Sociological Theories Flashcards
What is Marxism?
A political and economic way of organising society, where the workers own the means of production.
-Critical of society
-Conflict theory (micro sociology)
-See groups in society in groups of people
Bourgeoise- middle and upper class, exploit proletariat
Proletariat- lower/working class
-Ideology
-A criticism of capitalism
-Revolutionary
What is Feminism?
The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.
- Based on unequal genders.
- Conflict theory (micro theory)
- Examines how men have more power that women in society.
- Patriarchy- male dominance.
- About proving women’s position in society and making society fairer for women.
- Radical- believe men and women should have separate societies.
- Liberal- believe women should have the same rights as men.
- Marxist- believe women’s position is influenced by capitalism.
- A problem is they are Deterministic- the assume women are always inferior and look for how women are treated badly.
- Difference, black feminist, look at difference women have to men because of ethnicity, e.g. education
What is Social Actionism?
- How individuals create the world around them by their surroundings.
- Sees individuals with free will and choice in the decisions they make.
- Labelling theory- as soon as you meet a teacher, they make a judgement about you. -Upon further meetings the judgement is reinforced. If you accept the label you live up to the expectation (self fulfilling prophecy).
- It is about small scale, micro, interactions.
What is Post Modernism?
An analysis of the social and cultural features of late capitalism
- They believe social rules don’t exist anymore.
- Doesn’t agree with any other sociological theories, it rejects them.
- Diversity of family is acceptable, e.g. gay marriage, spilt parents, working mums, etc.
- They think reality is a subject to change.
- Metanarrative- (big story), they reject all big stories,. They don’t like Marxist cause they blame inequality on capitalism, Feminism blames inequality on men. THEY REJECT ALL THESE THEORIES.
- They are criticized because they don’t take their own research, they look at all research and pick it apart.
- Media- they believe it has a huge impact on our lives
What is Functionalism?
A key sociological perspectives and is known as a consensus theory as it is characterised by the idea that society requires shared norms and values in order for it function properly. Institutions in society (such as the family, education, the media, etc.) have clear social functions, which ensure there is a broad consensus about the norms and values of society and which enable organic and orderly social change.
- Consensus theory (macro sociology)
- Norms and values, we need to live by.
- Family and education are part of the organism which is society.
- Collective conscious- all have to think and work together.
- Organic analogy- all things have a purpose and interact with each other.
- Evolutionary theory- a very slow change, never sees conflict
