Exam 2 - Terrance McGinn SOC 100 UMich

What lead to the emergence of sociology?

The Enlightenment (1700s)

-church to science

The Anti-Enlightenment (late 1700s)

-need for institutions

-French Revolution scared people

-science tells how things work, religion tells why things are

affected...

-economy

-politics

-social

5 questions explored by early sociology

-What are the mechanics of society: how does it work

-what causes society to change or progress?

-How are individuals related to each other and to society?

-Do individuals shape society(agency), or does society shape individuals (structure)?

-What is the best was to study society?

Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

-Evolution of world views and societies:

--theological: believes that world is controlled by supernatural beings

--metaphysical: people believe that the world is controlled by a metaphysical force; fate, luck, karma, destiny, etc.

--Scientific/positive: people are controlled by forces of nature that can be explained scientifically

-Coined the term "sociology"; queen of the sciences

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)

-Developed principles and methods of empirical social research

-translated Comte

-Wide-ranging interests:

--class, religion, suicide, national character, domestic relations, women's status, criminology, and interrelations between institutions and individuals

Economic/material conflict - Historical Materialism (Marx)

a theory developed by Karl Marx, identifies class conflict as the primary cause of social change.

How does Marx's thinking differ from Hegel's?

Marx believes conflict of material drives the world; Hegel believes conflict of ideas drives the world

How is Marx thinking the same as Hegel's?

Conflict drives the world

Marx view of urbanization

moves population to one area, centralized means of production, and put property in hands of a few, increases wealth of owners

Marx view of family

the purpose of family is to make money by being apart of the capitalist machine

Marx view of globalization

capitalism movement will spread throughout the world- an exploitation of the world market

Social super structure

arise to benefit the economic base; education, religion, etc.

Economic Base

means of production; helps everything run

stages of economy change

fuedalism, capitalism, communism

Max Weber (1864-1920)

-middle to upper class

-terrific academic career

-was not as sure about future, possible due to depression

How does Weber see as driving change compared to Marx and Hegel?

-Hegel: conflict of ideas drives change

-Marx: material conflict drives change

-Weber: it can be both; Protestants gave rise to capitalism

"The Protestant Ethic"

Worldly asceticism: doing things on earth but with focus on heaven; lead Protestants became owners by putting wealth back into business rather than keeping it

Weber's types of stratification

-class

-status

-party

Class

Those with the same possession of

goods or opportunity to make money; four classes: capitalists, property owners, those with patents/copyrights, and laborers

Status

group whose members share a characteristic or lifestyle that is honored or dishonored in society; -class may or may not be linked to

class.

-If economic circumstances are

stable, status will drive social

realities.

Party

A self-selected group that seeks to

influence a particular social issue or

action;

-specific program aimed at causing particular action

-party's issue may or may not be related to one's class or status

Weber Social Science Approach

We need the "subjectivity" of understanding how the people we are studying experience their situation vs. Marx's We should be scientific and empirical in

examining society: look at REAL things.

Study them objectively.

domination (Weber)

when you talk

about the evils of CLASS

DOMINATION...

You should remember that some forms of

power are legitimate authority. There are three:

-traditional: parents, elders, etc.

-legal: judges, police, etc.

-charismatic: Hitler, MLK, etc.

Rationality (Weber)

Capitalism causes us to focus on trying to attain the highest level of efficiency in everything; the drive of capitalism

disenchantment (Weber)

the rationalization of modern society; takes away the beauty, imagination, and other things that do not add efficiency

iron cage (Weber)

Instead, our material possessions have become like a steel shell we wear, or an iron cage around us, weighing us down; trapping us.

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

-converted to Christianity from Judaism

-very nationalistic; wanted to better France

-teacher of teachers; instill French values

What is Durkheim's key question?

What hold's society together in the modern era?

What is the answer to Durkheim's key question?

Values

What does Durkheim say is the task of society?

Functionalist take: sociologists jobs are to dissect the organism that is society; need to be able to understand all of the functions of the organism

Structuralist

he believed that society is composed of structures that directly affect the lives and behavior of individuals; Mark and Weber were also

How are Durkheim and Marx fundamentally different?

Marx: society driven by economic conflict

Durkheim: Society is like a living organism

Collective Efervescence (Durkheim)

apart of something larger than yourself; feeling you get in a crowd

function of crime (Durkheim)

Crime offers society the opportunity to reinforce its norms by punishing the deviant,

Or change its norms, and not punish the deviant.

Function of religion (Durkheim)

society is unified by assigning its values to divine figure. these values take forms of beliefs which are sacred and profane. Collective effervescence created.

Organic Solidarity (Durkheim)

social bond in modern day society; people bond together based on tasks performed, interdependence, and individual rights

organ

Mechanical Solidarity (Durkheim)

held together by shared values because we are all the same

gears

Social Facts (Durkheim)

Established manners of acting, thinking, and feeling that come to the individual from society through socialization.

religion, currency, practices that follow a profession

Suicide (Durkheim)

show that even the most personal events are affected by society;

-egotistic: for self without regard for society

-altruistic; for society; suicide bomber

-anomic: not enough norms to guide someone; prisoners

fatalistic: too many norms and hopeless; prisoner of war

What did Durkheim teach while developing his sociological ideas?

Teacher of teachers;

Cooley

-Ann Arbor man

-went and taught at UofM

-introverted

looking-glass self (Cooley)

a self-image based on how we think others see us

(a) idea of other’s perception of us

(b) Idea of other’s judgment of us 

(c self feeling — developing your self-concept based on these imagined judgements 

Primary Groups (Cooley)

social groups, such as family or friends, composed of enduring, intimate face-to-face relationships that strongly influence the attitudes and ideals of those involved

(1) family

(2) playground (friends)

(3) Neighborhood

Mead

- Religious background 

- Influenced Cooley and Dewey and Behaviorism and Pragmatism 

- Taught at Umich 

- Published only articles

Pragmatism (Mead)

approach that said we need to focus on things that have every day implications and express ourselves in ways that every day people can understand

Mead key ideas

-The social development of self (p.

195)

-The Self as Object (p. 195)

-The "I" and the "Me" (p. 197)

-Even thinking is social (p.191-2)

-I think before I act - Beyond

Behaviorism and Structuralism (p.

187-9)

Symbolic Interaction (Blumer)

-Individuals have a "self" and are intentional

-Social behaviors are based on individuals' interpretation of the situation

-Social action is lodged in the individual

-Societal organizations/ units provide a framework for action, and a fixed set of symbols

-Sociology is studying the process of interpretation by which people determine their actions; AGENCY

Traditional Sociology (Blumer)

-Individuals are the media through which outside forces/institutions operate

-Social behaviors are not constructed, they are reactions

-Social action is lodged in society or some unit of society

-Societal organizations/ units determine individual action

-Sociology is the study of structures and their impact on actions (e.g., functionalism & organicism); STRUCTURE

The Concept of Social Construction (Berger and Luckman)

-Meanings that often seem natural or

"essential" (part of the item's essence)

are actually conceived and attributed to

those items by people.

-Those meanings are "constructed"

socially.

Labeling Theory (Becker and Goffman)

Basic concept: If you consistently label me a criminal, I will behave like a criminal. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

Eugenics

the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics

Anit-miscegenation laws

laws that enforce racial segregation at the level of marriage and intimate relationships by criminalizing interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of different races.

W.E.B. Du Bois

-sheltered from racism at young age; well educated (Harvard)

-Taught at Penn

-Philadelphia Negro: problem is not with Black people but with circumstances they were dealt after slavery

-The Souls of Black Folks: color line, veil, Double Consciousness

-Help found NAACP

The Philadelphia Negro

-provided empirical evidence

-to discount "climate"

-to recognize economic poverty, inferior education, segregation and racism were social determinants that shaped the health status of blacks

The Souls of Black Folk

-color line: socially constructed black/white division that is collective/individual, historical/existential, conscious/irrational

-veil: a sense of being shut out from other race's expereince (Al Young: whites can't see black experience, not the other way around)

-double consciousness: sense two identities - American and Black - prevents formation of a united self

Second Wave of race theorists: key characteristics, individual who exemplifies the era

-saw Black American culture as an American phenomenon (not African), still whitecentric view of society

-Moral and cultural advance essential for racial uplift (using white measuring rod for African Americans?)

-More attention to impact of social conditions on the Black psyche

-more use of standard sociological technique and empricicism

-more detached observation;

Key Figure: Franklin Frazier

Third wave: Post WW II - Afrocentrism

emphasizing and promoting African cultural patterns

Sarah Susanah Willie-LeBreton

-Stratification: this theory asserts that groups and individuals are arranged in a social hierarchy according to ascribed and acquired characteristics

-Economic Theory (Conflict): race is an invention of capitalism that justifies some people becoming commodities while others become "owners."

-Social Construction: race changes depending upon social context

Preffered: Dramaturgy: we are all acting all the time anyway. We can show different faces and lines with different people and not be "out of our face" - not be inappropriate to our identity

Androcentric (Gilman)

our consciousness is designed to support male control rather than humanness

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

-wanted equal opportunity like the men in her life

-post partum depression

-divorced husband; allowed daughter to go with father for better opportunity

-terminal breast cancer; commits suicide

-writer and lecturer

excessive gendering

when things are gendered further than biological things which results in women dependence on man

Anna Julia Cooper

-Writer of color and woman

-Witness oppression; appeal to public conscience

-A Voice from the South

-"The Colored Woman's Office" - the (redemptive) power of the African American woman

-role of women of color in our society

REDEMPTIVE POWER OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN

Jane Addams

-Hull House; immigrants, women, children, poor

-Chicago Women's School of Sociology

Democracy and Social Ethics

REFOCUS FROM PERSONAL MORAL CONCERNS TO SOCIAL ETHICAL CONCERNS, ESPECIALLY RELATED TO THE POOR

Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931)

-Worked against race discrimination in railroads (foreshadows Rosa Parks)

-Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases

Said US was on pedestal and therefore we need to be role model; appeal to patriotism

-sits down in the white women's car

the conductor tells her to move and she does not but then the conductor tries to move her and she bit him; it took 6 people to move her to the third car

ACTIVISM (LYNCHING AND RAILROADS)

Marianne Weber

-uses marriage and women's work to explain the patriarchal distortion of social life

-"On the Valuation of Housework"

-women are dependent on men and that is not good; our self worth is connected to our economic wellbeing

-women need an income stream of some sort

men, husbands should pay there wives a salary

PATRIARCHY IN A DOMESTIC SETTING

Patricia Hill Collins

-matrix of domination: gender, race, and class

Intersectionality: race, class, and gender combine to create unique and complex forms of privilege and oppression

Three basic questions of contemporary feminist theory

-What about the women? (description)

-Why is all this as it is? (explaining)

-How can we make the social world more just for women and all others? (action)

Egoistic

Not enough interaction in a group

Ex: a new student struggling to fit in

Alltrustic

Too much integration in a group

Ex: Suicide bombers who would commit for the people who told them to

Anomic

Not enough norms/regulations

Ex: a person leaves prison and doesn’t know what to do because they don’t have enough rules to live in society

Fatalistic

Too many norms/regulations

Ex: Prisoner in a jail cell commits suicide because they can’t handle the pressure and rules in prison

3 ideas from Human nature and the social order (Cooley)

1. Our consciousness is social, our language is social — even “I” and “mine” are social

2. Therefore, “I” is not all self, it is like a nucleus in the larger cell of self

3. Sometimes we equate “I” with our body, even then there is social dimension to “i”

Social development of self (mead)

Self arises in the child’s social experience, using language and symbols

The Self as Object (mead) 

The self is reflexive

I can see myself as an object and my view of myself is adopted through others perception of me

The “I” and “me” (mead)

“I” = creative and impulsive part of self that changes the world

“me” = judgemental controlling part of self that is imprinted by the world around 

“I” acts, and “me” constrains

Even thinking is social (mead)

We think using symbols, words, language which are learned from others so thinking is socially trained

I think before I act (mead)

Before acting, individuals think about the social affect of their actions and responses before doing it