Sociology - KEY SOCIOLOGISTS

Key Sociologists and their theories for IGCSE Sociology

Talcott Parsons

Structural functionalist;

Nuclear family as crucial for primary socialisation to teach kids norms and values, and stabilise kids’ adult personalities;

Men and women have different roles in the modern nuclear family (expressive and instrumental) and it is necessary to enforce this for social cohesion;

‘Warm Bath Theory’ - Family acts like a warm bath, relieving men’s stress after a long day at work, thus allowing them to stay motivated and continue working to contribute to society.

‘Fit Thesis’ - Family adapt to fit societal needs: medieval, rural societies needed extended families to help with child-rearing, allowing to parents to continue subsistence farming for survival. This family unit had many functions, but the advent of the modern industrialised society resulted in an increased need for mobility, leading to the modern nuclear family and the reduction in familial functions. (SEE PARSONS & GOODE)

In the modern day, the nuclear family is left with two irreducible functions:

• Primary Socialisation

• Stabilisation of Adult Personalities (Warm Bath theory)

‘Structural Differentiation’ - the process through which familial functions are taken over by institutions (e.g.: education being taken over by school systems in modern society)

Education as a bridge between family and wider society - prepares kids for meritocratic society by rewarding achievements and hard work

Karl Marx

Marxist;

‘Conflict Theory’ - society as a class conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie;

Every societal institution enforces bourgeois control over the lower class;

Socialisation teaches working class to accept their place;

Working class family socialises working class children in working class environments';

Religion as the ‘opium of the masses’ - distracts workers from the true goal of class consciousness;

Family ensures wealth is inherited and classes are kept separate;

Crime stems from inequality and laws are made to protect the bourgeois;

Ann Oakley

Feminist;

Society as a struggle between genders - advocates for equality and abolition of the patriarchy;

Family reinforces harmful gendered norms by canalisation (buying children gendered toys and clothing), manipulation (pushing children towards different fields or activities based on gender), and verbal appellation (eg.: calling girls ‘beautiful’ and boys ‘strong’);

‘Double Shift’ Theory - women still do the majority of household work even if they have a job, so they work a sort of double shift;

Gendered socialisation leads to gendered subject choices and attitudes towards school

Emile Durkheim

Functionalist;

‘Collective Consciousness’ - the shared set of beliefs, values, and norms held by individuals in a society. The more homogenous a society, the more powerful its collective consciousness;

‘Social Facts’ - phenomena that influence individuals’ behaviour because of collective consciousness;

• Social Integration - individuals’ connection to society

• Moral Regulation - extent of societal control and prevalence of social facts

Religion as fostering societal cohesion;

Culture as creating social solidarity through shared norms and values;

Mechanical vs Organic Cohesion;

Education provides the knowledge and skills for individuals to survive in meritocratic society';

SUICIDE STUDY

• Suicide as a societal fact - four types of suicide

  • Egoistic: results from insufficient social integration (eg.: loneliness)

  • Altruistic: results from excessive integration (eg.: Kamikaze pilots)

  • Anomic: results from insufficient regulation, especially during crises

  • Fatalistic: results from excessive regulation, when people feel oppressed.

Howard Becker

Interactionist;

Individuals’ success and actions is determined by societal interaction and expectations rather than individual actions;

‘Labelling Theory’ - deviance is created by social attitudes, not individual actions;

‘Self-fulfilling Prophecy’ - individuals commit deviant acts if they are labelled when deviant.

Teachers label pupils by the ‘ideal student’ stereotypes - middle-class students are more likely to succeed;

Robert Merton

Functionalist;

‘Strain Theory’ - society sets expectations that individuals aspire to, called ‘Culture Goals’, and socially accepted ways to achieve them, called ‘Institutionalised Means’. (eg.: a new car through getting a well-paying job). When individuals cannot achieve these cultural goals, this creates ‘Strain’:

• People respond to Strain in 5 structuralised ways:

  • Conformity: individuals continue to pursue success through institutional means (eg.: optimistic workers seeking promotion)

  • Innovation: individuals continue to pursue success but abandon institutional means - this can result in crime (eg.: a drug dealer seeking wealth and status through illegal means)

  • Ritualism: abandon culture goals but retain institutional means - they stick to routines and accept their place in society as unalterable (eg.: a low-level office worker who has given up on promotion)

  • Retreatism: abandon both social goals and institutional means, retreating from society (eg.: a drug addict no longer caring about success or societally expected methods)

  • Rebellion: individuals who aim to change social goals or institutionalised means (eg.: anti-capitalist activists looking to alter the economic system)

Albert Cohen

Functionalist

‘Status Frustration’ - builds on Merton’s Strain Theory and argues that young working class boys join subcultures due to resentment over their place in society.

They commit nonutilitarian crimes because they gain respect from peers that replaces monetary success with social success. (eg.: graffiti vandalism)

Stanley Cohen

‘Moral Panic’ - describes society’s exaggerated reaction to perceived threats, often sensationalised by media and authorities.

1. Certain groups are labelled as ‘folk devils’ and viewed as deviant and threatening to society (eg.: D&D Players)

2. Media Amplification: the media sensationalises and exaggerates events to transform complex realities into moral dramas (eg.: suicide attempt of James Egbert blamed on D&D)

3. Public Reaction: society responds with moral outrage disproportionate to the actual dangers

4. Police Response: they react to public reactions by cracking down on deviant groups with labelling and arrests

5. This may cause further deviance and more youth may join subcultures

Charles Murray

New Right;

‘Culture of Dependency’ - the welfare state has enabled people to remain in poverty as they no longer seek active work or progress (Merton - Ritualism) and rely on handouts to survive;

Lack of discipline and absent fathers cause crime;

Nuclear families with traditional gender roles are beneficial for society to function and for kids to be socialised appropriately;

Bowles & Gintis

Marxists;

‘Hidden Curriculum’ - unwritten norms, rules, and values taught in schools;

Argued that this hidden curriculum reinforces working class inequality by rewarding obedience and punctuality, to prepare working class children to obey their bourgeois employers and best serve them in the future.

Eli Zaretsky

Marxist;

Family plays a key role in capitalism by acting as a unit of consumption by buying products like food, toys, a new car, a larger house, all of which support capitalism;

Capitalists create ‘false needs’ through marketing aimed especially at children to make parents spend more through ‘pester power’ - consumption keeps working class families trapped in their social class, so their children will remain working class in the future;

Family supports capitalism by producing the next generation of workers and instilling values such as respect for authority so they obey their bourgeois bosses in the future;

Women in particular provide unpaid domestic labour (childcare, housework, emotional support), ensuring workers are fed, rested, and ready for employment;

Through primary socialisation, working class children learn to accept class inequality as normal and thus do not achieve class consciousness;

Family as a ‘safety valve’ for workers, allowing exploited lower class men to vent frustrations and receive comfort, preventing them from rising up and threatening the capitalist system;

Claims that families provide the illusion of agency for workers, allowing them to make small decisions to feel in control at home, so as to not realise their exploitation and oppression in professional settings and can never achieve class consciousness.

Wilmott & Young

‘Symmetric Family’ - contradicts Ann Oakley’s perspective of the Double Shift, arguing that modern families are equal in responsibilities and men and women.

Case Study in East London - interviews and surveys analysing family roles in 1973.

George Herbert Mead

Symbolic Interactionist;

Identity is formed by interactions with others and the roles individuals take on in society.

He argued that, in order for words to mean something, they need to be understood both by the target and the speaker. Thus, when the speaker wishes to communicate something to someone, he must be able to predict how that someone will react. Similarly, when taking on a role (eg.: in a game of basketball, or doctor roleplay with friends), we predict the reactions of that role - over time, these can become internalised, as individuals ‘predict’ their own reactions to things said or done by others, giving rise to a ‘self’, or identity.

Stuart Hall

Marxist;

Sees culture as fluid and dynamic, dependent on political, social, and economic factors.

Identity is shaped by interpretations of media; a dominant culture (eg.: Western Culture) decides what is ‘normal’ and ‘acceptable’ in the media, which is eventually internalised to everyday cultural identity.

‘Media Theory’ - argued that media should represent diverse voices from multiple cultural groups to prevent assimilation and loss of culture

Scapegoating of young black men - media caused moral panic around muggings caused by young black men in the UK, creating ‘folk devils’ leading to harsh police crackdowns and scapegoating for issues

Angela McRobbie

Feminist;

‘Bedroom Culture’ - girls experience the formation of identity and experiment with subcultures from their ‘bedroom’, a private setting, unlike boys who do this in public spaces with peers;

This is done by girls consuming media, journaling, exploring fashion tastes, or other acts that they can do freely in private that otherwise go against societal expectations;

Traditional femininity is propagated by music, tv shows and book that girls consume in this ‘bedroom’, thus enforcing feminine gender norms onto girls.

Margaret Mead

Feminist;

Conducted a case study on three tribes from Papua New Guinea investigating the role of men and women;

Found gender norms to be cultural, not biological, as many Papuan tribes proved matriarchal, with men taking on expressive roles and women taking on instrumental ones, helping to disapprove gender essentialism.

Lesley Dunne

Feminist;

1999 study on conjugal roles - found that lesbian couples exhibit largely joint conjugal roles, especially when compared to nuclear families

Frances Heidensohn

Feminist;

Observes that women have been marginalized in criminological theory for decades;

Social control as gendered - male deviance framed in terms of autonomy, risk-taking, or subcultures, female deviance is viewed as a personal flaw or weakness.

‘Double Deviance’ - women are punished more harshly when committing crimes due to being sanctioned both legally and socially

‘Control Theory’ - women are controlled in both public and private settings, limiting their opportunities for criminal behaviour

William Chambliss

Marxist Criminologist;

Rules and laws exits for the ruling class to maintain control and protect their interests;

Individuals labelled as criminals are labelled as such because they threaten the established order favouring the bourgeoisie

‘Selective Law Enforcement’ - the differential application of law based on social class

Crime is often a product of socio-economic conditions

Richard Quinney

Marxist Criminologist;

Laws as a tool of the capitalist class used to reproduce inequality and suppress dissent

Crime cannot be understood without the social context - people in precarious conditions commit crime out of necessity, such as tax evasion or theft

The state protects the ruling class and disproportionately punishes the poor (eg.: possessing small quantities of cannabis is harshly persecuted while systematic tax evasion by large corporation often goes unpunished)

Crime serves an ideological function - focuses on individual failures instead of root causes like unemployment, justifying the use of repressive measures that disproportionately affect the poor.

Typology of Crime

• Predatory Crime - property and violent crime rooted in poverty and marginalisation, harshly prosecuted

• White-Collar Crime - offenses committed by economic elites, often under-prosecuted

• Political Crime - criminalised acts of protest or resistance against the ruling system

• Lumpen Crime - destructive deviance without political consequence

Otto Pollak

‘Chivalry Thesis’ - Women are treated favourably and persecuted less frequently due to the police and court system being male-dominated, leading to a sort of ‘chivalry’ where they treat women with lenience.

Pat Carlen

Feminist;

Female criminality as linked to structural poverty and necessity;

Women are more likely to live in poverty due to the gender pay gap and single-parent families, so they commit more ‘Crimes of the Powerless’, such as shop-lifting done out of necessity or a feeling of powerlessness.

Paul Gilroy

Ethnic minorities as overrepresented in crime statistics because of racial profiling and labeling - racism and over-prosecution towards minorities;

Many migrants commit more crime due to being faced with hostility and exclusion upon arrival into host countries, leading them to draw upon the tradition of anticolonial struggles to create cultures of resistance against white-dominated police forces and authorities.

Friedrich Engels

Marxist;

Family maintains the social class structure by ensuring wealth is kept in the family through inheritance, with the rich staying rich by inheriting parents’ property and capital, while the poor remain poor as they have nothing to inherit.

Delphy & Leonard

Radical Feminists;

Family as a patriarchal institution that unfairly benefits men as women are exploited by doing housework and chores while the men still make family decisions.

Dunscombe & Marsden

Feminists;

Built on Oakley’s ‘dual burden’ theory to propose the ‘triple shift’, adding emotional work supporting men and children on top of domestic and professional labour.

Roger Ballard

Functionalist;

Researched South Asian families in the UK;

Found that most South Asian families maintained strong family bonds with family back home, retaining extended families with wide support webs for members;

Divorce rates in South Asian families are much lower because of the intervention of extended families.

Travis Hirschi

‘Social Control Theory of Crime’ - Crime and deviance as caused when individuals have weak or absent social bonds to family, friends, education and community.

‘Self-Control Theory’ - Deviant individuals as those who lack self-control and are thus more prone to impulsive and risky behaviour that manifests into crime. This low self-control is often caused by improper socialisation by negligent or similarly deviant parents

Lea & Young

Left Realists;

Crime as caused by a combination of factors, namely:

• Relative Deprivation

• Subcultures

• Marginalisation

Influenced Tony Blair’s New Labour movement that argued that crime should be dealt with by tackling root causes, not just the crime itself - “tough on crime, tough on causes of crime”

James Messerschmidt

“Criminal activity as a resource used by men, when other resources are unavailable, to accomplish masculinity.”

Argued that men commit crime as a last resort to present masculinity.

Two types of masculinity:

• Hegemonic Masculinity: the most desired masculinity - includes economic or sporting prowess in mainstream society

• Subordinate Masculinity: less powerful and carry lower status: include violent, street-based crimes

White middle class boys, for example, are often accomplished in school or sport, showcasing some aspects of hegemonic masculinity. However, this requires them to give up independence and control to school, acting subordinate to education and coaches in sport, emasculating them. Thus, they can turn to excessive drinking and pranks outside school, for example, to ‘regain’ that hegemonic masculinity damaged by the school.

White lower class boys are much less likely to succeed in school and therefore construct masculinity around being tough and strong, showing oppositional masculinity both in school and out, leading to more violent crime.

Barret & McIntosh

‘Family Ideology’ around the cereal packet family as patriarchal, harmful, and anti-social

• Patriarchal - exploitation of women (triple shift) and dependency on their husband for financial support.

• Harmful - family ideology suggests that those living in other forms of family or alone are deviant and a threat to functional society, encouraging the labelling of women outside traditional families, same-sex relationships, harming their chances; ignores the dark side of family

• Anti-Social - it devalues life outside the family, and seeing a nuclear family as standard harms people living in alternatives (e.g.: the way the school system is designed makes it difficult for lone parents to balance work and childcare)

Janet Finch

Criticised the ‘Fit Thesis’;

Historical evidence shows that there was a wide range of household types, suggesting there wasn’t a specific family that perfectly ‘fit’ society.

Found no evidence that:

• The standard family in pre-industrial society was extended, with close family bonds, as proposed by Parsons and Goode

• People automatically assumed responsibility for the elderly, or that financial provisions were granted to children other than the eldest one.

One alternative explanation could be that industrialisation and urbanisation first occurred in Western Europe because nuclear families in the pre-industrial era were the norm, not extended ones; this provided the mobility that allowed urbanisation to happen before other societies

Carlin

Criticised the ‘Fit Thesis’;

Suggested that most households in early modern Western Europe were nuclear families, because:

• Average life expectancy was low, so most elderly people would die before becoming grandparents, or wouldn’t live long after,

• Evidence of people who survived to old age were expected to retire into households separate from their children’s;