soc 2240 quiz notes

Marx Theory & German Sociology

HEGEL à influenced by KANT

MARX à influenced by HEGEL

So, KANT à HEGEL à MARX

There are two types of Hegelians.

1)    Old Hegelian à in line with Christian and Conservative values.

2)    New Hegelian à anti Christian tendencies and believed that Christian society was far from perfect. Argued against supernaturalism and religion. Wanted power, change, and revolution.

Kant à philosopher/idealist

Hegel à DIALECTIC direction

-       Examines contradictions

-       Dialectical argument à statement is refuted, then a resolving thought emerges between two ideas

Marx à young Hegelian, supplements philosophy with outside world observation.

Feuerbach à young Hegelian, concept of materialism. Assisted in the diagnosis of capitalism.

Most extreme form of idealism (KANT + HEGEL) à the only reality we know s what is in our own minds (perceptions, ideas).

-       Most extremist form is that ideas only exist within the mind

-       Kant and Hegel say the idea is the most important because we begin with the idea to form a meaning

Feuerbach à God is how people project themselves

Projection à people put positive characteristics onto God. It is said that we are not perfect or powerful but he is. Projection is a defence mechanism and it is apart of being insecure.

-       Our ideas of God say more about people.

-       God is loving, holy, the rest of us are not

-       Creating the perfect image of God helps humans to be imperfect and make mistakes within society

Omnipresent projection à we can’t be everywhere all at once

Marx on human production

-       Direction of the material

-       Man creates all of the time

How do we differ from animals if we build and reproduce?

-       Religion

-       We produce more than what we need

Theory of capitalism & alienation

-       At our core to create things

-       Capitalism has reduced our species being because we are alienated from the things that we produce

-       Money is equated to all we do

-       Labor is no longer voluntary

4 types of alienation

1)    Alienated from product à we don’t have a say in how much we can sell products for, and even if you have created the product you still have to buy It

2)    Alienated from the process à workers do not dictate their shifts or environment. Tasks are repetitive

3)    Alienated from each other à separated at work (office with cubicles).

4)    Alienated from themselves à can not reach full human potential because work keeps us from pursing our passions

If you are self employed, this does not mean you are not alienated! You still have to produce for the market to achieve your own needs.

The idea of PROLETARIANIZATION is that competition with megastores and franchise chains will shut down many small businesses.

Marx believed that religion could create an illusion for people and they would not see that they are under oppression from the capitalist system. He is not opposed to religion, just does not want it to oppress individuals.

Marxism

Capitalism according to Marx is not just one type of economy but a combination of economies.

Capitalism consist of an invisible hand à people act freely in their own self interest. However, no economy these days practices an invisible hand

Issues with capitalism:

-       Climate change (fossil fuels)

-       Inequality (on the rise)

Economic base & superstructure

Economic base à dominant mode of production that shapes the superstore

-       Bourgeoisie, wage labour, commodities, land owners, natural resources, real estate, farms, etc.

The superstructure also influences the economic base!

Superstructure à everything not directly to do with production, such as the not tangible

-       Courts, laws, family, education, art, media, religion

A classical orthodox Marxist approach only discusses the base and discuss means of production or property. But the economic Marxists state that the superstructure is determined by the economy.

The dialectical method has a large emphasis on contradictions. They pose an opportunity to move forward in another direction.

-       Hegel thinks all contradictions are in our minds

-       Marx said contradictions needed to exist in real life

The dialectical approach is HEURISTIC.

Social relations are dynamic and do not actually flow in one linear direction!

Communism would occur when workers made the choices to change their situation. If they are happy with the status quo, no change will occur.

MATERIALITY à can be real concrete physical things but also can be ideas.

-       Race is a social construct and a concept

-       Materiality at its core is both tangible and non tangible

Under capitalism, the things we value in society are distorted because we have so many things.

Example: Hunters & Gatherers groups

Small groups à can’t store food because the group is small, members of the group have to go out and find food, there is little time to develop other skills

When the group can produce more food this leads to a new set of social expectations.

-       Don’t have to stay put in one place

-       Brainstorm new ideas to store food

POLARIZIATION à at the core of exploitation and how it functions

There are two forms of classes à capitalists & labourers.

If you are not aware that you are being exploited and alienated, you do not have class consciousness. A class lacks awareness

Weber

Weber is often cited as rounding out Marxian tradition or economic determinism. Weber also argued that stratification should be extended to include elements of prestige, status and power.

Class, status, power is an extension of Weber’s interpretation of Marx.

-       In this, Weber thought that a proletariat revolt was unlikely. Life chances depended on three central factors or sources of influence that had a different effect on social action and could be employed to exert power: CLASS (economic), STATUS (sociocultural), PARTY (political).

Class (economic) à refers to a group of people who can be found in the same market or economic situation.

-       This is NOT  a community of like minded individuals as there may be a sense of interconnectedness and solidarity.

-       A class is NOT a community

Status (sociocultural) à refers to a group of people that have a similar style of life. This means they may share similar prestige or experiences of social life.

-       Social set of behaviours is expected of members of a given class

-       You may not achieve status if you do not meet these expectations

-       Status and class do not go hand in hand

-       Status is about respect, cultural capital, lifestyle and belonging to certain networks

Party (political) à refers to a group of people who are organized around a particular political order. Political parties represent the values of a particular class or status group.

-       The mail goal of political parties is active attainment of power

Weber on history & sociology:

-       Sociology is about understanding general laws, rules, or patterns that apply across situations or societies. Sociologists might study trends in inequality or patterns of political authority. This is different in comparison to history as it is focused on understanding specific and unique events.

Weber thought that IDEAL TYPES became a methodological tool for comparative sociology.

He focused on the idea that sociology should be a legitimate science, sociology should be concerned with causality, and should use interpretive understanding.

Concepts should be considered ideal types that are more heuristic devices to assess social reality. Ideal types don’t exist in the real world (if we think of a dream partner).

-       Ideal types can be formed by one sided accentuation which means they are exaggerated and forms of the outside world that are only useful when applied to the outside world.

Different types of authority

Traditional authority à based on long standing beliefs, customs, and practices. Common in pre industrial societies (King, queen, etc.). Authority would be based on your blood line or a religious figure. You could be born into it.

Charismatic authority à based on extra ordinary powers of individuals. Charismatic leaders exercise good or bad authority over a whole society or a small group. Examples could be Hitler, Jesus, or Buddha. They are dependent on their followers.

Least stable form of authority à CHARISMATIC.

-       Charismatic authority only becomes stable when it is routinized and will be passed down to future leaders.

Other key points about charismatic authority is that a new bureaucracy is often formed and a return to tradition takes place.

Rational legal authority à based on the assumed legitimacy of societies rules and the rights of leaders to act under the rules to make decisions and set policies.

Bureaucracies are impersonal and a highly structured system where rules and roles dominate, and personal relationships or emotions are minimized. The focus is efficiency, consistency, and a clear division of labor.

The main features of a bureaucratic system:

1)    Laws

2)    Standardized procedures

3)    Large number of desks or offices

4)    Meticulous division of labor

5)    Everyone has their own set responsibilities

6)    Clear hierarchies

7)    Impersonal professional interactions

Important note: bureaucracies are a form of rational legal authority!

-       Weber identifies bureaucracies as escape proof and one of the hardest institutions to destroy

Bureaucracies aim to ensure efficiency and economic effectiveness!

There are six basic principles of the bureaucracy:

1)    Hierarchical authority

2)    Formal selection à all employees are selected on the basis of skills and competencies

3)    Rules and requirements

4)    Impersonal

5)    Career orientation

Verstehen à understanding what is meaningful.

-       Moves away from positivism and aims to account for the complexities of human behaviour. It is an ethical approach and allows researchers to gain a deep understanding of the people they are studying rather than treating them as anonymous data points

The positivist approach is very reductionist as it reduces humans to a number and fails to capture the richness or human experiences. Anti positivist approaches use qualitative research and replace empirical evidence with methods that examine social behaviour.

The Iron Cage

-       In Western Capitalist societies, life is rationalized

-       People are trapped in systems or organizations that are efficient, rational and controlled

-       Escape proof

-       Iron cage can be a product of specific historical conditions à capitalism and the spirit of capitalism, enabled by rationalization

Once systems are rationalized, they create a set of norms, rules, and regulations that are self-reinforcing.

How the escape proof system is set up:

1)    Institutionalization of rationality à rules, norms, and expectations

2)    Socialization à individuals are socialized into rational systems (example: always wanting to be on time as a kid).

3)    Momentum à technology advances and bureaucratic structures grow, they become harder to resist or modify. Each new development reinforces existing rational framework. (feeling like you can’t sit idle).

4)    Lack of alternatives

5)    Commodification of life à people are reduced to human resources or economic units

6)    Loss of meaning à religion, community, and personal relationships can diminish.

There are four types of rationality.

PRACTICAL à choices you make as an individual to get through the day, solving problems (instrumental)

-       Occurs when we see purely pragmatic and egoistic interested to be achieved

-       Involves means end calculations

THEORETICAL à abstract thoughts, theory, philosophy, explaining the world (intellectual)

-       Ideas and concepts in our minds

-       Cognitive efforts

-       Like brain puzzles

SUBSTANTIVE à religious systems, creeds, belonging to a community (values)

-       Values is most important part

-       Moral or ethical habits

-       Difficult to achieve in modern society

FORMAL à the systems we live and work in that is efficient (instrumental)

-       PRE DOMINANT FORM!

-       Systematic, rules based calculation of the most efficient means to achieve a goal, focusing on procedures, rules and methods

-       Modern laws, capitalist economy

There are six basic characteristics of formal rationality:

1)    Calculability

2)    Efficiency

3)    Predictability

4)    Replaces human technology with non human tech

5)    Gain control over uncertainty

The consequences of this is that things become less meaningful, such as jumping through hoops to gain your university degree that you have lost passion for

Weber believes that there is a direct connection between substantive and formal rationality! Weber sees the emergence of a formal rationality based on substantive rationality. Meaning, the spirit of capitalism is found within religion.

 The Spirit of Capitalism

Otherwordly ascetism à norms and values that go against the secular (non religious).

Innerwordly ascetism à norms and values that do not reject the secular. Individuals search to find salvation (like the Calvinists).

Ascetism refers to a lifestyle characterized by self discipline and abstaining from indulgences. Like a MONK!

While the Protestant Ethic did not give rise to capitalism it gave rise to the spirit of capitalism that made modern rational capitalism expand and dominate.

The spirit of capitalism is a moral & ethical system. And it is also an ethos that stresses economic success. Hard work was a reflection of salvation!

Ethos à characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations.

Mixed views of rationalization:

Pros: conditions of rationalization created the possibility for the development of modern Western society with its wealth and efficient forms of economic and social organization

Cons: formal rationality, associated with organizations, bureaucrats, and capitalists comes to dominate Western society and reduces human freedom.

Important: rationalization involves depersonalization & oppression.

Also important: technocratic thinking is similar to zwreckrational which also relates to mean-end rationality, rooted in achieving the most efficient means.

Simmel

Simmel emphasizes individual experiences of modernity and on the nature of social actions and interactions.

Emergence à moves from lower level concerns and applies them to higher level or macro level processes

In summary, Simmel focuses on individual experiences & social actions + interactions. This means he would be considered a micro sociologist!

Simmel has four areas of main concern:

1)    Psychological components of life à subjective experiences individuals have when engaging in social interaction

2)    Sociological components of inter-personal relationships à focus on the ways in which social relationships emerge or create social life

3)    Structure of the spirit of his time (cultural shifts) à focus on how the context and historical period influences creates the objective social life

4)    Changes related to cultural and social spirit of his time (referred to as modernity) à focus on how money or the metropolis come to shape social interactions in unique and novel ways

Simmel examines social changes but returns to the individual to observe how social interactions relate to larger forces.

What is a paradox?

-       2 contradicting ideas

-       2 opposing sides

These two opposing sides are envy & admiration.

Tracing the social impact of a trend requires attention to the paradox of IMITATION & DIFFERENTIATION.

-       One force pushing us to bind ourselves and the other pushing us to unbind ourselves.

Emergent social forms à crocs. We hate them at first but we see so many people wearing them that we begin to love them.

Sociation à interaction among individuals that form human society

-       Also the result of paradoxical categories of interaction; paradoxes are important ingredients, structuring all relationships and giving them enduring form.

Sociologists have a job to illuminate social forms and types that reoccur across diverse social interactions.

Content à specific matter or subject of a social interaction. Substance of social interactions and activities

Form à structure or mode of the interaction. Refers to underlying structure or pattern of how interactions and activities are organized.

Social types à the recurring roles or characters individuals adopt in interactions (like a leader, follower, or moderator).

Social Types

Simmel made an attempt to understand a whole range of social types such as the mediator or the stranger.

-       Distance plays a central role in the stranger

What makes a person poor? Is it how they present themselves or if they are asking for money?

-       Social interaction component à receiving help from others, charity, exchange and dependent on others for support. You can not identify if someone is poor from the naked eye

A running example of content & form

Content à desire for money

Form à domination and subordination

Example à you ask for a raise and the boss wonders why you need more money. Maybe you feel like the poor type because you are asking for something from them. The boss is going to push back.

Simmel was interested in the structure of social interactions and wants to identify patterns to apply to a variety of contexts. Simmel’s interpretation is interested in how modern life shapes individuals and society!

Modernity: Subjective culture vs objective culture, subjective spirit vs objective spirit

The Metropolis

Simmel argues that the city life fosters a blasé attitude where people become emotionally detached or indifferent as a defense mechanism against overstimulation. This can also be identified as the blasé outlook, which is defined as superficiality and grayness.

Objective culture: external, material, and institutional aspects of culture that exist independently of any one individual. Includes language, art, science, religion, etc.

-       Grows under modernity

-       More than life + alienating

Subjective culture: aspects of culture that are embodied in individuals, their personal experiences, values, thoughts and creativity.

-       More life + species being

In essence with the increase of modernity, it becomes difficult to maintain individuality or create influence with objective culture set in stone. Urbanization and money market commodification increase objective culture.