Intro, History, and Theories Flashcards
What is sociology?
- study of society and social interaction
- a multi-perspectival science (many perspectives/paradigms)
- key insight: being in a group changes your behaviour
- sociologists study all aspects and levels of society
social interaction
anything involving at least 2 people (even in the seclusion of one’s mind)
society
- a group of people whose members interact, reside in a definable area, and share a culture
- society is not an object, and is not independent of the individual
culture
group’s shared practices, values, beliefs, norms, and artifacts
micro-level analysis
focuses on social dynamics of intimate, face-to-face interactions (ex. between family, co-workers, etc.)
4 levels of analysis
- micro (primary)
- meso
- macro (primary)
- global
macro-level analysis
focuses on large-scale, society-wide interactions (ex. institutions, classes, societies)
Sociological imagination
- Proposed by C. Wright Mills
- the ability to see your private troubles in the context of the broad social processes that contain them
early history of sociology
- Ancient Greeks provided foundation
- 13th century Chinese historians recognized the importance of social dynamics
- Sociology established as a discipline in the 19th century (due in part to development of modern science)
Rationalism vs. empiricism
- rationalism: using the truth of reasoning and ideas
- empiricism: making careful, methodical, detailed observations of the world
important people in the history of sociology
- August Comte
- Karl Marx
- Harriet Martineau
- Emile Durkheim
- Max Weber
- Georg Simmel
August Comte
- “father of sociology”
- created positivism: scientific study of social patterns
Karl Marx
- critically analyzed capitalism
- saw material and economic basis of inequality as a cause of social instability and conflict
- believed that sociology (or historical materialism) should be a “ruthless critique of everything existing”
- created framework for critical sociology -> rigorously analyzing society in order to change it
capitalism
- economic system characterized by private ownership of goods and the means to produce them
- inherently unstable
why is capitalism unstable?
- need to expand markets and create cheap products -> reduce cost of production -> downward pressure on wages -> failure of businesses, economic crises and recessions, etc.
- yet the capitalists rely on worker’s labour to produce wealth -> injustice may eventually lead to its destruction
Harriet Martineau
- first female sociologist
- focused on social reform movements, added women’s perspective to sociology
- recognized that researcher/subject relationship needed to be different in social sciences vs. hard sciences (ex. impartiality, critique, sympathy)
Emile Durkheim
- helped establish sociology as an academic discpline by establishing the first department of sociology at a university
- represented the sociologist as a doctor -> healthy societies were stable, unhealthy ones experienced a breakdown and needed social remedy
- saw religion as something that functioned to unify society
- key figure in development of positivist sociology
anomie
state of normlessness (no clear direction and purpose to individual action)
Max Weber
- noted that business leaders and owners of capital were Protestant
- focused on development of the “Protestant work ethic”: duty to work hard
- argued that Western society developed due to rationalism
- introduced concept of “verstehen”: understanding in a deep way (ex. an outsider understanding another culture from an insider’s POV)
- founded interpretive sociology
interpretive sociology
finding systematic means to interpret and describe meanings behind social processes, cultural norms, and societal values
Georg Simmel
- wanted to know how society is possible
- developed formal sociology (sociology of social forms)
- proposed “tragedy of culture”: social forms like interactions, art, music, etc. tend to detach themselves from lived experiences, and humans have a limited ability to understand them
theory
a way to explain different aspects of social interactions and create testable propositions about society
paradigms
frameworks used to formulate theories, generalizations, and research performed in support of them
3 types of sociological knowledge
- positivist sociology
- interpretive sociology
- critical sociology
4 paradigms of sociological thinking
- structural functionalism
- critical sociology
- feminism
- symbolic interaction
positivist sociology
- emphasizes empirical observation and measurement; values neutrality and objectivity
- forms: quantitive sociology and functionalism
quantitive sociology
uses statistical methods and surveys with large numbers of participants
structural functionalism
- describing sociology in terms of objective social facts -> how each party of society functions to create a whole
- macro-level
mechanical solidarity vs. organic solidarity vs. dynamic equilibrium
- mech solidarity: shared collective consciousness with harsh punishment for deviation from norms
- org solidarity: complex system of interrelated parts working together to maintain stability
- dynamic equilibrium: stable state; combination of mech and org solidarity
AGIL
- Adaptation (adapting to environment)
- Goal attainment
- Integration (achieving social cohesion)
- Latent pattern maintenance (maintaining cultural patterns and belief systems)
manifest functions vs. latent functions
- manifest: consequences of sought-after actions (ex. manifest function of going to college = getting degree)
- latent: consequences that aren’t sought-after (ex. college = making friends)
dysfunctions
social processes with undesirable consequences (ex. getting bad grades)
symbolic interactionism
- one-to-one interactions and communications -> exchange of meaning through language and symbols
- micro-level
critical sociology
- how inequalities contribute to social differences of power and perpetuate them
- using liberation and social change to achieve social justice
- macro level
- ex. feminism, historical materialism
interpretive perspective
understanding or interpreting human activity in terms of the meanings that humans attribute to it
historical materialism
how our everyday lives are structured by relations between power and economic processes
mode of production
the way human societies use resources in order to meet their needs
feminist sociology
focuses on power relationships and inequalities between women and men
why study sociology?
- learn how to think critically about social issues
- prepares you for careers in a diverse society
- helps make informed decisions about social issues
