What is Sociology?

Sociology is the study of human social life. Because human social life is so expansive,sociology has many sub-sections of study, ranging from the analysis of conversations to thedevelopment of theories to try to understand how the entire world works. This handout will introduce you to sociology and explain why it is important, how it can change your perspectiveof the world around you, and give a brief history of the discipline.

The term sociology was coined by Auguste Comte (1798-1857) in 1838 from the Latin termsocius (companion, associate) and the Greek term logia (study of, speech). Sociology is a relatively new academic discipline which emerged in the early 19th century inresponse to the challenges of modernity. Sociology has its roots in significant societal changes (e.g., the industrialrevolution, the creation of empires, and the enlightenment of scientific reasoning. Some early sociological theorists (e.g., Marx, Weber, and Durkheim) were disturbed by thesocial processes they believed to be driving these changes.

The early founders of sociology were some of the earliestindividuals to employ what C. Wright Mills (1959) called the sociological imagination: theability to situate personal troubles within a broader social context.As Mills saw it, thesociological imagination could help individuals cope with the social world by helping them tostep outside of their personal worldview and thus seeing the events and social structure thatinfluence their behaviour, attitudes, and culture.

Humans like toattribute causes to events and attempt to understand what is taking place around them. However, in order to test their theories, sociologists get upfrom their armchairs and enter the social world. They gather data and evaluate their theories inlight of the data they collect. Sociologist test their theories about how the world works using the scientificmethod. However, Sociologists, like all humans, have values, beliefs, and even pre-conceived notions of what theymight find in doing their research.

Debates going on in Sociology

Nature or Nurture?

Is the behaviour of humans due to genes, biology, evolution etc or is it due to social circumstances like upbringing, historical or geographical situation, and structures like gender, class and race? Sociologists fall heavily on the side of Nurture – Obviously !

Individual or Society?

Is it better to study individuals and their interactions or the broader structures in society? Is there such a thing as SOCIETY which is separate to the behaviour of individual people? If we collect rich Qualitative data like a case study for example of one person’s experiences, how can we generalise the findings to a whole population? If we only collect Quantitative data like statistics, how can we gain a true picture of individual motives, attitudes and experiences?

Free-will or Determinism?

Do individuals have freedom to choose e.g lifestyle, sexuality, occupation or are we determined by the structure of society? This debate is sometimes referred to as Agency vs Structure. Structural perspectives such as Marxism and Functionalism explain human behaviour in terms of the structure of society. It is as if we behave as we do because we are pushed by powerful pressure from the social system. There is not much consideration of free will or choice from these perspectives.

Is Sociology a Science?

Sociology like Psychology studies human beings and they can be very unpredictable, diverse and awkwardly change their behaviour when they know they are being studied ! Some believe that this makes it difficult to adhere to strict scientific methods, particularly the one that says that science should be objective. Social Science subjects are gaining ground in moving from being Arts or Humanities subjects to being Sciences but there is still much debate around this as some argue that humanity is simply too complex to study in the same way as chemistry or biology studies static phenomena which do not have consciousness.

How do we view society?

Because of some of these debates, various theories about how society works have been developed by different writers such as Karl Marx, Durkheim, or Max Weber. These are described below.

Functionalism

Functionalism is a structural theory (macro approach) as it examines the structure of society as a whole. It is based on Consensus theory which basically states that most individuals within society agree upon what is acceptable and work towards meeting the needs of society as a whole.

Key ideas:

  • It is a macro approach – society is seen as a social system consisting of system parts, functionally interdependent and interrelated.
  • It uses an organic analogy – society is seen as a living organism or mechanism. Change in one part will have its effects elsewhere and a diseased part will contaminate others.
  • For Parsons, society has a set of needs or functional imperatives that are met by four subsystems: economic, political, kinship and cultural.
  • Social order is maintained through value consensus whereby values are internalised through the early socialisation process and individuals learn norms and values of their social position. Interdependence is created through the division of labour and the obligations of social relationships.
  • Conflict is minimised as individuals accept the inevitability and necessity of social inequalities (individuals have different talents and abilities).
  • Society is made of system parts such as family, education, religion and media which all reinforce social solidarity.

Evaluation

Positive

  • It was one of the first major attempts to produce a grand theory of society.
  • It demonstrates successfully those social institutions are linked together.
  • It allows us to understand the functions of social rituals and social institutions.
  • It examines the importance of primary socialisation for any social order to be possible.

Negative:

  • It places too much emphasis on harmony and fails to take into account competing interests.
  • It fails to provide an adequate explanation of social change – change is seen as evolutionary
  • It is accused of accepting the status quo and thus taking an inherently conservative view of society.
  • It is accused of being teleological i.e. it explains the origins of an institution by the function it performs for society.

Key concepts- Social solidarity, function, social order, social integration, interdependency, interrelatedness, harmony, consensus, system parts, social institutions, social roles, equilibrium, goal attainment, adaptation, integration, latency.

Key thinkers- Durkheim, Parsons, Davis and Moore, Merton.

Marxist Perspective

Marxism is a structural conflict theory. It is structural because its starting point is a theory about how society is constructed. It is a conflict theory because it claims that at the heart of society is a conflict between classes. Two classes exist: a dominant class, the bourgeoisie (upper/ruling class), and a subordinate class, the proletariat (working classes), and the system is centred around the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie.Exploitation occurs when the bourgeoisie, who own all the property (factories, mines, shops, offices, banks etc), pay their proletarian workers less than the value of their labour and keep what remains for themselves. This “profit” Marx called surplus value. The result is the dominant class becomes richer and the subordinate class merely survives. According to Marx the whole of society is organised around this relationship.

Marx was one of the first to use the term “ideology”. By this he meant all the ideas and beliefs of a particular class that reflected the interests of that class, e.g the upper classes might believe in lower taxes and minimal welfare benefits to the poor as this would protect their interests the most (since they don’t need benefits because they’re rich !!).Marx said that the dominant ideologyin a society will most likely be the ideology of its ruling classes because they are the most powerful and own institutions like the media which can influence people. They will seek to hold onto this position as long as possible and preserve the status quo.In contrast Proletarian ideology is revolutionary. It seeks to transform society so that class and exploitation are abolished.

Marx called this class consciousness (the working class become conscious of the fact that they are being exploited). If however the proletariat accepted the ideas (ideology) of the dominant class they were suffering from false class consciousness(they are unaware of their own exploitation and believe society is fair).Marx is quoted as saying that the point is not just to write about society but to change it. Society is capitalist(defined as an economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is governed by the accumulation and reinvestment of profits).Marx predicted that capitalism was doomed and would eventually be overthrown by a proletarian revolution to be replaced by Communism (defined as a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs).

Criticisms of Marx’s theory

  • It is out of date we now live in a post-modern world.
  • The class structure has in fact become more complex and people are much better off than in Victorian times.
  • The working class have become less rather than more class conscious.
  • It is too deterministic. Not every aspect of society is determined by the mode of production.
  • Feminists believe that Marx ignored the exploitation of women.

Neo-MarxismNewer perspectives which focuses more on the means of power and control other than capital and the means of production e.g the media, politics, education and cultural power. Main thinker – Antonio Gramsci (1970).

Feminism - an Overall view of feminist beliefs

Feminism is a Conflict theory similar to Marxism but feminists believe the main conflict in society is between men and women rather than between classes.

Men have exploited women for a long time. They call this patriarchy

Patriarchy exists in the family, the work place, the government and throughout society. The level of exploitation reflects the economic organization of the time

Men can exploit women because childbirth makes them vulnerable (imagine a womens life without birth control even today).The fact that men are physically stronger than women comes into it but is exaggerated by gender role socialization

There are other options, had men not chosen to exploit women there are fairer ways to share wealth and workload.Men are aware of this but choose exploitation.

2 Waves of feminism

The suffragettes

  • Focussed on political equality and the right to vote.
  • 1918Women over 30 with property got right to vote
  • 1928Women got universal suffrage (ie equal rights to men, vote once 21) 10yrs later

Womens liberation movement

  • Began in the early 1960s and concentrated on equal rights for women in the law and workplace
  • Equal pay act 1970 was a landmark victory
  • Although it was calculated in 2008 that womens pay averaged 2 thirds of mens and far less after she is 40. (women do different jobs and often same job but different title)

The impacts of feminism

Feminism presents an eloquent and powerful challenge to all the key theoretical perspectives and believes most Sociological research is ‘Malestream’ or it ignores sociological issues relevant to women. Feminism has had an impact on many areas of womens lives over the past hundred years in areas such as the law e.g equal property rights etc, the workplace e.g maternity leave, equal pay, educatione.g entry into universities and in the family e.g rape within marriage laws and progress in domestic violence.This is hard to quantify some say women do have more say in many family matters as they often contribute financially now as well as through their labour. But many feminists feel women now have a duel burden or work and housework. Clearly many women no longer totally defer to their husbands will as they had to in the past and at least obey is out of most modern couples wedding service.

Different forms of Feminism

Radical Feminism – Strong belief that women are exploited.

Marxist and Socialist Feminism – Capitalism is the source of women’s oppression.

Liberal Feminism – Focusses on progress already made and changing the law.

Black Feminism- Consider the different position of black women to white women.

Post-Modernist feminism – Accepts that individual women have varying situations and interests.

Postmodernism

Postmodernist sociologists claim that changes that took place in the 20th century have rendered exiting sociological theories redundant. Such theories were devised to make sense of the modern era with its industrial societies and nation states. Today, they claim, these societies have altered so much that we need a new type of sociology to make sense of them.

Key changes that have created the postmodern world.

ICT. The development and spread of information and communication technology has increased people’s exposure to ideas, images and information from around the world.

Consumerism. Buying goods and services has become increasingly central to peoples lives. What we buy helps to define who we are. We purchase branded goods that allow us to create our own identities. These are no longer determined by class, gender, age, region etc: in other words, the kind of factors that sociologists used to employ to make sense of social life.

Movement of people. People are increasingly exposed to different societies and different ways of life. Nations are becoming increasingly multi cultural.

Risk and uncertainty. A sense of growing social and environmental risk makes peoples lives increasingly insecure. Jobs are no longer for life, neither are marriages. With global warming and worldwide pollution, our environment appears increasingly dangerous.

Globalisation. The boundaries between nation states are breaking down. We now have transnational organisations like the EU and transnational companies. These have lead to an intensification of interaction between states.

Authority. Sources previously regarded as authoritative such as scientists, the clergy and politicians, are now regarded with scepticism.

Identity. In postmodern society peoples identities are constructed through personal choice rather than determined by class, gender etc. As a result they are more fluid. Time and space. Postmodern society has seen a restructuring of time and space. Distance no longer provides a barrier to communication – people can talk to each other from anywhere at any time. This provides immediate access to cultures, practices, ideas and belief systems, which were once remote and inaccessible.

Criticisms

  • Choice. For the vast majority of people choice is an illusion. They do not have the power or resources to exercise choice. Post modernism ignores the inequalities that constrain choice.
  • Identity. Large numbers of people still define themselves or are defined by others in very traditional ways in relation class, gender and ethnicity
  • Anthony Giddens disputes the use of the term “postmodern”. He recognises that some changes have occurred but prefers to call it “late modernity”

Interpretivism (Social Action Theory)

“Interpretivism” usually refers to range of approaches to sociology which consider how the actions of individuals creates the reality of society. It is considered therefore a Micro theory as it does not look at broad structures like the Macro theories of Functionalism and Marxism but focuses on the finer interactions between people. Interpretivism includes an approach called symbolic Interactionism.

  • There is a fundamental difference between the subject matter of natural science and that of sociology and it is therefore a mistake to attempt to apply the same methodology. Human beings have consciousness and free will – they choose how to act. They are not simply caused to do things by external pressures acting upon them as things do in the natural world. E.g. heat causes water to boil, water does not choose how to react to heat.
  • Human beings attach meanings to experiences or events that they encounter. How they interpret these events is more important than the event itself. If made redundant, a worker might interpret this in a number of ways and it is this interpretation that will influence action rather than the event or social pressure itself. Water, to continue the analogy, does not attach a meaning to heat.
  • Things in the social world like crime, unemployment or poverty do not existin the same way that natural phenomena exist. A “crime” is only a crime because that is what we say it is or how we choose to categorise it; a “suicide” is a meaning that someone has attached to a death as opposed to another meaning such as “disease” or “murder”. Water however is water and heat is heat whatever we choose to call them.
  • In social science, objectivity is neither possible nor desirable, values, beliefs and expectations will always colour research. Objectivity is itself a value treasured by the scientific community that does nothing to reveal the truth.
  • Interpretivists favour methods of research which are qualitative i.e case studies, diaries or letters showing personal feelings and interpretations of individuals and their world. Interactionists might use close observation of the day-to-day interactions of people and how they shape our understanding of the social world.
  • Interactionists use the term ‘labelling’ to describe how some groups are negatively labelled through interactions with others. For example, being labelled a ‘chav’ may have negative consequences for an individual.

Criticisms

  • The perspective is accused of being non-scientific because of its use of qualitative research methods which cannot be analysed statistically.
  • The perspective uses labelling which could be seen as deterministic.
  • The perspective may understate the important of social structures like class, gender which influence how people can live their lives.

AS Sociology Introductory Assessment.

Due on first day of term without exception.

In Advanced Level Sociology you will be required to read a fair amount of material and put it into your own words in the form of essays. You will also be required to think critically about this information and offer alternative viewpoints.You will improve these skills as the course progresses. I have set you a challenging piece of work as an initial test of your ability to read and assimilate some complex information and then summarise it in your own words. There will be many terms that you are unfamiliar with. Don’t panic if you don’t understand it all straightaway, but you must give this your best and ensure you bring it with you on the first day back!