Week 2 - Ch 1 (LO4-LO8) Develop Social Perspective

Empirical Methods

Data collection that produces verifiable findings and is carried out using systematic procedures

Soc research methods are empirical bc direct observation helps generate findings to be verified

Theory

Set of propositions intended to explain a fact or a phenomenon

3 approaches to theorizing

Positivist

Interpretive

Critical

Positivist

stem from natural sciences, interest in objective explanation and prediction

Emphasize explanation and prediction, assumes that there are objective “laws” to govern the way society works

Interpretive

Focus on understanding the ways people come to understand themselves, others, and the world around them

Humans are “self-interpreting animals” and constructed through culture

Critical

explore the role that power plays in social processes, ties that knowledge to emancipation and the importance of that and power dynamics

Classical sociological theories

Sociological theories developed in the early years and form the foundation for subsequent theorizing

Contemporary sociological theories

sociological theories developed since the mid 20th centurythat address modern social issues and diverse perspectives.

5 Core theoretical perspectives (“lenses”) in sociology

Functionalist

Conflict

Symbolic interactionist

Feminist

Postmodern perspectives

Functionalist Prespective

Positivist and Macro-level approach to theorizing

Overriding concern with how social order is maintained, society is perceived as comprising a number of structures each fulfilling a function

Rosy lens, everything in society works to restore order and balanced

Functionalist: Manifest Functions and eg

an intended function of one of society’s structures

eg. postsecondary education’s function is job training

Functionalist: Latent functions and eg

Unintended positive function of one of society’s structures

eg. postsecondary latent function is mate selection

Latent dysfunction

Unintended negative function of one of society’s structures

eg. lack of lunchtime supervision

Values

Shared criteria by which we determine whether something is right or wrong

Emile Durkheim

One of the foundational figures in sociology and of the functionalist view

Claimed the purpose of sociology was to study social facts

Social facts

Rules, norms, or structures in society that influence how people behave and control peoole’s actions

Material social facts

Social facts that have a tangible reality, such as education, government, money

Non-Material social facts

Intangible social facts such as morals, norms, and values

Mechanical Solidarity

social bonds that exist in preindustrial societies based on similarities among people

Organic Solidarity

Social bonds existing in industrial societies based on different roles that people play

Collective conscience

Unified body of cultural knowledge, morals, beliefs, values and norms

Anomie

State where traditional norms deteriorate, process of social control decline, and institutions become dysfunctional

Anomic Suicide

Lack of regulation, uncertainty, social structures breaking down

Conflict Perspective

Macro-level view, critical approach that emphasizes power and emancipation

Darker lens, proposes that society is characterized by conflict and competition over resources, powerful at top and powerless at bottom

Karl Marx

One of the founders of the conflict perspective

Emphasized capitalism as the driving force of inequality btwn the bourgeoisie and the proletariat

Surplus Value

Selling commodities at higher prices that they cost to produce (produced by the proletariats)

Alienation

Detachment that exists btwn the worker and their labour as perpetuated under captialism

Max Weber

Maintained that the source of capitalist inequality was not economic but ideological

Praxis

Responsibility that scholars have to provide subordinated groups in society with the knowledge that they need to end their powerlessness

Symbolic interactionist perspective

Microlevel, Interpretive approach

Analyzes how we develop understanding and that society is depicted as comprising individuals engaging in communication
Way to look at the world through clear regular lenses

George Herbert Mead and Herbert Bulmer

Pioneered the interactionalist perspective

Generalized other

Overall sense of people’s expectations

We not only care about what significant others think about us, but what the general public may feel or think about us

Erving Goffman

Well-known interactionist theorists, known for theories on the presentation of self and total institutions

Dramaturgical theory

Social life is very much like a theatre with a front and a back stage where we perform roles for an audience or throw them away

Proposed by Goffman

Impression management

Process where we control our appearances, words, and actions to correspond with our specific role

Total Institution

Place where people are segregated or isolated from the outside world

Feminism Perspectives

Macro and micro levels, critical perspective

System of ideas and political practices based on the principle that women are human beings equal to men

Darker side of inequality as well as brighter possibility of social change

Androcentric

Male-centered, failing to account for women’s experiences and treat men’s experiences as the normative human experience

Also assume that society is structured on the basis of gender

Harriet Martineau

Female founder of sociology, well published and known, abolitionist

Dorothy Smith

Foundational figure in contemporary feminist theory

Developed distinct standpoints

Postmodern Perspective

Emerged from a time of significant social change after WW2

Point out ways in which lives have dramatically changed since the war

Two forms of postmodernism

Skeptical

Affirmative

Skeptical postmodernism

These social changes have created inescapable chaos and meaninglessness, precludes the possibility of any meaning in the world

Affirmative postmodernism

Manner in which society has changed means that we cannot rely on grand, overarching theories of society, focuses on the local and specific

Michel Foucault

One of the most influential social scientists, made the claim that truth is not objective but historically produced

Academic Soc

Comprises the empirical research methods and sociological theorizing conducted by formally trained researchers

Policy Soc

Use of research, theorizing, and critical thinking for policy development in governments, public/private organizations

Public Soc

Transmits sociological knowledge to non-academic audiences

Private Soc

Application of sociological knowledge to one’s own personal life

Lower order thinking

remembering, understanding, applying

Higher Order thinking

Analyzing, evaluating, creating

Fictive Kin

People not related by blood, marriage, or adoption but feel attached to one another and perform some of the same functions as a traditional family