Karl Marx
Prussian theorist who wrote The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels
Emile Durkheim
Developed the idea of the “collective conscience”
Auguste Comte
French philosopher said to be the father of sociology
Georg Simmel
Described social geometry using the geometric coefficients of numbers and distance
Abdel Rahman Ibn-Khaldun
Tunisian theorist from the 14th century who developed a “science of culture” featuring attention to sociological factors
Queer Theory
This theory has been noted to problematize “sexual and gender categories, and of identities in general.
French sociologist that opposed equality, favored freedom and opposed centralization.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Theorist who inspired Marx dialect -dealing with understanding the history of contradictions
G.F.W.Hegel
social Darwinist- coined the term survival of the fittest which suggested that organisms best adjusted to the environment are the most successful.
Herbert Spencer
In Marxian economic theory, the source of all values produced in a society (including use, exchange, and surplus value) is:
Labor
Emile Durkheim argued that social facts are:
Eternal and coercive
According to Marx, classes are groups of individuals who share a common position in relation to:
The forces of production
Rational-legal authorities
According to Max Weber, the three dimensions of social stratification are:
Class, status and party
The Enlightenment
Thinkers argued that the universe could be explained and controlled via reason and empirical research.
The Conservative Reaction to the Enlightenment
they promoted religion and saw GOD as the source of society rather than research.
Political revolutions
impacted Comte, Durkheim, and Parsons
Industrial Revolution
impacted Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel
Rise of Socialism
impacted Marx
Rise of Feminism
impacted Jane Addams and Harriet Martineau
Urbanization
impacted Weber and Simmel
Religious Change
impacted many early sociologists as most were personally religious or had professional interests in religion
Growth of Science
impacted Comte, Durkheim, Spencer, Mead, and others
Vilfredo Pareto
Italian Sociologist- saw society had consisted of independent parts in equilibrium
Elite theory of social change
Pareto argued that social change comes from the elites first going down the chain (top-down)
Alienation (4 basic Components)
1) are alienated from their productive activity.
2) are alienated from the object of their productive activity (the product)
3) are alienated from their fellow workers
4) are alienated from their own human potential
Bourgeoisie
Capitalists (the bourgeoisie) own commodities, the means of producing commodities, and the labor time of workers
Commodity Fetishism
When objects become commodities, they become treated as if they have intrinsic value rather than value measurable from human labor.
Exploitation
(General law of capitalist acclimation) Surplus Value- the difference between what it costs to produce products (including the cost of labor) and the amount that the products of labor can be sold for
-Influence of Hegel and Use of the Dialectical Method
Marx utilized Hegel’s dialectic philosophy (dealing with understanding the history of contradictions) AND He Advocated for solving contradictions using philosophy in one’s mind
Materialist Conception of History
How people provide for their material needs determines their social institutions, how they interact, and their prevalent ideas
Proletariat
Wage earners/workers (the proletariat) are paid for their labor time
Relationships to the Means of Production
who own the means of production (the capitalists or bourgeoisie) and those who do not (the workers or the proletariat).
The Communist Manifesto
Karl Marx
The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation
(Exploitation) Marx- “The constant tendency of capital is to force the cost of labor back towards…zero.”
Anomie (Emile Durkheim)
state of normlessness where the standard norms and values are weak or unclear in a society. (state of confusion or disorder)
Collective Conscience
“the totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society.”
Collective Representations
represent the sum total of collective practices of society (often represented by material objects but not always)
Collective Effervescence
collective energy in groups (Classroom acts as microcosmos of society)
Dynamic Density
two combinations: population density and the amount of social interaction within that population. why societies transition from simple to more complex forms, specifically in terms of the division of labor within that society.
Social Currents
prevalent moods across people which are not as crystalized as beliefs or practices
-Social Facts (and the distinction between material and nonmaterial social facts)
Material- directly observable social structures
-styles of architecture
-laws
-forms of technology
Nonmaterial- not directly observable
-norms
-values
-culture
Solidarity (mechanical vs. organic)
Mechanical solidarity- found where there is homogeneity (where people are very similar)
-primarily utilizes repressive law
Organic solidarity- found where there is heterogeneity (where people differ in tasks and responsibilities)
-primarily utilizes restitutive law
The Division of Labor in Society
The Anomic Division of Labor—(people lack moral restraint)
The Forced Division of Labor— (so they may lack
competence)
The Poorly Coordinated Division of Labor— (so labor may be inefficient)
The Four Types of Suicide
1) Egoistic Suicide-Detached from society
2) Altruistic Suicide-(social integration is too high) MORE LIKELY
3)Anomic Suicide- Low regulation (destructive)
4) Fatalistic Suicide-High regulation leads to feelings of hopelessness
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
-Sought to explain religion via social facts (SACRED AND PROFANE)
-Conceptualized God as “society transfigured and symbolically expressed.”
Said, “Religion protects man against the desire for self-destruction…the stronger the integration of the religious community, also the greater its preservative value.”
Adequate Causality (Max Weber)
If x occurs, then it is probable that y will occur
Authority (and its types)
Legitimate domination
-Rational-legal- Based on belief in the legality of enacted rules and the right of those elevated under those rules to issue commands
-Traditional- Authority exercised based on agreement that traditions establishing positions are legitimate
-Charismatic- Exercised based on belief by followers in the charisma of the leader
Bureaucracy (and the components of its ideal type)
*Consists of a continuous organization of offices bound by rules
*Offices have specified spheres of competence/obligations/authority to carry out functions
*Organized hierarchically
*Offices may carry technical qualifications
*Staff do not own the means of production
*Incumbents do not appropriate positions—positions remain part of the organization
*Administrative acts, decisions, and rules recorded in writing
Calvinism (and its influence on the Protestant Ethic)
Protestantism (and Calvinism in particular) provided a moral justification for the pursuit of money.
Class
-in the same economic or market situation
Ideal Types
Historical ideal types- found in some particular historical time period
General sociological ideal types- cut across multiple time periods/societies
Action ideal types- based on actors’ motivation
Structural ideal types- about the causes and consequences of social action
Party
“structures struggling for domination”
Status
-“every typical component of the life of men that is determined by a specific, positive or negative, social estimation of honor.”
Rationalization (and the differences between formal and substantive rationality)
1)substantive rationality -ordering actions into patterns and choosing a means to an end within a system of values
formal rationality -means-end calculation regarding “universally applied rules, laws, and regulations.”
Types of Social Action
Rational Action -means-end rationality vs. value rationality
Affectual Action-action determined by the emotional state of actors
Traditional Action -action determined by the actor’s habitual and customary ways of behaving
Value-Free Sociology (and what it looks like in teaching and research)
Teaching
-Academics should leave their values out of the classroom
Research
-Academics should be careful to distinguish between reporting data and commenting on it from a personal standpoint reflecting individual values
Verstehen
Understanding!! Social phenomena are not intuitive or easy to understand but can be understood with rigorous research and study (whereas some concepts in natural science cannot)
The Heterosexual/Homosexual Binary- Judith Butler
Heterosexual matrix- Makes heterosexuality seem like the only natural form of sexuality
imposes compulsory heterosexuality
leads to homosexual melancholy
Major Tenets of Queer Theory
1) Sexuality is Conceptualized by Relations of Sexual Power
2) Sexual and Gender Categories are Problematized
3) Deconstruction/Decentering Rather than Civil Rights
4) Areas Not Typically Seen as Sexual Interrogated Through the Lens of Sexuality
Basic Tenets of Critical Race Theory
1) Racism is a “normal” part of American life.
2) Most Americans do not have much incentive to get rid of racism.
3) Race is not objective.
4) Racialization changes over time
Distinction between Critical Race Theory and Critical Theories of Race and Racism
Critical Race Theory
-emerged primarily from legal studies
-focused on legal scholarship and activism
Critical Theories of Race and Racism
-from social science
-consider issues like agency vs. structure, globalization, political economy, etc.
-incorporate many forms of classical and contemporary theory
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
Color-blind racism
-a smokescreen for oppression
Individual vs. Structural Approaches to Race and Racism
Individual-Level Approaches
-focus on issues between people
Structural-Level Approaches
-Focus on social structures and institutions
Michel Foucault
Archaeology of Knowledge- search for a general system of speech and writing
Language as “genealogy of power”-Wanted to understand how discourses begin and change and how knowledge is passed through history by the powerful
Madness and Civilization- (Foccult) During the Renaissance, the mad were not separated from the sane. This changed between 1650 and 1800 through the power of discourse.
Structuralism
Response to French humanism (which had emphasized human value and agency)
Focuses on how language shapes the social world
Language is orderly and stable and constrains people.
Structural Marxism
There is a hidden logic to what people are doing and saying that empiricism can’t really determine…
Postmodernism
Language structures are disorderly and unstable, and words can mean different things depending on the context. Thus, language must be deconstructed.
Leslie Sklair
Economic Theory -Four factions of the transnational capitalist class
(corporate, state, technical, and consumerist)
McDonaldization
-Efficiency
-Calculability
-Predictability
-Control by Means of Technology
-Irrationality of Rationality
Ulrich Beck
Globality vs. Transnationalism
Our present globality is different from previous transnationalism in that it:
-covers more geographic space
-has become more stable over time
-involves denser transnational relationships and networks
Zygmunt Bauman
The human consequences of globalization for winners and losers
Globalization = a space war with winners (with more freedom of movement) and losers (with less freedom of movement)
Winners still face certain constraints (inability to slow down, seemingly unending choices, and the constant possibility of risk or danger
Agency
Agency
-usually refers to ability to at the micro-level by individuals (although collectivities can also act)
Macroscopic Theories
Macroscopic/macro-level theories: primarily focused on large-scale social phenomena such as groups or societies
Ex: World Systems Theory, structural functionalism
Microscopic Theories
Microscopic/micro-level theories: primarily focused on the individual actor
Ex: Symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, exchange theory, rational choice theory
Pierre Bourdieu
Wanted to overcome opposition between objectivists and subjectivists and bridge agency and structure
Structures
-usually refers to large-scale social structures (although it can refers to micro structures of interaction)
Habitus (Bourdieu)
the “mental, or cognitive structures” people use to deal with the social world—“internalized, ‘embodied’ social structures” (common sense based on socialization
inappropriate habitus = hysteresis
3 types of Capital (Bourdieu)
economic capital- assets easily converted to currency
cultural capital- the ability to act “cultured” through language, accents, and mannerisms of the eliteà objectified in cultural goods (e.g., art, literature, etc.)
social capital- value from personal connections (through family, clubs, and other groups)
Cultural Feminism
Claims that women are different from men but important because they offer cooperation, caring, pacifism, nonviolence, etc
Gender Inequality Theories of Feminism
Liberal Feminism
-The Future of Marriage- men and women experience different marriages within the same marriage based on societal expectations of roles and conformance to those expectations
Gender Oppression Theories
-Patriarchy: Patriarchy is the most significant form of social inequality and drives men and women to other forms of tyranny
-Psychoanalytic Feminism: Boys grow up ambivalent toward their mothers whom they love but also feel controlled by and develop a deep emotional need to control women.
-Radical Feminism: Physical violence is the fundamental way of maintaining patriarchy.
Institutional Theories of Feminism
Different roles/divisions of labor between men and women lead to differences in behaviors and personalities.
Interactionist Theories of Feminism
Women are oppressed differently based on race, sexual orientation, social class, etc.
Simone de Beauvoir
essence vs. existence -The Second Sex
Essence (what we truly are) follows existence (what we actually do
Structural Oppression Theories of Feminism
Focus on how domination is achieved through social structures
Two major forms:
-Socialist Feminism
-Intersectionality
Waves of Feminism
-First Wave Feminism: Wave-focus on women’s political rights
-Second Wave Feminism: focus on economic and social equality
-Third Wave Feminism: incorporation of women of color, lesbians, working-class women, women in the global South, and others left out by previous forms of feminism
Examples of sociological areas into which rational choice theory was introduced
James Coleman
of Social Theory extended rational choice theory principles to sociology
Founded the journal Rationality and Society
Influenced sociology to incorporate rational choice theory as president of ASA, including in his keynote address
Gary Becker
3 key assumptions of rational choice theory:
1)Individuals try to maximize benefits and reduce costs (maximizing behavior)
2)The market will maintain a basic equilibrium in the face of maximizing behavior
3)Preferences will maintain a relative stability over time
Centrality
-Betweenness Centrality
-Closeness Centrality
-Degree Centrality
Behavior (Individual vs. Social)
Individual- (the realm of Psycology)
Social- (the realm of sociology)
George Homans
Exchange theory
Developed two kinds of behavior
individual behavior
Social behavior
Talcott parsons
structural functionalism
wrote The Structure of Social Action and The social system
The Chicago school
-Became center of sociology for a strong connection to religion, social reform and empirical work.
People attended:
Charles Cooley- the looking glass: your sense of self grows out of your interactions with others and their perceptions of you (primarily developed in primary groups)
George Mead- MOST IMPORTANT theorist at the school and developed symbolic interactionism
W.E.B. Du Bois
The veil: African Americans and Whites separated by thin but deliberate barrier
Double-Conscious: African-Americans see themselves not just through their eyes but also through prejudicial eyes of others