Max Horkheimer

Ferdinand Tonnies was a German sociologist who in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, contributed many important works to the field of sociology. Tonnies' work focused largely on academic theory relating to society and social interaction, particularly because it is related to social change and the beliefs and traditions that guide society, but he is remembered for his distinction between two basic types of social groups- • Gemeinschaft (community) • Gesellschaft (society) This was his…

Modern society is a complex phenomenon of which our understanding is hugely enhanced by the science of sociology. It is the scientific study of human interaction, social groups, whole societies and the world as such. Sociology entails devloping a ‘social imagination’ meaning linking personal troubles and public issues. (Sutton, 2013, S. 7) This social science aims to make the ambiguity of human interaction more accessible and concrete. It was Comte, who attributed the name sociology to the…

George Herbert Mead, was an American sociologist from the late 1800s. He was born in 1863 and died in 1931. His study was primarily based in the Chicago school of sociological thought. Mead was and to this day is, one of their most prestigious sociologists from that school. He is also regarded as one of the founding fathers of social psychology in America. Mead was also a psychologist and philosopher and one of his most famous works was his theory of the social self, which incorporated the…

The capitalistic system is what drives a community and the globe toward growth and progression. According to Durkheim a regulated type of capitalism is essential to that individualism develops under markets and there is now a freedom to challenge ideas. Weber theorizes more about the improvement of class, economics, agency, and meaning of how we interpret the world. Karl Marx on the contrary critiques capitalism in a way that it needs to be overthrown and a revolution needs to take place to…

This analysis will critically review chapter six ‘The Heart of Liberalism’ of ‘Liberalism’ by Hobhouse (1911), in which he states his main principles and arguments on his idea of social liberalism. To him, this ideology should evolve and develop with time to fulfil the needs of society, so it can be seen as an expansion to John Stuart Mill’s view of classical liberalism (1859, pg.8). The main argument Hobhouse presents is the concept of organicism in society and its strong link with the…

In this essay, Cox explains the effectiveness of critical theory by applying to it the ideas of the social forces to represent the subjective outcome of critical theory where he mentions that:"Theory is always for someone and for some purpose." (Cox, p 128). He explains that all theories tend to have perspectives where he mentions that perspectives are derived from a specific position in time and space, but mostly through social, political time and space. (Cox, p 128). According to Baylis and…

There are three approaches to understanding power: pluralism, elitism, and Marxism. They serve differing views on the distribution of political power and of the sources and nature of conflict within a society. Pluralists focus on how decisions are made and analyze competing power sources. Pluralism is consistent with capitalist democracy and focuses not on the collective, but rather on competing groups. Pluralism allows for different sections within society to be heard by the government. This…

Introduction The term “sociological imagination” was created by C. Wright. Mills (1959) to explain the relationship between the individual and the society. The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within the society (Mills, 1959). It is the capacity to shift from one perspective to another, and see the connection between personal trouble and public issues (Mills, 1959). To understand oneself, we must fully understand the…

The term symbolic interactionism was coined by Herbert Blumer to describe a distinctly different theoretical approach to sociology than the predominant orthodoxies of the day. The symbolic interaction perspective has come to be one of the principle frameworks of sociological theory. From the symbolic interaction perspective, we come to understand the social world through an understanding of the symbolic meanings that people develop and depend upon in the process of social interactions.…

The chapter titled “Saving Marriage by Banning Marriage” uses structural-functionalist theory. This theory “sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of the individuals in that society” (Lumen). One of the parts that works together with the others is religion. This fits the study because religion is a main influence on the voters’ opinions in this study. The whole chapter was based around the Christian Right. Also, several churches came…