Cambridge International AS & A Level Sociology Coursebook PDF

Cambridge IGCSE® Cambridge IGCSE® Cambridge IGCSE® English Language Coursebook, Third edition with CD-ROM is tailored to the latest Cambridge IGCSE English Language syllabus (0610) and endors...

Cambridge IGCSE® Cambridge IGCSE® Cambridge IGCSE® English Language Coursebook, Third edition with CD-ROM is tailored to the latest Cambridge IGCSE English Language syllabus (0610) and endorsed for full syllabus coverage by Cambridge International Examinations. Cambridge IGCSE® English Language Coursebook, Third edition with CD-ROM is tailored to the latest Cambridge IGCSE English Language syllabus (0610) and endorsed for full syllabus coverage by Cambridge International Examinations. Cambridge IGCSE® English Language Coursebook, Sociology Third edition with CD-ROM is tailored to the latest Cambridge IGCSE English English Language Language syllabus (0610) and endorsed for full syllabus coverage by Cambridge International Examinations. Cambridge IGCSE® English Language Coursebook, Third edition with CD-ROM is tailored to the latest Cambridge IGCSE English Language syllabus (0610) and endorsed for full syllabus coverage by Cambridge International Examinations. for Cambridge International AS & A Level Features: COURSEBOOK COURSEBOOK Written in accessible language with the international learner in mind Activities to help students develop practical and investigative skills Key terms are highlighted throughout with definitions found in the glossary Chris Livesey and Jonathan Blundell Students can check their progress through self-assessment questions and exam-style questions at the end of each chapter Last bullet point in here Author names ✓ Supports the full Cambridge IGCSE and Completely Cambridge O Level Additional Mathematics syllabuses (0606/4037) for examination from 2020 Cambridge University Press works with Cambridge Assessment International Education and experienced ✓ Has passed Cambridge International’s authors to produce high-quality endorsed textbooks rigorous quality-assurance process and digital resources that support Cambridge Teachers ✓ Developed by subject experts and encourage Cambridge Learners worldwide. To find out more about Cambridge University Press ✓ For Cambridge schools worldwide visit cambridge.org/cambridge-international Second edition Cogito, Ergo Sum. © Cambridge University Press 2019 Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad  Chris Livesey and Jonathan Blundell Cambridge International AS & A Level Sociology Coursebook Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad  Contents Introduction Syllabus coverage How to use this book 1 Socialisation and the creation of social identity 2 Methods of research 3 The family 4 Education 5 Globalisation 6 Media 7 Religion 8 Preparing for assessment Bibliography Acknowledgements Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad  Introduction This book aims to provide you with the knowledge and understanding to aid your learning of Sociology and to help you prepare for your AS and A Level exams. It has been designed and written to reflect changes to the Cambridge International AS & A Level Sociology syllabus (9699) for examination from 2021. This book has been designed to: help you understand exactly what is required by the structure of the new syllabus in terms of content and skills provide content clearly focused on this structure; a central feature of the text is complete coverage of the syllabus content. This book can be used both for individual work and if you are part of a larger teaching group. Content The structure of each chapter reflects the order of the content of the syllabus. This allows you to track your progress through the syllabus in a logical way. AS Level consists of three compulsory topics, covered in the first three chapters of this book. Chapter 1: Socialisation and the creation of social identity. This considers the process of learning and socialisation, and social identity and change. Chapter 2: Methods of research. This looks at the range of methods available to sociologists, including the methods’ strengths and limitations, and the process of designing research. It also covers key ideas used to assess the value of different research methods, the issues raised about research design and the debate about whether sociology can and should be based on the natural sciences. Chapter 3: The family. This considers theories of the family and social change and family roles and changing relationships. The first two of these, Socialisation and the creation of social identity and Methods of Research, are examined on Paper 1. The Family is examined on Paper 2. For A Level, as well as the AS Level content, there is one compulsory topic and three optional topics. You will need to study at least two of the optional topics. Chapter 4: Education (compulsory). This considers education in social context and structures and processes within schools. Chapter 5: Globalisation (optional). This considers globalisation and social change and the consequences of globalisation. Chapter 6: Media (optional). This considers ownership and control of the media and media representations and effects. Chapter 7: Religion (optional). This considers religion and social change and religious movements. Education is assessed on Paper 3, and the three optional topics are assessed on Paper 4. Chapter 8 offers tips and techniques for preparing for assessment. These range from basic revision through assessment techniques, to timing and planning. Throughout the topics, there are key concepts which will help you develop a deep understanding of sociology and make links between different parts of the course. These are inequality and opportunity; power, control and Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad resistance; social change and development; socialisation, culture and identity; and structure and human agency. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad  Syllabus coverage Syllabus reference Chapter Coursebook section heading number Paper 1 – Socialisation, identity and methods of research 1. Socialisation and the creation of social identity 1.1 The process of learning and socialisation 1.1 The process of learning and Chapter 1 socialisation 1.2 Social control, conformity and resistance 1.2 Social control, conformity and resistance 1.3 Social identity and change 1.3 Social identity and change 2. Methods of research 2.1 Types of data, methods and research design 2.1 Types of data, methods and research Chapter 2 design 2.2 Approaches to sociological research 2.2 Approaches to sociological research 2.3 Research issues 2.3 Research issues Paper 2 – The family 3. Theories of the family and social change 3.1 Perspectives on the role of the family 3.1 Perspectives on the role of the family 3.2 Diversity and social change 3.2 Diversity and social change 4. Family roles and changing relationships Chapter 3 4.1 Gender equality and experiences of family 3.3 Gender equality and experiences of life family life 4.2 Age and family life 3.4 Age and family life Paper 3 - Education 5. Education and society Chapter 4 5.1 Theories about the role of education 4.1 Theories about the role of education 5.2 Education and social mobility 4.2 Education and social mobility 5.3 Influences on the curriculum 4.3 Influences on the curriculum 6. Education and inequality 6.1 Intelligence and educational attainment 4.4 Intelligence and educational attainment Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Syllabus reference Chapter Coursebook section heading number Paper 1 – Socialisation, identity and methods of research 6.2 Social class and educational attainment 4.5 Social class and educational attainment 6.3 Ethnicity and educational attainment 4.6 Ethnicity and educational attainment 6.4 Gender and educational attainment 4.7 Gender and educational attainment Paper 4 – Globalisation 7. Key debates, concepts and perspectives 7.1 Perspectives on globalisation 5.1 Perspectives on globalisation 7.2 Globalisation and identity 5.2 Globalisation and identity 7.3 Globalisation, power and politics 5.3 Globalisation, power and politics Chapter 5 8. Contemporary issues 8.1 Globalisation, poverty and inequalities 5.4 Globalisation, poverty and inequalities 8.2 Globalisation and migration 5.5 Globalisation and migration 8.3 Globalisation and crime 5.6 Globalisation and crime Paper 4 – Media 9. Ownership and control of media 9.1 The traditional and the new media 6.1 The traditional and the new media 9.2 Theories of the media and influences on 6.2 Theories of the media and influences media content on media content 9.3 The impact of the new media 6.3 The impact of the new media Chapter 6 10. Media representation and effects 10.1 Media representations of class, gender, 6.4 Media representations of class, ethnicity, and age groups gender, ethnicity, and age groups 10.2 Different models of media effects 6.5 Different models of media effects 10.3 The impact of the media on behaviour 6.6 The impact of the media on behaviour Paper 4 – Religion 11. Religion and social order Chapter 7 11.1 Religion and society 7.1 Religion and society 11.2 Religion and social order 7.2 Religion and social order 11.3 Religion as a source of social change 7.3 Religion as a source of social change 12. The influence of religion 12.1 The secularisation debate 7.4 The secularisation debate Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Syllabus reference Chapter Coursebook section heading number Paper 1 – Socialisation, identity and methods of research 12.2 Gender, feminism and religion 7.5 Gender, feminism and religion 12.3 Religion and postmodernity 7.6 Religion and postmodernity Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad  How to use this book This book contains a number of features to help you in your study. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad  Chapter 1 Socialisation and the creation of social identity Learning objectives By the end of this chapter you will understand: The process of learning and socialisation Social control, social conformity and resistance Social identity and change Before you start This chapter starts with questions about how it is that we become members of human groups. These include: How do we learn to get on with others? Are the ways we behave shaped more by nature or by the way we are brought up? How do we learn to judge what others think of us and how they will react to what we do and say? Are we able to affect the social reality around us? Think about each of these questions in relation to your own life, then share your ideas with a partner. Reflection: How much control have you had over things that have happened in your life so far? How much has been decided for you by others? Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad 1.1 The process of learning and socialisation Culture, roles, norms, values, beliefs, customs, ideology, power and status as elements in the social construction of reality Defining society While ‘a society’ is a simple concept – we all probably understand what is meant by Indian, Mauritian, Nigerian or British society – it is more difficult to define. One key feature, however, is that people see themselves as having something in common with others in their society and, by extension, they consider themselves to be different from people in other societies. In this respect, different societies involve two types of space: 1 Physical space, in the sense of a distinctive geographical area marked by either a physical border, such as a river, or a non-physical border – perhaps a made up line that marks where one society ends and another begins. 2 Mental space, which separates people based on the beliefs they have about the similarities they share with people in ‘their’ society and the differences from people in other societies. It seems straightforward to define a society in terms of physical space – Mauritius occupies a certain geographic area, Nigeria another and India yet another. Yet in itself this space is a mental construction; we are simply giving a particular meaning and importance to what is effectively a line on a map. Anderson (1983) describes societies as ‘imagined communities’ – things that exist only in the mind. He points out that ‘the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion’. Societies are mentally constructed by: geographic borders that set physical boundaries – we might, for example, consider that everyone born within these borders belongs to a particular society a system of government, which may involve, for example, a royal family (monarchy), parliament and civil service common language, customs and traditions that people share a sense of belonging and identification that involves developing the view that ‘our’ society is different from other societies; Indians, for example, may see themselves as different from Pakistanis or Bangladeshis. The social construction of reality Societies are mental constructions, therefore their reality is socially constructed. To understand how this occurs, we need to explore the concept of culture. Culture refers to a ‘way of life’ that has to be taught and learnt through primary and secondary socialisation. We can develop this concept to understand how culture contributes to the social construction of reality. Cultures are ‘dynamic’ and constantly changing. All cultures have two basic parts: 1 Material culture involves the physical objects (‘artefacts’), such as cars, phones and books that a society produces and that reflect cultural knowledge, skills and interests. 2 Non-material culture consists of the knowledge and beliefs valued by a particular culture. This includes religious and scientific beliefs, as well as the meanings people give to material objects. Merton (1957) suggested that objects such as cars, houses and clothes can function in two ways. Their manifest function refers to the purpose for which they exist; clothes, for example, function to keep you warm. Their latent function, however, may be hidden. For example, material objects may function as status symbols – owning something a culture feels is desirable says something about you to others. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Figure 1.1: A map of Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, which has an ethnically diverse population: about 68% are Indo-Mauritian, 25% are Creole (African descent or mixed race) with smaller numbers of Franco-Mauritian and Sino-Mauritians. How are societies ‘imagined communities’? ACTIVITY 1.1 Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad  Figure 1.2: This phone is at the same time an example both of material and non-material culture. 1 Explain how the phone can at the same time be an example both of material and non-material culture. 2 Identify other objects to which this also applies. Reflection: Compare your examples of objects with a partner. Discuss to what extent your examples are the same and how you have identified other objects. Revisit your list and see whether there is anything you would change. The idea that cultural objects can have different meanings suggests that cultural interaction, especially in contemporary societies, is both sophisticated and complex. The more sophisticated the interaction in any society, the more open it is to misunderstanding. In order to make sense of cultural interaction, therefore, we need to create common meanings and establish a structure within which behaviour can happen in predictable ways. For a society to function it must have order and stability, and for these to exist people’s behaviour must display patterns and regularities. While cultures may develop differently, they are all constructed from the same basic materials: roles, values and norms. Roles Roles are a building block of culture for two reasons: 1 They are always played in relation to other roles. For someone to play the role of teacher, for example, others must play the role of student. Roles contribute to the creation of culture because they demand both social interactions – people have to cooperate to successfully perform certain tasks – and that people are aware of others. In this respect, roles help individuals develop the ability to form groups and communities. This is particularly the case when they involve role-sets; that is, when the role involves a set of different relationships with different types of people, such as a doctor’s relationship with patients, nurses, other doctors, patient’s relatives and so on. This adds a further dimension to the cultural framework because it locks people into a range of relationships, each with its own routines and responsibilities. 2 Every role has a name (or label). This name identifies a particular role and carries with it a sense of how people are expected to behave in any situation. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Values These common expectations provide a sense of order and predictability because role play is guided by behavioural rules in two ways: 1 All roles have a prescribed aspect based on beliefs about how people should behave. Playing a role is guided (governed) by values that provide general behavioural guidelines – a teacher should teach their students, a parent should care for their child and so on. 2 Values provide only broad guidance for role behaviour. For example, it is understood that someone playing the role of teacher should teach, but values do not tell them how to play this role. The specific behavioural guides that tell people how to successfully play a role are known as norms. Norms Norms are specific rules showing how people should act in a particular situation (whereas values give only a general idea). Norms, therefore, are rules used to perform roles predictably and acceptably. This is important, according to Merton (1938), because without order and predictability, behaviour becomes risky and confusing. He used the term anomie to describe a condition where people who fail to understand the norms operating in a particular situation react in a range of ways – from confusion, through anger to fear. Goffman (1959) argues that norms are more open to interpretation and negotiation than either roles or values. This means that they can quickly adapt to changes in the social environment. There are many ways to perform a teaching role, depending on a range of personal and cultural factors, including the behaviour of those in the teacher’s role-set. Some teachers interpret their role as meaning that they need to be strict; others adopt a more friendly approach. However, these interpretations can change; even the strictest teacher may relax their approach at certain times. Figure 1.3: How do different teachers interpret their roles differently? Beliefs Roles, values and norms provide an important framework within which relationships can be ordered and made mainly predictable. A further layer of cultural structuring involves beliefs. These are the important, deep-rooted ideas that shape our values and are, in some respects, shaped by them. While all values express a belief, beliefs do not necessarily express a value. They are more general behavioural guidelines that include ideas, opinions, views and attitudes. These may, or may not, be true; what matters is that they are believed to be true. Beliefs in contemporary societies are many and varied, but they perform a significant structuring role when combined with ideologies, which are discussed later in the chapter. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad The importance of socialisation in influencing human behaviour, including the nurture versus nature debate Socialisation is a process that describes how we are taught the behavioural rules we need to become both a member of a particular society/culture and an able social actor. Biology, rather than culture, may influence some of the ways people behave. Like all animal species, humans seem to be programmed by their genes to some extent, for example, there seem to be ‘drives’ for procreation and for self-preservation. Genetics suggests that behaviour may be guided by instincts based on biological instructions that can be seen as part of ‘human nature’. Instincts are fixed human features. These are things we are born knowing and our cultural environment plays little or no role in the development of these instincts, for example many females have a ‘mothering instinct’. A weaker expression of this idea is that people are born with certain capabilities that are then put into practice through environmental experiences. ‘Nature’ gives us strong hints about behavioural rules, but people are free to ignore those hints. If women have greater child-caring capabilities than men, then it makes genetic sense for them to take on a caring role within a family. However, this is not something their genes force them to do. One way to test whether nature, in the form of instincts, or nurture, in the form of socialisation, is the more important factor is to take advantage of a naturally occurring form of experimentation – the study of unsocialised or feral children. Feral children Feral children have missed out on primary socialisation by humans. Examples attract a lot of media attention, but in most cases the evidence is very unclear (for example, it is usually uncertain how long the child was away from people) and some, often noted, cases have been proved fake. Feral children can be raised by animals or survive on their own. Evidence of human infants raised by animals is rare and not always reliable. One recent example is Saturday Mthiyane, who was discovered in 1987, aged five, living with a pack of monkeys in South Africa and who years later still behaved in ways associated with monkeys rather than humans. However, evidence of children raised with little, or no, human contact is more common. A well-documented example is ‘Genie’, a 13-year-old Californian girl discovered in 1970. Pines (1997) notes that Genie had been ‘isolated in a small room and had not been spoken to by her parents since infancy. She was malnourished, abused, unloved, bereft of any toys or companionship’. When Genie was found, ‘she could not stand erect … she was unable to speak: she could only whimper’. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Figure 1.4: Dani (above), often described as a feral child because she was severely neglected for years. How do feral children demonstrate the importance of socialisation? Feral children are sociologically significant for two main reasons. First, when children are raised without human contact they fail to show the social and physical development we would expect from an ordinary raised child – for example, walking upright, talking, using a knife and fork. Children raised by animals behave as the animals do, suggesting that they learn by imitation. Second, if human behaviour is instinctive it is not clear why children such as Genie should develop so differently from children raised with human contact. We would also expect that, once returned to human society, feral children would quickly pick up normal human behaviours. This, however, is not the case, suggesting that if children miss out on socialisation by humans at an early stage in their life this cannot be corrected later. Further evidence for the significance of socialisation is the fact that different cultures develop different ways of doing things. If human behaviours were governed by instinct, we would expect there to be few, if any, differences between societies. In fact, of course, there are huge variations between cultures, Sometimes, these cultural differences are relatively trivial. Billikopf (1999) discovered through his own experience that ‘in Russia, when a man peels a banana for a lady it means he has a romantic interest in her’. At other times, cultural differences are more fundamental. Wojtczak (2009) argues that in Victorian Britain most women ‘lived in a state little better than slavery’. As she notes: ‘women’s sole purpose was to marry and reproduce.’ This is not a situation we would recognise in British society today. If human behaviour was instinctive, it would be much the same, in any place or time. ACTIVITY 1.2 Suggest ways in which feral children can be used to test the influence of nature or nurture on human behaviour. Reflection: Consider the ‘Think like a sociologist’ box on page 7 and then come back to this activity. Looking at it again, would you define the problems in the same way, or is there anything you would do differently? THINK LIKE A SOCIOLOGIST Thinking about what you have learnt about feral children and the importance of primary socialisation, how would this knowledge and understanding be useful to people working with children, such as nannies and nursery teachers? The ‘I’ and the ‘Me’ Basic human skills have to be taught and learnt. The symbolic interactionist George Herbert Mead (1934) argued that the same was true of more advanced social skills. He claimed that the social context in which behaviour occurs conditions how people behave. While self-awareness – the ability to see ourselves as others see us and react accordingly – is often seen as an instinctive human skill, Mead argued that it is in fact learnt. It involves developing a concept of Self and this is what sets humans apart from animals. For Mead, ‘the Self’ (an awareness of who we are) has two related aspects: an ‘I’ aspect based around our opinion of ourselves as a whole. We each respond to the behaviour of others as an ‘I’. Mead called this the ‘unsocialised self’. a ‘Me’ aspect that consists of an awareness of how others expect us to behave in a given situation. Mead called this the ‘social self’ because it develops through socialisation. We can illustrate these ideas in the following way. If you accidentally put your hand in a fire, the ‘I’ is expressed by how you react to the pain. The ‘Me’, however, specifically conditions how you choose to express that pain; your reaction will be conditioned by factors such as: Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad  who you are – whether you are adult or child, male or female and so on where you are – alone at home or in a public place who you are with – such as family, friends or strangers. If you are a young child, for example, your reaction to being burnt may be to cry. If you are a young man, you may feel that crying is not a socially acceptable reaction – so you may swear loudly instead. Swearing loudly may be acceptable if you are at home by yourself, but may not be acceptable if you are fixing a stranger’s fire as part of your job. Similarly, if you had been messing around with friends when you burnt your hand, their reaction may be to laugh and make fun of your pain. Laughter would though not be an appropriate reaction if it was your child who had burnt their hand. The presentation of self If the social context of an act changes both its meaning and how people react, it follows that an awareness of self is constructed and developed socially. Goffman (1959) argues that who we believe ourselves to be – our sense of identity – is also constructed socially through how we present ourselves to others. Goffman proposed a model of self and identity in which he described social life as a series of dramatic episodes. People are actors. Sometimes, they write and speak their own lines – this is their personal identity. Sometimes, they follow lines that are written for them – the external influences that inform how people behave in particular situations and roles. For example, because we understand how our society defines masculinity and femininity, we know how we are expected to behave if we are male or female. We can also work out how others will react to our behaviour; we can see ourselves as others do and adjust our behaviour so as to try to make the impression on them that we want to achieve. The idea of creating an impression is also significant in relation to how we present ourselves in different situations. Goffman suggests that when we adopt a particular identity, we ‘perform’ to others in order to ‘manage’ the impression they have of us. Identity performance, therefore, is about achieving a desired result: when you want to create a favourable impression on someone, you ‘act’ in ways you believe they will like. For example, if you want to be seen as a good Sociology student, you could carry around a textbook and a full folder of notes. Fifty years before Goffman, Cooley (1909) suggested that in the majority of social encounters other people are used as a looking-glass self. They are like mirrors reflecting our self as others see us; when we ‘look into the mirror’ of how others behave towards us, we see reflected an image of the person they think we are. The presentation of self always involves: The importance of interpretation: identities are broad social categories whose meaning differs both historically and across different cultures. The significance of negotiation. Identities are always open to discussion; what it means to be male, female, young, old and so on, is constantly changing as people ‘push the negotiated boundaries’ of these identities. KEY SOCIOLOGIST Erving Goffman (1922–82) The Canadian-American social psychologist, Erving Goffman, built on the earlier work of Mead, Cooley and others, developing theories of social interaction. He developed the dramaturgical approach to studying interaction, exploring the ways in which individuals perform actions in a similar way to performers in a play. He was interested in everyday life and, as well as his theoretical work, he carried out ethnographic research, most notably participant observation as an assistant in a mental institution, published as Asylums: Essays on the Condition of the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. His other best-known books are The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life, Stigma and Gender Advertisements. His daughter Alice is also a sociologist, known for her ethnographic work On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, about low-income African-American communities. THINK LIKE A SOCIOLOGIST Try to extend Goffman’s ideas about social life being like acting in a play. Think about stage and backstage areas, being off stage, other members of the cast, who the audience is and so on. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad  ACTIVITY 1.3 With a partner, suggest ways that you try to manage the impression people have of you. How can this impression be negotiated? Reflection: Think about who you have talked to this week – have you modified your behaviour with them? If you had done something differently would it have changed your interaction with them? Alternatives Not all scientific disciplines place the same emphasis on socialisation as sociology does when explaining how individuals become competent social actors. For example, biological ideas about evolution have sometimes been used to explain social development. These ideas range from relatively simple forms of ‘social Darwinism’, based on the idea that social life simply involves ‘the survival of the fittest’, to the more sophisticated arguments of sociobiology. In these, biological principles of natural selection and evolution are applied to the ‘human animal’ to produce what Wilson (1979) argued is a ‘biological basis’ for all human behaviour. He claimed that although human behaviour is not genetically determined, it is strongly influenced by ‘biological programming’ or ‘biogrammars’. Wilson believed that these ‘biogrammars’ suggest that humans are likely to behave in particular ways. For example, he believed that men and women are biologically programmed with different traits that lead them to perform different cultural roles: Women are passive, nurturing and caring, which makes them best suited to child-rearing. Male traits of aggression best suit them to a ‘providing role’ that translates into paid work in contemporary societies. These arguments influenced sociology in, for example, the work of functionalist sociologists such as Parsons (1959a). He argued that in most societies, family roles are organised to reflect the belief that women play an expressive role – that of caring for others. Men, however, play an instrumental role – with a focus on providing for the family. Both of these roles are based, in part, on evolutionary biological principles. While males and females can choose not to take these roles, Parsons believed, over-riding the biogrammar, behaviour that opposes this biological instinct is seen as a less efficient way of organising human cultural relationships. So, for example, men can take on the expressive role and women the instrumental role, but this is likely to cause social problems because it is not making the best use of the different capabilities of males and females. Evolutionary psychology explains contemporary psychological and social traits in terms of the general principles of natural selection: those behaviours that are evolutionarily successful are selected and reproduced. In this way, various forms of social behaviour, such as family development and gender roles, can be explained as evolutionary adaptations occurring over many centuries. They represent successful adaptations to problems common to all human societies, such as how to raise children while also providing the things family members need for survival. Psychology is, however, a diverse field and there are many different explanations for human development. These range from those focused on genetics (such as evolutionary psychology), through disciplines such as neuropsychology, to social psychological approaches broadly similar to the interactionist theories found in the works of Mead and Goffman. Social psychology places greater stress on how environmental factors, such as family and work relationships, affect the development of genetic or psychological predispositions. Meins et al. (2002) noted that although there exists a genetic instinct for babies to become attached to their primary care-giver, this can be affected by Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad environmental factors. The most important of these is the ability of the care-giver to recognise and understand the needs of the child. ACTIVITY 1.4 Make a list of anything you think might be instinctive human behaviour (such as eating, sleeping, crime, childcare and so on). Remove an item from the list if people have a choice about whether or not to do it (such as crime) or how and when we do it (such as eating). What do the remaining items on your list tell you about the influence of instincts and culture on human behaviour? Reflection: Compare your list with a partner's to see whether you have the same remaining items. Looking at your list, do you think your own personal experience or unconscious bias has affected your judgement? Agencies of socialisation and social control, including family, education, peer- group, media and religion The socialisation process takes two main forms: 1 Primary socialisation occurs mainly within the family and is the first stage of socialisation. This type of socialisation is essential to the development of behaviours we recognise as fundamentally human, such as learning language. The first primary relationship we form is usually with our parents. This is followed by primary attachments to other family members, people of our own age (friends) and, subsequently, to other adults such as work colleagues. Primary socialisation is necessary because human infants need other people in order to develop both as human beings and as members of a particular culture. We do not just need to learn general human behaviours, we must also learn about social relationships, how to play roles and so on. 2 Secondary socialisation involves secondary groups and is characterised, according to Berger and Luckmann (1967), by ‘a sense of detachment from the ones teaching socialisation’. Secondary socialisations are situations in which we do not necessarily have close, personal contacts with those doing the socialising. Parsons (1959a) argued that one of the main purposes of secondary socialisation is to ‘liberate the individual from a dependence on the primary attachments and relationships formed within the family group’. In contemporary societies, where the majority of people we meet are strangers, it would be impossible and undesirable to treat them in the same way that we treat people we love or know well. This is why we develop instrumental relationships – those based on what people can do for us, or what we can do for them, in particular situations. Berger and Luckmann suggest that while primary socialisation involves ‘emotionally charged identification’ with people such as our parents, secondary socialisation is characterised by ‘formality and anonymity’. You do not, for example, treat a stranger who asks you for directions as your closest friend. ACTIVITY 1.5 Identify differences between primary and secondary socialisation. Why does primary socialisation have to take place before secondary socialisation? Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Figure 1.5: How does requiring people to dress identically contribute to their socialisation? Social control The process of socialisation brings order, stability and predictability to people’s behaviour. If a child is socialised into a perceived ‘right’ way of doing something, such as eating with a knife and fork, there must also be a perceived ‘wrong’ or deviant way (in this example perhaps eating with their fingers), which should be discouraged. Socialisation, therefore, is also a form of social control – it involves limiting the range of behaviours open to individuals. Social control is linked to the idea that human behaviour involves a life-long process of rule-learning, built on sanctions – the things we do to make people conform. The agencies of socialisation described below are also agencies of social control. Agencies of socialisation We can look at selected agencies of socialisation in terms of the roles, values and norms they try to teach and the sanctions they set/impose. Primary socialisation Family: Although there are only a small number of family roles, these tend to be played out over long periods and involve complex forms of role development, especially in societies that allow divorce and remarriage. Adults may have to learn roles ranging from husband/wife to parent/step-parent. Child development also involves a range of roles: baby, infant, child, teenager and, eventually perhaps, an adult with children of their own. The ability to develop roles within the context of a group mainly governed by relationships based on love, responsibility and duty, means that we can make mistakes and learn lessons as we go without causing too much harm. Mead refers to parents as significant others. They shape both our basic values, such as how to address adults, and our moral values, for example our understanding of the difference between right and wrong. Basic norms, such as how to address family members (for example, ‘Mum’, ‘Dad’), when, where and how to eat and sleep, and definitions of acceptable behaviour are normally taught within the family. Sanctions are mainly informal, with positive sanctions involving things such as: facial expressions (for example, smiling) verbal approval/reinforcement (‘good boy/girl’) physical rewards (such as gifts). Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Figure 1.6: Within a family, how do children play their roles differently from adults? Negative sanctions are similarly wide-ranging – from showing disapproval through language (such as shouting) to physical punishment. Functionalists often see primary socialisation as a one-way process that passes from adults to children. However, socialisation involves more than an unquestioning acceptance of the behaviours we learn within the family group. Although children are socialised by being encouraged to copy behaviour, they are also actively involved in negotiating their socialisation. For example, children do not always obey their parents; they may even choose not to obey as part of a test of the limits of social control. Children may also receive different socialisation messages: a relative may reward behaviour that a parent would punish. Children have to learn that the same behaviour may receive different reactions from different people in different situations. Faced with a new situation, they need to be able to judge what the reactions are likely to be. KEY SOCIOLOGIST George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) Mead can be seen as the ‘forgotten’ father of sociology; he developed the symbolic interactionist approach which became the alternative tradition within sociology to the structural approaches of functionalism and Marxism. He did not publish any books. His ideas were spread after his death when some of his students at the University of Chicago in the USA put together several volumes made up of notes from his lectures, records of courses he taught and unpublished papers. He was interested in social action and the micro scale, with his work often was seen as social psychology rather than sociology. He developed the idea of the self as made up of the ‘me’, based on how the individual understands they are seen by the ‘generalised other’ and the ‘I’, based on the individual’s impulses. Peers: Peer-groups are made up of people of a similar age, for example, teenagers. They can be considered primary agencies of socialisation because we usually choose friends of a similar age, and personal interaction with them influences our behaviour – from how we dress and talk to the things we love or hate. Peer-groups can also be secondary agencies because they may be used as a reference group – what Hughes et al. (2002) call ‘the models we use for appraising and shaping our attitudes, feelings and actions’. In the recent past, this has included youth subcultures such as hippies and punks. Although most people do not interact with groups as specific as this, we all have reference groups of people we identify with and whose appearance and behaviour we model our own on. Our behaviour may be influenced by things such as the fashions and the general behaviour of people our own age or status. This is an example of peer pressure as a form of social control. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Figure 1.7: How do your friends influence your behaviour? We play a range of peer-related roles, depending on our age group and situation. ‘Friend’, for example, expresses very personal role play, whereas at school or work we may have a variety of people we don’t know very well (acquaintances). In the workplace, too, we are likely to play the role of colleague to at least some of our peers. Similarly, the values we are taught within a friendship or peer-group vary with age and circumstances. However, we will probably carry the value of friendship with us throughout our lives. Peer-group norms often relate to ideas about age-appropriate behaviour. Young children, for example, are usually not permitted by law to smoke cigarettes or to buy alcohol. Also, it is generally not considered age- appropriate for the elderly to take part in extreme sports or wear clothes designed for younger people. Peer- group sanctions, or social sanctions, are generally informal and include things such as disapproving looks and negative comments. This is mainly because peer-group norms vary considerably, and the same behaviour may result in different responses depending on the situation. Swearing at a grandparent will probably be met with disapproval; swearing among friends may be perfectly acceptable. Approving gestures and language, laughing at your jokes and seeking out your company may represent positive sanctions. Refusing to speak to someone, rejecting friendship or engaging in physical violence are negative sanctions associated with peer-group. Secondary socialisation Agencies of secondary socialisation include schools, religious organisations and the media. In some cases, such as education, we are in daily contact with other members of the group without ever developing a primary attachment to them. In other examples, such as admiring a particular actor or musician, we may never meet the rest of the group, yet we might be influenced by their behaviour in several ways. Education: Education involves two kinds of curriculum: the formal curriculum that specifies the subjects, knowledge and skills that children are explicitly taught in school a hidden curriculum: the things we learn from the experience of attending school, such as how to deal with strangers, listen to adult authority and have respect for the system. School is also a place where we ‘learn to limit our individual desires’ – to think about the needs of others rather than our own. School may be one of the first times that children are separated from their parent(s) for any length of time. It provides both opportunities (to demonstrate talents to a wider, non-family, audience) and challenges – the need to learn, for example, how to deal with people who are not family and with authority figures such as teachers. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Parsons (1959a) argued that school plays a particularly significant role in secondary socialisation for two reasons: 1 It ‘emancipates the child from primary attachment’ to their family. It moves children away from the affective relationships found in the family and introduces them to the instrumental relationships they will meet in adult life. It is in effect a bridge between the family home and the wider social world. 2 It allows children to ‘internalise a level of society’s values and norms that is a step higher than those learnt within families’. Through interaction with ‘strangers’ in the educational system, a child begins to adopt wider social values into their personal value system. This process loosens the hold of primary groups and allows children to gradually mix into adult society, something that also promotes social solidarity and value consensus. Like any institution, schools involve a range of roles, such as teacher and student, which are themselves linked to a range of related roles called a role-set. This further extends the idea of cultural relationships because we become fixed into a range of expected behaviours. A student, for example, plays this role in relation to the roles that others are playing in the school environment: other students in their class students of different ages their subject teachers teachers of other subjects school buildings’ staff such as caretakers administration staff parent(s)/guardian(s). Schools teach a range of values. These range from the idea that students should work hard to achieve qualifications, to ideas about individual competition for academic rewards, teamwork, conformity to authority (not questioning what is being learnt and why it is necessary to learn it) and achievement on the basis of merit. Sometimes values are openly taught (for example, an assembly may be all about the importance of helping others, or why bullying is wrong), but more often they are present in the way that schools and education are organised. In many education systems, for example, one hidden value is that academic ability, such as a talent for writing essays, is more highly valued than work-related ability, such as bricklaying. Another value is individual achievement; working with others may be valued in the workplace but in school may be seen as ‘copying’ and wrong. Many of these values relate not just to education but also to the wider social world. From a Marxist perspective, Bowles and Gintis (2002) argue that there is a correspondence between school norms and workplace norms: Schools prepare students for adult work by socialising them into values and norms that will make them uncomplaining workers. This correspondence theory is shown through school norms such as: the daily need for attendance always being in the place you are supposed to be at certain times the right of those in authority to give orders that must be obeyed. These ideas are backed up by positive sanctions that include the gaining of grades, qualifications and prizes, as well as more personal things such as praise and encouragement. On the negative side, schools use punishments: detentions, suspensions and exclusions. Failure to achieve qualifications or gaining a reputation for being unintelligent also function as negative sanctions. These sanctions prepare children for sanctions at work – from bonuses for good work to the threat of being sacked. ACTIVITY 1.6 Suggest two further examples of the connection between school and work. Are there any ways in which school may not help prepare people for the world of work? Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Mass media: The media are slightly unusual secondary agencies because our relationship with it is impersonal; we are unlikely to meet those doing the socialising. While there is little evidence that the media have a direct, long-term effect on behaviour, there is stronger evidence of short-term effects. Advertising, for example, aims to make short-term changes in behaviour by encouraging people to try different consumer products. Potter (2003) suggests that short-term effects include: imitation, such as copying behaviour seen on television desensitisation – the idea that constant and repeated experience of something, such as violence or poverty, gradually lowers our emotional reaction learning, in which we are introduced to new ideas and places. Figure 1.8: Does repeated experience of images of violence, poverty or racism reduce our reaction to such issues? There is also some evidence for indirect long-term effects, in that people come to accept as ‘natural’ values or other aspects of social life that are socially constructed: consumerism – advertising, and much other media content, takes as natural the active and ever-increasing pursuit of goods and services that define lifestyles and identities in contemporary capitalist societies fear – experience of negative and violent media leads some people to overestimate things such as the extent of crime or their chances of being a victim of terrorism or of a disaster agenda setting – Philo et al. (1982) argue that the media determine how something will be debated; in the UK, for example, immigration is discussed in the media mainly in terms of numbers of immigrants, with an assumption that high numbers are bad. This gets in the way of consideration of the qualitative effects of immigration on British society. The extent to which the media can enforce values is uncertain. However, the media are undoubtedly influential in supporting or weakening certain values. It has a loud voice in debates over nationality (for example, what it means to be ‘Peruvian’ or ‘Chinese’). It also promotes certain values over others – for example, many English newspapers take an ‘anti-European Union’ stance. Potter suggests that media influence comes about through a process of habituation: the more people experience certain images and ideas, the more likely it is that they will add them to their personal value systems. In relation to norms, the media have what Durkheim (1912) called a ‘boundary-marking function’. It promotes acceptable and unacceptable forms of behaviour to strengthen perceptions of expected behaviours. The media may try to preserve particular ways of behaving, through campaigns to ‘save the family’, for example, but they may also promote changes in behaviour, such as campaigns against racism. To strengthen (reinforce) their message, the media use a range of sanctions. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Positive sanctions involve the use of praise, positive pictures and uncritical features. Negative sanctions might include being pictured in a negative pose, critical articles or behaviour being publicly criticised. THINK LIKE A SOCIOLOGIST Young people increasingly use social media apps. In what ways can social media be an agency of socialisation, or of social control? Religion: Whether or not we see ourselves as ‘religious’, religion plays a significant role in the general socialisation process in many societies, particularly in relation to ceremonial functions, such as marriages and funerals. It can also be argued that important moral values – very strong beliefs about how people should behave – are influenced by religious values. For example, several of the Ten Commandments in the Christian religion are reflected in legal systems around the world. The unacceptability of some crimes, such as theft and murder, is emphasised in world religions. Religious values are powerful forces for those who believe. Religion can be regarded as a ‘design for living’ – a force that provides help and guidance to live a life as God wishes, but religious beliefs and values can also be a source of conflict: between religions, such as the history of conflict between Christians and Muslims dating back to the 11th century within the same religion: Northern Ireland, for example, has experienced major conflicts between Protestant and Catholic Christians over the past 50 years. Religious values are frequently displayed through styles of dress, such as the Muslim hijab or Sikh turban, something that indicates both religiosity (a measure of people’s commitment to religion) and ethnic identity. Many of the world’s major religions, from Christianity to Islam, have been said to promote patriarchy through both their general organisation (many religions have an entirely male leadership) and the gender roles and values they encourage. However, they also promote concepts of love and care that can be attractive to people, and can be seen as providing women with a sense of shelter and safety in a threatening world and belonging. Swatos (1998) argues that religions are going through important changes that are making them more ‘female friendly’. For example, God is increasingly shown as loving and consoling rather than as authoritarian and judgemental, and clergy are seen as ‘helping professionals’ rather than as ‘representatives of God’s justice’. Religions apply positive sanctions on their followers in different ways: Hinduism involves a belief in reincarnation (when you die you are reborn into a new life) based on how well you observed religious laws in your previous life; the reward for good behaviour in one lifetime is rebirth into a higher social position. Ideas of sin in Christian religions can also be significant features of religious control, because the believer is encouraged to live a life free of sin in the hope of rewards in heaven. Negative sanctions are also many and varied. Catholicism, for example, has the sanction of excommunication (exclusion from the church), whereas some forms of Islam specify a range of punishments for those who break Shari’ah law. Such punishments may also be applied to ‘non-believers’ in theocratic societies, such as Iran, where government is dominated by religious authorities. ACTIVITY 1.7 Draw a spider diagram that describes any role you play. Try to illustrate its role-set. What does this diagram tell you about how you present yourself to society or a particular social group? What types of influence are making you take on the role, and why? See an example below. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Figure 1.9 KEY CONCEPT - SOCIALISATION, CULTURE AND IDENTITY How do the norms and values learned through socialisation vary between societies? Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad 1.2 Social control, conformity and resistance The role of structure and agency in shaping the relationship between the individual and society, including an awareness of the differences between structuralist and interactionist views The two main theories in sociology, functionalist theory and Marxist theory, provide different interpretations of how order and control are created and maintained. Both perspectives are structuralist (or macrosociological); they argue that how societies are organised at the level of families, governments and economies (the institutional or system level), determines how individuals view their world and behave within it (structural determinism). This perspective presents society as a powerful force that controls and shapes how people think and behave. This makes them fundamentally different to another approach that has always been present in sociology, the interactionist view, which focuses on the microsociological and how individuals can shape the social world. Human lives are not seen as decided by social forces; rather, people have agency. Structuralist theories originated in the work of Durkheim and Marx. From a structuralist perspective, social action is the product of deep, underlying forces in society that reach beyond the level of individual consciousness and control. These structural forces shape our behaviour and have a major influence on our thought processes. Marx claimed that the capitalist relations of production were the main structural force in modern industrial societies. The way in which capitalist production of goods and services is organised, with the workers separated from ownership of land and factories, can be seen as an invisible system that controls the way in which all other aspects of a society operate. By contrast, the functionalist perspective sees the structure of society more in terms of the institutional arrangements required to ensure the smooth running of society. So, for example, institutions such as the family, education and government are associated with established patterns of behaviour that together create an order and structure in society. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Figure 1.10: Is society, like gravity, an invisible force acting on us all? For structuralists, the established social order represents a powerful force that the individual has little or no freedom to oppose. For various reasons, people accept the established institutional patterns of behaviour as if they were a hidden force controlling their actions. By following social rules in this way, each person’s actions reflect the strong influence of the social structure. For structuralists, therefore, sociology should be the study of the effects of the structure of society on social life. In other words, sociologists should adopt a macro or large-scale view. The actions of the individual should be explained in terms of the influences of the overall structure or organisational arrangements of a society. For example, a structural explanation might identify poverty (which can be seen as part of the structure of society) as the cause of an increase in the crime rate. Likewise, differences in suicide rates might be explained in terms of differences in beliefs and practices between religious groups (religious institutions being part of the structure of society). The idea of social structure becomes a little clearer if we think about the different ways in which behaviour is governed by informal rules or norms that define expected behaviours in any given situation: Every relationship we form, such as making a new friend, becoming a parent or getting a new boss, involves playing a role – an idea that refers to people ‘playing a part’ in society. Just as an actor performs a role in a play, people take on and perform various roles (such as student, sister, brother, friend and employee) in their day-to-day life. Each role has certain associated values or beliefs about how something should be. For example, we may believe that friends should keep the secrets we tell them. There are also norms associated with each role, such as friends helping us if we are in trouble. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Every time we play a role, therefore, we experience the effect of social structures – rules that shape our behavioural choices. This suggests that social structures apply a significant influence on how we behave. ACTIVITY 1.8 Identify two values associated with any two roles that you play. Is one of these values a stronger influence than the other? Justify your choice. Consensus structuralism Functionalism is a consensus structuralist approach. For functionalists, any explanation of how order and stability are created and maintained involves looking at how societies are organised at the level of the social system. This involves the idea that the various parts of a society (family, education, work and so on) work in harmony. Each part is dependent on the others. Just as the different parts of the body – such as the heart, lungs and brain – work together to form something more complex than the sum of their individual parts (a living body), the different parts of a society work together to form a social system. Parsons (1937) argued that every social system consists of four ‘functional sub-systems’ – political, economic, cultural and family. Each of these sub- systems performs a different but related function that addresses certain ‘problems’ faced by every society. The connections between the various parts of the social system – family, culture, work and government – are created by institutional purposes and needs. While order is created at the institutional level through these relationships, Parsons (1959a) explained how individuals fit into the overall structure of society on the basis of functional prerequisites – things that must happen if society is to function properly. For individuals to survive and do well, they need to be part of larger cooperative groups – they must combine to solve important problems. Every social institution, from families to schools to workplaces, must develop ways to ensure that individuals conform to the needs of both the institution and society as a whole. For Parsons, institutions do this by developing ways to solve ‘four problems of their existence’. We can show this using the example of education. 1 Goal maintenance: institutions must provide people with goals to achieve, such as academic qualifications. 2 Adaptation: to achieve institutional goals, people need a cooperative environment, such as a classroom and teachers, within which people can work. 3 Integration: people must be motivated to achieve (educational) goals, and one way to do this is to encourage a ‘sense of belonging’, to both the wider society, where educational qualifications are used to sort (differentiate) adults in the workplace, and to the education system itself. A school, for example, makes people feel they ‘belong’ to the institution and that they have things in common with other students and teachers. 4 Latency: conflicts within an institution must be managed and rules created to encourage desirable behaviour and punish rule-breaking (deviance). In schools, these rules cover things such as attendance, behaviour and dress. They are designed to maintain a particular way of life in the institution. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Figure 1.11: Functional sub-systems Source: Parsons, 1937 Societies and their institutions can only function if people feel they are part of a much larger community. This requires the members of a society to be socialised into a shared value system, creating consensus. Behaviour will then be the same (consistent) and broadly predictable so that social order is maintained for the benefit of everyone. Agencies of socialisation and social control are therefore essential in creating a stable society based on shared values. People can be encouraged to conform willingly by convincing them that following certain rules is in their best interests. If that fails, however, institutions might use agents of control. These could be ‘soft’ (for example, teachers) or hard (the police or armed forces). Conflict structuralism Whereas the consensus approach concentrates on how society determines our lives for the benefit of all, conflict structuralism shows how this works to divide society so that powerful groups can control society at the cost of relatively powerless groups. Societies may appear stable, but are based on conflicts of interest between groups. The leading conflict structuralist approach, Marxism, sees this in economic terms with different social classes fighting against each other. Feminism expresses this conflict in gender terms with men as more powerful than women in most, or all, societies. Marxism For Marxists, work is the most important activity in any society because no other social activity (politics, family or culture) can exist without people first having found a way to survive. Thus, how work is socially organised (who does it, what they do and who benefits from it) is the key to understanding how all other social relationships are organised. Marxists refer to a relationship between ‘base and superstructure’. By this, they mean the relationship between economic, political and ideological institutions, which they claim is the basis for social order and control: Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad  The economic base is the basis or foundation on which society is built. It is the world of work and involves particular types of relationships (the relations of production), such as owner, manager, wage labourer and organisation. The capitalist workplace is organised in order, one group above another. Those further up in the order (hierarchy) have more power and control than those lower down. The political and ideological superstructure ‘rests’ on the economic base and involves political institutions, such as government and agencies of social control (the police, judges and courts) and ideological institutions including religion, education and the mass media. Figure 1.12: The relationship between base and superstructure in capitalist society The workplace is a key area of conflict because of its organisational structure. In capitalist society, the ‘means of economic production’ – the tools, factories and machines that are used to create wealth – are owned by one class (the bourgeoisie, or ruling class). The majority owns little or nothing and so are forced to sell their ability to work. This ability is known as their labour power. It is part of what Marxists call the forces of production: how labour power is organised to produce wealth by attaching it to various forms of technology – from simple tools to advanced machinery. In capitalist societies, members of a small bourgeois class become very rich because they keep the profits made from goods and services and most people own nothing but their ability to work for wages. The emphasis on conflict suggests that capitalist societies are naturally weak or unstable. However, this is not the case – Marxists argue that the ruling class is not only economically powerful but also politically powerful. It controls what Althusser (1972) called ‘repressive state apparatuses’ (RSAs) or ways of getting people to conform by force. This can range from hard policing (the police and armed forces as agents of social control) to soft policing (social workers and welfare agencies ‘policing’ the behaviour of the lower classes). Ownership and control of institutions such as the media also allow the ruling class to influence how others see the world. Althusser called these institutions that deal in ideas ‘ideological state apparatuses’ (ISAs). The education system, for example, does not just teach knowledge and skills, it also teaches the values of competition, individualism (‘educational success’ is measured by how successfully students compete against each other) and respect for authority. All these ideas fit neatly into a capitalist economic system that most benefits the bourgeoisie. Order and stability are maintained at a system level through the institutions that make up the political and ideological superstructure. These, in turn, are controlled by a ruling class whose power comes from ownership of the economic base. Most people are fixed in to capitalist society by the need to earn a living for themselves Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad and their family. They are also fixed in by a range of ideas that support the current system, which are spread by the media, education, religion and other institutions. Socialisation, therefore, is an effective form of control – a type of ideological control that seeks either to convince people that the interests of the ruling class are really the interests of everyone or to present society as impossible for the individual to influence or change. Socialisation may be more effective in the long term because people include the basic ideology of capitalism in their personal value system. However, this involves making economic and political agreements with the lower classes to ensure their cooperation. Earlier types of society had different types of stratification system that can be compared with class systems. For example, India had the caste system, where social position was ascribed at birth. People tended to accept the level of society they were born into, doing the same work and marrying someone from the same background. This allows very little social mobility; the class system is more open, with some mobility up and down the system. KEY SOCIOLOGIST Karl Marx 1818–83 Marx was a philosopher, economist, historian, political theorist and activist and a sociologist. He is considered to be one of the founding fathers of sociology, alongside Durkheim and Weber, but was writing before both of them. Marxism, named after him, is a structural conflict approach which emphasises the centrality of class conflict in any analysis of society. Marx’s work has provided a starting point for much theory in sociology and other disciplines, and became the foundation of the global socialist movement that sought to create an equal society in which class had been abolished. Marx wrote a lot throughout his life. His most important works are Das Kapital and, with Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto. Feminist theory Although there are many forms of feminist theory, they all share the belief that contemporary societies are patriarchal to some degree; the interests of men are always considered more important than those of women. In basic terms, therefore, order and control are based on male power expressed in two ways. Interpersonal power refers to things like physical violence or the various ways that female labour is exploited within the family group. Cultural power focuses on how male-dominated societies are structured to oppress and exploit women. In such societies, men dominate the highest levels of economic, political and cultural institutions. Different types of feminism emphasise different forms of control as the way to understand a male-dominated social order. For liberal feminism, the key form of control is sexual discrimination, while for Marxist feminism, class inequality provides the context in which female oppression, exploitation and discrimination occur. In a competitive, capitalist society, men are encouraged to exploit any ‘weaknesses’ in women’s market position (the fact that women may be out of the workforce during and after pregnancy, for example) to their own advantage. For radical feminism, patriarchy is the source of female oppression. Radical feminists believe that patriarchy is a feature of all known human societies and results in men dominating the social order in two areas: the public – such as the workplace, where women are paid less and have lower status, and the private – the home, where women carry out the majority of unpaid domestic work. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad  ACTIVITY 1.9 Suggest two differences between consensus and conflict approaches to explaining social change. Identify one strength and one limitation of each approach. Interactionism This general microsociological approach, also called the social action approach, claims that order and control are created ‘from the bottom up’. It is based on the idea that people create and re-create ‘society’ on a daily basis through their daily routines. People constantly, if not always knowingly, produce and reproduce social order through their individual and combined behaviour. From this viewpoint, ‘society’ is merely a term people use to explain the limits they place on behaviour. Although society does not exist physically, it does exist mentally. People act as though society is a real force having an effect on them, limiting and controlling their behaviour. This creates order and stability. To understand how order is maintained, therefore, we must examine the socio-psychological processes through which social groups and a sense of society are constructed. From this perspective, social life involves a series of encounters – separate but linked episodes that give the appearance of order and stability; they exist for as long as we act in ways that maintain them. Garfinkel (1967) demonstrated the weak nature of our beliefs about social order by disrupting people’s daily routines and observing how upset, confused and angry people became. Order is more psychologically desirable than disorder, and people try to impose order through the meanings given to behaviour in two ways: 1 To interact, people must develop shared definitions of a situation. In a school classroom, if a teacher defines the situation as a period of time for teaching, but her students define it as a time for messing around and having fun, this will almost certainly result in disorder. 2 Where meanings are negotiated, they can easily change. For example, the identities associated with masculinity and femininity have changed dramatically over the past 30 years in many countries. Interactionists argue that to explain human behaviour we need to study people’s interactions at the micro level – that is, as they go about their daily lives – because, as Schutz (1962) argues, ‘subjective meanings give rise to an apparently objective social world’. Societies are constructed through social interaction and this, in turn, is based on meanings. We live in a complex, symbolic world in which the meaning of our actions, our choice of clothes or the language we use is always open to interpretation. The meaning of something, whether a physical object such as a mobile phone or a symbolic system such as language, is never completely clear and its meaning can be changed by the social context in which it appears and can be negotiated through interaction. ACTIVITY 1.10 How can a mobile phone be a status symbol? With a partner, think of a list of ideas about why different types of people might want different phones. Reflection: What other objects are status symbols? Which are the most important to your age group? Discuss your ideas with other students and consider how your views differ and why. To understand how social context can determine or change the meaning of something, consider two people fighting: If the fight occurs in the street, we might interpret this as unacceptable and call the police. If the two people were fighting in a boxing ring, rather than disapproving we might cheer and encourage our favoured fighter. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad While this example demonstrates that meanings must always be interpreted, it also suggests that interaction is based on shared definitions of a situation, which themselves may be the product of negotiation. Social interaction, therefore, does not simply involve obeying rules without question, because the meaning of behaviour can change depending on its social context. Wrong (1961) criticised what he calls an ‘over- socialised conception of man’. He rejects the idea that human behaviour is governed entirely by the effects of socialisations. For Wrong, people are able to exercise a degree of freedom from the influences of their social environment. Figure 1.13: Could ‘society’ be just a label we give to social interaction? The idea of labelling demonstrates how interactionists view society as the product of social interaction. Labelling theory argues that when we name something, such as categorising people as ‘male’ or ‘female’, we associate the name with a set of characteristics that are then used to guide our behaviour. These characteristics influence our behaviour and attitude to the named person, object or situation. If the meaning of something is only developed through interaction, then meanings can change. For example, male and female social identities have changed over the past 50 years. In Western societies, female identity has changed dramatically. Previously, a woman was defined almost exclusively in terms of marriage, motherhood and caring for others. Today, there is a wider range of definitions, such as the single career woman, which reflects changing ideas about equality and perceptions of women. Structuration Concepts of structure and action are both important in helping us understand the relationship between society and the individual. Although we are all individuals, our behavioural choices are influenced, limited and improved by the framework of rules and responsibilities (social structures) that surround us. Just as we cannot imagine a society without individuals, it is impossible to think about people without referring to the ways in which their behaviour is structured. Giddens (1984) developed a perspective called structuration, which outlined the importance of both structure and action in considering the relationship between society and the individual. Structuration is the idea that as people develop relationships, the rules they use to guide their behaviours are formalised into routine ways of behaving towards each other (practices). Through the huge range of practices in our lives, a sense of structure develops in our social world – and this involves rules. This idea is important because it indicates the way our actions create behavioural rules and demonstrates how such rules become externalised (they seem to take on a life of their own, separate from our individual behaviours). Thus, although we may show rule-making behaviour, these rules ‘reflect back’ (reflexivity) on our behaviour in ways that suggest or demand conformity. In explaining why some rules are created and accepted while others are rejected, Giddens uses the idea of social resources and power relationships. Some rules are negotiated; friendship, for example, is based on a series of unwritten and unspoken rules that develop over time. Other rules, such as laws governing punishments for murder, cannot be negotiated; they are simply forced on individuals by powerful groups. KEY CONCEPT - STRUCTURE AND HUMAN AGENCY Is behaviour shaped by wider social forces or is the social world shaped by the actions of individuals? Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad  ACTIVITY 1.11 Think about the groups to which you belong (such as family, school or college, work, friends and peers) and about these questions: 1 How do these groups shape your behaviour? 2 How does your behaviour shape the behaviour of other people in these groups? Which groups have the most influence on your behaviour? Give reasons for your answer. Factors explaining why individuals conform to social expectations, including sanctions, social pressure, self-interest and social exchange Most of the time, most people conform to social expectations; social life would not be possible if they did not. The agencies of socialisation – family, peers, education, media and religion – also act as agencies of social control. There are also some specialised agencies of social control, such as the police and the legal system. Agencies are able to apply pressure to make people act in some ways and not others. One way they do this is through the use of positive or negative sanctions: Positive sanctions (rewards) are the pleasant things we do to make people behave in routine, predictable, ways. These range from smiling, through praise and encouragement, to gifts. Negative sanctions (punishments) are the reverse. They include not talking to people if they annoy us, frowns or words of disapproval, fines, taking away liberty, putting people in prison and the ultimate negative sanction – killing someone. Social controls take two basic forms: 1 Formal controls involve written rules, such as laws, that apply equally to everyone in a society. They also include non-legal rules that apply to everyone playing a particular role in an organisation (such as a school or factory). Sanctions are enforced by agencies of social control – for example, the police and the legal system. Formal controls tell everyone within a group exactly what is and is not acceptable behaviour. Breaking these rules (deviance) may result in formal sanctions – such as a fine or imprisonment for breaking the law, or being sacked for breaking a company’s organisational rules. 2 Informal controls reward or punish acceptable/unacceptable behaviour in everyday, settings (such as the family). These controls do not normally involve written rules and procedures. Rather, they operate through informal enforcement mechanisms that might include ridicule, sarcasm, disapproving looks or personal violence. Such controls mainly apply to the regulation of primary relationships and groups. However, there are exceptions because primary relationships can occur within secondary groups – a teacher, for example, may also be a friend or even a relative. Informal controls also relate to the ‘unofficial rules’ we create in casual groups. A few of these rules might be applied generally – for example, unless you are in a boxing ring, punching someone in the face is generally regarded as unacceptable. However, the majority of unofficial rules are specific to a particular group. Swearing among friends, for example, may not invite sanction, but swearing at your mother or father might. Belonging to a group – and wanting to continue to belong to it, with the approval of the other group members – is itself a strong form of social pressure. Ostracism is the exclusion of someone from a group, a very strong negative sanction that is a strong reason to conform to the group. Another factor which influences people to conform most of the time is self-interest. In order to survive and live as a member of society, it is necessary to get on with others. We all need to cooperate with others, and we know that other people are less likely to support those who act in ways they disapprove of. Individuals therefore conform because they can see that it is in their own interests to do so. This can be extended to the idea of social exchange. This is the view that people give to others (either material goods, or status or approval) because this creates a relationship with joint obligations, so that the giver is likely to receive in return. When individuals are choosing a course of action, they weigh up the likely consequences, and so are likely to choose one which will result in a benefit to themselves. This means that they are likely to conform to social expectations, and to follow the socially approved norms and values. KEY SOCIOLOGIST Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad  Louis Althusser (1918–90) The French philosopher Louis Althusser revived Marxist thought in the mid twentieth century, developing ideas about ideology and other Marxist concepts to apply them to political and economic changes of the time. He is known for the concepts of repressive and ideological state apparatuses and how the latter interpellate individuals, turning them into subjects by getting them to internalise ideology and see it as natural and obvious. His best-known works are For Marx and Reading Capital. He suffered from depression and a feeling of intellectual failure. He killed his wife, the sociologist Hélène Rytmann, in 1980 while in a fit of depression, was committed to a psychiatric hospital and did very little further writing. The mechanisms through which order is maintained, including power, ideology, force and consensus This section looks further at some of the ways in which order is maintained in society. We have already considered formal and informal social control, and the ways in which socialisation and nature shape people’s behaviour. Ideology Ideologies are sets of beliefs whose ultimate purpose is to explain something. This might be: the meaning of life (scientific and religious ideologies) the nature of family organisation (familial ideologies) the superiority/inferiority of selected social groups (sexist or racist ideologies) how societies should be organised and governed (political ideologies). The word ‘ideology’ is now often used to describe a set of ideas that is not true, or rather that the person using the word ‘ideology’ believes is not true. Ideologies involve a partial or biased account. Ideologies can be used to explain and approve the social structure and culture, justifying particular attitudes and behaviours. The term ‘dominant ideology’ refers to the set of ideas which is most widely accepted in a society, usually imposed by a powerful group. Marxists argue that ideologies have a controlling or manipulative element: for example, a capitalist-controlled media directly attempts to influence its audience by constructing and presenting a version of reality favourable to the ruling class. The ruling class control the state, and use state institutions to impose the dominant ideology. Althusser (1971) referred to these institutions as ideological state apparatuses; they include the education system, the family, media and religion. Adorno and Horkheimer (1944), part of the Marxist Frankfurt School, argued that ruling-class ideology is passed on through a culture industry that creates forms of popular culture – film, magazines, comics, newspapers and so on – which are consumed uncritically and passively by the people. By controlling the culture industry, a ruling class controls the means of mental production – how people see and think about the social world. The working class, absorbing this ideology, is prevented from realising what it is really going on; they have what Marxists call ‘false class consciousness’, believing, because they are repeatedly told this, that the system they live under is fair and honest, and that their own low position is the result of their own failure or lack of ability. The reality of exploitation and oppression is hidden by the ideology. If the working class becomes able to see their real situation and protest, the ruling class can then call on what Althusser calls Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad the repressive state apparatus – the police, armed forces and so on – who can control the working class by force. Ideologies are important in the social construction of reality because they play an overall structural role in any society. They represent complete systems of belief enabling events to be located within wider contexts and related to similar events In this sense, ideologies are mental maps that tell us not only where we have been – our cultural history – but also where a society wants to go in terms of economic, political and cultural development. Ideologies are powerful structuring agencies because they pull together and make sense of the various strands of our individual and cultural existence and give the social world meaning, stability and order. ACTIVITY 1.12 Suggest an example of an ideology in your society and identify some of its related beliefs. Assess the extent to which this ideology influences behaviour in your society. Power Power is an important, but often difficult, concept. Dugan (2003) defines power actively, suggesting that it involves ‘the capacity to bring about change’. Lukes (1990), however, defines power passively, arguing that one definition involves the power to ‘do nothing’ by making others believe nothing has to change. Power also has many sources. Weber (1922) distinguishes between two types: 1 Force or coercive power, where people are forced to obey under threat of punishment. 2 Consensual power (authority), where people obey because they believe it right to do so. The second type, authority, can be further broken up: Charismatic power involves people obeying because they trust the person issuing a command. Traditional power is based on custom and practice – the way things have always been done. Rational/legal power expresses the idea that people expect commands to be obeyed because their position in an authority structure gives them the right to demand control. Power also has a number of dimensions. We can define power in terms of decision-making. It involves: the ability to make decisions – teachers, for example, can decide what their students do in the classroom preventing others making decisions – a teacher can stop their students doing things they might like to do (such as gazing out of the window) removing decision-making from the agenda – the ability to ‘do nothing’ because others are convinced that no decision has to be made. Those with power can impose their interests and their definition of reality on others. In doing so, they can bring about order and stability. However, Foucault (1983) argued that power in modern societies is different from power in past societies because it is opaque, or ‘difficult to see’. People are unaware of the power that other individuals or groups such as governments have over them. This has occurred because the way people think about and experience power in everyday life has changed. In the past, social control was mainly based on coercive power in a range of ways, from a king or queen exercising supreme power to prison systems that maintained total control over the body. In modern societies, Foucault claimed, power is exercised in increasingly subtle modes ways, such as technological surveillance – both ‘from above’, such as closed circuit television (CCTV) being used to film people, and ‘from below’ – for example, how someone’s use of a smartphone can be used to gather information about them. Foucault further argues that knowledge about the social world and the language we use to express such knowledge are both aspects of belief systems that control behaviour by influencing how people think about the world. If, for example, we believe in ideas like ‘male’ and ‘female’, this controls how we behave both as males and females and towards other males and females. Cogito, Ergo Sum. Muhammad Sohaib Shahzad Although reality is socially constructed, the construction process itself involves a complex relationship between beliefs, ideologies and power on one side (the broad structural elements of culture) and everyday ideas about roles, values and norms on the other. ACTIVITY 1.13 To illustrate how the social construction of reality takes place on an everyday basis, take a walk around your school or college and record the different ways you classify the people you meet. For example, you will probably meet some or all of the following classes of people: strangers, acquaintances (people you recognise but don’t really know very well), friends, close friends, best friends. There will, of course, be other categories to discover. Reflection: How does this classification affect your behaviour towards the people you encounter? Consensus The functionalist view is that order is maintained through a consensus, a general agreement on a set of values. This is not seen as being imposed from above by a ruling class, as in Marxist theory, but rather the outcome of the majority accepting it. Those in authority have the power to punish those who break the consensus (for example, by committing a crime) but they will have the support of society in doing this. The punishing of criminals reinforces the boundaries of the value system; it actually strengthens it, be reminding everyone of which behaviours are not tolerated. The consensus is also reinforced by collective rituals, when the members of the society join together to confirm their acceptance of the consensus; this may be through religious ceremonies, or the use of symbols such as flags or singing a national anthem. The consensus can change over time. If opinion changes within a society, then rules and laws will change to reflect this. In this way, the society is able to remain stable despite change. THINK LIKE A SOCIOLOGIST Most of the time, most school students conf