Functionalism

Self Presentation The Sociologist and writer, Erving Goffman are widely known for his social theories presented in his book “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life”. His work created a basis for sociology which is the study of a functioning human in society and for modern America. In this essay, his different theories will be discussed through a personal experience I had in my life while engaging in interpersonal communications. I will first start out with who I am and how I…

1. Distributive Justice is the question in social philosophy of how resources are to be distributed in society. A sub-portion of this question for example, is “should members of society be forced to contribute to the welfare of others?” 2. Strict Egalitarianism refers to a concept of radical equality of distribution. That all resources are to be evenly distributed amongst the populous; often on the grounds of individuals being morally equal and therefore, should be equal in access to…

My theoretical tendencies on social change are most aligned with critical theory. This is not because I am overly critical of all aspects of society, however, I am most often critical of the structural systems in place that appear to work as machines of oppression and interest groups rather than social justice and equality. This personal predisposition supports an approach that is congruent with structural social work theory. Structural social work critiques existing social, economic, and…

Habermas, Jürgen, et al. “The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article (1964).” New German Critique, no. 3, 1974, pp. 49–55. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/487737. The “Encyclopedia Article” by Habermas provides the foundations/ transformation for the public sphere, as a concept, its history, the liberal model, and in the social welfare state mass democracy. The overall thesis for the article by Habermas is to provide a basic, foundational understanding of the public sphere. Habermas…

Sociology involves a unique way of thinking as one should have a broad mind in order to see little difference in everyday routine (Johnson Bethany 03 June 2015). Indeed, the sociological imagination is a concept used by the American sociologist C. Wright Mills to describe the ability to “think yourself away from the familiar routines of everyday life” and look at them from an entirely new perspective (Johnson Bethany 03 June 2015). In order to develop such skills, one must be able to free…

As mentioned in the present chapter, symbolic interactionism is an important theory in sociology that examines “how we [as humans] construct meanings, how we use symbols to communicate with one another and how symbols are the foundation of our world” (Henslin, 2012). In the field of sociology this theory consists of three fundamental themes –“humans have a self,” “people construct meanings, and act on the basis of those meanings” and “people take into account the possible reactions of others”…

Sociology is the study of the structure of society, human relationships, and the behavior of organized groups. It analyzes social worlds and the individuals that live within them (Dykstra-Crookshanks 2017). These studies include a wide range of subjects such as culture, gender, ethnicity, and race. Our world is filled with social issues and movies are a way for filmmakers to portray social conflicts. These movies can be made to increase awareness of issues or to simply make a statement about…

If one is to understand contemporary social life, then one has to study the history of social theory in order to make sense of today’s world. Gramsci and Habermas are both sociologists, and they both help to explain how society works and functions through power. Gramsci’s power relations of civil/ political societies and hegemony and Habermas’ model of system and lifeworld both affect social change. I will be examining how the power of civil and political societies create active consent and…

What is society? Is it the people we surround ourselves with? Or the those who know next to nothing about us, yet judge? It is human nature to judge people on first impressions. First impressions are very basic and many times biased or totally false because you have yet to “scratch the iceberg of their personality”. That is where social standings come in, most people believe that the more people you surround yourself with, the more social you are, but it’s a mixture of that and also what random…

Social philosophy claims to have prominent places for protest and mass movement. This paper is an attempt to explore these concepts in the eyes of three Modern Indian philosophers, i.e., Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. People protest for many reasons. Social psychology has lots to offer the study of protest. At the heart of every protest are grievances, such as experience of illegitimate inequality,…