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Week 3 Readings

Durkheim & DuBois

Orum III

  • Durkheim

    • Sociology

    • Social facts: examples are social norms and laws

    • Society created humans; it is the basis of authority

    • Modernization: cause greater individuation and greater deviance

      • Solution = reform through educational institutions

    • Solidarity

    • Social norms and laws: rules that guide the behaviour and thinking of the members of society

    • Civil law (seeks restitution on behalf of the victim) vs. Penal law (exacts harsh punishments from the offender)

    • Institutions: education, religion, economy

    • Culture, symbols and rituals: unite members of society

    • Division of labour: furnishes the basis for cementing and solidifying the character of society = integrative function

    • Opposition: deviance from the general norms of society

    • State: police force

  • Alexis de Tocqueville

    • Democracy in America: citizens’ equality, suffrage, born free, free press + freedom of speech

    • Organizations + associations ensured that democracy would continue

    • Threats to democracy

      • Race

      • Manufacturing

      • Tyranny of the majority: only the greatest number could gain an advantage

    • Civil society

Zuckerman

  • W.E.B Du Bois

    • Was an activist for social and racial justice

    • He was a pioneer in these disciplines/themes:

      • Urban sociology

      • Rural sociology

      • Criminology

      • Religion

      • Race

    • Social problems

    • Sociology must combine broad generalizations and data → put science into sociology

    • Racial inequality: the result of social, economic, historical, and political forces

    • Race = social construct

    • Double-consciousness: when one’s social identities and social roles are at odds with one another

Foucault & Democracy

Blencowe

  • Foucault

    • Our being (as conscious and active creatures) is composed through regimes, relations, and practices of knowledge

    • Genealogy: anti-science

    • Importance of culture and knowledge for power

    • Knowledge is crucial to the formation of the real material world

    • We must take responsibility for our relations to the production of truth and different truth regimes

    • Challenged universalism, determinism, and scientific method

    • Modern episteme: the organizing structure of knowledge of modern Western Europe

    • Biopolitics: concerned with the collective (society, race, nation, population)

Dahl

  • Democratic requirements

    • Effective participation

    • Voting equality

    • Enlightened understanding

    • Control of the agenda

    • Inclusion of all adults

  • Benefits of democracy

    • Avoiding tyranny and cruel + vicious autocrats

    • Essential fundamental rights

    • General freedom

    • Self-determination: protecting of own fundamental interests

    • Moral autonomy and responsibility

    • Human development

    • Protecting essential personal interests

    • Political equality

    • Peace-seeking: no wars between democracies

    • Prosperity

Week 3 Readings

Durkheim & DuBois

Orum III

  • Durkheim

    • Sociology

    • Social facts: examples are social norms and laws

    • Society created humans; it is the basis of authority

    • Modernization: cause greater individuation and greater deviance

      • Solution = reform through educational institutions

    • Solidarity

    • Social norms and laws: rules that guide the behaviour and thinking of the members of society

    • Civil law (seeks restitution on behalf of the victim) vs. Penal law (exacts harsh punishments from the offender)

    • Institutions: education, religion, economy

    • Culture, symbols and rituals: unite members of society

    • Division of labour: furnishes the basis for cementing and solidifying the character of society = integrative function

    • Opposition: deviance from the general norms of society

    • State: police force

  • Alexis de Tocqueville

    • Democracy in America: citizens’ equality, suffrage, born free, free press + freedom of speech

    • Organizations + associations ensured that democracy would continue

    • Threats to democracy

      • Race

      • Manufacturing

      • Tyranny of the majority: only the greatest number could gain an advantage

    • Civil society

Zuckerman

  • W.E.B Du Bois

    • Was an activist for social and racial justice

    • He was a pioneer in these disciplines/themes:

      • Urban sociology

      • Rural sociology

      • Criminology

      • Religion

      • Race

    • Social problems

    • Sociology must combine broad generalizations and data → put science into sociology

    • Racial inequality: the result of social, economic, historical, and political forces

    • Race = social construct

    • Double-consciousness: when one’s social identities and social roles are at odds with one another

Foucault & Democracy

Blencowe

  • Foucault

    • Our being (as conscious and active creatures) is composed through regimes, relations, and practices of knowledge

    • Genealogy: anti-science

    • Importance of culture and knowledge for power

    • Knowledge is crucial to the formation of the real material world

    • We must take responsibility for our relations to the production of truth and different truth regimes

    • Challenged universalism, determinism, and scientific method

    • Modern episteme: the organizing structure of knowledge of modern Western Europe

    • Biopolitics: concerned with the collective (society, race, nation, population)

Dahl

  • Democratic requirements

    • Effective participation

    • Voting equality

    • Enlightened understanding

    • Control of the agenda

    • Inclusion of all adults

  • Benefits of democracy

    • Avoiding tyranny and cruel + vicious autocrats

    • Essential fundamental rights

    • General freedom

    • Self-determination: protecting of own fundamental interests

    • Moral autonomy and responsibility

    • Human development

    • Protecting essential personal interests

    • Political equality

    • Peace-seeking: no wars between democracies

    • Prosperity