Week 3 Readings

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

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

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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)

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