Soc 1100 - Society and Social Interaction PDF

Chp.4 - Society and Social Interaction Society: people who interact in a defined space and share culture Jean and Gerhard Lenski: Sociocultural evolution: The process of change that results from a society’s gaining new information, particularly technology. Ability to manipulate the physical environ...

Chp.4 - Society and Social Interaction Society: people who interact in a defined space and share culture Jean and Gerhard Lenski: Sociocultural evolution: The process of change that results from a society’s gaining new information, particularly technology. Ability to manipulate the physical environment. -> From rudimentary technology to technologically complex societies (not the ‘better’). Greater technology -> rapid change (even in the span of a lifetime) …Fast food, mobile phones, artificial hearts, laser surgery, test- tube babies, genetic engineering, computer-based virtual reality, fibre optics, smart bombs, threat of nuclear holocaust, space shuttles, transsexual surgery…  Types of societies Preindustrial societies -Hunting / gathering more egalitarian (10,000 – 12,000 years ago) -Horticultural / pastoral surplus -> inequality begins (7,500 years ago) -Agricultural empires /men’s social dominance / religion mobilising / pol. system / control (3000 B.C.E.) -Feudal hierarchical / land ownership (nobility – lords, vassals) (9th century) Industrial societies factories / cities / fast change / transportation / communication / work / population growth / specialisaition / anonymity Postindustrial information-based economy / digital / computers / less labour, more clerical workers / globalisation / postmodernism  Modern society 1) A new industrial economy: the growth of modern capitalism (large machines, anonymous, industrial workforce, change in the production) 2) The growth of cities; factories attracting people (housing, social problems, poverty, crime, social crisis) => New classes: bourgeoisie, working class 3) Political change (changes in political thought; tradition under attack) Thomas Hobbes, John Locke (17th), Adam Smith (18th), American Declaration of Independence, Tocqueville (19th) From loyalty to the rulers => to the idea that society is the product of individual self-interest 4) The loss of community: Tönnies (19th): Progressive loss of Gemeinschaft; Industrial revolution undermining the social fabric of family and tradition => individualism, businesslike emphasis on facts and efficiency, rootless, impersonal, self-interest => Gesellschaft  Theoretical Perspectives on Society Marx, Weber, Durkheim Common questions: - How do societies of the past and present differ from one another? - How and why does a society change? What forces divide a society? What forces hold it together? - Are societies getting better or worse? Kissing one’s hands  Émile Durkheim and Functionalism Structure: society beyond ourselves Society has an objective existence apart form individuals It was here before we were born; will remain after we are gone. Patterns of human behaviour -> established structures; Cultural norms, values, beliefs -> social facts Function: society in action The significance of any social fact extends beyond individuals. Social elements related to the larger society through their functions Ex: Dirt… Crime -> “harmful act” but “vital function”… Recognizing and responding to acts as criminal, constructing and defending morality, giving necessary shape to our collective life. Personality: society in ourselves Building personality by internalising social facts. Society regulates human beings through moral discipline. Human being naturally insatiable; society instill restraints in us. Societal regulation Why rock stars so vulnerable to self-destruction? -> least regulated categories of people that suffer the highest rates of suicide. Modernity and anomie Modern society; fewer restrictions but rise of anomie (“without law” - little moral guidance to individuals). Evolving societies: the division of labour Pre-industrial societies; tradition: social cement, collective conscience (strong punishing) Mechanical solidarity -> social bonds based on shared morality -> likeness (things done always as usual) Traditional societies fused by “mechanical solidarity” based on moral (collective, solid) consciousness. Organic solidarity -> social bonds based on specialisation -> differences (relying on one another) Based on the division of labour of productive specialisation Modern society rests far less on moral consensus; far more on functional interdependence Individuals functioning much like the interdependent but differentiated organs of a living body.  Karl Marx and conflict theory Materialist analysis Keen observation of industrial transformation: -Factories -> productive power -> more goods than ever before. -Global system of commerce -> resources from around the world. -Industry’s riches concentrated in the hands of a few => splendid affluence vs. wretched squalor. Basic contradiction: in a society so rich, how could so many be poor?.. And question: how can this situation be changed? A new and just social order… Wretched squalor  Key: social conflict – struggle between segments of society over valued resources. -> the most significant form of social conflict: clashes between social classes (that arise from the way a society produces material goods).  Society and production Minority: Early capitalism -> the economic system -> transformation of a small part of population into capitalists (bourgeoisie - people who own factories and other productive enterprises) Goal: profit (selling a product more than it costs to produce) Population -> industrial workers – proletariat (people who provide labour necessary to operate factories…) Inevitable conflict: Capitalists: maximising profits -> minimising wages; Workers: maximising wages. Profits and wages come from the same pool of funds => conflict.  SUPERSTRUCTURE Ideology and Ideology and Consciousness consciousness Political, legal, moral (govt., family, religion, Political, education,legal, moral culture) The The forces forces + relations relations of ofproduction production For ex: hunting => spears spears //bow bow peasants => plough peasants plough //craft craft factory => advanced advancedmachinery, machinery INFRASTRUCTURE (The base: economy)  Societies composed of social institutions (the major spheres of social life, or society’s subsystems, organised to meet basic human needs; economy, political system, family, religion, education…) Economy dominates all others… “The economy is the real foundation” Historical materialism: “how humans produce material goods” shapes the rest of society. The mode of production in material life determines the general character of the social, political, and spiritual processes of life.  Economic production: technology and social relationships (between capitalists –controlling the process of production- and workers –simply a source of labour) Other institutions (family, political system, religion) extend economic principles into other areas of life. => reinforce the domination of the capitalists by legally protecting their wealth, by transferring property from one generation to the next through family. “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas.” Private property => perceived as “natural” => “affluent people have earned their wealth” => “poor people lack skills or motivation”. -> False consciousness: “social problems: the shortcomings of individuals rather than the flaws of society” (obscuring the real cause of their problems).  Conflict in history and capitalism “The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle” (Marx, Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848) “People are born into history that is not of their making; but men also make history.” Capitalists and proletarians : descendants of masters / slaves; nobles / serfs (controlling as productive property)… The social order: “God’s will” => exploitation veiled by religious and political illusions. Destructive aspects of industrial capitalism -> class conflict and alienation (from the product of one’s labor / the process of one’s labor / others / one’s self. -> Experience of isolation resulting from powerlessness Class conflict (struggle) => antagonism over the distribution of wealth and power. Technology -> power -> power of productive process over human beings. Meta fetishism Alienation: a barrier to social change Political struggle: to be aware of the oppression, organise and act; replace false consciousness with class consciousness; recognise their unity Revolution: the only way to refashion society; => more humane and egalitarian productive system; enhancing social ties => socialism.. “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win”… Revolutions Call center slaves  Max Weber and symbolic interactionism Rationalisation of society and the disenchantment of the world Symbolic interactionism/ Action theory / idealist approach -Modes of thought -> Ideas (beliefs and values) => powerful effect on society Sharp contrast: Tradition (pre-industrial societies): sentiments and beliefs passed form generation to generation Rationality (industrial capitalist societies): calculation of the most efficient means to accomplish a particular goal. -> No place to sentiments => Rationalisation of society -> historical change Modern society (scientific thinking and technology) -> disenchanted… sentimental ties to the past swept away Rationalisation of the time Rationality, Calvinism and industrial capitalism Industrial capitalism-> a rational economic system? (Weber ≠ Marx) -Legacy of Calvinism (Protestant reformation) Calvinists -> highly disciplined and rational. Predestination -> an all-knowing and all powerful God preordained people -> salvation /damnation. Fate set before birth-> people could do nothing to alter their destiny. Calvinists: hopeful visions of eternal salvation and anxious of unending damnation. The glory in the next world: the signs of divine favour in this world -> world prosperity -> sign of God’s grace. -Quest for success, applying rationality, discipline and hard work to their tasks; -The pursuit of riches / spending money -> sinful; -Piously using wealth to generate more wealth; practicing personal thrift; -Embracing technological advances; -Reinvesting the profits for greater success; -Not sharing their wealth with the poor (poverty -> a sign of God’s rejection); -Building the foundation of capitalism… (≠ Catholicism -> a passive “otherworldly” view of life) Calvinism -> capitalism -> power of ideas to shape society (≠Marx) But industrial capitalism -> many roots Religious fervour weakened but success-seeking personal discipline remained strong. A religious or “Protestant Ethic” became a “work ethic”. Industrial capitalism -> disenchanted religion “Accounting”: keeping a daily record of moral deeds -> keeping track of money  Religious Division of Europe – 1555 Capitalism primarily in areas of Calvinist Europe Rationality and bureaucracy Modern businesses, government agencies, trades unions, universities… Offices, duties, policies -> achieve specific goals as efficiently as possible. Rationality and alienation Sharing with Marx: alienation (the primary problem is not the economic inequality) but the stifling regulation and dehumanisation. Bureaucracy / iron cage treating people as a series of cases; threatening to crush human spirit. Modern society turns on its creators and enslaves them -> individuals “only a small cog in ceaselessly moving mechanism”. Modern (“rational”) slavery Thinking Marx and Weber together in the case English working class and Methodism How could such a bourgeois religion, peculiar to an elite of entrepreneurs who considered themselves "called" or "elected", be able to seduce the nascent proletariat at a particularly difficult time when, by their very number, these proletarians were not predisposed to consider themselves as an elected group? (E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, 1963)  The Methodists’ religiosity (p.369): «The Methodists made of religion (wrote Southey) "a thing of sensation and passion, craving perpetually for sympathy and stimulants". These Sabbath orgasms of feeling made more possible the single-minded weekday direction of these energies to the consummation of productive labour. Moreover, since salvation was never assured, and temptations lurked on every side, there was a constant inner goading to sober an industrious behaviour -the visible sign of grace- every hour of the day and every day of the year. Not only «the sack» but also the flames of hell might be the consequence of indiscipline at work. God was the most vigilant overlooker of all. Even above the chimney breast "Thou God Seest Me" was hung. The Methodist was taught not only to "bear his Cross" of poverty and humiliation; the crucifixion was the very pattern of his obedience: "True followers of our bleeding Lamb, Now on Thy daily cross we die …". Work was the Cross from which the "transformed" industrial worker hung.»  Community Methodism and its open chapels "offered to the uprooted and the abandoned of the industrial revolution a kind of community of substitution." (E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, 1963) Factories and churches - working class and community  The social construction of reality The process by which people creatively shape reality through social interaction (Peter Berger, Thomas Luckmann (1967) – Habitualization: repetition -> patterns The reality is not fixed; each human being has some ability to shape. Social interaction -> negotiating reality. Everyday situations -> some agreements but different perceptions of participants. Institutionalization, the act of implanting a convention or norm into society. => We build the social world through our interactions. The symbolic interaction paradigm / the social constructionist perspective. The Thomas theorem (W.I. Thomas) Situations we define as real become real in their consequences (transforming reality, prejudices…) Self-fulfilling prophecy (Robert K. Merton). → The power of the discourse.  Roles and status Roles - patterns of behavior that we recognize in each other that are representative of a person’s social status. Status - the responsibilities and benefits that a person experiences according to their rank and role in society. Ascribed or achieved statuses. Role strain - too much required. Role conflict - contradictory roles. Complex role-set  Constructing situations: Erving Goffman (1922-1982) Interaction order: what we do in the immediate presence of others. Like actors performing on a stage -> role performance - situational “theatre” -> dramaturgical analysis Everyday social life -> theatre -> we are actors and audience. Each individual performance -> the presentation of self ->an individual’s effort to create specific impressions in the minds of others -> impression management. Role performances We convey information; costume, props, manner Stage (setting: street, mosque, church, home, office) / interaction rules / rituals Ex: doctor / judge Non-verbal communication -> body language The looking-glass self (Charles Horton Cooley) Other people represent the mirror or looking glass in which we perceive ourselves. Looking-glass self: the image people have of themselves based on how they believe others perceive them.