Max Horkheimer

In sociology, there are three major theoretical perspectives – Functionalist, Conflict, and Interactionist. Each of these three standpoints demonstrate different outlooks and beliefs of why things socially occur in general. Essentially, it is a group fixed assumptions about societies that answers underlying questions we may ask ourselves. These perspectives are vital to our understanding and acknowledgment of the way we naturally interpret social interactions. Functionalist Perspective,…

How can we explain the phenomenon responsible for shaping what we’ve become? Is it environmental factors, personal upbringing, culture and traditional influences or a set of cultured beliefs? According to Macionis (2015), “Sociology teaches us that the social world guides our life choices in much the same way that the seasons influence our choice of clothing”. Therefore, society determines the kind of person we eventually turn out to be. Reflecting on my own personal experiences, I realize that…

Emile Durkheim today is known for his work in “sociology”. In Durkheim’s assessment in relation to employment, he firmly believed that work-related knowledge posed limitations of people’s choices in the workforce. Durkheim believed that “crime” is a typical attribute in all civilizations. Durkheim was a recognized for his thoughts on how “society” was organized. Durkheim concentrated his work on the operational of the usual and contemporary groups (Hurst, 2017). As stated by Hurt (2017),…

Cultural tastes differ from person to person, however, it has been the aim of many sociologists to try and identify a pattern or trend between cultural tastes means of social stratification, such as class. Cultural tastes can span a wide range of different activities and products, such as art, literature, and dance. However, music is most suited for the purposes of this essay as it has been widely studied and allows us to see a wide range of contrasting alternatives in the context of class…

Immanuel Wallerstein's World Systems Theory is one of the many influential theories that has shaped the social sciences in the late 20th century. First proposing the theory in his 1974 book, The Modern World System, Wallerstein sees the concept as not a theory, but as part of a larger “knowledge movement” that “[rejects] social science categories inherited from the nineteenth century”, aiming to construct a new approach to social science (Wallenstein 2013: 1). This new approach conceptualises…

Resocialization: How Agents of Socialization Affect Nature Vs. Nurture In the world of Sociology, there is no normal way of being socialized. Sociologists define socialization as process of which people come to know of their culture. Without socialization, we would not have knowledge of our culture, thus without culture we would not be able to have a society. Therefore, for any society to be possible, socialization is an important process. The agents of socialization we are exposed to are…

Modern Adaptation of “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” (Essay 3) In the year 1959, sociologist Erving Goffman wrote his sociological classic “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life”. In his book, Goffman discusses his views on identity and what he calls the dramaturgical perspective. Under this perspective, Goffman argues that the life of an individual is a performance and the people who we surround ourselves with become the audience to this performance. Being that this book was…

Erving Goffman is a contemporary theorist whose work on understanding society through ‘Stage’, explains human behavior within different societal settings. Stage is a metaphor used to describe the self, which is defined as an individual’s performance that is created according to a specific impression or situation that is occuring. Presenting an image of oneself is necessary to establish social order, by manipulating the perceptions of other people on how we want them to see us and can become very…

While there may be many various explanations to the theory, involving the sociological imagination, C. Wright Mills explains it as one of the key ways, in which individuals can understand society and social change. (sociological imagination handout, pg3) It is similar to putting on a new pair of glasses, in this case, with sociological lenses. One may begin to see the world, society, behaviors, and everyday interactions in a distinctively different way. To apply the sociological imagination,…

JAIMINKUMAR PAREKH 7792906 ASSIGNMENT; CRIME ANALYSIS CASE ANALYSIS OF ZIMMERMAN VERSUS MARTIN USING SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES Sociological theories helps to understand relationships between individual and the society. “Sociological theories are defined as the statements of how and why particular facts are related.... used to analyze and explain objects of social study and facilitate organizing sociological knowledge”,(sociological perspective, 2013). The 2013 case Zimmerman versus Martin is a…