Theories and methods

What is value consensus?

when everyone has shared norms and values

What is anomie?

when society does not have shared norms and value and people feel normlessness

Who is the key thinker around social facts?

Durkheim

What are social facts?

a system which shapes people’s behaviour to match societies needs as society is a separate entity to it’s members

What does Durkheim say about modern society?

complex division of labour promotes division so extreme egoism must be prevented from destroying social bonds

What is the organic anology?

functionalism sees society like a biological organism where everything works together

What three similarities did Parsons identify between organisms and society?

both self-regulating systems of inter-related inter-dependent parts, both have needs that must be met in order to survive e.g. food and socialisation, each part of the system contributes to it’s survival

According to Parsons what are the two systems that maintain value consensus and social cohesion

socialisation through religion, education and family and social control which rewards and punishes people through police and courts

What are the parts of the social system?

norms, status roles, institutions, sub-systems, social system

What are the four needs of society?

adaption, goal attainment, integration, latency

What is the adaption need of society?

needing to meet people’s needs through the economic sub-system

What is the goal attainment need of society?

setting goals and allocating resources to achieve them through the political sub-system

What is the integration need of society?

integrating parts of the system through the sub system of religion and education

What are the positivist theories?

Functionalism, Feminism and Marxism

What perspective do positivists view society from?

Macro, top down

What do positivist value from studies?

quantitative data and objectivity

What perspective do interpretivists view society from?

bottom up, Mirco

What do interpretivists value in studies?

qualitative data, subjectivity

What are the interpretivist theories?

symbolic interactionism, Goffman’s dramatalogical model and social action theory

What are Merton’s three main criticisms of Parsons’ assumptions?

indispensability, functional unity, universal functionalism

What is indispensability ?

more than one institution can perform a certain function

What is functional unity?

not all parts of society are connected and they will not all have knock on effects on each other some parts have functional autonomy

What is universal functionalism?

not all parts are functional for all people and some groups have the power to maintain institutions at the expense of others

What is a manifest function?

the intended function of an action

What is a latent function?

an unintentional function of something

What are the logical criticisms of functionalism?

tries to explain the existence of something through its function( Teleology) and unfalsifiability as nothing can be proven false it cannot be a science which it claims to be

What are the conflict criticisms of functionalism?

Marxists argue that shared values are not agreed but imposes on us, conservative ideology which seeks to maintain the status quo allowing for the privileged to maintain their power

What is the action perspective criticism of functionalism?

Wrong (1961) argues that functionalism takes a deterministic view in which people are puppets on strings and that views society as a separate entity to the people

How does the postmodern perspective criticise the functionalist perspective?

functionalism tries to establish a meta-narrative which doesn’t fit with the diverse, unstable and fragmented society we have now

Who created Marxism and was the founder of communism?

Karl Marx

What are the means of production?

the tool and infrastructure needed to produce goods

What is the bourgeoisie?

the ruling class that owns the means of production

What is the proletariat?

the working class who sell their labour to the ruling class

What is false class consciousness?

when the proletariat don’t realise they are being exploited and think that capitalism is fair

What is alienation?

when the proletariat become separated from their work and their creativity

What is revolution?

forcible overthrow of a government to replace it with another one

What is Marxism?

a theory which believes the main conflict is between two classes and that the bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat for their labour and transmit their ideology to normalise their actions.The W.C. are kept subservient through alienation and institutions

How is society shaped by the economy?

the means of production and relations of production (base) are owned and controlled by the bourgeoisie which shapes the superstructure of education, family ect. which then legitimises the base

What is capitalism?

an economic system based on division between the two classes where the wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few and workers are deskilled and alienated so the workers can be paid less, as it progresses the classes become more and more polarised

What is class consciousness?

Marx believed that the working class would eventually realise they were being exploited

How do the bourgeoisie maintain capitalism?

transmit their ideology through institutions which create false class consciousness and creates the idea that they are in the right place

What is a good example of capitalism?

miners’ strikes 84’-85’

What is Gramsci’s idea of hegemony?

ruling class uses ideas and values to persuade subordinate classes that their rule is legit

What is voluntarism?

ideas that humans have free will and can make their own history

How is ruling class dominance maintained according to Gramsci?

coercion and consent

What is coercion according to Gramsci?

police, courts and prisons force the classes to stay in their allotted place

What is consent according to Gramsci?

persuading the lower classes through ideas and values

Why is ruling class hegemony never complete according to Gramsci?

proletariat have dual consciousness where they see through the dominant ideology, working class can create a counter-hegemonic bloc with organic intellectuals

What are organic intellectuals?

people who try to advance their own class through creating and promoting ideas contrary to the dominant ideology 

What is the repressive state apparatus according to Althusser?

armed bodies of men forcing people to comply with capitalism

What is ideological state apparatus?

institutions manipulating the working class into seeing capitalism as legitimate

What are the requirements for socialism in humanistic Marxism?

economic crisis with a counter hegemonic bloc to win leadership

What are the requirements for socialism for structuralist Marxism?

crisis of capitalism

What is the evaluation of humanistic Neo-Marxism?

ignores the role of the economy in stopping revolution

What is the evaluation of structural Neo-Marxism?

deterministic, Thompson(1978)- elitism as it encourages the W.C. to blindly follow the leader of the communist party

What are the 4 kinds of feminism?

liberal, radical, Marxist, difference

How many waves of feminism have is there?

4

What was the 1st wave of feminism?

fighting women’s right to vote - achieved in 1928

What was the 2nd wave of feminism?

fought for women’s equal opportunities and legal rights, as well as equal pay, right to work without discrimination, equal reproductive rights and access to contraception

What is the 3rd wave of feminism?

focuses on intersectionality and women in non- western countries

What is the 4th wave of feminism?

a more online movement focusing on sexual harassment and the me too movement

What do liberal feminists believe in ?

we should have equal rights and freedoms and women can achieve this through legal reforms and changes in socialisation they have achieved a lot through there methods

What do liberal feminists believe about sex and gender?

sex is biological whereas gender is socially constructed and assigned to people

What do liberal feminists believe about gender conflicts?

they are not inevitable and can be changed

What key contributions to society have liberal feminists made?

right to vote-1928, equal pay act-1970, equality act-2010, sex discrimination act-1975

What are the criticisms of liberal feminism?

ignores underlying causes of women’s oppression and focuses too much on white middle class women 

What do radical feminists believe?

patriarchy is universal and fundamental and effects the personal sphere, men are the enemy, and in order for women to be liberated we need to become separatists and not interact with men

What are the key contribution of radical feminists?

outlawing marital rape-1992, development of women’s refuges, understanding of the connection between the patriarchy, control and DV

What are the criticisms of radical feminists?

not all men benefit from and contribute to the patriarchy and ignores the differences between women’s experiences depending on class, race etc

What do Marxist feminists believe?

women experience dual- exploitation through the patriarchy and capitalism, and women’s oppression serves capitalism, through acting as a reserve army of labour, absorbing male workers anger

What are the key contributions of Marxist feminists?

in order for women to be free we must overthrow capitalism as well as the patriarchy, understanding of the importance of control over reproductive rights

What are the criticisms of Marxist feminists sociologists?

ignores women’s oppression in non-capitalist societies, doesn’t pay enough attention to men’s contributions to women’s oppression

What do difference feminists believe?

there are differences between women’s experience of patriarchy depending on their characteristics, essentialism

What is essentialism?

other feminist perspectives see women as the same when this fails to reflect diversity and exclude some women and their problems

What are the key contributions of difference feminists?

understanding of how different characteristics interact and the importance of solutions that are interconnected, aims to provide justice for all women and girls

What are the criticisms of difference feminism?

women still have shared experiences through the patriarchy

Who is Weber?

founding father of sociology

How did Weber’s approach differ to others?

combines structure and individuals and suggested the idea of Vertsehen

What are the levels of cause?

structural factors in behaviour

What are the levels of meaning?

personal subjective reasons for behaviour

What the fours kinds of actions suggested by Weber?

traditional, affectual, value-rational, instumentally-rational

What are traditional actions?

customary / routine actions

What are affectual actions?

expressing emotions

What are value-rational actions?

actions towards a goal that fits with our beliefs

What are instrumentally rational actions?

the most efficient way of achieving a goal

What are the criticisms of Weber?

too much overlap between categories and we can never have true verstehen 

What are social action theories?

theories that link positivism and interpretivism

What is interactionism?

study of how people interact with each other and interpret symbols

What does Mead theorise?

we have meanings attached to symbols and go through an interpretive phase to understand the meaning of something before we respond unlike animals who have a pre-programmed response

How do we understand people’s meanings according to Mead?

putting ourselves into other’s shoes which develops through social interactions

What does Blumer say about actions?

they are based on meanings

What does Blumer say about meanings?

they arise from interaction processes and are not fixed

Why are our actions always partially predictable according to Blumer?

there are expectations over how we act but we also have choice and ability to negotiate

What are the three principles of labelling theory?

labelling something makes it true and creates consequences, we take on the role of others to create a self-concept- Cooley, a master status is created through how others label us

What is Goffman’s dramaturgical model?

we want to present ourselves in a certain way, we can use different techniques to change how other’s view us, there is a distance between our real selves and the roles we play

What are some evaluation of symbolic interactionism?

many actions have no meanings, doesn’t explain how meanings are created, in Goffman’s model everyone plays actor and audience at the same time

When did modern society begin?

18th century

What are the key characteristics of modern society?

nation-states, capitalism, rationality science and technology, individualisation

What are nation-states?

when population shares culture and language, being a part of that state is a part of someones identity, state is powerful and makes all choices in that country 

How is capitalism a key part of modern society?

increased wealth through industrialisation but created unequal wealth distribution which led to class conflicts but a rise standard of living