Module 3 Flashcards
What’s the difference between behaviour and action?
behaviour is natural, instinctual
action occurs in response to another person
How is Weber’s concern with subjective meaning different from Durkheim’s focus on social facts?
Weber - A person acts according to the subjective meaning of their own and other’s behaviour
Durkheim - a social fact is a widespread idea within society of how people should act and people act according to social facts
How did Weber and Durkheim view collectivity differently?
Durkheim - the collective influenced individuals
Weber - Individuals influence the collective and have more choice than in Durkheim’s theory. Their actions are based on their interactions with others at an individual level, moreso than the collective
How are subjective meanings different from objective meanings?
subjective: Based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.
Objective: (of a person or their judgement) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.
Why are objective meanings more available for scientific study than subjective meanings?
- rationalism and devoid of emotion
- statistical
- can be labelled as fact
Superstructure
Secondary social phenomena
Ex- the state and culture
Economically based
Economy determines the superstructure
Base (Marx)
-the economy determines the nature of everything else in society
Culture industry
Movies, radio, etc
Makes culture more important than economy
Mass culture
Culture made for and available to the masses
One-dimensional society
Marcuse
Result of breakdown of relationship between people and larger structures they created and are controlled by
People lose capacity to be creative and think critically and negatively about the structures that oppress them
Technocratic thinking
Concern with being efficient and finding a means to an end
Knowledge industry
Research institutes, universities, etc
Become autonomous and serve their own interests instead of those of society
Intent on expanding their influence over society
Reason
The assessment of means to an end in terms of ultimate human values (Justice, freedom, happiness)
Irrationality if rationality
Rational systems inevitably spawn a series of irrationalities
Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991)
Theorized the nature of space and it’s relationship to social life
Absolute spaces
Built in natural locations that embody religious and political principals
Spaces that serve interests of political and religious elites
Historical space
Produced when separate nations vie with one another for power and accumulation of wealth
Abstract space
Space produced within modern capitalist society
Space treated as a problem that needs to be solved
Space dominates nature and all unique human forms
Differential space
Hoped for space that would accentuate difference and freedom from control and restore the natural unity that is broken by abstract space
David Harvey
Critiqued the communist manifesto in relation to space
Wants us to pay attention to the way the world, and capitalism, are organized geographically
World-system
Broad economic entity with a division of labour that is not circumscribed by political or cultural boundaries.
Social system comprised of a variety of social structures and member groups
Largely self contain
Set of boundaries
Definable lifespan
Core
The geographic area that dominates the capitalist world economy and exploits the rest of the system
Periphery
Areas of the capitalist word economy that provide raw materials to the core and are heavily exploited by it