SOCIOLOGY

Sociological Theory

Introduction to Sociology (unit 1)

Origin and meaning of Sociology

Main concepts

Benefits and issues with the sociological perspective

Benefits

Development of a form of consciousness, challenges the "taken for granted"

Empowers us to be active participants in our society ; ex : Wright Mills, Great Depression = the more we learn about the system the more we want to change it

Recognize human differences and sufferings which help us to confront the challenges of living in a diverse word

C. Wright Mills, the sociological imagination, sociology shapes our lives ans we have to connect them to history and society

Issues

Sociology is a part of changing the world : society changes overtime and therefore sociology too

Hard to distance ourselves from the world as sociologists are part of what they study

Sociological knowledge becomes a part of society : sociologists create ideas that can shape the ways in which societies work

Methodological approaches

Principle Sociological focuses

Fonctionnaliste perspective, macro-level orientation

Herbert Spencer, Organism metaphor, human body and society are interdependent because they contribute to the survival of the entire organism

Herbert Spencer, the survival of the fittest

Conflict perspective, macro-level orientation

Social action perspective, micro-level orientation

Culture and Society (unit 2)

Culture, Civilisations and their Characteristics

Definition: Civilisations refer to the broadest most comprehensive cultural entities.

Contemporary civilisations are often defined as Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox, Western, Latin American and African. Religions are also one of the key defining features of civilisations.

Definition: A Racial or Ethical minority is a category of people distinguished by physical or cultural traits, who are socially disadvantaged.

The major components of Culture

Definition: Symbols are anything that carries a particular meaning recognised by a shared culture (e.g. a flashing red light, a fist in the air, a white dove). We can see the human capacity to create and manipulate symbols reflected in the very different meanings associated with simple things in different cultures (e.g. winking)

A cultural shock is the inability to read meaning in ones surroundings and a consequence of being outside there symbolic web of culture that joins individuals in a meaningful social life.

Symbols allow us to make sense of our lives, and without then human existence would be meaningless. Manipulating symbols correctly would allow us to engage others readily within our own cultural system.

Definition: Values are the standards people have about what is good and bad, which vary from culture to culture (ethics and morals).They are abstract standards of goodness. Beliefs are specific statements that people hold to be true and refer to particular matters.

We learn from families schools and religious organisations to think and act according to approved principles, to pursue worthy goals and to believe a host of cultural truths while rejecting alternatives as false.

Definition: Norms are the rules and expectations by which a society guides the behaviour of its members. Some norms are proscriptive, mandating what we should not do (e.g. Chinese couples holding hands in public) while other norms are prescriptive, spelling out what we should do (e.g. European schools teaching safe sex).

Mores (William Graham Sumner) is the theory referring to societies standards of proper moral conduct. This includes all mores essential to maintaining a way of life (e.g. prohibiting sexual relations between adults and minors).

Folkways (William Graham Sumner) is the theory referring to society's customs for routine and casual interaction. This includes notions about proper dress, appropriate greeting and common courtesy. While mores distinguish between what is right and wrong, folkways distinguish between what is right and rude.

Definition: Material Culture includes the tangible things created by members of society, involving cultural practices. An example of this would be mobile phones or pottery.

Racism, Ethnicities and Migration

Definition: Race refers to the category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of society deem socially significant.

Definition: Racism refers to the beliefs that one racial category is superior or inferior to another.

Definition: Ethnicity is a shared cultural and historical heritage.

Definition: Diaspora refers to the dispersal of a population from its homeland and into other areas.

Definition: Prejudice is a rigid and irrational generalisation about an entire category of people.

Definition: A Stereotype is an exaggerated description applied to every person in a category of people.

Definition: Sociologists define culture as "designs for living": the values, beliefs, behaviour, practices and material objects that constitute a persons way of life. Culture is a toolbox of solutions to everyday problems. Non-material Culture (ideas created by members of society) and material culture (tangible things created by members of society, e.g. mobile phones). Both involve cultural practices.

(Cultural) Diversity

Definition: High Culture are cultural patterns that distinguish societies elite. This includes things such as classical music, contemporary art, and a specific way of speaking English. Low culture is the opposite and is represented by football, etc.

Definition: Popular culture designate cultural patterns that are widespread among a society's population. E.g. certain types of music.

Definition: Language is a system of symbols that allows members of society to communicate with one another. These symbols take for I'm spoken and written words, which are culturally variable and composed of various alphabets and ideograms around the world.

Languages and cultural reproduction: language its he major means of cultural reproductions the process by which one generation passes culture to the next. Our symbols carry cultural heritage and language gives us the power to gain access to centuries of accumulated wisdom.

Theory: The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that people perceive the world through the cultural lens of language.

Linguistic Determinism suggests that language shapes the way we think.

Linguistic Relativism suggests that distinctions found in one language are not found in another. E.g. inuits having 20 different words for snow.

Definition: Cultural Capital is the practices where people can wield power and status because of their educational credentials, general cultural awareness and aesthetic preferences.

These are learned from family, and school, helping one to prosper in society/climb the social ladder. This includes knowledge, skills, taste, style of talking, dressing to have an advantage in society, such as learning to speak Greek to be hired.

Definition: A hegemonic culture is a culture that dominates by ideology and culture, through ideas and not force. E.g. Americans preserving hegemony (expecting you to speak English), by convincing the mainstream to stop speaking other languages such as Spanish in America.

Definition: A subculture is a culture that sets itself apart from mainstream culture and excludes itself from it, however it is know adapted by the mainstream. E.g. the Amish

Definition: A counterculture is a culture that goes against the fundamental principles of the hegemonic culture and society and thus cannot exist without a hegemonic culture. Every counterculture is a subculture but not vice versa.

A Global Culture?

Definition: A global culture is the spreading of culture to the point that the worlds cultures become united as one through the major components of culture (e.g. language, symbols).

Functionalist Perspective: good to have a global economy, language, etc.

Conflict Theory: People from rural areas/poorer households left out? People might lose about due to the divide between groups.

Action Theory:

(Cultural) Change

Definition: Cultural Integration is the close relationship among various elements of a cultural system.

Definition: Cultural Lag is the fact that cultural elements change at different rates, which may disrupt a cultural system. It is the maladjustment created by unequal patterns of evolution and change and causes frictions resulting from the dislocation of the parts of culture. It is resolved by gradual reintegration of the various maladjustment components.

Ethnocentricity and (cultural) relativity

Theory: Ethnocentrism is the practice of judging another culture by the standards of ones own culture. Interpretative perspective called Etic: interpretation according to the meanings and the symbolic universe of the observer (external perspective)

Theory: Cultural Relativism is the practice of judging a culture by its own standards. Interpretative perspective called Emic: The internal perspective

Theory: Glocalisation is the ways in which global phenomena are responded to differently in local cultures. e.g. karaoke has a different meaning and ritual in Japan verses London.

Socialisation (unit 3) - Chiara & Jessica

Types of Socialisation

Primary socialisation

Early childhood

Agent: Family

Secondary socialisation

Later childhood - maturity

Agents: School, Peers, Organisations, Media

Resocialisation

Replaces earlier socialisation

Reality

Social Construction of Reality

HOW?

Social interaction

Malleability of Reality

Thomas Theorem

Self-fulfilling Profecies

Literature

Pirandello

The Mask

Nurture vs Nature

Inseparable

Nurture - conditioning in early childhood

Watson

Behaviourism

Nature - fixed, instinctive nature

Genetics

Nurture > Nature

Feral children

Identity

Types

Social Identity

Social Roles

Self-Identity

Important figure

Social Control

used when socialisation fails

Types of social control

violence

foundation of political order

as last resort

social separation

various sanctions

ridicule, gossip, descredit

morality, custom, manners

self-control

Circles of social control

State

Community (morality)

Organisations (work)

Informal groups (Peer group)

Family

Self

Institutions

Distinctive complex of social actions

To reduce options

Cognitive Dissonance

two conflicting beliefs

alter one belief

change behaviour

add more cognitions

Triviality

Society in

Tradition (unit 5)

Characteristics of traditional society

Economy & Labour

Society´s structure

+ Empiricism

Culture

Collective Mentality
- Institutions as guides
- Individual subject to the community
- Induced biographies

Factors of social and cultural change

Modernity (unit 5 & 10)

Characteristics of modern society

Labor:

Industry

Mining

Wage labor

Factories

Economy

Accumulation & Reinvestment

Expansion of markets

Society's structure

class society:

Industrial bourgeoise, farming nobility, petite bourgeoisie, proletariat (workers)

contractual societies

bourgeoise as emerging class:

Educated bourgeoise developed in modernity

Tax regime

Based on privilege

Culture

People were enlightened through Science and reason

Rationalism
Science
Progress
Religion lost power

population learned to read and write --> bible published in common tongue (not only latin)

Separation of institutions:

Church and state
Privatisation of religious morals

Sacred and secular
Secularisation of world

Rational explanation

Science

Natural phenomena weren't explained by gods will anymore, but by scientific facts

Politics

Human rights
Equality
Democracy
Critical thinking
Autonomy/independence
Pluralism
Social change
Emancipation

Values

Diversity of beliefs and ideas
Individualism: personal freedom
Less social control
Plurality (Durkheim)
Rationalism

Problems

Loss of community

more individualistic = selfishness: Instead of community, tribe and group we are more individualistic. We are free to move among social collectivities, we can choose our membership at will, we are self-determined and responsable for our own actions, successes as well as failures.

solidarity: In modernity there is a devitalization of the sense of society, making people more individualistic and feeling alone.

Less sense of belonging

As society weakens in modernity, individuals feel less attached to others. This creates a sense of loneliness and of belonging. to a group.

less sense of cohesion

weak social integration

For Durkheim, modernity has destroyed all the established social contexts, making people more individualistic and getting used to the fact of not needing to form part of a group.

Social isolation

Individuals release from community and tradition. This, resultes in despair and insupportable aloneness, which makes them melancholically and anxious.

Crisis of meaning

Guiding institutions weakened

Anomie (Durkheim)

Anomie is a social condition in which there is a disintegration or disappearance of the norms and values that were previously common to the society. Durkheim discovered that anomie occurs during and follows periods of drastic and rapid changes to the social, economic, or political structures of society.

Higher suicide rate

Bureaucratization (Weber): Weber believed bureaucracy was the most efficient way to set up an organization and administration. He thought that bureaucracy was better than traditional structures. In a bureaucratic organisation, everyone is treated equal and the division of labour is clearly described for each employee.

Romanticism and conservative resurgence

The change and innovation are not warmly welcomed. It threatens to break up the basis of intellectual order. Conservatism which characterizes traditional mentality is a. protection against everything that menaces tradition.

Post-modernity (unit 10)

The crisis of Modernity

Characterístics of post-modern society

George Maed

Looking-Glass Self

Who are we?

Self-image

Theory

I

Subject

Me

Object

Self

Combination

TEAMWORK

Social Stratification (unit 4)

Social Stratum: group of
individuals with common traits and
occupying the same position in the social
scale of distribution of material and
symbolic resources in a given society

Systems of social stratification

Axis of social inequality

Definition: compact system consisting of the
collection of social strata and their mutual relationships
and interactions

Types of Social Stratification

Slavery

Cast

Estate

Class

Social Classes

According to Marx

Criterion

Private ownership pf means of production

Classes

Proletariat

Capitalists

Aspiration

Socialism

According to Weber

Criterion

Private ownership pf means of production

Technical knowledge

Classes

Educated owners

Petite bourgeoisie

White-collar workers

Blue-collar workers

Aspirations

Meritocratic society

Sources of inequalities:

Class

Gender

Cultural background

Status group

Applied Sociology

History of Modern Societies

Models

Model of Analysis

Cultural Area

Socio-political Area

Techno-economic Area

Liberalism (unit 7)

The emergence and characteristics of capitalism

Economic fundamentals of Liberalism

the right to private property

freedom of the contracting parties

theory of the invisible hand (A. Smith) : through their selfishness and self-interest, citizens contribute to the society

- free markets but laws in defense of competition

- anti-cartel : price agreements

- anti-monopoly : to big to compete

Political fundamentals of Liberalism

- citizenship and equal rights

- the social contract ( Rousseau) - contract theory :is the paradigm way in which free rational knowledgeable individuals would deal with each other

- rule of law : legal procedures which will best advance the goals of individual freedom and happiness is thus the fist time of a liberal system and the rule of law is one of its central tenets and proudest boats

- state as a guarantee of security

monopoly of legitimate violence

- concept of negative freedom : no one is imposing you to be free

Cultural fundamentals of Liberalism

Sujet secondaire

A historical application: Classical Liberalism and Democratic Liberalism

classical liberalism

project

Free market

civil and political rights

rule of law (formal equality)

Bourgeois limited democracy

Practice

1) Persecution of worker activists
and prohibition of leftwing parties

2) newspaper censorship

3) prohibition of trade unions

4) Non universal suffrage

5) Right to strike not recognised

Monopolies, trusts...

democratic liberalism

Legalisation of left wing parties and trade unions

Freedom of expression and freedom of press

Start of labour laws

Right to strike recognised

Prohibition of child labour

Restrictions of working hours

Labour safety legislation

Intervention in basic social rights

Creation of state-owned schools

Creation of state-owned hospitals

Welfare policy: “poor laws”

Socialism (unit 8)

The nucleus of Socialism

"It really is impossible to understand either the French revolution or the early socialists unless one possesses some awarness of the challenge which the new liberal individiualism represented to older ways of life." - Georg Lichtheim

"Socialism began as a revolut against capitalism and its conception of man and society was initially developed as an alternative to the one which in the socialist view underlay and reinforced capitalist society." - Bhikhu Parekh

Criticism of capitalism and the emergence of alternatives

Economic fundamentals of Socialism

Communal Ownership of the means of production

Anarcho-communist view: "ownership by each local village producer group of land and factories."

Durkheim: "the connection of all economic functions to the directing... centres of society"

"means for attaining greater equality"

"It is not the conscience of human beings that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their
social being which determines their conscience."

Political Fundamentals of Socialism

Berki (pluralist approach): four basic tendencies in socialist ideology: eaglitarianism, moralism, rationalism and libertarianism.

The nucleus of Socialism

"It really is impossible to understand either the French revolution or the early socialists unless one possesses some awarness of the challenge which the new liberal individualism represented to older ways of life" - George Lichtheim

"Socialism began as a revolt against capitalism and its conception of man and society was initially developed as an alternative to the one which in the socialist view underlay and reinforced capitalist society. - Bhikhu Parekh

Goals of Socialism: 1) distribute wealth equally among the people 2) government control of society 3) public ownership of most land.

Cultural Fundamentals of Socialism

Egalitarianism

Marx: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"

Equality of treatment: equal opportunites > absolute equality

Popular Sovereignty

"The belief in the equal ablitiy of all humans to govern themselves"

Human interdependence

"People are necessarily interdependent not only in the obvious material sense, but also in the cutural and spiritual sense..... man is totally unintelligable outside of society."

Poverty

reason of concern: property is the principal cause of social disorders

class analysis

society is divided is different classes (oppressors and oppressed)(often economically determined). This classes should be eliminated so that status, privilege, material equality and gradations are eliminated

Communal ownership of means of production

eliminating private property of means of production to make them collective/communal means of production (factories, land, machinery,...)

certain socialist disagree: because they consider communal means of production would reinstate a state to administrate them

Work as unalienated labour

everyone should work at what he enjoys most.

pleasures of work should exceed those of production

Work should be fulfilling because of it's 'social' nature

Freedom

freedom to unfold and develop your potential

not the same freedom as in liberalism where freedom would be considered the fact to be able to make 'choices'

Internationalism

all humans are one race

Co-operation

co-operation is the natural form of social organization

A historical application: "Real Socialism"

Socialism has had positive and negative outcomes:

Positive:

initial reduction in inequalities

min living condition

social conditions elevated to human rights

negative:

economic inefficiency

lack of democracy

repressions

Welfare State (unit 9)

The crisis of Liberal Capitalism

Economic challenge

efficiency

productivity

Social challenge

social justice

redistribution

Political challenge

3rd way versus socialism

the third way was to: strengthen civil society,
decentralize power from nation-state, and focus
on social exclusion

conflict reduction

social cohesion

The origins of the Welfare State

In order to maintain social order and
reduce inequalities brought by capitalism:

welfare was founded to offer assistance to those in society found on the periphery of market economy.

after World War 2, rather than solely concentrating
on ill, focus of welfare was broadened to encompass
all members of society.

Welfare programs were designed behind the fact
that men were the "bread-winners" (made the money)
and women took care of the home.

As manufacturing economy grew, welfare state grew to meet the needs of the working class and the economic elite who depended on a healthy workforce.

The economics fundamentals of the welfare state

Countercyclical policies

Fiscal policies: expansionary or restrictive taxation: where sometimes state has to decrease taxes and increase policies to help (or vice versa)

Monetary policies: interest rates

Direct policies to foster consumer spending such as cars

Public policies to create demand such as fostering city hall public expenditures: GOVERNMENT WANTS YOU TO SPEND MORE

State intervention in the economy

high economic regulation

de-commodification: certain strategic sectors are kept out of the market

high de-commodification: welfare is provided
publicly, not related to income

low de-commodification (commodified system)
sold on the market like other goods

Objective: to reduce the duration and impact of capitalist recessionary periods.

The political fundamentals of the welfare state

o Democracy deepening
 Representative democracy
 Civil and political rights (liberalism)
 Economic, social and cultural rights (socialism)

Subtopic

The cultural fundamentals of the welfare state

o Respect for individual’s liberties
o Promoting economic efficiency
o Meritocracy  equal opportunities (public schooling)
o Solidarity  reduce inequalities
o Competitiveness and co-operation at the same time
(meritocracy & solidarity)

Social State of Law and Civil Society

o Social protection mechanisms
 (+) and (-) freedom
 Job market regulation
 Setting up a social security system
o Social justice  economic redistribution
 Expansion of public services (G)
 Progressive taxation (based on income brackets-T)
 Social policies  subsidies/ aid for “at risk situations”

Models

A historical application: expansion and crisis

Religion (unit 6)

Religions in Today's World

“Religions are one of the key defining features of civilizations”
to understand the mindsets of a country \ population where the company is operating.
religions present today: folk religion, judaism, christianity, Islam, Buddists,Hindus, Unaffiliated , and other religions.)

A Definition of Religion

Sociological Interpretations of Religion

Religion as enforcer of social cohesion (Durkheim)
· “Primitive religions”

Religion as a driver of revolution or social change (Weber)
· European Modern Religions

Religion as legitimization of economic oppression (Marx)
· Opium = Psychological evasion from reality

Religion: “practices of contingency mastery.”(L. Duch)
+ contingency : immersion in space\ time , awareness of this immersion and that we do not master it or control (misfortune\happiness)
+practices of mastery : meaning practices to control or master happiness or misfortune.
Two kinds of Practices: Symbolic Practices and Ethical Practices.

practices or actions: individual (religion as a human need)> anthropology and typified actions ( religion as a social phenomenon) > sociology
the individual or they preform actions or practice that connect space\time with the sacred ( invisible dimension beyond space\ time > god, brahmin, absolute reality) different from profane ( relating or devoted to which is not sacred, secular rather than religious )

symbolic practices: in community
example of rituals > marriage: readings, vows, ring exchange, kiss , sign of peace.

ethical practices: in society
attitudes experienced in community shape attitudes to live in society .
political \ eco, business \ culturtal action

Collecitivist Religions

world= tribe

The world is the geographic context of the tribe.
· Lack of scientific and abstract understanding of the world.
· Outside or far from this “world”, there is darkness, chaos and under-men.
· Inuits (Eskimos from the North Pole): “inuit = “man”

Political and social order: difficulty in change
critisizement of the powerful= punishment by the Gods

static order meaning difficulty to change

status of individual: subsumed in the group\ tribe

Individual : subordinated to the group

If someone tries to criticize or run away, she/he’ll suffer psychic sicknesses (Altruistic Suicide) under the form of “bad spirits invading his body” (Enchanted World)

the practices:
the scapegoat ritual to expel evil and disagreements from the community.

The Axial Age

history: When, where, who
from 900 to 200 b.C
In China, India,Iran, Palestine, Greece
Confucius,Buda, Zaratustra, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezechiel, Socrates, Plato, Sofocles, Euripides...
2nd wave: Jesus (1st century) and Muhammad (6th century)

Common traits: rites to perform: not killing animals \ Golden rule > when you love others you acess the sacred
examples of judaism (Tobit, 4,15), christianity (Lc.6,31) and Islam (Azizullah, Hadiz 150).....
+ foster another social order
+ inner transformation of individual\ sacred value of the human person
+oppose exclusion and intolerance
+he masters of this age proclaim values still today out of discussion : love (gratuity), benevolence, compassion, fair justice, inner life.
+ male, no master women but they do not hate them

Religions and Modernity

Cosmogony vs Cosmology

science

Science is a discourse that tries to describe reality, but there are different levels of reality to which science has not yet accessed. God doesn’t appear in the discourse of science. From a scientific perspective, it is not possible to prove God’s existence, or inexistence

Sciences (Physics, Biology, Psychology, Medicine Economy)

➔Goal: understand/master nature, society... people
➔ Instruments: Science, logical reasoning, experimental method.

Religion

In order for one to start acting, there must be an ethical energy that comes from inside, that drives you, and that goes beyond yourself. And this is what religion provides: this possibility to transcend beyond yourself and to be aware that you are part of the world.”

Beyond Science (art, music, poetry, literature, religious narratives)
+Religions invite to a quest
+ Religions invite to a new attitude in front of reality: consume vs harmonize

Social and Political order

separation community - society

secularization\ multi-religious societies

The Integrist Model: religion dominates society. Fundamentalism.

The Laicist Model: Religion is an individual issue, without public importance/relevance.

The Laity Model: a respectful laity involves:
Consensus believers/non believers in fundamental democratic values
Acknowledgement of the public relevance of certain moral and religious issues (tension rights/sacred value: death penalty, Abortion, education…)
Deliberation and democratic regulation

status of the individual

Sacred value of individual\ Individual as subject of rights