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12 Cards in this Set
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Social Policy Revisited |
Sociology evolved into a subject in 19th-C due to dramatic changes in how people lived (industrial rev.) + how people views society (beginning of people replacing understanding of life with science rather than religion) / Comte: society could benefit from understanding being developed on scientific bases / 3 main theories that influence sociology: Karl Marx - Conflict Theory; Emile Durkheim - Consensus Theory; Max Weber - Social Action Theory |
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Conflict Theory (Karl Marx) |
Focus on class conflict / Humanity has basic needs (food/shelter/clothes): meeting these needs were fundamental element of society, process of production entailed conflict of interest leading to social conflict between classes / Base+superstructure society: base forces to produce goods (tools/machinery/knowledge) + mode of production (how society organises production of goods) influences economy so influences all societal institutions+processes (superstructure) - ownership means producing necessities creates class conflict) / 4 modes of production: primitive communism; ancient society; feudalism; capitalism > owners of means of production exploit labour of others (eg. Ancient masters/slaves, capitalist (bourgeoisie)/proletariat) leading to class conflict + eventual mode of production so capitalism will be replaced / concerned with identify how capitalism would fall+be replaced: workers forced to produce goods for ruling class to sell on for profit (surplus value) , exploitation would lead to increased alienation of proletariat workforce and development of class consciousness (aware of exploitation) then organise themselves on local, then national, level to improve wages+conditions until strong enough to oust bourgeoisie Evaluation: previous communist revolution attempts in many Eastern European countries have collapsed (-) but Marxists argue these societies based on military rule not communism (+) / previous attempts also not in manner Marx planned + not developed from capitalist societies (+) |
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Consensus Theory (Emile Durkheim) |
Society a unifiable whole (not reducible to individuals - it is exterior to them) / vital to study society using scientific methods + ‘social facts’ can be studied even though exterior to individual behaviour Division of Labour: showed how societies developed from small communities to complex+industrial forms / industrial rev. - believed pre-industrial society’s strong moral consensus transmitted by religion but modern societies have division of labour so less based on people being similar + more on individuals / change from collective conscience + mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity (more individual to meet needs of society at time) - still has moral basis but different / Anomie: believed some problems adapting from mechanical to organic solidarity (division of labour) + used word ‘anomie’ to indicate state of people outside normal social regulation, linked anomie to rising suicide rates and believed it was inevitable due to major changes but would eventually stabilise / theory views normal state of affairs as social stability (not based on conflict like Marxism) / also focused on role of religion: important that people come together and provide moral order - due to collapse of religion, they believed new secular morality needed to provide social consensus |
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Functionalism (Parsons) |
Developed Durkheim’s theory, interested in how society would survive in new age of individualism / agreed with central values of society (consensus) + argued societies exist in state of equilibrium, identified 4 subsystems that make for functional society: Goal attainment - needs to set goals (require political decision-making); Adaptation - needs to adapt to environment/produce food+shelter; Integration - needs to maintain society as cohesive whole (requires authority - legal system); Pattern maintenance - value commitments maintained (requires socialisation - values passed down to children) / believed whilst in equilibrium quite positive, subsystems needed to change as they’re all interconnected / Durkheim+Marx said to be structural theorists (believed structure of society most important issue) and ignore individuals+free will |
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Social Action Theory (Max Weber) |
Believed we need to see society as result of individual actions (diff. to Durkheim+Marx) and that social facts can’t be studied as individual reaction needs to be accounted for - need to study meanings people give their actions / looked at rise of rationality over religion + how this was used for basis of social action / theorised types of action individuals adopt: Instrumentally rational action - person addresses theory goals + means of achieving it , if means are not practical they abandon goals (rationality); Value rational action - same as instrumental but goals can’t be abandoned (eg. religious people trying to achieve salvation); Traditional action - no assessment of goals+means, done because tradition dictates it should be, believed declining in modern society; Affective action - no well thought-out goals, result of unusual emotional state of individual / Believed growing rationality in modern society developed increasing disenchantment (as organisations develop increasing bureaucratic form) + worried the warmth+humanity could be driven from society |
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Symbolic Interactionism |
Modern development of Weber’s theory, emphasises way society is influenced by conscious action of members / Blumer: founder of symbolic interactionism, criticised Durkheim’s suggestion social facts can be studied - says behaviour not result of external social forces but how people interpret/attribute meanings to situations Mead: identified difference between animal+human behaviour - animals actions predictable as response to stimuli but human behaviour depends on interpretation of others’ actions + meaning they attach to them / developed concept of self-splitting into ‘I’ and ‘me’ - ‘I’ wants spontaneity but ‘me’ sees behaviour from others’ POV Goffman: focused on idea of impression management - argued people are constantly expressing themselves + trying to create impressions of themselves / identified that discrepancies in performance can affect audience’s impression and be damaging to attempted impression management + cause retirement from role Evaluation: first theory to look at conscious actions + interpretations of people (+) / ignores influences of social structures + can overestimate role of social action (most people just get on with life rather than constant interpreting) (-) |
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Modernity + Post-Modernity |
Modernists (Marx/Durkheim) argue objective truth can be found in society and focus on industrialisation (social facts/rationality) but post-modernists reject idea society can be perfected through rational thought Beaudrillard: society moves through stages - contemporary society based on signs + images rather than production of goods (Marxist) / signs developed by 4 stages: reflection of basic reality > distortion of reality > disguise of absence of reality (eg. images of unexistent god) > bear no relation on any reality / example: Disneyworld reproduces imaginary world / believes politics now meaningless exchange of signs - politicians no real power / people trapped in situation where image+reality can’t be separated - criticised highly abstract (eg. questions if Gulf War happened as majority saw through signs+images on tv) Harvey: accepts move to postmodernism but believes modernism can help explain postmodernity - economy skills still important, images more important but a capitalist profit attempt as they turn cultural products into bought+sold goods - produces changing culture + by globalisation some governments will lose control of territory |
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Positivism |
Science can provide unbiased knowledge that can solve societal problems (eg. Functionalism) / Comte: social world resembles natural world - both made of objective facts independent of individuals, wanted society studied scientifically to produce quantifiable data to uncover scientific laws of society using hypo-deductive approach involving observation, hypothesis, experimenting and theorising For sociology to be treated as science, positivist research had to be objective, quantitative + researcher controlled / systematic+standardised method of collection / generalised findings for laws Popper: theory should be falsifiable / argued no objective truths, only temporary / rules of ‘conjecture+reputation’ research method: make observations; hypotheses or conjecture generated by observations; uses principle of falsification |
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Realism + Interpretivism |
Realism: Positivists wrong about nature of science as many natural sciences study unobservable phenomena / Kuhn: questioned if science is objective way of collecting data about world - all scientists have pre-conceived ideas based on existing paradigms that influence choice of research methods + subject so scientific knowledge socially produced Interpretivism: logic+method of natural sciences inappropriate for sociology research as very different (eg. humans have active consciousness and can make choices, phenomena of natural sciences lacks consciousness) / believes society not product of social laws but social constructions (interactions + interpretations) so should be looked at from individual POV / should use qualitative data to find meanings, not just ethnographic methods |
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Relationship between Theory + Methods |
Sociologists views on research approaches influence choice of methodology / positivists prefer scientific+quantifiable methods + hypothetico-deductive methods as believe unscientific to study emotions+meanings as they’re internal - would want to use experiments in controlled conditions to isolate effects of IV+DV / unable to use labs as natural settings needed / can’t have large groups / ethical issues / field experiments used (natural setting/hard to control variables/Hawthorne effect) / favour comparative method: using past events, not creating artificial situations+places (isolates variables) / only way to study long-term social change Interpretivists challenge positivist science / prefer qualitative methods (interviews + participant observations) - diff. from natural sciences as requires meaning of behaviour (Becker’s labelling theory - interactionism) |
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Subjectivity, Objectivity + Value Freedom |
Functionalists: sociology should avoid subjectivity, should be objective + neutral / ‘value freedom’ (research free from individual values) has 3 dimensions: shouldn’t allow influence of beliefs; important data interpreted objectively; should objectively carry out research rather than try to solve problems+change society Arguments against ‘value freedom’: researcher values will always influence / Gomm: research topic depends on what state+big business think is relevant (eg. worker productivity) and much research maintains inequalities in society - Marxists agree and say not value free as it serves capitalism / some sociologists says it’s important to have some subjectivity (eg. feminists take side of women) |
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Sociology + Social Policy |
Giddens (2018) states + benefits of studying sociology: understanding social situations; awareness of cultural differences (can affect government policies and tackle discrimination); assessment of effects of policy; increase self-knowledge (people challenge ideas of groups and themselves) Sociology criticised as not radical enough / Marxists: too linked to capitalism / should provide knowledge to help people (eg. realists suggest crime is a ‘poor people’ issue so government should help them through policy but crit. criminologists say this doesn’t accept reason for crime is marginalisation by capitalist system) / research might show inequality + social problem but still may not be acted on as government only listen to powerful groups, certain policies blocked by powerful companies - government make popular short-term decisions to aid electability rather than beneficial but tough long-term decisions |
