Stuvia-598855-theories.pdf

Theories written by summerx www.stuvia.com Downloaded by: richardson1984 | [email protected] Distribution of this document is illegal Want to earn £756 extra per year? Stuvia.co.uk - The Marketplace for Revision Notes & Study Guides THEORIES KEY SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES COMTE – human society...

Theories written by summerx www.stuvia.com Downloaded by: richardson1984 | [email protected] Distribution of this document is illegal Want to earn £756 extra per year? Stuvia.co.uk - The Marketplace for Revision Notes & Study Guides THEORIES KEY SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES COMTE – human society passed three stages, the theological, metaphysical then positive. Social order was based on a consensus. DURKHEIM – followed consensus. Social order is based on a value consensus. This can either be mechanical or organic solidarity. The transition of the two represents social change. He doesn’t study conflict. Order is normally opposed by powerful groups with the most resources – ideological control. He studied suicide, but he lack clear explanation and the data might have been used wrong. MARX – social order based on conflict. Society passed through communism, ancient society, feudal then capitalist. Each based on a relationship. In capitalism – bourgeoisie and proletariat. Bourgeoisie had the means of production. Proletariat only had their labour. Social order also based on force and persuasion. Class conflict leads to class inequality and stratification. Classes were organised by wealth and power. You had more power if you had more resources. Conflict does bring about social change, but he ignores other types of conflict. He is deterministic. WEBER – concerned with social change. Modernisation occurred through industrialisation, urbanisation then rationalisation. Social change is brought by individuals acting purposefully. He acknowledges that social change was driven by multiple factors not just class conflict. All social changes must by analysed separately to see the causes. DEFINING SCIENCE Science must be reliable and valid. POPPER – hypothetico deductive model. How science works. Theories should not be disproven. This means they are facts and not opinions. Science must be universal – made under criteria, disinterested – no personal stake, communal – public knowledge and sceptical – must be evaluated. MERTON – sceptical attitude made it different from other types of knowledge – like faith. ROLE OF VALUES Research considerations: Personal values influence research. Pearce studied the powerful and Davis studied the powerless. Those paying for the research will influence how it is studied and what is studied. Solovey raised the question if sociologists should be held accountable here. Method choice is influenced by what is believed to give the best reliability and validity. This involves positivist and interpretivist ideas. Coser argues value-neutrality. Uses of sociology knowledge Past now focused on large scale theories such as social order and change. MARX – capitalism, economic and social exploitation and inequality. WEBER – modernisation. DURKHEIM – social forces that produced change Focus on a range of social issues Feminism – effects of patriarchy on relationships. Indirectly contributed to social policies in Europe like equal pay. TOWNSEND AND ABEL-SMITH – UK poverty search changed how government defines poverty. Downloaded by: richardson1984 | [email protected] Distribution of this document is illegal Want to earn £756 extra per year? Stuvia.co.uk - The Marketplace for Revision Notes & Study Guides Issues raised by globalisation – convergence of capitalist economic systems and development of large-scale communities and the changes that arise from mixing of different cultural ideas. Sometimes sociology has direct input to social policy as it is funded by government, but it has more of an indirect input. Like Townsends and Abel-Smiths research. Sociological knowledge can inform government how to measure things – like crime. Sociology can also measure the effectiveness of a policy. Stephens – states that the welfare model has to use a research method to evaluate where it should be allocated. SOCIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS CARTER – crime and unemployment is a social problem, but carter says its only a problem when it is defined as which powerful groups disapprove. What is a social problem to one group may no to another. sociological problems is what societies must solve to survive – such as food and shelter. This means social order, social control and social change are problems. WILLIS – a sociological problem is a question that demands explanation. This means sometimes social and sociological problems can be the same. ADOMAITITIENE – the disabled face social problems from discrimination to environments. They are also labelled themselves as a social problem. The sociological problem would be why the discrimination occurs or why disability is constructed as a social problem. Sociologists do not have to solve social problems, but the knowledge can help. PAINTER AND FARRINGTON – better lit areas have less crime. This addresses a sociological problem and a social problem. CALVERT AND CALVERT – define social policy as the main principles under which the government directs economic resources to meet specific social needs – such as housing. Social policy is where sociological problems and social problems meet. Is sociologists identify with the powerful, they are agents of social control. Otherwise, they can not have value-neutrality if they over identify with a certain group. MILLS – an unimaginative view of sociology as solving problems reduces sociology to an amount of facts for the purpose of making decisions. Sociologists, therefore, need to be aware with their relationship with groups. Feminist Theory PASCALL – social policies that reduce the states welfare role result in a rise of women’s unpaid work as carers MISRA – social policies involving employment and child birth has been influenced by women’s activism. BECKER – it is impossible to achieve value-neutrality in social issues. Sociologists should make choices about their research to promote their values. TOMBS AND WHYTE – sociologists’ role is to empower the powerless by providing information to improve social policies. MARSLAND – sociology should address social problems. It is important in policy formation. If sociology didn’t help, it allows the unchecked, powerful groups to make decisions. DIVERSITY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR Cross cultural – difference between societies. Language, political organisation etc. Intra-cultural – difference in the same culture High culture – superior activities such as classical music or the opera GANS – high culture is preferred by the well-educated elite. KATZ GERRO ET AL – culture indicates the class division. Low culture – pop music, harry potter, common things GIDDENS – low culture is entertainment created for the mass Downloaded by: richardson1984 | [email protected] Distribution of this document is illegal Want to earn £756 extra per year? Stuvia.co.uk - The Marketplace for Revision Notes & Study Guides Age Class Gender ethnicit y Childhood has cultural differences. Children have permissions that adults don’t – like play. Children are not allowed to smoke or drink. Different groups of youth have different cultural tastes but hold different clothing and leisure activities compared to adults. Youth culture is played outside the home meanwhile the elderly are inside. Adults have the most rights and responsibilities. The elderly have a diminished identity. This is because they are retired. GIANOULIS – old age is a process of decline, senility and helplessness. In some tribes, the elderly may be murdered because they are an economic burden. KAGAN – in Columbia, the elderly are good because they are wise. Middle class children are more likely to go to university and endorse in more leisure activities. They also occupy more middle and senior managerial positions. It is hard to distinguish between classes nowadays. A working-class women has lower chances than an upper-class male. An upper-class women has greater chances than a lower-class male. STANWORTH – life chances can vary between men and women of the same class, age and ethnicity. There is gender inequality raised by patriarchal ideology. Women also suffer higher levels of domestic violence. SELF AND ZEALEY – 20% of women choose to be childless. Girls normally out perform boys at school. Asian boys outperform British girls. In Saudi Arabia, women must have male permission to work outside the home. EITZEN AND BACAZINN – women do 60% of work but earn 10% of income. This prevents women from having work advantages like men. WINSTON – seeing yourself in a distinctive way to others. SONG – ethnic groups have common ancestry constructed around symbolic elements such as family or religion. In India, you can see over 2000 ethnicities. London is the second largest French city. Global Culture Cultural products are malleable. People can develop a pick and mix approach. Globalised culture reflects how local culture can spread and be picked up and changed by different groups. An example can be the internet. Another example would be the convergence and similarities in groups. Like language or consuming the same things. These are common cultural bonds. SKLAIR – to understand global cultural development we must think of three processes Localised globalism means that some culture is adapted and changed by particular behaviours. REGEV – rock was originally from the US but was picked up and now there is many varieties of rock. Globalised localism involves local cultures becoming apart of globalised culture. Global cultural convergence is what BRYMAN calls disneyisation culture. Like when Disney Land picks up different cultures but makes it its own. PLUMB – process of globalisation is accelerated because culture has become a commodity. LECHNER – economic power of global companies creates a consumer culture. RITZER – wherever you are, a big mac is a big mac. Standardisation of cultural products. SOCIAL ORDER AND CONTROL Consensus Structuralism Functionalis m Various parts of society functions in harmony, each part is dependent on others. PARSONS – every social system has four sub systems. They all perform a function that solves a problem in society. The sub systems are created by purposes and needs. Parsons says individuals fit into the overall structure of society as to survive they need to be apart of these solves social integration. makes people feel like they have things in common. schooling is an example solves physical survival. how to organise people into groups to survive cultural economic family political solves socialisation. how children are raised to be functional in society solves order. how to control people and make sure the rules of society are maintained. Downloaded by: richardson1984 | [email protected] Distribution of this document is illegal Want to earn £756 extra per year? Stuvia.co.uk - The Marketplace for Revision Notes & Study Guides Downloaded by: richardson1984 | [email protected] Distribution of this document is illegal Want to earn £756 extra per year? Stuvia.co.uk - The Marketplace for Revision Notes & Study Guides Marxism larger groups. The way these systems ensure individuals conform they developed ways to solve the four problems of existence. (1) goal maintenance – goals to achieve (2) adaptation – an environment to work (3) integration – motivation such as a sense of belonging and (4) latency - managing rules. Institutions also use hard and soft policing. Social order is maintained because powerful groups are imposing on powerless groups. They believe in a base and superstructure. The base is the foundation and involves the relations of production. The superstructure rests on the base and involves agencies of social control such as education, religion and the judiciary system. The workplace is an area of conflict because of the structure. The means of production are used to create wealth and is owned by one class. The rest only have labour power. This ruling class are economically and politically powerful. feminism ALTHUSSER – repressive state apparatus. This is controlling people by force through hard and soft policing. Althusser also sees the systems that control how we see the world. Ideological state apparatus. Such as education, it teaches us values not only knowledge. This is all owned by the rich who benefit. Social order is maintained because powerful groups are imposing on powerless groups. All contemporary societies are patriarchal. Order and control is based on male power. Interpersonal power is things like physical violence and cultural power focuses on how men dominate the institutions. Liberal feminists believe the key form to control is sexual discrimination. Marxists believe class inequality is where female oppression occurs. Capitalist men are encouraged to exploit any weakness in women. Example, maternity leave. Radical feminists believe that patriarchy is the source to female oppression. Men dominate the workplace and the home. Interactionism Order and control is created from the bottom up. People create and re-create society. People make social order through behaviour. Society does not exist physically, but mentally. People at like society is shaping them and this creates order. social life is encounters that give the appearance of order and stability. It exists as long as we act in ways that maintain them. GARFINKEL – disrupted the daily routines and observed how angry people got. Order is more desirable than disorder and people give meanings to this behaviour through two ways. (1) to interact, people have shared definitions. Disorder will occur when the meanings are different. (2) meanings can change such as identities associated with gender over the past few years. Society is a label we give to interaction and rules. Labelling things makes us associate it with characteristics, we can change the label. SOCIAL CHANGE Functionalis m Marxism Feminist PARSONS – structural differentiation. When a difference happens in one sub-system it happens in all. MARTON – social strains. When the needs of one institution cannot be met by another institution. Some institutions can lose functions, other can gain functions. Social change comes from conflict. The competition in business leads to conflict. Conflict exists in the micro scale and macro scale. Liberal feminism – change happens through the legal system. Feminists have promoted anti-discrimatory laws in the UK and US. They can also change male attitudes to family life through these laws. Marxist feminism – link gender inequality to class-based inequalities. Patriarchal differences are the product of cultural differences in the way males are raised. Men are not naturally exploitive but are raised like it. interactionali sm Radical feminism – a change can occur if we overthrow the patriarchal system. Women must approach a matriarchal society. Social change involves changing attitudes. Globalisation has led to increasing contact between different societies has led to the exchange of ideas and practices. WEBER – Calvinism helped promote a social change to capitalism. ROBINSON – six conditions that shape the likelihood of religion becoming a force of social change. Downloaded by: richardson1984 | [email protected] Distribution of this document is illegal Want to earn £756 extra per year? Stuvia.co.uk - The Marketplace for Revision Notes & Study Guides STRUCTURALISM, INTERACTIONISM AND STRUCTURATION Structuralis m Originated with Durkheim and Marx. It is based on the idea that society shapes our behaviour. People have little freedom to oppose. It should be approached with a macro approach. Every time we play a role, we are experiencing the effect of social structures MARX – capitalism is the main structural force in modern industrial societies. They way things are organised influence us. Interactionis m The functionalist perspective sees society in terms of arrangements that assure society moves smoothly. Micro approach. Behaviour becomes action when it is directed towards other people and how they react. How we behave is influenced by how others behave. Reject the idea that we are influenced by structures. SCHUTZ – societies are constructed through social interaction which is based on meanings. Society is simply a label we stick on rules and responsibilities. Labelling theory is when we name something we set characteristics to it. Meanings can change through interaction. Everything we do is down to interpretation. The meaning of something is never self-evident and can be changed by the context in which it appears. WILSON – we experience the world through others. The social world consists of phenomena whose meaning is negotiated through interaction. WRONG – over-socialised concept of a man, he doesn’t like that human behaviour is governed by socialisations. People still have forces bearing down on them. Structuratio n GARFINKEL – he upset people’s definition of a situation to show how they construct reality. Our choices are influenced, limited and enhanced by social structures that surround us. People develop relationships, the rules are formalised into routing ways of behaving and a sense of structure develops. The rules we make reflect back so that we conform. GIDDENS – structure and action is important in understanding the relationship. Some rules are negotiated such as friendship and some rules aren’t such as law. SOCIALISATION Feral children SATURDAY MTHIYANE – a feral child. Lived with a pack of monkeys. PINES – studied genie, a child raised with no human contact. He notes genie had been isolated in a small room with no food or love. She couldn’t talk or stand up. If human development is instinct why does she show different characteristics. Same shows for culture. When they are feral, they are raised to show any social or physical development we would expect. BILLIKOPF AND WOJTCZAK – people have cultural differences which vary massively. The I and the me Presentation of self PODDER AND BERGVALL – culture isn’t what we are born with, it is something that is taught to us. MEAD – how people behave is conditioned by the context in which it happens. He developed the self with two concepts. The I, unsocialised self and the Me, how others expect us to react, the social self. The reaction is conditioned by who you are, where you are, who you are with etc. GOFFMAN – who we believe ourselves to be is constructed through how we present ourselves to others. People are actors. Sometimes we improvise. We perform a role to manage how others react to us. BARNHART – interaction is a performance shaped by context. COOLEY - people are used like a looking glass self. When we see how people react to us, we can see what they think of us. alternatives Presentation of self focuses on two main things, interpretation and negotiation. WILSON – there is a biological basis for all human behaviour, and that all behaviour is influenced by biological programming. For example, the differences between women Downloaded by: richardson1984 | [email protected] Distribution of this document is illegal Want to earn £756 extra per year? Stuvia.co.uk - The Marketplace for Revision Notes & Study Guides and men. PARSONS – men and women’s roles are biological. Even though they can choose roles, differing from the biological way is not the most efficient. BRUCE AND YOUNG – the brain may influence behaviour. Studied brain damage in soldiers and face recognition problems. CAUFFMAN ET AL studied criminal behaviour. WORTLEY – genes may be responsible for certain behaviours, but they do not produce behaviour. MEINS ET AL – babies are attracted to their primary care giver, but this can be affected by other factors. DIFFERENT TYPES OF SOCIALISATION Primary COOLEY – primary socialisation occurs within intimate face-to-face association and cooperation. It is important to understand the behaviour that makes us human. It helps people develop both as people and with a culture. Secondary We may not have close personal involvement. PARSONS – liberate the individual from the primary socialisation. Social control Socialisation brings order, stability and predictability. A child can be socialised the right or the wrong way. PFHOL – social control is changing noise to a harmony. Socialisation is underpinned by sanctions. Positive sanctions, smiling and praise, and negative sanctions, killing someone. Formal controls involves written rules. Breaking of these rules will result in formal sanctions. Informal controls are used in every day settings. May include sarcasm and ridicule. AGENCIES OF SOCIALISATION Family Child development has a large number of roles. The ability to develop roles within the family allows us to make mistakes and learn lessons. MEAD – parents are significant others. They shape our values, how we behave and our moral values. Sanctions are normally informal. Peers Functionalists see this as a one-way process that passes from parents to children. Children are socialised by copying behaviour and negotiating behaviour. HUGHES – the models we use to shape our attitudes. Some include sub cultures – hippies, skinheads and punks. We may never interact with these groups, but they can influence us. Education Play multiple roles from friend to student. Disapproving actions may be met by social sanctions such as disapproving looks or bad words. Involves a formal and hidden curriculum. JACKSON – describes the hidden curriculum as the things we learn from attending school, such as authority and obedience. PARSONS – school gets the child away from primary attachment. It allows children to internalise a level of societies values and norms. They can adopt wider values. We can become locked in a range of expected behaviour. School projects values such as working hard. A covert value would be academic ability which is normally higher values than vocational studies. Mass media BOWLES AND GINTIS – correspondence between school and the workplace. They teach students the capitalistic hierarchy. Includes things such as attendance, obeying authority etc. Impersonal relationship. There are short time effects. Media undoubtfully influential. Promotes certain values and demotes others. POTTER – short term effects include imitation, desensitisation and learning. The more people Downloaded by: richardson1984 | [email protected] Distribution of this document is illegal Want to earn £756 extra per year? Stuvia.co.uk - The Marketplace for Revision Notes & Study Guides will see something, the more likely it will take influence. DURKEHEIM – boundary making function. It shows acceptable and not forms of behaviour. It involves sanctions. Religion CHANDLER – long term effects which are small but significant. Consumerism, fear and agenda setting. PHILO ET AL support his and says media determines how something is debated. Morals can be influenced by religion. Some religions are accused of promoting patriarchy through organisation. SWATOS – contemporary religions are undergoing a change to make them female friendly. God is seen as loving and not judgemental. Religion can be a design for living. It provides guidance. Can be a source of conflict such as between religions or between the same – the conflict between catholic and protestant churched in Northern Ireland. Religion can be shown through dress. It shows religion and ethnicity. STEGGERDA – Christianity promotes love and care that is attractive to women DALY – in a male dominated world, religions give women shelter from a threatening world. Positive sanctions include the Hinduism belief in reincarnation and believing in living a life free of sin. Negative sanctions include excommunication. Some religions perform negative sanctions on non-believers. PHYSICAL AND MENTAL SPACES AND IMAGINED COMMUNITIES Physical space – geographical area marked y a physical border or symbolic border. Can be a mental construction as we are just giving a meaning to what is a line on the map. Mental space – based on beliefs on the similarities with those in their society and the differences with those in others. ANDERSON – societies are imagined communities that only exist in the mind. Societies are mentally constructed by geographic borders, a system of government, common language and customs, a sense of belonging and identification. MATERIAL AND NON-MATERIAL CULTURE DAHL – culture is a collectively held set of attributes which changes over time. Material culture – physical objects that reflect knowledge, skills, interests and preoccupations. Non-material culture – knowledge and belief systems. MERTON – objects have a manifest function and a latent function. Phones used for communication is the manifest function, the status it gives us is the latent option. These can be negotiated and change. CULTURAL ORDER AND STABILITY Roles Values Norms Beliefs Ideolog y Always played in relation to other roles. They contribute to the creation of culture. It helps people form solidarity. It locks people into a range of relationships each with routines and responsibilities. Every role has a label which comes with expectations. All roles come with a belief on how people should behave. Roles are governed by values that provide behavioural guidelines. They are a general structuring agency. They provide a broad guidance. It tells us which role to play but not how we should play it. What tells us this is norms. THIO – norms are specific rules saying how people should act. They are behavioural rules. GOFFMAN – norms are open to negotiation and interpretation, more than roles and values. There are many ways to perform roles – it can be down to cultural differences or how we interpret a role. Fundamental, deep-rooted ideas that shape our values. They include ideas, opinions and attitudes. They may not be proven as true. JOSEPH – all ideologies are based around beliefs whose ultimate purpose is to explain something. This can be the meaning of life, nature of family organisation etc. BLAKE – ideology is something not to be believed. They are biased. All ideologies involve propaganda. HENDERSON – an ideology is a pattern of ideas which claim to legitimatise the culture of a society. Downloaded by: richardson1984 | [email protected] Distribution of this document is illegal Want to earn £756 extra per year? Stuvia.co.uk - The Marketplace for Revision Notes & Study Guides An ideology is basically a justification for a culture. Power Critical theory: ideologies are manipulative and favours the ruling class. ADORNO AND HORKHEIMER – ruling-class ideology is passed through culture. The ruling-class controls how we see things. CHIBNALL – ideologies are mental maps that tell us our history but our future. JONES AND MYHILL support this by saying it gives us objectives for social action. DRUGAL – defines power actively and can bring about change. LUKES – defines is passively WEBER – coercive power is where people have to obey. Consensual power is when people obey because they have the right too. Authority had can be divided into charismatic power – people obeying because they trust the command. Traditional power – the way things have always been. Rational power – when people expect their commands to be obeyed because they have the right. Power gives us the ability to make decisions, to stop other decisions and stopping agenda. GIDDENS – those in power can impose their definition of reality on others. They can bring about order this way. FOUCAULT – people find it hard to see the power more. It is in forms of CCTV or smartphones. LOACTING YOURSELF IN A CULTURE THROUGH SOCIAL IDENTITY Class Working class: Working class identities are fixed around manual work. class identity was built in small communities in which it was not only based around wat they are but what they’re not. CROMPTON – there has been changes in the nature of work. there’s a decline int traditional manufacturing and a rise in service industries. This has led to a new working class. GOLDTHORPE – the working class is now privatised, and home centred and instrumental. Middle class: Middle class identities are based around occupational identities such as professionals who combines educational achievement with freedom of decision making. They have more power and control and can perform such. BROOKS – managers of companies combine career progression, power and control. Not working class – people who occupy a difficult to read situation Disgusted subjects – LAWLER – middle class people can be disgusted by taste. Social capital – how people are connected. CATTS AND OZGA call this the social glue. Upper class: Two major groupings. Those whose power is historic and are important and the business elite who have major income and wealth. SELF AND ZEALEY – 21% of the UKs wealth belongs to 1% of the population. DAVIES ET AL – the wealth is owned by the top 1% basically. Blurring of identities: PEELE – we can see change is consumption and cultural changes. It is also harder to identify different classes – although it has not disappeared completely. PRANDY AND LAMBERT – gradual shift of people moving from working to middle class. Gender SAVAGE – greater emphasis is on the individual and not collective experiences. CONNELL ET AL – we become a man and a women through social identities. Gender is a social construction. Hegemonic masculinity – men basing themselves of stereotypes. It is always dominant. Emphasises femininity – women being framed in a way that pleases men. A service role. KITCHEN supports. Male identities: SCHAUER – different male identities exist Subordinate – lesser forms. Unwilling to perform hegemonic masculinity. Subversive – undermines hegemonic. A serious student and not a gang member. Complicit – sort of like a new man for what CONNELL says is because women are more powerful. Marginalised – they cannot perform a breadwinner role. Happens in unemployed men. Crisis: BENYON – men are having a crisis because of unemployment, loss of male employment, lower educational achievement, rise of female friendly services. Males cannot be hegemonic because they no longer control the resources on which they are based. Retributive masculinity – wanting to reclaim masculinity by being patriarchal, aggressive and reclamational Hypermasculinity – WOLFLIGHT – powerful and violent. TOXIC masculinity girls. Female identities: Contingent – a secondary role to men. CHAMBERS ET AL – we look for male approval. Sexual identities. Assertive – the changing power. FROYUM – resist male power without overthrowing it. Can be girl power, or modernised women. Autonomous - EVANS – women have a new gender regime. That frees women from individual role. Education, Downloaded by: richardson1984 | [email protected] Distribution of this document is illegal Want to earn £756 extra per year? Stuvia.co.uk - The Marketplace for Revision Notes & Study Guides Ethnicity successful and career focused. WINSTON AND SONG – these evolve when people see themselves in being distinctive. It is often based on symbolic elements. They can be based on location, traditions that are unique, shared history and/or religious beliefs. They are negotiable. They need maintenance through festivals and practices. WIMMER – there a sense of difference between ethnicities. The boundaries may be positive or negative. Ethnicities can also be defined as a minority and a majority. This makes minority groups a threat culturally or physically. Conventional hybridisation – new identities by mixing cultures. Pick and mix. Like food. Contemporary hybridisation – undergoing constant maintenance and change. Such as globalisation. It modified an existing ethnicity not creating a new one Downloaded by: richardson1984 | [email protected] Distribution of this document is illegal Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) Want to earn £756 extra per year?