Sociology: a scientific and systematic study of groups and group’s interactions
Society: a group of people who live in the same geographic area, share
... [Show More] the same culture and interact with each other.
Micro Level Study: study small groups and individuals interactions
Macro Level Study: look at the trends and interactions of larger groups
Culture: refers to the group shared values, beliefs and practices
Sociological Imagination: an awareness of the relationship between a person’s behavior and experience. It’s a way of seeing our and other person’s behavior in relationship to history and social structure.
Reification: the error of treating an abstract concept as though it has real meaning or existence.
Cultural Patterns: cultural patterns are the similar behaviors within similar situations we witness due to shared beliefs, values, norms and social practices that are steady over time.
Social Facts: includes laws, morals, customs, fashion, rituals, and religious beliefs.
Figuration: is a key component of sociological perspective. Figuration indicates that people and society are same. The process of analyzing the behavior of individuals and society at the same time is called figuration.
Social Institutions: an interrelated system of social norms and roles. It’s a major area of social life where social needs are met.
EARLY EUROPEAN THEORISTS:
AUGUSTE COMTE (1798 – 1857)
The term sociology was first introduced in (1780) y a French essayist. In 1883 Auguste Comte re introduced the term sociology. Comte named the scientific study of social patterns as positivism. He believed that sociologist can address problems such as education and poverty.
His books are:
• The course of positive philosophy
• A general view of positivism
HARRIET MARTINEAU (1802 – 1876)
She translated Comte’s sociological writing form French to English and introduced the work to English scholars. She developed the first systematic methodological international comparisons of social institutions in two of her most famous sociological work
• Society in America (1837)
• Retrospect of western travel (1838)
KARL MARX (1818 – 1883)
• He was a German philosopher and economists. In 1848, he and Friedrich Engels coauthored a book “communist manifesto”. This book is the most influential book in history. In this book they also defined a different theory of society.
• Karl Marx rejected Comte’s view of positivism. He stated that societies grew and change as a result of the struggles of different social classes.
• He also believed that communism was a more equitable system then capitalism. Communism is an economic system under which there is no private or corporate ownership.
HERBERT SPENCER (1820 – 1903)
He published the first book which has sociology in its title “the study of sociology”. He rejected Comte’s and Marx’s theory over the support of communism. Instead he favored that there should be a form of government that allows market forces to control capitalism.
GEORGE SIMMEL (1858 – 1918)
Georg Simmel was a German art critic who wrote widely on social and political issues as well. He took an ant positivisms stance and addressed topics like social conflicts and function of money. Much of his work focused on micro-level theories and analyzed the dynamics of two-person and three-person groups.
EMILE DURKHEIM (1858 – 1917)
• Established the first department of sociology at the University of Bordeaux. He also published a book “rules of the sociological methods”
• He also published a work titled as “suicide”
MAX WEBBER (1864 – 1920)
• He also established a sociology department in in Germany at the Ludwig Maximillian
• University of Munich in 1919.
• Best known for his 1904 book “the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism”
• Weber argued that the influence of culture on human behavior had to be taken into account. This even applied to the researchers themselves, who should be aware of how their own cultural biases could influence their research.
• He introduced the concept of “verstehen”
• William Sunner held the first professorship in sociology (Yale University)
• Franklin Giddings was the full professor in sociology (Colombia University)
• Albion small wrote the first textbook of sociology
Quantitative Sociology: uses statistical methods such as surveys with large participants. Researches analyze data to see if they can uncover human behavior.
Qualitative Sociology: seeks to understand human behavior through in depth interviews
Functionalism:
• Also called structural functional theory
• In a healthy society all parts work together to maintain stability it’s called as dynamic equilibrium
• Manifest functions are the consequences of social processes that are sought or anticipated.
• Latent functions are unsought consequences of social process. They can be beneficial, neutral or harmful.
• Social process that have undesirable consequences are called dysfunctions.
Conflict Theory: looks at society as competition for limited resources
Critical Theory: is expansion of conflict theory. A critical theory is a holistic theory and attempts to address structural issues without causing any inequalities.
Critical Race: theory grew out of a critical analysis of race and racism from legal point of view.
Symbolic Interactionism Theory: is a micro level theory that focuses on the relationship of an individual within societies.
Dramaturgical Analysis:
• This is a techniques which focuses on the importance of symbols in building a society.
• Erving Goffman used theatre as an analogy and recognized that people’s interactions showed patterns of cultural scripts
• According to Goffman individuals are actors in a play as they change their role form time to time [Show Less]