Module 2

Auguste Comte

coined sociology term and worked on ways to use methods of natural sciences to study society; founder of sociology

Karl Marx

worked to inform conflict theory; did a social analysis of the economic system although not a sociologist

Herbert Spencer

influenced by darwin’s evolutionary theory; coined the term of “survival of the fittest” in his social inequalities explanations

Emile Durkheim

established sociology as an academic discipline — establishing structural functionalism

Georg Simmel

established microsociology through focus on small groups, individuals, and social interactions

Max Weber

contributed to methodologies of social research, and challenged Comte questioning whether the methods of natural society can be easily applied into the study of society

George Herbert Mead

key contributor to symbolic interactionism, focused on social environments and how they shaped behaviour and the self

Robert Park

americans including ____ became the dominating force in the development of sociological theory and method

Sociology’s eurocentric problem

the founding fathers of sociology are male-dominated and white, which ignores the contributions of the early thinkers such as confucius and ibn khaldun; who else is getting ignored in the discipline’s history?

Harriet Martineau

one of the first female sociologists, translated comte’s work and introduced it to english speaking audiences, also contributing her own work with female perspectives to sociology

Jane Addams

activist, and put sociological theories into practice by connecting the university to the community. first american woman to be awarded nobel peace price

charlotte perkins gilman

wrote about gender and family roles, outlining social roles

Marianne Weber

womens right activist and her work focused on women’s labour in patriarchal society

black women sociologists

downplayed or entirely ignored, due to their race which gave a bias

soujourner truth

had an impact with gender sociology, and fought for slavery as well as women’s right activist

Anna Julia Cooper

examined gender and race; impregnated by white slave owner, graduated with PHD at 67

Ida B Wells

born into slavery; became an educator and journalist which contributed to civil rights movement. honoured with pulitzer prize

WEB Du Bois

was assisted with the work of anna julia cooper; sociology must combine scholarship with emancipatory activism to bring about more just societies

Charles S Johnson

focused his work on social conditions for black communities

E. Franklin Frazier

studied social forces of social forces that shape the structure of black families since slavery — examined how social organization inhibits success of african americans

Oliver Cromwell Cox

examined racism and the development and spread of global capitalism

Aldon Morris

ASA president; noted sociology developed a narrow focus because it excluded women and racial minorities from sociological investigation.

“sociology needs to account for these multiple sources of agency and what they portend for changes".”

macro level approaches

structural functions, conflict theory, feminism; looking at existing social structures and how they impact life

micro level approaches

symbolic interactionism; focuses on individuals and small groups interactions

who contributed to structural functionalism?

emile durkheim, talcott parsons, robert merton

Emile Durkheim’s social facts

claims there are patterned ways of acting, thinking, feeling; social facts are the law, and we are held accountable by law. this is a characteristic of groups, and involves cocercing forces to make people act a way.

Core Assumptions of society

it can be like an organism; they see themselves as an entity and interact and share culture. Herbert Spencer compared this to the human body

Core Assumptions of social structures

stable and predictable patterns of social relations among members of society; what happens in one typically affects others, so they must adapt — this gradually evolves society

functions in social structures

biological and social needs of individuals that make society

manifest functions

intended consequences of social patterns

latent functions

unintended consequences of social patterns

dysfunction

social processes or institutions that disrupt the function of a society

structural functionalists

they focus on explaining how social stability is possible; fascinated of social patterns on how humans emerge

conflict theory

shaped by karl marx, georg simmel, max weber, WEB Du Bois.

class conflict

drives social change; this was a social analysis of the economic system

conflict theorists argue

members of society are in a constant state of war; conflicting interests shape society, and there is unequal distribution of power based on class, race, etc.

who shaped symbolic interactionism

max weber, george herbert mead, herbert blumer, and erving goffman

herbert blumer’s symbolic interactionism

humans act towards things based on their meanings of them, these meanings arise through interactions with others, and that mean-making is an ongoing process where the initial meaning may change

erving goffman’s dramaturgical approach

study of social interactions in terms of theatrical performances

front stage

we engage in impression management, with intentional effort for leaving a good appearance through settings, props, scripts, and who we interact with

back stage

the uncensored behaviour we execute when no one is watching

symbolic interactionism

building society from everyday interactions; focuses on individuals in small groups and how they mix to create their social world

structures

macro-level approaches with structural functionalism; these are preexisting social arrangements that shape behaviour

agency

micro level approaches with symbolic interactionism; this is the ability to act independently of social structures and shape them

traditional knowledge

social interactions and social learning that provide us recipes for the world; may contain misinformation and error

authority knowledge

‘experts’ in this field, we do not question them. however, we dismiss the fact whether they give out reliable information

casual observation knowledge

day-to-day engagement; we tend to overgeneralize this and be fairly selective in what we pay attention to

premature closure

the answers to our questions have been answered, so we stop seeking out more info

scientific inquiry

“we believe what we see” then we adjust our attitudes and belief accordingly

bias

ideas that prevent neutral considerations of topics, favoring certain sides without a reason. this can lead to prejudices and favoritism

positivism

aka social physics — social world could be studied using the same methods natural sciences use. Comte argues outsiders here are the ‘experts’

objectivity

flawed because knowledge is produced under specific circumstances, shaping the outcome of the content

content analysis — quantitative research

systematically study various texts i.e pictures, audio, etc. to compare and contrasts the trends in the data

experiments — quantitative research

study relationships between variables that vary closely; studying cause and effect relationships

survey — quantitative research

the most common quantitative research — questions to generate data about individual behaviour that produces statistics

the goal of quantitative data generation

to identify trends in the population in order to explain them

statistics

this is a science in sociology, using numbers to analyze data and identify patterns

concept

abstract image, general phenomenon, an idea, or a formal definition of a study

operationalization

transforming a concept into a variable, allowing us to measure specifically what we want to measure

dependent variable

effect in a relationship i.e income

independent variable

cause in a relationship i.e education

correlation

two variables are associated frequently than expected

causation

changing one variable causes another to change

spuriousness

when someone sees correlation and falsely assumes causation; variables that seem casual but are not

top-down approach

researchers makes all choices

value neutrality

research choices are subjective

empiricism

not all social phenomena can be measured

law-like statments

seeing the general in the particular; human experience is too complex to generalize

context

glosses over social context where research participants exist

qualitative research

info about the social world that cannot be ‘numbered’. focuses on the meanings that guide people to their actions, which works well for individuals and small groups in naturalistic settings

interviews

open ended conversations that are one-on-one

observations

studying social life naturally by participating in real time

ethnography

studying groups and social settings in detail for a long period

generalizability

micro-focus means cannot be generalized to macro-level

explanatory value

qualitative research can describe well, but cannot explain social phenomena

power

micro-focus removes potential for deep exploration of power relations

subjectivity

relies on researcher interpretations

validity — quantitative research

discounted as scientific evidence as qualitative researchers gain stories instead