Systematic Sociology V 8: Volume 10 (Routledge Classics in Sociology)

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Method is presented as superior to doctrine: At the level of doctrine, mathematics has a status of its own, well indicated in the second lesson, where it is presented last, and as if to make up for something forgotten. Among the remaining sciences, leaving sociology aside for the moment, two occupy a pre-eminent place:. The positive method comes in different forms, according to the science where it is applied: The same point of view is also behind the general theory of hypotheses in the 28th lesson, a centerpiece of the positive philosophy of science. Finally, classification is the key to a theory of technology.

The reason is that there exists a systematic connection between complexity and modifiability: The order of nature is a modifiable order. Human action takes place within the limits fixed by nature and consists in replacing the natural order by an artificial one. Only death prevented him from writing the System of Positive Industry, or Treatise on the Total Action of Humanity on the Planet , announced as early as Sociology has a double status.

It is not just one science among the others, as though there is the science of society just as there is a science of living beings. Rather, sociology is the science that comes after all the others; and as the final science, it must assume the task of coordinating the development of the whole of knowledge.

With sociology, positivity takes possession of the last domain that had heretofore escaped it and had been considered forever inaccessible to it. Many people thought that social phenomena are so complex that there can be no science of them. On the contrary, according to Comte, this distinction, introduced by the Greeks, is abolished by the existence of sociology, and the unity that was lost with the birth of metaphysics restored 58 , v.

Founding social science therefore constitutes a turn in the history of humanity. Until then, the positive spirit was characterized by the objective method, which works its way from the world to man; but as this goal has now been reached, it becomes possible to invert that direction and go from man to world, to adopt, in other words, the subjective method, which so far had been associated with the anthropomorphism of theology.

To legitimize that method, it suffices to substitute sociology for theology, — which is equivalent to substituting the relative for the absolute: In the first case, to say that God need us is blasphemy: The second case is in some respects a mere consequence of the classification of sciences, if we agree to consider humanity as the proper object of sociology. Each science depends on the precedent; as the final science, sociology is the most dependent one. Human life depends for instance on astronomical conditions. Humanity depends also on each of us, on what we do and not do; on another sense, of course, each of us depends on humanity, as said by the law of human order: To bring out this eminent place of sociology is the principal aim of the General Conclusions of the Course.

The 58th lesson raises the question of which science presides over the others on the encyclopedic scale. To guarantee the harmonious development of the various sciences taken together, the dominance of one among them has to be assumed. One should distinguish the first blossoming of the positive spirit from its systematic development.

The human point of view, that is to say, the social point of view, is the only one that is truly universal; now that sociology is born, it is up to it to be in charge of the development of knowledge. To ensure the positivity of their discipline, sociologists have been quick to renounce its coordinating function, also known as encyclopedic or architectonic function, which characterizes philosophy. With its place at the top of the scale, the sociology of the Course recapitulates the whole of knowledge, while the sciences that precede it are but one immense introduction to this final science.

As a consequence, no one can become a sociologist without having had a solid encyclopedic education, one that has no place for economics or social mathematics, but, on the contrary, emphasizes biology, the first science that deals with organized beings. If sociology merges at places with philosophy, it is also closely related to history. Comte was thus led to take a stand on a question that deeply divides us today: In the Course , history is at once everywhere and nowhere: It is easy to understand, then, that positivism has always refused to separate the philosophy of science from the history of science.

The criticism is only partly legitimate: Each science is therefore examined twice in the Course: In this way, Comte succeeds in reconciling the internalist and externalist points of view, usually considered to be incompatible. A reading of the first volumes made enough of an impression on Mill to induce him to write to their author. The correspondence that followed, which lasted from to , is of considerable philosophical interest.

After , Mill quickly distanced himself from his correspondent. Such judgments, and there are many, represent one extreme in a much more balanced global assessment. Conversely, Mill contributed much to the spreading of positivism. His book on Comte Mill enjoyed a considerable success, and he [Mill] himself was sometimes considered a positivist.

Soon after finishing the Course , Comte returned to his initial project and began outlining the System of Positive Polity. The Discourse on the Positive Spirit , which had served as the preface to the Philosophical Treatise on Popular Astronomy , had already emphasized the social purpose of positivism and its aptitude to replace theology in politics and morality. Positivism transformed science into philosophy; complete positivism now transforms philosophy into religion.

The transformation of philosophy into religion does not yield a religion of science because, having overcome modern prejudices, Comte now unhesitatingly ranks art above science. Now that the break-up with the academic world was complete, the positivists placed their hopes on an alliance with women and proletarians. However, this aspect of his work is difficult to accept for a contemporary reader, in particular because it involves the utopian idea of the virgin mother, which means parthenogenesis for human beings. As for the proletarians, he saw them as spontaneous positivists, just as the positivists were systematic proletarians!

The mind, then, is not destined to rule but to serve, not, however, as the slave of the heart, but as its servant Bourdeau Science thus retains an essential function. The cerebral table distinguishes ten affective forces, five intellectual functions, and three practical qualities; these correspond to the heart, mind, and character, respectively.

The functions being ordered according to increasing energy and decreasing dignity, the dominance of the heart can be considered a datum from positive biology. This classification is indispensable for an understanding of the System. It should be mentioned in passing that it shows that the exclusion of psychology does not at all have the meaning usually given to it: Historically, the conception of the System began with this table, of which different versions were elaborated in succession from Conceptually, it is the first application of the subjective method, understood as feedback from sociology to the sciences that precede it, starting with the nearest.

In this way, the sociologist helps the biologist define the cerebral functions, a task in which, most often, the biologist simply takes up again the divisions of folk psychology. Today, we are no longer used to associate positivism and politics. However, the later was present from the outset, when Comte served as secretary of Saint-Simon, and it was quite influential at the end of the nineteenth century. The two main tenets of positive politics are: The first principle has two sides. The title of the fiftieth lesson of the Course reads: Social statics, or theory of spontaneous order of human society.

But, for positivism, spontaneous order covers all natural phenomena and is moreover neither perfect nor immutable. In general, human action aims to substitute for this natural order an artificial one, more in line with our desires. Government action is only a special case, applied to the spontaneous order intrinsic to human society, which is determined by division of labor.

The increasing specialization which accompanied it, even if it is the sine qua non condition of progress, threatens the cohesion of society. That is why a government is needed: Regarding the second principle, one usually remembers only the idea of spiritual power but such a power can be understood only in its relation to temporal power: Furthermore, Comte strongly disagrees with historical materialism: Initially, Comte planed to entrust this new spiritual power to scientists, because he saw science not only as the rational basis for our action upon nature, but also as the spiritual basis of social order.

Since at least half a century, positive politics is discarded as reactionary and totalitarian and it is true that, in many respects, Comte was resolutely anti modern but, specially in his later writings, he also held ideas which sound amazingly in keeping with contemporary concerns. For instance, he had an acute feeling for the way humanity is dependent on astronomical conditions: In spite of the Copernican revolution, Earth remains for each of us the firm, unshakable ground upon which everything stands.

Politics is grounded in geopolitics, where geo retains its etymological meaning, Gaia , and where Earth is understood as a planet in the solar system. This cosmic character of positive politics helps to understand what could appear as an inconsistency. Such a suggestion is quite puzzling, being incompatible with the received view, according to which he was a supporter of centralisation, but, as soon as we take account of the distinction between temporal and spiritual power, the inconsistency disappears.

According to the kind of power we are considering, the situation changes totally. Centralisation applies only to spiritual power Comte had clearly in mind the Papacy and temporal power is by nature local. There is a lot of passages where the correlation is clearly stated. This follows from the fact that the mind does not know boundaries; a spiritual power has no choice but to be catholic, that is, universal. Its domain is the planet Earth. From this, we have at least two consequences. The first one is a strong interest in European reconstruction, a political priority between and , but not anymore in , after the triumph of nationalism.

The second one is the realization that States as we know them are a historical product, which did not exist before , and there is no reason to believe that they will exist for ever. Comte was also one of the first anti-colonialists. Much before socialists, English positivists objected to Victorian imperialism see Claeys In this context, Comte and his followers discussed also extensively the respective merits of Christianity and Islam. Turks were greatly appreciative of their secularism, which represented a solution to many of the problems of the Ottoman Empire.

Ahmed Reza, an influent politician, was overtly positivist. While the different forms of deism preserve the idea of God and dissolve religion into a vague religiosity, Comte proposes exactly the contrary: His project had little success; he even accomplished a tour de force by uniting both believers and non-believers against him. Comte also defines religion as a consensus, analogous to what health is for the body.

Religion has two functions, according to the point of view from which one considers existence: Religion also has three components, corresponding to the threefold division of the cerebral table: If one considers the first to be related to faith and the second to love, their relation takes two forms: At first, Comte had followed the traditional order and presented doctrine before worship, but he soon gave priority to worship, and saw this change as a considerable step forward.

In the positivist religion, worship, doctrine and moral rule all have the same object, namely Humanity, which must be loved, known, and served. Already the General Conclusions of the Course compared the concept of Humanity to that of God, affirming the moral superiority of the former. But only in does Comte make the substitution explicitly; sociological synthesis comes to replace theological synthesis. Membership of Humanity is sociological, not biological. The positivists set up a whole system of prayers, hymns, and sacraments Wright Thus, the worship of Humanity takes is the worship of great men.

Unlike the French revolutionary calendar, which followed the rhythm of the seasons, the positivist calendar takes its inspiration from history and pays homage to great men from all nations and all times. The wish to maintain the distinction between temporal and spiritual powers led Comte and his followers to demand the separation of Church and State.

It has been noticed less often, however, that the two forms of power stand in differing relations to space. The religious society is by its nature catholic, in the sense of universal, and therefore has no boundaries other than those of the planet; the surface of a State meets different demands, which impose rather strict geographic limits. Nevertheless, its main application is related to the issue: Of the two political models constantly confronted in the Course , Comte clearly prefers the French one.

Its characteristic alliance of the monarchy with the people against the aristocracy was accompanied by a centralization that the Revolution contented itself with consolidating. One might therefore be led to believe that Comte was a partisan of centralized political that is: Centralization applies only to the spiritual power. Positivism asserted very early its wish to construct a moral doctrine that owes nothing to the supernatural.

If we need a spiritual power, it is because social questions are quite often moral rather than political. The reforms of society must be made in a determined order: But with the System , the moral doctrine ethics changes status and becomes a science, whose task is to extend sociology in order to take individual phenomena into account, in particular affective ones.

The terms of the problem as well as its solution are given by a saying to be found in the margin of the cerebral table: While it is important to acknowledge the innateness of the sympathetic instincts, one is forced to admit their native weakness: The great human problem is to reverse the natural order and to teach ourselves to live for others.

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The only way in which altruism can win, is to ally itself with the mind, to make it its servant and not its slave. The heart, without the light of reason, is blind. Left to itself, affectivity is characterized by its inconsistency and instability. That is why the inside has to be regulated, that is, disciplined. And this task is assigned to the outside, because exterior reality is the best of regulators. Whatever its own defects may be, the order that science discloses in nature is, by its indifference to our desires, a source of discipline. The same interest in biology led him to link medicine to moral doctrine and even to religion.

To remedy this and to respect the unity of our nature, he proposed giving the new clergy a role in medicine, considering for example that there is no better endorsement of a rule of hygiene than a religious decree. Before dying, he still had the time to outline, in his letters to Audiffrent, the rudiments of a sociological theory of diseases. On the whole, the System was not well received. However, it is impossible to confine oneself merely to the Course.

The early works had made a strong impression on some of the best minds of the time; they remain required reading for everyone wishing to understand positive philosophy, as they are still among the best introductions to the subject. The Course was not part of the initial project, which Comte never lost sight of; the work is best considered as a parenthesis, admittedly open for twenty years, but which Comte had meant to close very quickly. The reason why Comte had always presented the Plan of as fundamental is that, beginning with the very title, one finds the two themes that he planned to think through in their relation to one another: The foremost question is a political one: Science, although present from the beginning, plays a secondary role as the means to achieve the chosen goal.

Only when the question arises of what distinguishes Comte from the latter does science enter into the picture. Yet the same cannot be said of the positive polity. But his own project for the reorganization of society presents a similar problem.

In his writings, it is difficult to distinguish that which concerns objective social science from a reform program that reflects only a personal stand. Apart from that difficulty, the weaknesses of the positive polity are numerous. Among them, those that are the most conspicuous criticism of human rights, praise of dictatorship are not necessarily the most serious, for objections to the former are easily answered. For example, while Comte criticizes freedom of conscience, he is always highly supportive of freedom of expression.

We should also find his deep respect for spontaneity reassuring, considering that it is an important part of our idea of freedom. More serious, perhaps, seem to be the consequences of the rejection of psychology. However, considering only the weaknesses of the positive polity would not be fair. The order of time, he said, is not past-present-future, but rather past-future-present.

See the Other Internet Resources section below. The most complete edition, which is an anastatic reprint of previously published volumes essentially — and — , is:. Bessly, Frederic Harrison translated in the second half of the 19th century the most important works. So, after the original text, we give the reference to these English translations, even if they are not easily accessible.

The Collaboration with Saint-Simon and the Early Writings The early writings remain the required starting point for everyone who wishes to understand the goal that Comte incessantly pursued. Comte took over three ideas from the complex thought of Saint-Simon: The contrast between organic and critical periods in history, of which the Revolution had just provided an example. The idea of industrial society. In , under the influence, notably, of B. Say, Saint-Simon had turned himself into an apostle of industry.

As an attentive observer of the industrial revolution that was going on before his eyes, he understood that it would completely change all existing social relations. Heretofore, we had lived in military societies: Henceforth, trade would replace war, and man would mainly concern himself with acting on nature. Comte drew the quite mistaken conclusion that the era of wars was over Aron The idea of spiritual power.

It resulted from an observation and a conviction. Having discussed the sociological approach to understanding society, it is worth noting the limitations of sociology. Because of the subject of investigation society , sociology runs into a number of problems that have significant implications for this field of inquiry:.

While it is important to recognize the limitations of sociology, sociology's contributions to our understanding of society have been significant and continue to provide useful theories and tools for understanding humans as social beings. Lawrence Neuman, Social Research Methods: Sociologists develop theories to explain social phenomena. A theory is a proposed relationship between two or more concepts.

In other words, a theory is explanation for why or how a phenomenon occurs. An example of a sociological theory is the work of Robert Putnam on the decline of civic engagement. While there are a number of factors that contribute to this decline Putnam's theory is quite complex , one of the prominent factors is the increased consumption of television as a form entertainment. This element of Putnam's theory clearly illustrates the basic purpose of sociological theory: In this case, the concepts are civic engagement and television watching. The relationship is an inverse one - as one goes up, the other goes down.

What's more, it is an explanation of one phenomenon with another: Putnam's theory clearly contains the key elements of a sociological theory. Sociological theory is developed at multiple levels, ranging from grand theory to highly contextualized and specific micro-range theories. There are many middle-range and micro-range theories in sociology. Because such theories are dependent on context and specific to certain situations, it is beyond the scope of this text to explore each of those theories. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce some of the more well-known and most commonly used grand and middle-range theories in sociology.

In the theory proposed above, the astute reader will notice that the theory includes two components: The data, in this case the findings that civic engagement has declined and TV watching has increased, and the proposed relationship, that the increase in television viewing has contributed to the decline in civic engagement. Data alone are not particularly informative. If Putnam had not proposed a relationship between the two elements of social life, we may not have realized that television viewing does, in fact, reduce people's desire to and time for participating in civic life.

In order to understand the social world around us, it is necessary to employ theory to draw the connections between seemingly disparate concepts. Another example of sociological theorizing illustrates this point. In his now classic work, Suicide , [2] Emile Durkheim was interested in explaining a social phenomenon, suicide , and employed both data and theory to offer an explanation. By aggregating data for large groups of people in Europe, Durkheim was able to discern patterns in suicide rates and connect those patterns with another concept or variable: Durkheim found that Protestants were more likely to commit suicide than were Catholics.

At this point, Durkheim's analysis was still in the data stage; he had not proposed an explanation for the different suicide rates of the two groups. It was when Durkheim introduced the ideas of anomie and social solidarity that he began to explain the difference in suicide rates. Durkheim argued that the looser social ties found in Protestant religions lead to weaker social cohesion and reduced social solidarity.

The higher suicide rates were the result of weakening social bonds among Protestants. While Durkheim's findings have since been criticized, his study is a classic example of the use of theory to explain the relationship between two concepts. Durkheim's work also illustrates the importance of theory: As noted above, there are many theories in sociology.

However, there are several broad theoretical perspectives that are prominent in the field they are arguably paradigms. These theories are prominent because they are quite good at explaining social life. They are not without their problems, but these theories remain widely used and cited precisely because they have withstood a great deal of criticism.

As the dominant theories in sociology are discussed below, you might be inclined to ask, "Which of these theories is the best? In fact, it is probably more useful and informative to view these theories as complementary. One theory may explain one element of society better than another. Or, both may be useful for explaining social life. In short, all of the theories are correct in the sense that they offer compelling explanations for social phenomena. Structural-Functionalism is a sociological theory that originally attempted to explain social institutions as collective means to meet individual biological needs originally just functionalism.

Later it came to focus on the ways social institutions meet social needs structural-functionalism. Structural-functionalism draws its inspiration primarily from the ideas of Emile Durkheim. He sought to explain social cohesion and stability through the concept of solidarity. In more "primitive" societies it was mechanical solidarity , everyone performing similar tasks, that held society together. Durkheim proposed that such societies tend to be segmentary, being composed of equivalent parts that are held together by shared values, common symbols, or systems of exchanges. In modern, complex societies members perform very different tasks, resulting in a strong interdependence between individuals.

Based on the metaphor of an organism in which many parts function together to sustain the whole, Durkheim argued that modern complex societies are held together by organic solidarity think interdependent organs. The central concern of structural-functionalism is a continuation of the Durkheimian task of explaining the apparent stability and internal cohesion of societies that are necessary to ensure their continued existence over time. Many functionalists argue that social institutions are functionally integrated to form a stable system and that a change in one institution will precipitate a change in other institutions.

Societies are seen as coherent, bounded and fundamentally relational constructs that function like organisms, with their various parts social institutions working together to maintain and reproduce them. The various parts of society are assumed to work in an unconscious, quasi-automatic fashion towards the maintenance of the overall social equilibrium. All social and cultural phenomena are therefore seen as being functional in the sense of working together to achieve this state and are effectively deemed to have a life of their own.

These components are then primarily analysed in terms of the function they play. In other words, to understand a component of society, one can ask the question, "What is the function of this institution? Thus, one can ask of education, "What is the function of education for society? Durkheim's strongly sociological perspective of society was continued by Radcliffe-Brown. Explanations of social phenomena therefore had to be constructed within this social level, with individuals merely being transient occupants of comparatively stable social roles.

Thus, in structural-functionalist thought, individuals are not significant in and of themselves but only in terms of their social status: The social structure is therefore a network of statuses connected by associated roles. Structural-functionalism has been criticized for being unable to account for social change because it focuses so intently on social order and equilibrium in society.

For instance, in the late 19th Century, higher education transitioned from a training center for clergy and the elite to a center for the conduct of science and the general education of the masses. As structural-functionalism thinks about elements of social life in relation to their present function and not their past functions, structural-functionalism has a difficult time explaining why a function of some element of society might change or how such change occurs. However, structural-functionalism could, in fact, offer an explanation in this case.

Also occurring in the 19th Century though begun in the 18th was the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution, facilitated by capitalism, was increasingly demanding technological advances to increase profit. Technological advances and advanced industry both required more educated workforces. Thus, as one aspect of society changed - the economy and production - it required a comparable change in the educational system, bringing social life back into equilibrium.

Another philosophical problem with the structural-functional approach is the ontological argument that society does not have needs as a human being does; and even if society does have needs they need not be met. The idea that society has needs like humans do is not a tenable position because society is only alive in the sense that it is made up of living individuals.

What's more, just because a society has some element in it at the present that does not mean that it must necessarily have that element. For instance, in the United Kingdom, religious service attendance has declined precipitously over the last years. Today, less than 1 in 10 British attend religious service in a given week. Another criticism often leveled at structural-functionalist theory is that it supports the status quo. According to some opponents, structural-functionalism paints conflict and challenge to the status quo as harmful to society, and therefore tends to be the prominent view among conservative thinkers.

Merton proposed a distinction between manifest and latent functions. Latent functions are the unintended functions of a phenomenon in a social system. An example of manifest and latent functions is education. The manifest purpose of public education is to increase the knowledge and abilities of the citizenry to prepare them to contribute in the workforce. A latent function of the public education system is the development of a hierarchy of the learned.

The most learned are often also the most affluent. Thus, while education's manifest function is to empower all individuals to contribute to the workforce and society, it also limits some people by creating boundaries of entry into occupations. A prominent sociological theory that is often contrasted with structural-functionalism is conflict theory. Karl Marx is considered the father of conflict theory. Conflict theory argues that society is not best understood as a complex system striving for equilibrium but rather as a competition. Society is made up of individuals competing for limited resources e.

Broader social structures and organizations e. Conflict theory was developed in part to illustrate the limitations of structural-functionalism. The structural-functionalist approach argued that society tends toward equilibrium, focusing on stability at the expense of social change. This is contrasted with the conflict approach, which argues that society is constantly in conflict over resources. One of the primary contributions conflict theory presents over the structural-functional approach is that it is ideally suited for explaining social change, a significant problem in the structural-functional approach.

A heuristic device to help you think about society from a conflict perspective is to ask, "Who benefits from this element of society? Because higher education in the U. Thus, the educational system often screens out poorer individuals not because they are unable to compete academically but because they cannot afford to pay for their education. Because the poor are unable to obtain higher education, this means they are also generally unable to get higher paying jobs which means they remain poor. This can easily translate into a vicious cycle of poverty. Thus, while the function of education is to educate the workforce, it also has built into it an element of conflict and inequality, favoring one group the wealthy over other groups the poor.

Thinking about education this way helps illustrate why both structural-functionalist and conflict theories are helpful in understanding how society works. Not surprisingly, the primary limitation of the social-conflict perspective is that it overlooks the stability of societies. While societies are in a constant state of change, much of the change is minor. Many of the broader elements of societies remain remarkably stable over time, indicating the structural-functional perspective has a great deal of merit.

As noted above, sociological theory is often complementary.

This is particularly true of structural-functionalism and social-conflict theories. Structural-functionalism focuses on equilibrium and solidarity; conflict-theory focuses on change and conflict. Keep in mind that neither is better than the other; when combined, the two approaches offer a broader and more comprehensive view of society. In contrast to the rather broad approach toward society of structural-functionalism and conflict theory, Symbolic Interactionism is a theoretical approach to understanding the relationship between humans and society.

The basic notion of symbolic interactionism is that human action and interaction are understandable only through the exchange of meaningful communication or symbols. In this approach, humans are portrayed as acting as opposed to being acted upon. The main principles of symbolic interactionism are: This approach stands in contrast to the strict behaviorism of psychological theories prevalent at the time it was first formulated in the s and s.

According to Symbolic Interactionism, humans are distinct from infrahumans lower animals because infrahumans simply respond to their environment i. Additionally, infrahumans are unable to conceive of alternative responses to gestures. This perspective is also rooted in phenomenological thought see social constructionism and phenomenology. According to symbolic interactionism, the objective world has no reality for humans, only subjectively-defined objects have meaning.

Meanings are not entities that are bestowed on humans and learned by habituation. Instead, meanings can be altered through the creative capabilities of humans, and individuals may influence the many meanings that form their society. Neurological evidence based on EEGs supports the idea that humans have a "social brain," that is, there are components of the human brain that govern social interaction. A good example of this is when people try on clothes before going out with friends.

Some people may not think much about how others will think about their clothing choices, but others can spend quite a bit of time considering what they are going to wear. And while they are deciding, the dialogue that is taking place inside their mind is usually a dialogue between their "self" that portion of their identity that calls itself "I" and that person's internalized understanding of their friends and society a " generalized other " called the "me".

Such an individual has incorporated the "social" into the "self" and will thus experience the world through an ongoing internal communication process that seeks to determine "if I do this, what will be thought of me. It should also be noted that symbolic interactionists advocate a particular methodology. Because they see meaning as the fundamental component of human and society interaction, studying human and society interaction requires getting at that meaning. Thus, symbolic interaction tends to take two distinct, but related methodological paths. Processual Symbolic Interaction seeks to uncover the elaboration and experience of meanings in natural settings of social interaction through primarily qualitative methods e.

Symbolic Interaction arose through the integration of Structural Functionalism and Conflict Theories. Specifically, Symbolic Interaction seeks to uncover the ways "meanings" are deployed within interactions and embedded within larger social structures to facilitate social cohesion Structural Functionalism and social change Conflict Theories. To use the case above, Symbolic Interaction may be used to explain the distinction between Conflict and Structural Functionalist approaches to education.

If people act toward education based on the meaning they have for it, for example, then people that believe or are taught to believe that education serves an important function for all of society e. On the other hand, if people believe or are taught to believe that education transmits social inequalities from generation to generation e. In either case, societies and the people that form them will move towards cohesion Structural Functionalism or conflict Conflict Theory concerning educational structures based upon the meanings these people have for the current educational structure.

Central to Symbolic Interaction is the notion that selves and societies exist in an ongoing reciprocal relationship wherein each acts back upon the other. Stated another way, Symbolic Interactionism argues that people become selves by learning and internalizing the symbolic materials of the social and historical context and culture they are born into and raised within e. As a result, Symbolic Interactionists argue against the division of society into micro, meso, and macro forms, and instead focus on the ways that interconnected people continuously construct, alter, signify, and affirm themselves and others in ways that create, sustain, and change existing social structures.

They thus argue that society is always an ongoing information exchange between individuals, groups, and social structures that each depend on the other for their meaning and by extension their existence and survival. The most significant limitations of symbolic interactionism relate to its primary contribution: As a result, Symbolic Interactionism typically focuses on "how" things are done e. As a result, Symbolic Interaction is more adequately suited to explaining how the world is, but is unable to demonstrate and document predictions about how the world might differ, if circumstances were hypothetically altered.

Another more micro-oriented approach to understanding social life that also incorporates the more structural elements of society is Role Theory. Role theory posits that human behavior is guided by expectations held both by the individual and by other people. The expectations correspond to different roles individuals perform or enact in their daily lives, such as secretary, father, or friend.

For instance, most people hold pre-conceived notions of the role expectations of a secretary, which might include: These role expectations would not be expected of a professional soccer player. Individuals generally have and manage many roles. Roles consist of a set of rules or norms that function as plans or blueprints to guide behavior. Roles specify what goals should be pursued, what tasks must be accomplished, and what performances are required in a given scenario or situation. Role theory holds that a substantial proportion of observable, day-to-day social behavior is simply persons carrying out their roles, much as actors carry out their roles on the stage or ballplayers theirs on the field.

Role theory is, in fact, predictive. It implies that if we have information about the role expectations for a specified status e. What's more, role theory also argues that in order to change behavior it is necessary to change roles; roles correspond to behaviors and vice versa. In addition to heavily influencing behavior, roles influence beliefs and attitudes; individuals will change their beliefs and attitudes to correspond with their roles. Many role theorists see Role Theory as one of the most compelling theories bridging individual behavior and social structure.

Roles, which are in part dictated by social structure and in part by social interactions, guide the behavior of the individual. The individual, in turn, influences the norms, expectations, and behaviors associated with roles. The understanding is reciprocal. Role theory has a hard time explaining social deviance when it does not correspond to a pre-specified role. For instance, the behavior of someone who adopts the role of bank robber can be predicted - she will rob banks.

But if a bank teller simply begins handing out cash to random people, role theory would be unable to explain why though role conflict could be one possible answer; the secretary may also be a Marxist-Communist who believes the means of production should belong to the masses and not the bourgeoisie. Another limitation of role theory is that it does not and cannot explain how role expectations came to be what they are. Role theory has no explanation for why it is expected of male soldiers to cut their hair short, but it could predict with a high degree of accuracy that if someone is a male soldier they will have short hair.

Additionally, role theory does not explain when and how role expectations change. As a result, role theorists typically draw upon insights from Symbolic Interaction Theory and Historical Comparative analyses to address these questions. An extension of role theory , impression management is both a theory and process. The theory argues that people are constantly engaged in controlling how others perceive them. The process refers to the goal-directed conscious or unconscious effort to influence the perceptions of other people by regulating and controlling information in social interaction.

If a person tries to influence the perception of her or his own image, this activity is called self-presentation. Erving Goffman , the person most often credited with formally developing impression management theory, cast the idea in a dramaturgical framework.

Aware of how they are being perceived by their audience, actors manage their behavior so as to create specific impressions in the minds of the audience. Strategic interpersonal behavior to shape or influence impressions formed by an audience is not a new idea. Plato spoke of the "great stage of human life" and Shakespeare noted that "All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players".

Social constructionism is a school of thought introduced into sociology by Peter L. Social constructionism focuses on the description of institutions and actions and not on analyzing cause and effect. Socially constructed reality is seen as an on-going dynamic process; reality is re-produced by people acting on their interpretations of what they perceive to be the world external to them. Berger and Luckmann argue that social construction describes both subjective and objective reality - that is that no reality exists outside what is produced and reproduced in social interactions.

Religion is seen as a socially constructed concept, the basis for which is rooted in either our psyche Freud or man's need to see some purpose in life or worship a higher presence. One of the key theorists of social constructionism, Peter Berger, explored this concept extensively in his book, The Sacred Canopy. Social constructionism is often seen as a source of the postmodern movement, and has been influential in the field of cultural studies.

Following the establishment of women's academic conferences and coordinated protests of the American Sociological Association's annual meetings during the 's, women made significant inroads into Sociology. For example, women such as Dorothy E. Smith , Joan Acker , Myra Marx Ferree , Patricia Yancey Martin , and bell hooks were all pioneers in Sociology who developed insights and empirical findings that challenged much of existing sociological practice, knowledge, and methods. These early scholars also founded women's academic organizations like Sociologists for Women in Society to lobby for the admittance and inclusion of minority people and perspectives within scientific disciplines.

The theoretical perspectives these and subsequent scholars developed is broadly referred to as Feminist Theory. The name derives from the ties many of these individuals had and continue to have with women's movement organizations, the promotion of minority perspectives, their experience in relation to the subjective nature of scientific practice, and commitment to principles of social justice. Feminist Theory uncovered a vast "herstory" of women's and other minority academic thinking, writing, and activism, and integrated insights from these essays and studies into the scientific enterprise.

In so doing, these scholars uncovered many ways that Feminist theorists from as far back as the 's had already introduced insights - such as Social Constructionism , Intersectionality , and the subjective nature and critical possibilities of scientific work - that have become crucial to scientific research and theorizing across disciplines. Further, historical research into the history of Feminist Thought has uncovered a litany of social theorists - including but not limited to early abolitionists and women's rights proponents like Maria W. Cooper , Harriet Tubman , and one of the first African American women to earn a college degree, Mary Church Terrell ; early black feminist writers promoting gender and sexual equality like Zora Neale Hurston , Langston Hughes , and Richard Bruce Nugent ; early 20th Century writers and activists that sought racial civil rights, women's suffrage, and prison reform like Ida B.

Feminist scholars across disciplines have continuously sought to expand scientific "facts" beyond their initial and often continuing white, male, heterosexual biases and assumptions while seeking knowledge as an entryway into a more just social world. Similar to the other theories outlined in this chapter, Feminist Theory is far more expansive than can adequately be explored within one textbook, let alone within a single chapter in a textbook. Feminist theorists and methods, for example, can be found in wide ranging fields beyond sociology including biology, genetics, chemistry, literature, history, political science, fine arts, religious studies, psychology, anthropology, and public health.

Feminist Theory often dramatically influences scientific theory and practice within such fields. Below we offer summaries of the major conceptual approaches within Feminist Theory. It is important to note, however, that while we outline these perspectives under distinct headings and within specific orders for the purposes of clarity and introduction, contemporary Feminist theorists and researchers across disciplines often draw upon more than one of these perspectives in practice and continually seek ways to refine and integrate each of these approaches.

Before presenting this outline, however, it is important to be aware of three basic premises or foundational ideas within and between contemporary Feminist Theories. With these foundational ideas in mind, we now present the primary Feminist theoretical perspectives. They believe that economic inequalities are the most central form of inequality. Therefore, eliminating capitalism would get rid of gender inequalities. Therefore, to bring about gender equality, we must work to eliminate both capitalism and patriarchy in all social and natural fields of knowledge and experience.

Radical feminists believe that women are oppressed by our patriarchal society. They do not believe that men are oppressed. They seek a fundamental reorganization of society because our existing political, scientific, religious, and social organization is inherently patriarchal. Separatist feminists, like radical feminists, believe that women are oppressed by our patriarchal society.

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In order to achieve equality, women need to separate themselves from men. Some believe this is a temporary stage while others see this as a permanent goal. Cultural feminists, like radical feminists, believe that women are oppressed by our patriarchal society. Black feminists believe that many inequalities are important in society today, not only gender. In addition to gender inequalities, they focus on race, ethnicity, and class — and sometimes also add sexuality, nationality, age, disability, and others.

They believe that people experience gender differently depending on their location in socially constructed cultural, political, and biological structures of race, ethnicity and class. Therefore, there is no universal female experience.

This perspective is sometimes referred to as multicultural feminism, multiracial feminism, or womanism. Queer feminists - sometimes referred to as Postmodern Feminists - believe that gender and sex as well as other social locations and systems of social and natural organization and categorization are multiple, constantly changing, and performed by individuals and groups within situated social, historical, scientific, and political contexts.

There are many i. They focus on creating social change through challenging the existence and blurring the boundaries of these categories. This perspective shares many ideas with Queer Theory. Recently, some sociologists have been taking a different approach to sociological theory by employing an integrationist approach - combining micro- and macro-level theories to provide a comprehensive understanding of human social behavior while these studies rarely cite Symbolic Interaction Theory, most of their models are based heavily upon Herbert Blumer 's initial elaboration of Symbolic Interaction in relation to social institutions [22] [23].

Numerous models could be presented in this vein. George Ritzer's [24] Integration Model is a good example. Ritzer proposes four highly interdependent elements in his sociological model: This model is of particular use in understanding society because it uses two axes: The integration approach is particularly useful for explaining social phenomenon because it shows how the different components of social life work together to influence society and behavior. If used for understanding a specific cultural phenomenon, like the displaying of abstract art in one's home, [25] the integration model depicts the different influences on the decision.

For instance, the model depicts that cultural norms can influence individual behavior. The model also shows that individual level values, beliefs, and behaviors influence macro-level culture. This is, in fact, part of what David Halle finds: Displayers of abstract art tend not only to belong to the upper-class, but also are employed in art-production occupations. This would indicate that there are multiple levels of influence involved in art tastes — both broad cultural norms and smaller level occupational norms in addition to personal preferences.

A Study in Sociology. Edited with an introduction by George Simpson. Translated by John A. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Translated by Talcott Parsons. Introduction by Anthony Giddens. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism. The Birth of the Prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan.

Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States: The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics and the Ethics of Queer Life. Black Women and Feminism. The History of Sexuality, An Introduction. However, there is one new added accessory. The Maasai today can now use the GPS on their cell phones to locate grazing areas and watering holes for their cattle and also take advantage of other mobile applications such as those that locate potential predators in the area.

Cell phones have made avoiding as well as hunting lions much easier for the Maasai people. Many members of their society have even taken advantage of cell phones to establish and boost a tourism business geared towards offering outsiders a taste of the Maasai life. Hence, cell phones have paradoxically been a key component in maintaining the Maasai's traditional way of life in the face of extreme social change during the Age of Globalization.

The Maasai people are an illustrative example of how one particular society has been able to straddle two stages of societal development i. The simplest definition of society is a group of people who share a defined territory and a culture. In sociology, we take that definition a little further by arguing that society is also the social structure and interactions of that group of people. Social structure is the relatively enduring patterns of behavior and relationships within a society. In sociology, a distinction is made between society and culture.

Culture refers to the norms, values, beliefs, behaviors, and meanings given to symbols in a society. For instance, what it means to be a "husband" to a gay couple in Boston is very different from what it means to be a husband to a polygamist man in rural southern Utah. Thus, while the relationship exists in both i. All human societies have a culture and culture can only exist where there is a society. Sociologists distinguish between society and culture despite their close interconnectedness primarily for analytical purposes: It allows sociologists to think about societal development independent of culture and cultural change which are discussed in the next chapter in greater detail even though societal change and development are contingent upon culture.

This chapter presents a brief overview of some of the types of human societies that have existed and continue to exist. It will then present some classic approaches to understanding society and what changing social structure can mean for individuals. The sociological understanding of societal development relies heavily upon the work of Gerhard Lenski. Classifications of human societies can be based on two factors: This chapter focuses on the subsistence systems of societies rather than their political structures. While it is a bit far-reaching to argue that all societies will develop through the stages outlined below, it does appear that most societies follow such a route.

Some societies have stopped at the pastoral or horticultural stage e. Some societies may also jump stages as a result of the introduction of technology from other societies. It is also worth noting that these categories aren't really distinct groups as there is often overlap in the subsistence systems used in a society. Some pastoralist societies also engage in some measure of horticultural food production and most industrial and post-industrial societies still have agriculture, just in a reduced capacity. The hunter-gatherer way of life is based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals.

Consequently, hunter-gatherers are relatively mobile, and groups of hunter-gatherers have fluid boundaries and composition. Typically in hunter-gatherer societies men hunt larger wild animals and women gather fruits, nuts, roots, and other edible plant-based food and hunt smaller animals. Hunter-gatherers use materials available in the wild to construct shelters or rely on naturally occurring shelters like overhangs.

Their shelters give them protection from predators and the elements. The majority of hunter-gatherer societies are nomadic. It is difficult to be settled under such a subsistence system as the resources of one region can quickly become exhausted. Hunter-gatherer societies also tend to have very low population densities as a result of their subsistence system. Agricultural subsistence systems can support population densities 60 to times greater than land left uncultivated, resulting in denser populations.

Hunter-gatherer societies also tend to have non-hierarchical social structures, though this is not always the case. Because hunter-gatherers tend to be nomadic, they generally do not have the possibility to store surplus food. As a result, full-time leaders, bureaucrats, or artisans are rarely supported by hunter-gatherer societies. The hierarchical egalitarianism in hunter-gatherer societies tends to extend to gender-based egalitarianism as well. Although disputed, many anthropologists believe gender egalitarianism in hunter-gatherer societies stems from the lack of control over food production, lack of food surplus which can be used for control , and an equal gender contribution to kin and cultural survival.

Archeological evidence to date suggests that prior to 13,BCE, all human beings were hunter-gatherers. While declining in number, there are still some hunter-gatherer groups in existence today. Such groups are found in the Arctic, tropical rainforests, and deserts where other forms of subsistence production are impossible or too costly.

In most cases these groups do not have a continuous history of hunting and gathering; in many cases their ancestors were agriculturalists who were pushed into marginal areas as a result of migrations and wars. Examples of hunter-gatherer groups still in existence include:. The line between agricultural and hunter-gatherer societies is not clear cut. Many hunter-gatherers consciously manipulate the landscape through cutting or burning useless to them plants to encourage the growth and success of those they consume. Most agricultural people also tend to do some hunting and gathering.

Some agricultural groups farm during the temperate months and hunt during the winter. A pastoralist society is a society in which the primary means of subsistence is domesticated livestock. It is often the case that, like hunter-gatherers, pastoralists are nomadic, moving seasonally in search of fresh pastures and water for their animals. Employment of a pastoralist subsistence system often results in greater population densities and the development of both social hierarchies and divisions in labor as it is more likely there will be a surplus of food.

Pastoralist societies still exist. For instance, in Australia, the vast semi-arid areas in the interior of the country contain pastoral runs called sheep stations. These areas may be thousands of square kilometers in size. The number of livestock allowed in these areas is regulated in order to reliably sustain them, providing enough feed and water for the stock. Other examples of pastoralists societies still in existence include:.

Horticulturalist societies are societies in which the primary means of subsistence is the cultivation of crops using hand tools. Like pastoral societies, the cultivation of crops increases population densities and, as a result of food surpluses, allows for a division of labor in society. Horticulture differs from agriculture in that agriculture employs animals, machinery, or some other non-human means to facilitate the cultivation of crops while horticulture relies solely on humans for crop cultivation.

Agrarian societies are societies in which the primary means of subsistence is the cultivation of crops using a mixture of human and non-human means i. Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber, and other desired products by the cultivation of plants and the raising of domesticated animals livestock. Agriculture can refer to subsistence agriculture or industrial agriculture. Subsistence agriculture is a simple, often organic, system using saved seed native to the ecoregion combined with crop rotation or other relatively simple techniques to maximize yield.

Historically most farmers were engaged in subsistence agriculture and this is still the case in many developing nations. In developed nations a person using such simple techniques on small patches of land would generally be referred to as a gardener; activity of this type would be seen more as a hobby than a profession.

Some people in developed nations are driven into such primitive methods by poverty. It is also worth noting that large scale organic farming is on the rise as a result of a renewed interest in non-genetically modified and pesticide free foods. In developed nations, a farmer or industrial agriculturalist is usually defined as someone with an ownership interest in crops or livestock, and who provides labor or management in their production. Farmers obtain their financial income from the cultivation of land to yield crops or the commercial raising of animals animal husbandry , or both.

Those who provide only labor but not management and do not have ownership are often called farmhands , or, if they supervise a leased strip of land growing only one crop, as sharecroppers. Agriculture allows a much greater density of population than can be supported by hunting and gathering and allows for the accumulation of excess product to keep for winter use or to sell for profit. The ability of farmers to feed large numbers of people whose activities have nothing to do with material production was the crucial factor in the rise of surplus, specialization, advanced technology, hierarchical social structures, inequality, and standing armies.

Horticulture and agriculture as types of subsistence developed among humans somewhere between 10, and 8, B. Most certainly there was a gradual transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural economies after a lengthy period when some crops were deliberately planted and other foods were gathered from the wild.

In addition to the emergence of farming in the Fertile Crescent, agriculture appeared by at least 6, B. Small scale agriculture also likely arose independently in early Neolithic contexts in India rice and Southeast Asia taro. Full dependency on domestic crops and animals i. If the operative definition of agriculture includes large scale intensive cultivation of land, i.

By the early s agricultural practices, particularly careful selection of hardy strains and cultivars, had so improved that yield per land unit was many times that seen in the Middle Ages and before, especially in the largely virgin lands of North and South America. In the world, the use of crop breeding, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control have greatly increased yields per unit area. At the same time, the use of mechanization has decreased labor input.

The developing world generally produces lower yields, having less of the latest science, capital, and technology base. More people in the world are involved in agriculture as their primary economic activity than in any other, yet it only accounts for four percent of the world's GDP.

The rapid rise of mechanization in the 20th century, especially in the form of the tractor, reduced the necessity of humans performing the demanding tasks of sowing, harvesting, and threshing. With mechanization, these tasks could be performed with a speed and on a scale barely imaginable before. These advances have resulted in a substantial increase in the yield of agricultural techniques that have also translated into a decline in the percentage of populations in developed countries that are required to work in agriculture to feed the rest of the population.

An industrial society is a society in which the primary means of subsistence is industry. Industry is a system of production focused on mechanized manufacturing of goods. Like agrarian societies, industrial societies increase food surpluses, resulting in more developed hierarchies and significantly more division of labor. The division of labor in industrial societies is often one of the most notable elements of the society and can even function to re-organize the development of relationships.

Whereas relationships in pre-industrial societies were more likely to develop through contact at one's place of worship or through proximity of housing, industrial society brings people with similar occupations together, often leading to the formation of friendships through one's work. When capitalised, The Industrial Revolution refers to the first known industrial revolution, which took place in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. What is some times referred to as The Second Industrial Revolution describes later, somewhat less dramatic changes resulting from the widespread availability of electric power and the internal-combustion engine.

Today, industry makes up only a relatively small percentage of highly developed countries' workforce see the pie chart above , in large part due to advanced mechanization. The use of machines and robots to facilitate manufacturing reduces the number of people required to work in industry by increasing their efficiency. As a result, a single worker can produce substantially more goods in the same amount of time today than they used to be able to produce. This has also resulted in a transition in most highly developed countries into a post-industrial or service-oriented economy.

A post-industrial society is a society in which the primary means of subsistence is derived from service-oriented work, as opposed to agriculture or industry. Most highly developed countries are now post-industrial in that the majority of their workforce works in service-oriented industries, like finance, healthcare, education, business or sales, rather than in industry or agriculture. This is the case in the U. Post-industrial society is occasionally used critically by individuals seeking to restore or return to industrial development.

Increasingly, however, individuals and communities are viewing abandoned factories as sites for new housing and shopping. Capitalists are also realizing the recreational and commercial development opportunities such locations offer. As noted throughout the above discussion of societal development, changes in the social structure of a society - in this case the primary means of subsistence - also affect other aspects of society. For instance, as hunters and gatherers make the transition into pastoralism and horticulture, they also develop a surplus in food stuffs.

While it is common for people in the developed world today to have lots of surplus food, we rarely consider just how important that extra food is. To begin with, once a society has surplus food, that means more of their children will survive into adulthood. Additionally, as food yields increase in agricultural societies, smaller percentages of the population are required to produce the food for the rest of the population.

This frees up those people not engaged in food production to specialize in other areas, like clothing or housing production.

Auguste Comte

This results in specialists: That specialization leads to rapid increases in technology as people are freed from having to spend the majority of their time finding or growing their food and can then spend their time improving at their speciality. The relationship between surplus and technology may not seem obvious, initially, but surplus is clearly the forerunner of technological development.

This is illustrated in the diagram to the right. The diagram shows societal development along the top and the implications of societal development along the bottom. The arrows running between the two rows illustrate the fact that these relationships are very complex. For instance, specialization not only results from agriculture but also from denser populations and surplus and helps spur industry. The point being, these are interdependent aspects of societal development that co-evolve.

One additional outcome of surplus that is included in the diagram is inequality. Inequality will be discussed in much greater detail later in this book, but it is important to note that as soon as there is surplus, there will be greater surplus for some people, and some people - as evidenced in most developed societies today - may not have access to enough resources despite the exist of a surplus within the larger society. As Western societies transitioned from pre-industrial economies based primarily on agriculture to industrialized societies in the 19th century, some people worried about the impacts such changes would have on society and individuals.

Three early sociologists, Weber, Marx, and Durkheim, perceived different impacts of the Industrial Revolution on the individual and society and described those impacts in their work. Max Weber was particularly concerned about the rationalization and bureaucratization of society stemming from the Industrial Revolution and how these two changes would affect humanity's agency and happiness.

Bureaucracy is a type of organizational or institutional management that is, as Weber understood it, rooted in legal-rational authority. Bureaucracy is a complex means of managing life in social institutions that includes rules and regulations, patterns and procedures that both are designed to simplify the functioning of complex organizations.

An example of bureaucracy would be the forms used to pay one's income taxes - they require specific information and procedures to fill them out. Included in that form, however, are countless rules and laws that dictate what can and can't be tied into one's taxes. Thus, bureaucracy simplifies the process of paying one's taxes by putting the process into a formulaic structure, but simultaneously complicates it by adding rules and regulations that govern the procedure. Weber did believe bureaucracy was the most rational form of institutional governance, but because Weber viewed rationalization as the driving force of society, he believed bureaucracy would increase until it ruled society.

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