Structural Functionalism and Symbolic Interactionism

  • Max Weber (1864-1920)
  • Key Concepts
    • Ideal Types
    • Verstehen (interpretive understanding)
    • Rationality
    • Protestant Ethic
    • Authority
    • Bureaucracy
  • “Labour must, on the contrary, be performed as if it were an absolute end in itself, a calling. But such an attitude is by no means a product of nature”
  • Ideal Types
  • analytical constructs against which real-life cases can be compared.
    • “pure categories” are not real
    • They are a conceptual yardstick for examining differences and similarities, as well as causal connections, between the social processes under investigation.
  • Bridging the Gap
  • Between Marx/Durkheim/Weber and  the 1950s, what happened?
    • Chicago School
    • Focused on Urban Sociology
    • Interest in gangs, peasants, underclass, subcultures
    • Created foundations for symbolic interactionism
    • Frankfurt School
    • Critical Theorists
    • Rooted in Marxist theories
    • Created basis for conflict/postmodern theorists
  • Structural-Functionalism
  • Parsons-General Theory of Social Action
    • General & universal laws of all behavior
    • All actions constrained by biology, environment, values and norms
    • Critiqued because of a bias toward conformity
    • E.g. women have to act in a certain way because that’s how families function best
  • Merton
    • Student of Parsons, but proponent of mid-ranged theories [rejecting the all-encompassing Parsonian model]
    • Innovation to escape anomie
    • Manifest vs. Latent Functions
    • Strain theory: deviance occurs when a society does not give all its members equal ability to achieve social goals

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  • Conflict Theory
  • Follows from Frankfurt School
  • Competition for limited resources
  • Power differentials
  • CW Mills: The Power Elite
    • Are American leaders really elected democratically?
    • Money controls an interconnected group of political, economic, and military leaders
  • Symbolic Interactionism
  • Herbert Blumer
    • People’s Interactions Ultimately Determine their Behavior
    • Self-Image Based on Others’ Interactions
    • Predictability of Behavior
  • Irving Goffman
    • Stigma
    • A negative social label that changes your behavior toward a person and also changes that person’s self-concept and social identity
    • Has serious consequences in terms of the opportunities made available—or not made available—to people in a stigmatized group
  • Feminist Theory
  • Dorothy Smith- Standpoint Theory
    • authority is rooted in individuals' personal knowledge and perspectives, and the power that such authority exerts.
  • Judith Butler-Queer Theory & the performance of gender
  • We must challenge the ways that everything we know is experienced differently for men vs. women.
  • Postmodern Theory
  • Knowledge is power, but also power is knowledge (Foucault)
    • Those with power control what, how, when we learn, and even in many cases who learns
    • Consider Abstinence Only Education
    • “sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth & you should save it for someone you love.”—Butch Hancock
  • Crime Through Different Perspectives
  • Structural Functionalist
    • Crime is Functional for society
    • Solidarity
    • Social change
    • Strain theory
    • Subculture theory
    • How do we address crime in this theory?
    • Community ties
    • Clear sense of social order
  • Conflict
    • Crime is inevitable when there are power differentials
    • Those in power define what is criminal
    • Law enforcement penalizes those without power
    • Further victimization of those without power
  • Symbolic Interactionism
    • Labeling (Becker)
    • Person labeled as deviant is denied opportunities to engage in non-deviant behavior
    • Labeled person internalizes deviant label and acts accordingly
    • Differential Association (Sutherland)
    • People around criminals learn values, attitudes
    • People around criminals learn techniques

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