the
establishment of chaos or anomie.[clarification needed] Some
theorists, such as Émile Durkheim, refer to this form of control
as regulation. Sociologists identify two basic forms of social controls
Internalization of norms and values, and
External sanctions, which can be either positive (rewards) or
negative (punishment).
Social control theory began to be studied as a separate field in the
early 20th century. The means to enforce social control can be
either formal or informal. Sociologist Edward A. Ross argued
that belief systems exert a greater control on human behavior than
laws imposed by government, no matter what form the beliefs take.
The social values that are present in individuals are products of
informal social control. It is exercised by a society without explicitly
stating these rules and is expressed through customs, norms,
and mores. Individuals are socialized whether consciously or
subconsciously. During informal sanctions, ridicule or ostracism can
cause a straying towards norms. The person internalizes these
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mores and norms. Traditional society uses mostly informal social
control embedded in its customary culture relying on
the socialization of its members to establish social order. Religion is
thought of by some as a common and historically established form
of informal social control. More rigidly-structured societies may
place increased reliance on formal mechanisms.
Informal sanctions may
include shame, ridicule, sarcasm, criticism and disapproval. In
extreme cases sanctions may include social discrimination and
exclusion. This implied social control usually has more effect on
individuals because they become internalized and thus an aspect
of personality. Informal sanctions check 'deviant' behaviour. An
example of a negative sanction comes from a scene in the Pink
Floyd film 'The Wall,' whereby the young protagonist is ridiculed and
verbally abused by a high school teacher for writing poetry in a
mathematics class. The scene illustrates how education is all about
control and conformity, and not about creativity and individuality.
As with formal controls, informal controls reward
or punish acceptable or unacceptable behaviour (i.e., deviance).
Informal controls are varied and differ from individual to individual,
group to group and society to society. For example, at a women's
institute meeting, a disapproving look might convey the message
that it is inappropriate to flirt with the minister. In a criminal gang,
on the other hand, a stronger sanction applies in the case of
someone threatening to inform to the police.
Formal social control is expressed through law as statutes, rules,
and regulations against deviant behavior. It is conducted
by government and organizations using law
enforcement mechanisms and other formal sanctions such
as fines and imprisonment.[2] In democratic societies the goals and
mechanisms of formal social control are determined
through legislation by elected representatives and thus enjoy a
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measure of support from the population and voluntary compliance.
(citation needed)
Applications of social control theory:
According to the propaganda model theory, the leaders of
modern, corporate-dominated societies employ indoctrination as a
means of social control. Theorists such as Noam Chomsky have
argued that systemic bias exists in the modern
media. The marketing, advertising, and public relations industries
have thus been said to utilize mass communications to aid the
interests of certain business elites. Powerful economic and
religious lobbyists have often used school systems and centralised
electronic communications to influence public opinion. Democracy is
restricted as the majority is not given the information necessary to
make rational decisions about ethical, social, environmental, or
economic issues.
To maintain control and regulate their
subjects, authoritarian organizations and governments promulgate
rules and issue decrees. However, due to a lack of popular support
for enforcement, these entities may rely more on force and other
severe sanctions such as censorship, expulsion and limits
on political freedom. Some totalitarian governments, such as the
late Soviet Union or the current North Korea, rely on the
mechanisms of the police state.
Sociologists consider informal means of social control vital in
maintaining public order, but also recognize the necessity of formal
means as societies become more complex and for responding to
emergencies. The study of social control falls primarily within the
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academic disciplines of anthropology, political science,
and sociology.
The continual application of low-level fear, as in mass surveillance or
an electronic police state also exerts a powerful coercive force upon
a populace.
Concepts of Sociologists:
KARL MARX:
Karl Marx's (1818-
1883) thought was strongly
influenced by:
-The dialectical method and
historical orientation of Georg
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel;
-The classical political economy
of -Adam Smith and David
Ricardo;
- French socialist and
sociological thought, in
particular the thought of Jean-
Jacques Rousseau.
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The most important concepts of Karl Marx
The following concepts of Marx have aided sociological
thought significantly;
Dialectical Materialism
Materialistic Interpretation of History i.e Historical Materialism
Class and Class conflict
Alienation
Marx believed that he could study history and society scientifically
and discern tendencies of history and the resulting outcome
of social conflicts. Some followers of Marx concluded, therefore, that
a communist revolution is inevitable. However, Marx famously
asserted in the eleventh of his Theses on Feuerbach that
"philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the
point however is to change it", and he clearly dedicated himself to
trying to alter the world. Consequently, most followers of Marx are
not fatalists, but activists who believe that revolutionaries must
organize social change.
Marx's view of history, which came to be called the materialist
conception of history (and which was developed further as the
philosophy of dialectical materialism) is certainly influenced by
Hegel's claim that reality (and history) should be viewed
dialectically. Hegel believed that the direction of human history is
characterized in the movement from the fragmentary toward the
complete and the real (which was also a movement towards greater
and greater rationality). Sometimes, Hegel explained, this
progressive unfolding of the Absolute involves gradual, evolutionary
accretion but at other times requires discontinuous, revolutionary
leaps - episodal upheavals against the existing status quo. For
example, Hegel strongly opposed the ancient institution of legal
slavery that was practiced in the United States during his lifetime,
and he envisioned a time when Christian nations would radically
eliminate it from their civilization. While Marx accepted this broad
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conception of history, Hegel was an idealist, and Marx sought to
rewrite dialectics in materialist terms. He wrote that Hegelianism
stood the movement of reality on its head, and that it was necessary
to set it upon its feet. (Hegel's philosophy remained and remains in
direct opposition to Marxism on this key point.)
Marx's acceptance of this notion of materialist dialectics which
rejected Hegel's idealism was greatly influenced by Ludwig
Feuerbach. In The Essence of Christianity, Feuerbach argued that
God is really a creation of man and that the qualities people
attribute to God are really qualities of humanity. Accordingly, Marx
argued that it is the material world that is real and that our ideas of
it are consequences, not causes, of the world. Thus, like Hegel and
other philosophers, Marx distinguished between appearances and
reality. But he did not believe that the material world hides from us
the "real" world of the ideal; on the contrary, he thought that
historically and socially specific ideologies prevented people from
seeing the material conditions of their lives clearly.
The other important contribution to Marx's revision of Hegelianism
was Engels' book, The Condition of the Working Class in England in
1844, which led Marx to conceive of the historical dialectic in terms
of class conflict and to see the modern working class as the most
progressive force for revolution.The notion of labour is fundamental
in Marx's thought. Basically, Marx argued that it is human nature to
transform nature, and he calls this process of transformation
"labour" and the capacity to transform nature labour power. For
Marx, this is a natural capacity for a physical activity, but it is
intimately tied to the human mind and human imagination:A spider
conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver, and a bee
puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells. But
what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this,
that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he
erects it in reality. (Capital, Vol. I, Chap. 7, Pt. 1) Karl Marx inherits
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that Hegelian dialectic and, with it, a disdain for the notion of an
underlying invariant human nature. Sometimes Marxists express
their views by contrasting "nature" with "history". Sometimes they
use the phrase "existence precedes consciousness". The point, in
either case, is that who a person is, is determined by where and
when he is - social context takes precedence over innate behavior;
or, in other words, one of the main features of human nature is
adaptability. Marx did not believe that all people worked the same
way, or that how one works is entirely personal and individual.
Instead, he argued that work is a social activity and that the
conditions and forms under and through which people work are
socially determined and change over time.Marx's analysis of history
is based on his distinction between the means / forces of production,
literally those things, such as land, natural resources, and
technology, that are necessary for the production of material goods,
and the relations of production, in other words, the social and
technical relationships people enter into as they acquire and use the
means of production. Together these comprise the mode of
production; Marx observed that within any given society the mode
of production changes, and that European societies had progressed
from a feudal mode of production to a capitalist mode of production.
In general, Marx believed that the means of production change more
rapidly than the relations of production (for example, we develop a
new technology, such as the Internet, and only later do we develop
laws to regulate that technology). For Marx this mismatch between
(economic) base and (social) superstructure is a major source of
social disruption and conflict. Marx understood the "social relations
of production" to comprise not only relations among individuals, but
between or among groups of people, or classes. As a scientist and
materialist, Marx did not understand classes as purely subjective (in
other words, groups of people who consciously identified with one
another). He sought to define classes in terms of objective criteria,
such as their access to resources. For Marx, different classes have
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divergent interests, which is another source of social disruption and
conflict. Conflict between social classes being something which is
inherent in all human history:The history of all hitherto existing
society is the history of class struggles. (The Communist Manifesto,
Chap. 1)
Marx was especially concerned with how people relate to that most
fundamental resource of all, their own labour-power. Marx wrote
extensively about this in terms of the problem of alienation. As with
the dialectic, Marx began with a Hegelian notion of alienation but
developed a more materialist conception. For Marx, the possibility
that one may give up ownership of one's own labour - one's capacity
to transform the world - is tantamount to being alienated from one's
own nature; it is a spiritual loss. Marx described this loss in terms of
commodity fetishism, in which the things that people produce,
commodities, appear to have a life and movement of their own to
which humans and their behavior merely adapt. This disguises the
fact that the exchange and circulation of commodities really are the
product and reflection of social relationships among people. Under
capitalism, social relationships of production, such as among
workers or between workers and capitalists, are mediated through
commodities, including labor, that are bought and sold on the
market.
Commodity fetishism is an example of what Engels called false
consciousness, which is closely related to the understanding of
ideology. By ideology they meant ideas that reflect the interests of a
particular class at a particular time in history, but which are
presented as universal and eternal. Marx and Engels' point was not
only that such beliefs are at best half-truths; they serve an
important political function. Put another way, the control that one
class exercises over the means of production includes not only the
production of food or manufactured goods; it includes the
production of ideas as well (this provides one possible explanation
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for why members of a subordinate class may hold ideas contrary to
their own interests). Thus, while such ideas may be false, they also
reveal in coded form some truth about political relations. For
example, although the belief that the things people produce are
actually more productive than the people who produce them is
literally absurd, it does reflect the fact (according to Marx and
Engels) that people under capitalism are alienated from their own
labour-power. Another example of this sort of analysis is Marx's
understanding of religion, summed up in a passage from the preface
to his 1843 Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of
Right: Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the
expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering.
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a
heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium
of the people. Whereas his Gymnasium senior thesis argued that the
primary social function of religion was to promote solidarity, here
Marx sees the social function as a way of expressing and coping
with social inequality, thereby maintaining the status quo. Marx
argued that this alienation of human work (and resulting commodity
fetishism) is precisely the defining feature of capitalism. Prior to
capitalism, markets existed in Europe where producers and
merchants bought and sold commodities. According to Marx, a
capitalist mode of production developed in Europe when labor itself
became a commodity - when peasants became free to sell their own
labor-power, and needed to do so because they no longer possessed
their own land or tools necessary to produce. People sell their labor-
power when they accept compensation in return for whatever work
they do in a given period of time (in other words, they are not selling
the product of their labor, but their capacity to work). In return for
selling their labor power they receive money, which allows them to
survive. Those who must sell their labor power to live are
"proletarians." The person who buys the labor power, generally
someone who does own the land and technology to produce, is a
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"capitalist" or "bourgeois." (Marx considered this an objective
description of capitalism, distinct from any one of a variety of
ideological claims of or about capitalism). The proletarians inevitably
outnumber the capitalists.
Marx distinguished industrial capitalists from merchant capitalists.
Merchants buy goods in one place and sell them in another; more
precisely, they buy things in one market and sell them in another.
Since the laws of supply and demand operate within given markets,
there is often a difference between the price of a commodity in one
market and another. Merchants, then, practice arbitrage, and hope
to capture the difference between these two markets. According to
Marx, capitalists, on the other hand, take advantage of the
difference between the labor market and the market for whatever
commodity is produced by the capitalist. Marx observed that in
practically every successful industry input unit-costs are lower than
output unit-prices. Marx called the difference "surplus value" and
argued that this surplus value had its source in surplus labour.
The capitalist mode of production is capable of tremendous growth
because the capitalist can, and has an incentive to, reinvest profits
in new technologies. Marx considered the capitalist class to be the
most revolutionary in history, because it constantly revolutionized
the means of production. But Marx argued that capitalism was prone
to periodic crises. He suggested that over time, capitalists would
invest more and more in new technologies, and less and less in
labor. Since Marx believed that surplus value appropriated from
labor is the source of profits, he concluded that the rate of profit
would fall even as the economy grew. When the rate of profit falls
below a certain point, the result would be a recession or depression
in which certain sectors of the economy would collapse. Marx
understood that during such a crisis the price of labor would also
fall, and eventually make possible the investment in new
technologies and the growth of new sectors of the economy.
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Marx believed that this cycle of growth, collapse, and growth would
be punctuated by increasingly severe crises. Moreover, he believed
that the long-term consequence of this process was necessarily the
enrichment and empowerment of the capitalist class and the
impoverishment of the proletariat. He believed that were the
proletariat to seize the means of production, they would encourage
social relations that would benefit everyone equally, and a system of
production less vulnerable to periodic crises. In general, Marx
thought that peaceful negotiation of this problem was impracticable,
and that a massive, well-organized and violent revolution would in
general be required, because the ruling class would not give up
power without violence. He theorized that to establish the socialist
system, a dictatorship of the proletariat - a period where the needs
of the working-class, not of capital, will be the common deciding
factor - must be created on a temporary basis. As he wrote in his
"Critique of the Gotha Program", "between capitalist and communist
society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of
the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political
transition period in which the state can be nothing but the
revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat."
In the 1920s and '30s, a group of dissident Marxists founded the
Institute for Social Research in Germany, among them Max
Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse. As
a group, these authors are often called the Frankfurt School. Their
work is known as Critical Theory, a type of Marxist philosophy and
cultural criticism heavily influenced by Hegel, Freud, Nietzsche, and
Max Weber.The Frankfurt School broke with earlier Marxists,
including Lenin and Bolshevism in several key ways. First, writing at
the time of the ascendance of Stalinism and Fascism, they had
grave doubts as to the traditional Marxist concept of proletarian
class consciousness. Second, unlike earlier Marxists, especially
Lenin, they rejected economic determinism. While highly influential,
their work has been criticized by both orthodox Marxists and some
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Marxists involved in political practice for divorcing Marxist theory
from practical struggle and turning Marxism into a purely academic
enterprise.Other influential non-Bolshevik Marxists at that time
include Georg Lukacs, Walter Benjamin and Antonio Gramsci, who
along with the Frankfurt School are often known by the term
Western Marxism. Henryk Grossman, who elaborated the
mathematical basis of Marx's 'law of capitalist breakdown', was
another affiliate of the Frankfurt School. Also prominent during this
period was the Polish revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg.In 1949 Paul
Sweezy and Leo Huberman founded Monthly Review, a journal and
press, to provide an outlet for Marxist thought in the United States
independent of the Communist Party.In 1978, G. A. Cohen
attempted to defend Marx's thought as a coherent and scientific
theory of history by reconstructing it through the lens of analytic
philosophy. This gave birth to Analytical Marxism, an academic
movement which also included Jon Elster, Adam Przeworski and John
Roemer. Bertell Ollman is another Anglophone champion of Marx
within the academy.
FERDINAND TONNIES:
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Ferdinand Tönnies (1855-
1936) was a German
sociologist. He was a major
contributor to sociological
theory and field studies. His
distinction between two types
of social groups - Gemeinschaft
and Gesellschaft - is what
Tönnies is best known for. He
was, however, a prolific writer
and also co-founder of the
German Society for Sociology.
Tönnies distinguished between two types of social
groupings. Gemeinschaft often translated as community refers to
groupings based on a feeling of togetherness. Gesellschaft often
translated as society on the other hand, refers to groups that are
sustained by an instrumental goal. Gemeinschaft may by
exemplified by a family or a neighbourhood; Gesellschaft by a joint-
stock company or a state.
His distinction between social groupings is based on the assumption
that there are only two basic forms of an actor's will, to approve of
other men. Following his "essential will" ("Wesenwille"), an actor will
see himself as a means to serve the goals of social grouping; very
often it is an underlying, subconscious force. Groupings formed
around an essential will are called a Gemeinschaft. The other will is
the "arbitrary will" ("Kürwille"): An actor sees a social grouping as a
means to further his individual goals; so it is purposive and future-
oriented. Groupings around the latter are called Gesellschaft.
Whereas the membership in a Gemeinschaft is self-fulfilling, a
Gesellschaft is instrumental for its members. In pure sociology
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theoretically these two normal types of will are to be strictly
separated; in applied sociology empirically they are always mixed.
The important books :
Gemeinschalf and Gessellschaft (1887)
Introduction to Sociology (1936)
Types of social norms stated by Tonnies: Law, Moral rules, Mores
and Conventions.
TALCOTT PARSONS:
Talcott Parsons (1902-82) was for
many years the best-known
sociologist in the United States,
and indeed one of the best-
known in the world. He produced
a general theoretical system for
the analysis of society that came
to b Parsons' analysis was largely
developed within his major
published works called structural
functionalism.
The Structure of Social Action (1937),
The Social System (1951),
Structure and Process in Modern Societies (1960),
Sociological Theory and Modern Society (1968),
Politics and Social Structure (1969).
Parsons was an advocate of "grand theory," an attempt to integrate
all the social sciences into an overarching theoretical framework. His
early work"The Structure of Social Action"reviewed the output of his
great predecessors, especially Max Weber, Vilfredo Pareto, and
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Émile Durkheim, and attempted to derive from them a single "action
theory" based on the assumptions that human action is voluntary,
intentional, and symbolic. Later, he became intrigued with, and
involved in, an astonishing range of fields: from medical sociology
(where he developed the concept of the sick role to psychoanalysis-
personally undergoing full training as a lay analyst) to anthropology,
to small group dynamics to race relations and then economics and
education.
Parsons is also well known for his idea that every group or society
tends to fulfill four "functional imperatives".
adaptation to the physical and social environment;
goal attainment, which is the need to define primary goals and enlist
individuals to strive to attain these goals;
integration, the coordination of the society or group as a cohesive
whole;
Latency, maintaining the motivation of individuals to perform their
roles according to social expectations.
Parsons contributed to the field of social evolutionism and
neoevolutionism. He divided evolution into four sub processes:
division, which creates functional subsystems from the main
system;
adaptation, where those systems evolve into more efficient
versions;
inclusion of elements previously excluded from the given systems;
and
Generalization of values, increasing the legitimization of the ever-
more complex system.
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Furthermore, Parsons explored these sub processes within three
stages of evolution:
1) Primitive
2) Archaic
3) Modern (where archaic societies have the knowledge of writing,
while modern have the knowledge of law).
Parsons viewed the Western civilisation as the pinnacle of modern
societies, and out of all western cultures he declared the United
States as the most dynamically developed. For this, he was attacked
as an ethnocentrism. Parsons' late work focused on a new
theoretical synthesis around four functions common (he claimed) to
all systems of action-from the behavioural to the cultural, and a set
of symbolic media that enable communication across them. His
attempt to structure the world of action according to a mere four
concepts was too much for many American sociologists, who were at
that time retreating from the grand pretensions of the 1960s to a
more empirical, grounded approach.
Pattern variables
Parsons asserted that there were two dimensions to societies:
instrumental and expressive. By this he meant that there are
qualitative differences between kinds of social interaction.
Essentially, he observed that people can have personalized and
formally detached relationships based on the roles that they play.
The characteristics that were associated with each kind of
interaction he called the pattern variables Some examples of
expressive societies would include families, churches, clubs, crowds,
and smaller social settings. Examples of instrumental societies
would include bureaucracies, aggregates, and markets.
Affectivity Vs affective neutrality : When actor is oriented
towards maximum satisfaction from a given choice.
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Particularism Vs.Universalism: Situations are judged according
to uniform criteria (universalism) and not according to actor or
individuals relation with the given subject(particularism).
Quality Vs Performance : Defining people on the basis of
biological difference and performance is judging people
according to their performance and capacity.
Self orientation Vs Collective Orientation when the actor acts
out of personal interest it is self orientation.
MAX WEBER:
Max Weber was born in 1864
and he too was considered by
some to be the father of
sociology. Weber looked at
sociology in terms of it being
an extensive science of social
action and in the beginning
he would only focus on
specific social
Contexts. Somewhat in contrast to this belief, he later believed
that one of the most distinguishing characteristics of a society is
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their change or shift in motivation that is caused by structural or
historical forces.
The concept of the ideal-type came about so the sociologists and
others would have a method to do historical-comparative studies.
The ideal-type is mainly discussing Moral ideals. Weber used this
method to form an ideal-type bureaucracy with the following:
hierarchy, impersonality, written rules of conduct, promotion
based on achievement, specialized division of labor, and
efficiency. Weber defined such bureaucracies as goal oriented
organizations designed according to rational principles in order to
efficiently attain their goals (Verstehen). Weber saw many
advantages in bureaucracies but he also saw that sometimes the
power shifted only to those at the top and resulted in an
oligarchy.
Rationalization is a process in which a person enters, applying
practical knowledge to achieve an end. Rationalization is a large
part of Weber's theories on bureaucracy. This is also where
Weber and Marx begin to agree on some of the models of
organization and rationalization. Both socialism and capitalism
are the rational forms of sciences and organizations.
Weber also discussed authority. Weber sought to know what
gave the power to one individual to be able to claim authority
over another individual, such as man over woman. He also used
the ideal-type to explain this in terms of traditional authority
(pre-modern), rational-legal authority (modern), and charismatic.
Max Weber said that sociology is a science that is concerned with
a social action and the course and/or consequences of the action.
He had a large influence on many of the ideas that are used in
sociology today. Max Weber died in 1920.
JANE ADDAMS:
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The lack of documentation of Addams
as a sociologist is due to a number of
factors. Looking first at her own ideas,
she was opposed to academic
sociology, elitism, patriarchy, and
intellectualism. Each of these belief
systems is intrinsic to the assumptions
of sociology as it was practiced after
World War I. Although she considered
herself a sociologist, she wanted the
profession
To develop in a radically different direction than it did. Addams
was the greatest woman sociologist of her day. The fact that she
was female is vital, for sociology had a sex-segregated system.
After World War I, these two tracks within the profession split into
social work as female-dominated and sociology as male-
dominated. Almost all the women trained in Chicago Sociology
prior to 1918were ultimately channelled into social work
positions. Discrimination against hiring women in academic
sociology departments was rampant. The major professional
association, the American Sociological Society (ASS), limited
women's participation in most of its offices and programs; and
the social thought developed after 1918, especially at the
University of Chicago, was dramatically patriarchal and opposed
to Addams' vision. An applied, professional component of
sociology died when Addams' severance from sociology occurred,
and it has never become a respected alternative to sociologists in
the academy. Other social sciences, like geography, economics,
and history have developed more than one professional career
line, but sociology failed to do this to any considerable extent.
Finally, despite the extensive scholarly and popular study of
Addams' life, it is extremely difficult to trace her influence on
sociological thought. Because many sociologists claim that she is
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not a sociologist while many social workers claim that she is a
social worker, it has appeared that Addams' "professional home"
has been found. It is as if people assume she must be one or the
other! This assumption has led to a profound misunderstanding
of Addams' intellectual contributions and impact on sociology.
There is absolutely no attempt here to minimize her impact on
social work. Social workers correctly acknowledge Addams as a
major thinker and professional model. The problem lies not with
social workers but with sociologists. Addams was a preeminent
sociologist, and an understanding of her role in sociology is
integral to an understanding of this profession. To undertake any
analysis of the role of women sociologists or the sociological
study of women during the era of interest in this book, Addams
‘sociological career and concepts must be considered. When
Addams is limited to membership in only one field, social work,
the impact she had on sociology is entirely overlooked.
Concomitantly, there is an unstated assumption that her ideas
and model for action were adopted by social workers and
rejected by sociologists. Instead of this dichotomy between two
different specialties, a complex pattern of incorporating and
modifying her ideas in each profession has occurred. It is beyond
the scope or intent of this book to trace Addams' influence on
social work; the task of discovering her role in sociology is
difficult enough.
Addams' influence on sociology must often be inferred because
most early sociologists rarely cited the work of their closest
colleagues. This has been a problem in documenting the
interaction among all the early Chicago men. People who co-
authored writings or trained students together, such as Park and
Burgess, are easily seen as important colleagues. But people who
spoke to argued that societies evolved much like living
organisms, moving from a simple state to a more complex one
resembling the workings of complex machines. Durkheim
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reversed this formula adding his theory to the growing pool of
theories of social progress, social evolutionism and social
darwinism. He argued that traditional societies were 'mechanical'
and were held together by the fact that everyone was more or
less the same, and hence had things in common. In traditional
societies, argues Durkheim, the collective consciousness entirely
subsumes individual consciousness-social norms are strong and
social behavior is well-regulated.In modern societies, he argued,
the highly complex division of labor resulted in 'organic'
solidarity. Different specializations in employment and social
roles created dependencies that tied people to one another, since
people no longer could count on filling all of their needs by
themselves. In 'mechanical' societies, for example, subsistence
farmers live in communities which are self-sufficient and knit
together by a common heritage and common job. In modern
'organic' societies, workers earn money, and must rely on other
people who specialize in certain products (groceries, clothing,
etc.) to meet their needs. The result of increasing division of
labor, according to Durkheim, is that individual consciousness
emerges distinct from collective consciousness-often finding itself
in conflict with collective consciousness.Durkheim also made an
association of the kind of solidarity in a given society and the
preponderance of a law system. He found that in societies with
mechanical solidarity the law is generally repressive: the agent of
a crime or deviant behaviour would suffer a punishment, that in
fact would compensate collective conscience neglected by the
crime-the punishment acts more to preserve the unity of
consciences. On the other hand, in societies with organic
solidarity the law is generally restitutive: it aims not to punish,
but instead to restitute normal activity of a complex society.The
rapid change in society due to increasing division of labor thus
produces a state of confusion with regard to norms and
increasing impersonality in social life, leading eventually to
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relative normlessness, i.e. the breakdown of social norms
regulating behavior; Durkheim labels this state anomie. From a
state of anomie come all forms of deviant behavior, most notably
suicide.
Durkheim developed the concept of anomie later in Suicide,
published in 1897. In it, he explores the differing suicide rates
among Protestants and Catholics, explaining that stronger social
control among Catholics results in lower suicide rates. According
to Durkheim, people have a certain level of attachment to their
groups, which he calls social integration. Abnormally high or low
levels of social integration may result in increased suicide rates;
low levels have this effect because low social integration results
in disorganized society, causing people to turn to suicide as a last
resort, while high levels cause people to kill themselves to avoid
becoming burdens on society. According to Durkheim, Catholic
society has normal levels of integration while Protestant society
has low levels. This work has influenced proponents of control
theory, and is often mentioned as a classic sociological study.
Finally, Durkheim is remembered for his work on 'primitive' (i.e.
non-Western) people in books such as his 1912
volume Elementary Forms of the Religious Life and the
essayPrimitive Classification that he wrote with Marcel Mauss.
These works examine the role that religion and mythology have
in shaping the worldview and personality of people in extremely
(to use Durkheim's phrase) 'mechanical' societies.Durkheim was
also very interested in education. Partially this was because he
was professionally employed to train teachers, and he used his
ability to shape curriculum to further his own goals of having
sociology taught as widely possible. More broadly, though,
Durkheim was interested in the way that education could be used
to provide French citizens the sort of shared, secular background
that would be necessary to prevent anomie in modern societies.
It was to this end that he also proposed the formation of
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professional groups to serve as a source of solidarity for
adults.Durkheim argued that education has many functions:
1. To reinforce social solidarity
History: Learning about individuals who have done good things
for the many makes an individual feel insignificant.
Pledging Allegiance: Makes individuals feel part of a group and
therefore less likely to break rules.
each other with great frequency, visited each other's homes, and
engaged in organizational work together have few records of
their shared interests that are easily accessible to scholars who
study only published writings. Academic sociologists tend to rely
heavily on academic publications, organizations, and institutions
while overlooking applied sociology that is directed to non-
academic audiences, organizations, and institutions. For applied
sociologists such as Addams, indications of mutual influence
must often be sought in non-academic records. Original archival
data containing correspondence, newspaper reports, and
organizational records relevant to applied sociology can help to
fill the gaps in our academic documentation. Such alternative
resources are particularly vital in a situation like Addams' where
her influence has been buried over the course of several
decades.
EMILE DURKHIEM:
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Emile Durkheim (1858 -
1917) was concerned
primarily with how societies
could maintain their integrity
and coherence in the modern
era, when things such as
shared religious and ethnic
background could no longer
be assumed. In order to study
social life in modern societies,
Durkheim sought to create one of the first scientific approaches
to social phenomena. Along with Herbert Spencer, Durkheim was
one of the first people to explain the existence and quality of
different parts of a society by reference to what function they
served in keeping the society healthy and balanced-a position
that would come to be known as functionalism. Durkheim also
insisted that society was more than the sum of its parts. Thus
unlike his contemporary Max Weber, he focused not on what
motivates the actions of individual people (methodological
individualism), but rather on the study of social facts, a term
which he coined to describe phenomena which have an existence
in and of themselves and are not bound to the actions of
individuals. He argued that social facts had an independent
existence greater and more objective than the actions of the
individuals that composed society and could only be explained by
other social facts rather than, say, by society's adaptation to a
particular climate or ecological niche. In his 1893 work “ The
division of labour society”, Durkheim examined how social order
was maintained in different types of societies. He focused on the
division of labor, and examined how it differed in traditional
societies and modern societies. Authors before him such as
Herbert Spencer and Ferdinand Toennies had
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2. To maintain social roles
School is a society in miniature. It has a similar hierarchy, rules,
expectations to the "outside world". It trains young people to
fulfill roles.
3. To maintain division of labour.
Sorts students out into skill groups. Teaches students to go into
work depending on what they're good at.
MANUEL CASTELLS:
Manuel Castells born
in Hellín, Albacete, Spain, in 1942) is
a sociologist especially associated with
information society and communications
research. He is a member of
the International Ethical, Scientific and
Political Collegium, a leadership and
expertise organisation for developing
means of overcoming the problems to
establishing a peaceful, socially-just, and
economically-sustainable world.
The sociological work of Prof. Manuel Castells Oliván synthesises
empirical research literature with combinations of urban
sociology, organization studies, internet studies, social
movements, sociology of culture, and political economy. About
the origins of the network society, he posits that changes to the
network form of enterprise predate the electronic internet
technologies associated with network organisation forms
Moreover, he coined the term “The Fourth World”, denoting the
sub-population socially excluded from the global society; usual
usage denotes the nomadic, pastoral, and hunter-gatherer ways
of life beyond the contemporary industrial society norm.
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In the 1970s, following the path of Alain Touraine Castells was a
key developer of the variety of Marxist urban sociology that
emphasises the role of social movements in the conflictive
transformation of the city, He introduced the concept of
"collective consumption" comprehending a wide range of social
struggles — displaced from the economic stratum to the political
stratum via state intervention. Transcending Marxist strictures in
the early 1980s, he concentrated upon the role of new
technologies in the restructuring of an economy. In 1989, he
introduced the concept of the "space of flows", the material and
immaterial components of global information networks used for
the real-time, long-distance co-ordination of the economy. In the
1990s, he combined his two research strands in The Information
Age: Economy, Society and Culture, published as a trilogy, The
Rise of the Network Society (1996), The Power of Identity (1997),
and End of Millennium (1998); two years later, its worldwide,
favourable critical acceptance in university seminars, prompted
publication of a second (2000) edition that is 40 per cent different
from the first (1996) edition.
The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture comprehends
three sociologic dimensions — production, power,
and experience — stressing that the organisation of the economy,
of the state and its institutions, and the ways that people create
meaning in their lives through collective action, are irreducible
sources of social dynamics — that must be understood as both
discrete and inter-related entities. Moreover, he became an
established cybernetic culture theoretician with
his Internet development analysis stressing the roles of the state,
social movements and business, in shaping the economic
infrastructure according to their interests. The Information
Age trilogy is his précis: "Our societies are increasingly structured
around the bipolar opposition of the Net and the Self"; the “Net”
denotes the network organisations replacing vertically-integrated
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hierarchies as the dominant form of social organization,
the Self denotes the practices a person uses in reaffirming
social identity and meaning in a continually changing cultural
landscape.
DAVID HARVAYE:
David Harvey was born in St.
Louis, Missouri, August 18, 1936,
and spent his formative years in
Wood River, Illinois, a "factory
town" surviving on the largess of
Standard Oil of Indiana. His father
was a pipe fitter and a militant
trade unionist. Harvey received all
three degrees from the University
of Illinois, where he was taught his
craft by a diverse group of
scholars.
Chief among these were sociologists such as: Bernard Farber, family and
kinship; Bernard Karsh, industrial and economic sociology; Joseph
Gusfield, social movements; David Bordua and Daniel Glazer, delinquency
and criminology; Louis Schneider, social theory; and Bernard Lazerwitz,
statistics and survey research. His minor field of concentration was social
anthropology. He took courses in the Anthropology Department from F.K.
Lehmann, kinship and structuralist method; Ed Bruner, culture and
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personality; and Julian Stewart, social evolution and cultural ecology.
Arriving at the University of Nevada in 1968 and working in an
atmosphere of relative freedom, Harvey developed a sociological
perspective grounded in Marxist materialism and the dialectical methods
of Frankfurt sociology. During the last two decades he has done research
in these traditions.
Between 1970 and 1980, he conducted research on subjective alienation,
or reified consciousness. Working with professor Lyle G. Warner and
Elizabeth Safford Harvey, this research has produced several articles on
the social psychological scaling and measurement of reified
consciousness, and the structural antecedents of alienated subjectivity. In
the eighties, he returned to poverty research, the area in which he had
written his dissertation. Out of this latter work has come a community
ethnography of a poor white slum entitled Potter Addition: Poverty,
Family, and Kinship in a Heartland Community. A second volume, Potter
Addition: The Social History of a Heartland Slum is now in progress. A third
volume is now in the planning stage. It documents the rise and fall of the
Lincoln Republic as it played out in the Illinois Midlands.
Recently, Harvey has co-authored several papers on a variety of topics
with Dean Mike Reed of UNR's College of Business Administration. The
general focus of their work involves a rethinking of the social scientific
significance of Marxist materialism, Hegelian dialectics, and the
productivist ontology undergirding both. This rethinking has led them to
adopt a critical philosophy of science position based on the critical
naturalist methods and realist ontology of Roy Bhaskar. This refocusing
has coincided with a growing interest in two substantive fields of enquiry--
chaos theory and social evolution, and has produced several articles on
chaos theory and its application in the social sciences.
Harvey continues to explore the synthetic possibilities chaos theory has
for sociological research. One such project works from Jack Goody's
comparative research on the evolution of the European family to construct
a chaos-based analysis of the social evolution of Western kinship's
domestic domain. Such a project employs the historical materialist
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paradigm, and, as such, is inherently critical of Claude Lévi-Strauss's
linguistically-based alliance theory of kinship systems. Finally, a second
project, still in the planning stages, attempts to apply some of the more
elementary modeling techniques of chaos theory to explore the iterative
dynamics of Marx's theory of capitalist crises as it is formulated in Volume
III of Capital
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