Theories and Perspectives in SOCY Flashcards
What are the main Origins of Sociology?
Industrial Revolution, the enlightenment and the French and American revolutions.
Change was massive and rapid enough for thinkers to see that previous assumptions about collective life could be challenged.
(Sociology emerged as an academic discipline following the massive changes accompanying the enlightenment and industrial revolution.
Science was viewed as the basis for knowledge generation (vs church teachings) and sociologists developed scientific theories and methods to explain (and potentially change) society.)
What happened during the industrial revolution and when was this?
Agricultural/Industrial mechanization (16th century).
Modern Industrial city born with wealth moving to capitalists and laborers became a new social class (oppression).
What are the 5 earliest sociologists?
Auguste Comte Herbert Spencer Karl Marx Emile Durkheim Max Weber (George Mead Later)
What were Auguste Comte’s (1798-1857) notable contributions?
Coined the term ‘sociology’ in age of turbulent post-revolutionary France.
Believed in science of society that could reveal laws.
‘Positivism’ – science should be concerned only with observable entities that are known to our experience
Saw sociology as the end of a line of development: most complex of all the sciences - ‘SOCIAL PHYSICS’
What was Auguste Comte’s (1798-1857) evolutionary view of the social world?
Theological Metaphysical Scientific Positivistic Positivism: the view that all knowledge can be produced through the scientific analysis of empirical evidence (rather than through intuition or reason).
What were Herbert Spencer (1820 -1903) notable contributions?
Society evolves from the simple to the complex (preceding Darwin).
‘Survival of the fittest’ - the weak should be left to their own devices.
‘ranked’ societies according to their complexity
Still evident today in those theories/views that oppose welfare. See, as inevitable, the demise of older cultures.
What were Karl Marx (1818-1883) notable contributions?
‘The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles’
Capitalism and class struggle: capitalists vs. proletariat.
The most important theorist of capitalism believed eventual overthrow to capitalism (productive and communal).
Workers suffered from alienation.
Materialist conception of history – economic influences drive social change.
Society progresses through a series of economic stages: primitive; feudal; capitalist; (socialist); communist.
Final stages achieved when workers develop class consciousness – revolution – overthrow capitalists.
What is Marx’s general sociological legacy (~7) ?
Critical and ‘conflict’approaches to social science.
A dominant ideology is imposed on the working class who suffer from ‘false consciousness’(Engels)
Political economy – fixing capitalism’s problems from its structure.
Social stratification is based on economic class.
The tradition of critical social science - to press for change.
A critique of capitalism that is still relevant.
Labour market activism.
An ideological and revolutionary legacy with mixed results.
What were Emiele Durkheim notable contributions?
‘Study social facts as things!’
Ways of thinking and acting that are external to individuals and have their own reality.
Key interest in the division of labour: distinction between mechanical and organic solidarity, between pre-modernity and modernity.
Rapid change disrupts traditional life – results in anomie (a feeling of aimlessness and despair).
Wanted social cohesion and harmony.
Famous for constructing typology of suicide.
What are and explain the two types of solidarity Durkheim discussed?
Mechanical solidarity - traditional societies
-Collective purpose, collective beliefs
Organic solidarity - industrial, urban society
- Specialisation of work
- Economic interdependence creates consensus
What was Durkheim’s theory of suicide and what were the four types?
Those who commit suicide are the likely to be the least integrated.
Four types of suicide:
Egoistic (no intergration), Altruistic (soldier), Anomic (No order/values), Fatalistic (no future, old, dying)
What is Durkheim’s general sociological legacy ?
Identified the nature of social forces that exist beyond, and exert control, on the individual.
Extended Comte’s ideas of positivism.
Paved the way for structural functionalism.
Extended his method to the study of religion, education, the law, crime and suicide.
What were Max Weber’s (1864-1920) notable contributions?
Focused on ideas and values rather than just the economy.
Protestant Ethic (ideas and values) led to the emergence of capitalism.
Emphasis on human action, rather than structures.
Coined notion of ‘ideal-type’
Overarching theme was ‘disenchantment’ as process of rationalisation moves on (science + bureaucracy).
What are Weber’s forms of authority
Weber – bureaucracy - The ‘rationalisation process’
Forms of authority traditional -> (charismatic) -> legal-rational
Bureaucracy is an ‘ideal type’ of legal-rational authority
What is Weber’s definition of bureaucracy?
Complex tasks broken into manageable parts
- Hierarchy – command and responsibility
- Rules are introduced: discipline and control
- Impersonal decision-making (appointments on basis of knowledge and merit
- Officials are separated from ownership
- Features = efficiency, calculability, predictability, control
Result = technical superiority in organisation
