Lecture 4 Flashcards
What are the three main features of modernity?
*Production
–Changes in farming, industry, mining,
transportation
–Division of labor- emphasis on efficiency and
rationality
*Consumption
–Emergence of urban (mass) consumption of
goods, services, images
*Reproduction
–New forms of lodging, family, community,
society, education
What are the challenges of modernity?
–Poverty
–Wide gaps of income and status
–Crime, disorder, violence and danger
–Stress and loneliness
Industrial progress (but loss of community and loss of values)
Examples of democracy and how it challenges religion?
American and French revolution
- Promote science and challenges control of religious institutions
Explain nation states and how they are a challenge of modernity?
Emerge in Europe
Government has control over defined territory
These developments were the challenges of the first sociologists
What is Durkheim’s main question?
“How human societies managed to cohere”
What is the major process Durkheim studied?
Society from simple to complex forms
What is Mechanical Solidarity? (Pre-modern)
*In Small-scale rural society ppl share blood ties and kinship
–Experiences and ideals
–Religious belief
–Consciousness and identity
- In larger-scale urban society people:
–Face complex divisions of labor
–Compete with each other
–Cease to share consciousness, beliefs, ideals
What is Organic Solidarity?
individual differences,
greater freedom,
and choice thrive in a complex division of labor where inhabitants are interdependent
Organic solidarity is based on
interdependence
Organic vs Mechanical Solidarity?
Mechanical (older): Solidarity, we all work together cuz we are similar and know each other
Organic: New: We are not the same, you are my boss, work together cuz we need to
What is Anomie?
–Moral confusion, alienation arising from sudden shifts from mechanical to organic solidarity
Explain materialistic determinism (Marx)
Determinism – the direction of human
history is preditermined
- Materialistic : All our experiences are based on a struggle over means of production
What are the two conditions of Capitalist Social Order?
- Commodities are produced for sale to make a profit. As opposed to self-subsistence where things are made
to cater to one’s needs. - Wage labor – people sell their work to survive
Why Capitalism Can’t survive?
Grow or die
Cycle of business: try pay ppl little, they revolt
but according to marx they’ll gain class consciousness (which will be revolutionary)
Why do people stay for generations under conditions of oppression?
- The oppressed accept the moral views of their oppressors
- The class interests of those in power are presented as universal values of the entire society
- Production of dominant ideology by schools, family, and religion (Criticized, removes all agency from a person)
What was the major process discussed by Weber?
“rationalization”
- Sociology is the study of social action
- Sociology is a bridge between
the studies of mind and the
studies of matter
