Intro to Sociology - Structural theories

What are some key beliefs of functionalists?

Family - provides love and support and cares for you with food and shelter providing belonging

Education - teaches knowledge and socialises people into a set of rules preparing you for work

Religion - sets down rules to live by providing a sense of belonging and answers to difficult problems

Name some functionalist sociologists and their views

Durkheim - one of the founding fathers and wanted to stop suicide in men due to normlessness and them feeling a sense of anomie

Parsons - "warm bath theory" about the nuclear family that it provides support for it's members, he also said about meritocracy in education to prepare people for wider society

Murdock - equal opportunity in education for all

Davis and Moore - role allocation in education

Murdock - family providing 4 functions (meeting economic needs, stabilisation of sex drive, reproduction of next generation, socialisation of the young)

How can you evaluate the functionalist view?

- rose tinted view and mainly sees thing in a good perspective ignoring the inequalities

- myth of meritocracy as middle class pupils benefit from cultural capital

- for families it ignores the chance of domestic abuse in the home

What are some key beliefs of marxists?

- education serves the interests of capitalism maintaining inequality

- myth of meritocracy as middle class white students have more chance of getting into better universities and jobs

- correspondence principle

- how the family provides a safe haven for workers

Name some marxist sociologists and their views

- Zaretsky says the family helps to maintain capitalism as it distracts workers from their oppression and gets them to consume capitalist products fuelling the economy

- Bowles and Gintis say both the myth of meritocracy and correspondence principle as schools mirror the workplace training pupils to accept exploitation eg: rewards and punishments teach obedience

What can the marxist perspective be criticised for?

- ignores gender and ethnicity inequality

- education can lead to social mobility

- too deterministic

- some people may love their jobs and not feel exploited

Name some feminist views

- liberal feminists believe the world is slowly changing for the better and we should peacefully change the law

- radical feminists believe nothing has changed and there are big gender inequalities

Name some feminist sociologists and their views?

Anne Oakley - liberal feminist believes the that believes in the dual burden of domestic work and also emotional work

Sharpe - girls ambitions have been changing over time as they used to want to be a housewife whereas now they want jobs (liberal)

Greer - criticises how women are expected to prioritise family over their job and says it re inforces gender stereotypes such as how girls face a glass ceiling in the workplace. She says we should form a matriarchy and separatist society

Firestone - patriarchy is due to biological differences and women should use technology (artificial reproduction to escape)

Evaluate feminism

- overemphasis on gender and ignoring other things such as ethnicity however, there are intersectionalist feminists that highlight the difficulties working class/minority ethnic groups women face

- too extreme (seperatism)

- ignores women's progress in society (sex discrimination act)

- not all men are sexist

Name some New Right sociologists and their beliefs

Murray - nuclear family structure is under threat and is creating an underclass due to single parent mothers who lack a father figure which creates more teenage criminals and leads to people becoming more dependent on the welfare system

Chubb and Moe - market in education to encourage competition and drive up standards

Evaluate New Right perspectives

- allows for freedom of choice in education

- focus on individual responsibility and meritocracy

- other family types are also good and work really well too