Using examples describe a range of sociological perspectives and theories (including both classic and contemporary perspectives)
Unit 4: Applying Sociology Task One . Using examples describe a range of sociological perspectives and theories (including both classic and contemporary perspectives) Sociologists try to explain how society orders itself but there are many different theories for this, which often conflict with one another. Some of these classic theories include Marxism, Functionalism, and Interactionism. There are also more modern or contemporary theories such as Feminism. Each sociological perspective has different beliefs. Marxists are concerned with the distribution of economic power and wealth. They believe that society is in conflict between two classes. Those classes are the Bourgeoisie; who own the means of production, i.e. land and the Proletariat; who sell labour to these owners for wages. The Proletariat are being exploited in order for the Bourgeoisie to gain economic and cultural power over them; Marxists believe this leads to antagonism, arguments and conflict between the two classes. An example of this could be in a factory. The manager owns the factory, which is a means of production, so he is a Bourgeoisie whereas the factory workers are the Proletariat because they work for the manager in exchange for wages. Functionalists argue that society is organised much like the Human Body. Everything must function correctly in order for society to work as a whole, just like
Undertake an analysis of the extent the classical sociological theories of Durkheim, Marx and Weber have shaped contemporary organisational theory.
Undertake an analysis of the extent the classical sociological theories of Durkheim, Marx and Weber have shaped contemporary organisational theory. In your analysis also discuss the implications of the three critical perspectives, functionalism, symbolic interactionism and conflict theory, on organisational theory. This assignment will comment upon the three classical theories of Marx, Durkheim and Weber and the way that these three theories have spawned three classical perspectives (Conflict Theory, Functionalism and Symbolic Internationalism), and then in turn analyse how they have changed organisational theory today. With Marx's theories occurring during a transitional period he identifies a change in society that results in two key pieces of work these being "Conflict theory" and "Theory of alienation". Most of Marx's works emphasis is on how capitalist society has changed society and the effect it has had on many key institutions of society (Education, economics etc.), His works were pivotal in the transitional period where society moved from feudalism to capitalism as his research and theories provided many explanations for a changing society. As industry found itself under a power shift from where ownership of the means of production was a greater indicator of power than ownership of land, he argued that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. For the poor to
Assess the usefulness of functionalist approaches to the understanding of the role of education in society.
Katie Fryer 12M Assess the usefulness of functionalist approaches to the understanding of the role of education in society. Education is one aspect of socialization, it often helps to shape beliefs and moral values. Functionalist analysis in general tends to focus on the positive contributions this is also true for the functionalist view of education, which tends to focus on the positive contributions made by education to the maintenance of the social system. How useful are the functionalist approaches to the understanding of the role in society though? Emile Durkheim was the first functionalist and used biological analogy. An example of biological analogy in practice would be education being linked to the family and kinship, power and politics, culture and community and also economy. According to Durkheim the major role of education was the transmission of societies norms and values. He said that the family and peer groups cannot promote the social solidarity of individuals, only the modern education system because the family is based on principles. The modern education system however teaches the basic rules of co-operation that is necessary for our society. The family is made up of relationships and peer groups are based on personal choice. Being a member of society however is not made up upon these principles. People have to learn to co-operate with those who are
Major trends of Sociology
Describe and analyse briefly three major trends of sociological theories Sociological theories and perspectives seek to explain or understand the way in which society functions. (Haralambos 1995, p7) defines a sociological theory as "a set of ideas that claims to explain how society or aspects of society work". This essay will examine the similarities and differences between three of the main theories Functionalism, Marxism and Interactionism. All three are traced back to theories adopted by sociologists in the nineteenth century. Marxism came from the German philosopher Karl Marx (1818-1883); Functionalism was originally derived by Auguste Compte (1798-1857). It was then developed further by Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) and Interactionism was developed by Max Weber (1864-1920). Each theoretical approach has to some extent been shaped or influenced by the approach of others and many sociological perspectives display marked similarities, or a range of differences that can be traced to a reaction against previously held ideas. It would be foreseeable that such a broad subject as sociology should give rise to a variety of approaches: it would be impossible to categorise the vast amount of social change that has occurred over centuries by attempting to apply a single theoretical approach. Functionalism, or structural consensus, was developed as a concept by the French
Critically evaluate the sociological accounts of how individuals acquire their identities through the process of socialization.
Critically evaluate the sociological accounts of how individuals acquire their identities through the process of socialization. The identity refers to the sense that someone has of who they are, of what is most important about them. There is strong relationship between the acquirement of the identity by individuals and the process of socialization. In the article, I will critically evaluate how does this acquirement take place, by contrasting the Social-action perspective and Social-structure perspectives, which are both criticized by the Feminist; and brought together by using Gidden's concept of structuration. In general, we can define there are two kinds of identity for each individuals in the society. The personal identity, it refers to how a personal think about others; and the social identity, it refers how they are perceived by others. These two kinds of identity help the individual to create the society in one hand, on the other hand, make the force of others (society) act to the individual on their range and choice of behaviours. To tell how the identity be created by people or acquired by from society and the process of socialization, we can contrast the Structuralist perspective and the Interactionist Perspective. On one side, the Structuralist argue that the society shape people in its own image; Where on the other side, the Interactionist view that as people
What is sociology?
Samantha Clarke What is sociology? Sociology is the study of how society is organised and how we experience life. Sociology examines how our behavior individually and in groups is influenced by social processes and what that means. Sociology studies people in their everyday environments at every level. Sociologists study a variety of things including human interaction which means people’s behavior with others in any situation for example, a teacher with their students. These interactions and roles lead to social institutions such as family or mass media. These institutions all form the social structure which is linked to the way in which a whole society is organised. Sociologists have advanced theories about how society works, this is due to the fact that it is a controversial issue where sociologists have different opinions and so different perspectives about how society works. Sociology involves looking at social trends and patterns of behavior e.g. different behavior’s in a classroom and different explanations for things. Within sociology, there are many different theories created by sociologists such as Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx, who all worked in the 19th / early 20th centuries. Emile Durkheim believed that sociology was a separate science from other subjects and should concern itself with the scientific study of social facts. Max Weber was
Interpretivism - Sociological Perspectives.
Septimus El-Dallal (wk 9) - Seminar: Theory and Methods Interpretivism From the time of the Renaissance success in scientific method in understanding the dynamics of nature and bringing it under control gave thinkers in the age of Reason faith in its ability to also understand how humans functioned and lived. There was, it was suspected, a science that has a formula for human happiness and harmony. Increasingly, positivist method (associated with empiricism and science discourse) made its way into Human study. Sociological study took its premises from nature, for nature as a system was a harmonious whole whereas between its constituent parts and its units there was much competition and conflict. So it was thought that society had something natural about it, in the way that in worked it was organic. The structure of society was studied, its individuals determined by structures and its institutions were preserving mechanisms for those structures. Sociological Perspectives * Structure o Structuralism * Consensus * Conflict However, in time, contending theories spread to propagate the idea that humans are not as simple or predictable as natural process, they were unlike atoms and molecules, nor did they just amount to cells and tissues and certainly they were not impersonal waves of energy and magnetism. Humans as agents had free-will; they
"Mead was to claim that 'human behaviour could not be reduced to biological or physiological states'. Evaluate this claim with reference to Mead's concepts of the 'I' and the 'me'."
"Mead was to claim that 'human behaviour could not be reduced to biological or physiological states'. Evaluate this claim with reference to Mead's concepts of the 'I' and the 'me'." This essay aims to evaluate the claim made by George Herbert Mead, that 'human behaviour could not be reduced to biological or physiological states. I will make this evaluation using mead's concepts of the ''I'' and the ''me''. I will begin the essay by writing an overview of Meads works, citing the influences of his sociology, moving on to explicitly denote his notion of "social behaviourism" and the emphasis of the self and the mind within his works. George Herbert Mead (1863 - 1931), a pragmatist philosopher, sociologist and social psychologist, steeped in the Chicago school of sociology, with his influence today recognised as "symbolic interactionism". Mead called his approach "social behaviourism." Drawing on Dewey and Charles Cooley, Mead stressed "the conscious mind and the self-awareness and self-regulation of social actors" (i.e., the individual who performs an action). Mead saw the Self as emerging from the social interaction of humans in which the individual takes on the role of the "other" and internalises the attitudes he perceives in both real and imagined others. The interaction of an individual's self-conception ("I") and the generalized, perceived view that others have of the
Sociological Theories
Sociological Theory - An Introduction. Sociological Theories. Functionalism was founded by Emile Durkheim. Functionalism is a theory of society, it is a structural theory and it is a consensus theory. The functionalist perspective was one of the first to develop a theoretical explanation of how societies work. It has produced a structural approach to the study of society where consensus is seen as essential, as without it society would collapse into chaos. It looks at how social order is created. It believes that value consensus results in social solidarity and this value consensus is created through socialization. Functionalism also looks at society as a whole and works on the idea that society determines the individual. Functionalists believe that in modern society individuals are integrated into groups. The individual is born into a family where they have their basic needs met, some individuals will be born into a religious family and will therefore become apart of a group who have shared interests, this integration continues throughout an individuals life. It is believed that groups in society regulate the behaviour of the individual through formal and informal sanctions. In the workplace if a person is not performing to a satisfactory level they may be warned or fired but if they are doing a really good job they may get a promotion or be praised verbally.
Is sociology a science?
Is sociology a science? The relation ship between sociology and science has been the focus of a great deal of debate. One of the simplest definitions of sociology is 'the study of people in social groups'. Sociology is not a unified subject. As well as several broad perspectives each with different theoretical strands, there is an important methodological division between those who favour quantitative research and those who collect data in an attempt to study the meanings behind the social behaviour of people. Depending on the way science is defined, some sociology may meet the scientific criteria whilst others do not. The difficulty with talking about basing research on scientific principle is that we have differing versions of those principles. The functionalist perspective would agree that sociology is a science, and like the natural scientists see an organism e.g. the human body as a system that works together sociologists attempt to see society as an organism. If biologists wanted to see how an organism works they might begin examining the various parts i.e. brain, lungs e.t.c. However they wouldn't simply analyse the parts in isolation from each other, as they would be unable to explain how life is maintained. To do this they would have to examine the parts in relation to each other, since they work together to maintain the life of the organism. In functionalism the
