Key Theories Flashcards
What are norms?
Appropriate and acceptable behaviour in society. E.g. using cutlery, wearing shoes
What are values?
Provide general guidelines for conduct.
Are the belief that something is desirable and worth striving for
E.g. respecting human life
What are mores?
Behaviours that are completely unacceptable but not illegal. Individuals should expect swift punishment if committed.
E.g. bullying, cheating
What is socialisation?
The process of learning norms and values
Primary socialisation: learn first set of norm and values, comes from family
Secondary socialisation: learn second set of norms and values. Comes from religion, peers, education, work, media
What are social roles?
The patterns of behaviour that are expected from people holding certain positions in society.
E.g. nurses should be attentive, caring, and compassionate
What is anomie?
A normless society that provides little social control which leads to chaos
E.g. London 2012 riots
What is the Functionalist view of society?
- Positive view (consensus theory)
- Different parts of society/institutions need to and do work together for society to function
- Society is like a human body where the organs (institutions work together to keep the body running) - the organic analogy
- Society runs on meritocratic principles
What do Functionalists believe are the roles of institutions?
- MEETING SOCIETY’S NEEDS
- To teach norms and values
- To create social solidarity (social order)
- To create collective consciousness
- To maintain social cohesion
What do Functionalists believe is needed for value consensus?
- Socialisation: everyone needs to learn society’s norms and values e.g. primary socialisation from family and secondary from religion and education
- Social integration: everyone should feel a sense of belonging to society e.g. nationalism, civil religion, British Values in school
- Social control: being rewarded for conformity and sanctioned for deviance e.g. police arresting law breakers and judgement from family and peers enforcing informal social control
What is Parsons’ AGIL Schema?
Functional Prerequisites which must be fulfilled by social systems using:
- Adaptations: the social system must adapt to material needs - the economic subsystem e.g. in times of recession the cost of living should ease
- Goal attainment: society sets goals that should be achievable for its members. Everyone is allocated resources to help achieve them - the political subsystem e.g. pay to buy schemes help people meet the goal of owning a home
- Integration: different institutions work together to help individuals achieve goals as they all share the same beliefs, norms, and values e.g. family teaches you to value school and the education system teaches you skills for work
- Latency: society’s institutions staying consistent over a long period of time - this is especially useful during times of social change as it provides a safety net e.g. the church has been able to provide comfort throughout centuries of social change
What is Durkheim’s view of social change?
AO2
- Pre-industrial society was like an amoeba: regenerative, lacks needs, and can survive on its own - society existed is small farming communities which didn’t require interconnectedness
- Modern society is like a human body: different institutions work together for common goals - we now have universalistic standards and a specialised division of labour
What is structural differentiation?
- Institutions are starting to take over responsibilities of other institutions
- e.g. science has taken on religion’s role of answering ultimate questions
- ANALYSIS: Over 50% of the population is irreligious
How can we evaluate Parsons?
He exaggerates the differences between the institutions - they compliment each other rather than take over their roles
How does Merton evaluate Parsons?
- Institutions are NOT indispensable - Parsons argues primary socialisation happens most efficiently in the nuclear family by this is an untested argument - other types could provide the same socialisation
- Functional unity is false - not all institutions directly impact each other e.g. changes to basketball rules impacts the institution of sport but not whether people go to church on Sunday (institution of religion goes unaffacted)
What does Merton believe about society?
Merton was a neo-functionalist who recognises that there was dysfunction is society that needs to be explained. He believes that this is due to manifest and latent function
Manifest = Intended function
Latent function = Unintended consequences
e.g. Hopi Indian Rain Dance: manifest = making rain come, latent = social solidarity in times of hardship
What do Functionalists believe about meritocracy?
Meritocracy = a social system that gives status and rewards based on achievement
Functionalists believe that as society is meritocratic social mobility is possible
2 types of meritocracy:
- Intra-generational: movement of an individual over their lifetime
- Inter-generational: movement between generations
What is the Marxist view of society?
We live in a capitalist society that perpetuates a system where the rich exploit the poor
The key to capitalism is:
- workers
- means of production e.g. factories, machinery
- those who control the means of production
There is a conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat which makes revolution inevitable
What classes does Marx identify?
- Proletariat: workers of means of production. Exploited by the bourgeoisie - sell their labour to them as they create goods they sell for profit
- Bourgeoisie: owners of the means of production. Own capital and buy labour from the proletariat
- Lumpenproletariat: vagrants, unemployed, unskilled workers. Unorganised, not politically motivated, and uninterested in revolutionary advancement - devoid of class consciousness
- Petty Bourgeoisie: Lowest status of MC. They think and vote like the bourgeoisie and imitate their lifestyle as they aim to become one of them - also devoid of class consciousness
Is Marx’s view of class still relevant?
NO - British Class Survey has found that class in the modern day is decided by social and cultural capital as well as income
e.g. emergent service workers were a new class identified - typically young people who just entered the workforce - are very educated but lack money
How do Marxists explain social change?
Each society has had its own form of exploitation
- Ancient Society: slaves were tied to owners
- Feudal Society: serfs were legally tied to landowners, lords, and kins
- Capitalist Society: free wage labourers (proletariat) are tied to bourgeoisie bosses
There has always been a surplus of resources and people in power decided how its spent. As technology and our relations change over time, revolutions occur meet these changes. Communist society is simply the next step of revolution
What is the relationship between the base and superstructure?
- Base = means of production, relations of production, and capital
- Superstructure = everything not directly related to production e.g. art, family, law, media, education
- The base shapes the superstructure as the forces of production, especially the bourgeoisie, decide how the superstrucure operates. This reinforces the base
- e.g. family being a unit of consumption, myth of meritocracy in education, religion being the opium of the people
What do Marxists believe about exploitation?
The rich in society take advantage of and exploit the poor: long hours, low pay, little to no sick pay, etc
This allows the bourgeoisie to profit from the bad treatment of the proletariat. This is the main feature of a capitalist society
What is false class consciousness?
- False sense of class awareness that is preventing a proletariat revolution
- e.g. the myth of meritocracy
- ANALYSIS: Grenfell Tower Fire led to a class awakening as the most marginalised WC were put at risk of death for bourgeoisie profit
What do Marxists think about social mobility?
Marxists believe meritocracy is a myth and therefore social mobility is not possible.
Even if proletariat do climb the social ladder there will always be factors that will prevent them from permanently becoming bourgeoisie e.g. having to sell their business
This causes the bourgeoisie to get smaller and richer and the proletariat to get bigger and poorer
What is Bourdieu’s view of meritocracy?
- Social capital = social groups and conections an individual has based on their social position
- Cultural capital = skills, knowledge, attribute, beliefs, norms, and values an individual has due to their social position
- Lack of these act as barriers to meritocracy
What are the criticisms of Marxism?
- Weber: status and power matter more than class
- Economic determinism: Functionalists say social mobility is possible due to meritocracy
- Ignores growing modern middle class - Marx anticipated that the middle class would shrink and form a larger working class but the opposite has happened
- Feminists say they ignore gender inequality
- We are still yet to have a successful communist revolution
What did Devine find?
‘New Affluent Worker’:
- Studied workers at a car plant in Luton
- Had a level of affluence where they could afford luxuries such as cars and holidays
- Had changed politically - no longer strictly labour voters as didn’t trust them to make a difference
What is Harvey’s view?
- Deindustrialisation and globalisation have sped up capitalism and made proletaria exploitation worse e.g. sweatshops
- Flexible accumulation: capitalists can take advantage of globalisation to produce quicker and cheaper than ever - CRITICISES MARX - he believed that the nation state was the main agent of exploitation
- National governments have declined in importance and been replaced by international organisations e.g. NATO, UN
- We now have a sense of image politics - the people we vote for and the people in power are different - those funding the government continue to benefit - politicians are image lobbyists
- People no longer think on class lines and vote on other issues e.g. environment, immigration
What is Althusser’s view?
Rejects Marx’s idea of a one-way system and provides a model of two-way causality between the 3 levels of society:
1. The economic level: production in order to satisfy needs ( basically Marx’s ‘base’)
2. The political level: organisations - also the repressive state apparatus e.g. army and police used to control proletariat through force
3. The ideological level: the way people see themselves and the world - the ideological state apparatus e.g. education and media - teaches and enforces bourgeois beliefs, norms, and values
The ideological and political levels are not mere reflections of the economic level as Marx would say - they have ‘relative autonomy’ and can influence the economic level (and each other) just as they are influenced by it
What is Craib’s analogy for Althusser’s view?
Three Storey Building Analogy:
- Top Living Quarters = ideological
- First Floor Offices = political
- Ground Floor Shop = economic
A busy period in the shop -> office deciding to hire more people -> owner living in top floor being able to afford luxuries as they have more profit - economic level impacts ideological and political
Owner deciding to have a child -> goes on maternity leave in the office -> less business - ideological impacts economic and political
Firing someone in the office -> owner can’t go on holiday as have to spend more time in shop + ground floor being slower due to being understaffed - political can impact ideological and economic
How can we analyse Althusser?
- Political impacting ideological and economic - euthanasia bill would reduce dependency ratio and lead to a greater acceptance of death
- ## Ideological impacting economic and political - acceptance of LGBTQ led to legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2013 - gay couples have more spending power which increases economic investment - pink pound
