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SociologicalPerspectives

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AS Sociology

Introduction to the Nature of Social Thought

Social structure and social actionConflict and consensus

Macro and micro perspectives

Chris. Livesey 2006 [Sociology Central: www.sociology.org.uk]

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AS Sociology For AQA

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Introduction to Sociology

Negotiations

Structure

Haunting

Examples

Meanings

Interpretations

Goffman

Weber

Action

ActionBehaviour

Social behaviour is governed byrules (informal norms and formallaws) that surround and limitchoices of behaviour. Every

social relationship (family, school,work etc.) involves roles that, inturn, involve values and normsassociated with the role - incombination these provide abehavioural framework for ourlives.

Focuses on our ability to makechoices about behaviour -about obeying or disobeying

rules, for example.

Synoptic LinkCrime and Deviance

The relationship between structure and action isdemonstrated by Mertons Strain Theory of deviance.

Chess ilustrates the difference between Stucture(the physical boundaries of the playing area for ex-ample) and Action (players, for example, are free tochoose their own particular strategies within thegame). While social structures limit choice of action(in chess play is bounded by certain rules), actionsmay modify social structures (breaking the rules -deviance - may produce changes in the organisationof society).

Action involves knowledge of how ourbehaviour might impact on people at whom itsdirected. Conversations, for example, involvesocial action - how you behave is influenced byhow the other person behaves and vice versa.

Everything we say or do means somethingto both ourselves and others. No form ofbehaviour is ever meaningless.

Behaviour is constantly open tointerpretation, both by ourselves andothers. Interpretation reflects back onmeaning (how we interpret the behaviourof others depends on what it means to us)and negotiation (its possible to change theway people interpret behaviour).

Negotiations: Interaction involves different

levels of negotiation - from situationswhere no negotiation is involved (people

are ordered to do something) to situationswhere they are able to discuss (in thewidest sense) the meaning of their actions

and how others should interpret them.

Meighan (1981): Social actions are always sur-rounded by the ghosts of social structures. We arehauntedby things we cannot see but which affect

our behaviour.

Classroom interaction haunted by:

Physical environment (conducive to learning?)Knowledge being taught (e.g.. Theoretical or practical)Language of education (do elaborated codes favour themiddle classes?).Demands of employers (are qualifications the onlyeducational objective?)

Synoptic LinkMeighans concept haunting can be

applied to our understanding of the roleand purpose of the education system.

Jones (1987): ForStructuralists, society is Astructure of (cultural) rules".

Society as a framework of rules.A ruleis something youre supposed to obey

and a framework is the way rules are created,maintained and policed.

Behaviour differs from action in thesense it doesnt involve knowledge of

how it impacts on others - a barkingdog, for example, influences thebehaviour of other dogs but the doghas no awareness of how its behaviourinfluences others.

Pages: 34 - 39

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A statement that contains its own proof (and cannot bedisproved). Example, the Functionalist claim "If somethingexists in society, it has a function is supported by theargument that It is functional because it exists".

FunctionalismOrganismic analogy An easy way to visualise this perspective is in terms of

society being like a human body. Both the human bodyand social systems consist of interconnected parts.

PurposeNeeds

This perspective focuses on consensus; everything insociety has both a purpose (what it exists to do) andneeds (things it requires from other parts of the system inorder to function). Social systems, therefore, fit togetheron the basis of institutional purposes and needs.

Social System

Systems involve the idea of things working together -harmoniously - and being dependenton each other.

Sub-Systems

Parsons(1937): Every social system consists of four huge institutions (orfunctional sub-systems), each of which performs a different, but related,set of functions based on certain problems faced by every known society.

Political

Family

Economic

Cultural

Solving the problem ofsurvival; how to organise

people into economic(work) relationships to

produce the things (food,shelter, etc.) necessaryfor human survival.

Solving the problem oforderinvolves finding waysof governing and controllingpeople. The political sub-system exists to ensure therules and values of societyare maintained.

Solving the problem ofsocialisation - how to ensurechildren are socialised inways that allow them to growinto functioning adultmembers of society.

Solving the problem of socialintegration; how to makepeople feel they have thingsin common (belonging to asociety, sharing a commonculture, etc.). Culturalinstitutions (schools, religiousorganisations, the media andso forth) exist to developcultural values.

Problem

Social Change Dysfunction

Tautology

Why does anything in a societychange if it performs an essentialfunction? Does Functionalismsimply support to the status quo?

Some things can bedysfunctional (dangerousor damaging to society).Example, although crimecan have a solidarityfunction - uniting peopleagainst a common(criminal) enemy - toomuch crime can leavepeople feeling uncertainabout the rule of law andtheir own safety.

Is there too much emphasison the beneficial aspectsof social institutions and

groups?

Society as a warm bathsurrounding the individual...

The human body, for example, is a system in which thevarious parts (heart, lungs, brain and so forth) work to-

gether to form a living thing. In a similar way, all the differ-ent parts of a social system (family, school and so forth)are interconnected and work together to form a society.

For example, for a family to exist (and perform itsfunctions) it needs to be able to survive. The workinstitution performs this survival function in oursociety by allowing family members to earn themoney they need to buy the food they consume;

to fulfil its purpose, work needs the family groupto produce socialised human beings.

Solidarit

Social systems as imagined communities. A society cannot exist without its members working to-gether and feeling they have things in common (for example, a sense of Being British). To promote

solidarity, people have to be integrated into the institutions and culture of their society and every so-ciety (or group) develops integrating mechanisms(such as a common language) to achieve this.

At what point does somethingbecome dysfunctional?

Pages: 40 - 43

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Marxism

Problems

Economic behaviour is the most important activity inany society; all other forms of social activity (politics,family, culture...) cannot exist without people firsthaving secured the means to their survival. How workis socially organised is the key to understanding howall other relationships are organised.

The workplace is a key area of conflict inany society because of the way it isorganised. In Capitalist societies themeans of economic production (thingslike factories, machinery and land) areowned by one class(the BourgeoisieorRuling Class). The majority, on the otherhand, own little or nothing and so areforced to sell their ability to work.

Competition is inevitable inCapitalist society and for Marxists,economic forms of competition andconflict are most significant (althoughcompetition occurs throughoutsociety - between individuals,classes, genders, ethnicities...).

Owners want to keep as much of

their profit as possible.

Non-owners want a larger slice of theeconomic pie. The working-class also wantthe desirable things society has to offer its in their interests, therefore, to demandmore from employers.

Involves grouping people in terms of theirrelationship to the means of production.For Marxists, two basic classes exist inany Capitalist society:

BourgeoisieA ruling or upper class: Those who

ownthe means of production.

ProletariatA lower or working class:

People who own nothingbut their ability to work.

The primary and most fundamentalform of conflict in Capitalist society.Other forms (gender and ethnic, forexample) are secondary forms thatstem from class conflicts.Example: Because competition is afundamental principle conflicts occurover things like access to resources,power differences and the like.

Conflict is limited by the ability of a ruling class to impose theirinterests on other classes through force(what Althusser (1968) callsthese "Repressive State Apparatuses" (RSAs) such as the police andarmed forces) and socialisation(using Ideological State Apparatuses"(ISAs) such as the media and the education system).

Marxism over-emphasises the level of conflictin society and underplays the significance ofnon-economic types of conflict (gender orethnic conflicts, for example).

Class conflict will only end once theeconomic system on which its based(Capitalism) is replaced by a Communistform of society - a type of society where

work is not organised around private profit.No advanced industrial societies have everbeen economically, politically or ideologicallyorganised around communist principles.

Is work is the most important institution insociety? While this may have been true inthe past, some postmodern writers arguethis is no longer the case. Consequently,they question the significance of socialclass as a source of identity.

Work

Competition

Capitalism

Social Class

Conflict

Class Conflict

Power

Determinism

Communism

Conflict

Pages: 43 - 45

How has the working-class changed overthe past 100 years?

RSAs - as repre-sented by men with

very big guns...

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Not all gender relationships arecharacterised by oppression andexploitation and the general position

of women in our society has im-proved over the past 50 years.

Pages: 46 - 48

Feminism

Socialisation

Class inequalit

Radical

ExploitationSocial

Change

Patriarchal

Ideology

DomesticLabour

Patriarchy

Marxist

The main cause of female oppression, exploitationand discrimination. In a competitive, Capitalist,society, men are encouraged to exploit anyweaknesses in womens market position (e.g.pregnancy) to their own advantage.

The social and economicexploitation of women isustified through powerfulideasabout masculinity andfemininity.

Men and women are not separate(sex-based) classes - upper classwomen, for example, have more incommon with upper class men.

Housework is unpaid labour that is exploitative and mainly benefits men.

Barrett and McIntosh (1982): Women part of a reserve army of labour .

Patriarchal ideas, attitudes and practices (suchas sexual discrimination) are produced andreproduced through differential socialisation.

Problem

Patriarchy both pre-datesCapitalism and is a feature of allknown human societies, not justclass-based (Capitalist) societies.

Men and women have similar long-term interests - the replacement of

an exploitative, patriarchal, Capitalistsociety with an equal, non-patriarchal, Communist society. Howlikely is this to occur in our society?

The relative position of men and women has changedand continues to change. Female lives, for example,have changed dramatically over the past 50 years interms of family responsibilities, educationalachievements and work opportunities.

Social Class

Men and women have fundamental psychologicaldifferences.All known human societies have been - and remain - maledominated and liberation can only come about through theoverthrow of patriarchal ideas and practices.

Woman are a class (based on acommon gender) with its ownexperiences and interests. Femaleliberation involves the overthrowof the ruling sex class(men).

Men are the sex class enemy of women - they haveexploited women throughout history. To end exploitationwomen must establish a matriarchal society - one wherewomen dominate men - and some radical feminists advocatelesbian relationships as the basis of female liberation.Rich (1980): Compulsory heterosexuality - male-femalerelationships are the basis of patriarchy and therefore thesource of male domination.

Public and PrivateDiscrimination occurs in two main areas: the Public(for example, the workplace where women are paidless and have lower status) and the Private(the home,where women carry out the majority of unpaiddomestic work) - a dual form of female exploitation.

Problems

Female life chances are not necessarily very similar;differences exist in terms of both social class andethnicity - do women have common interests?

Differences in male andfemale psychologiesare the product ofgender socialisationrather than innate.

Patriarchy

Sex Class

Spheres

Matriarchy

Sex Class

OppressionEssentialism

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Rejects idea of fundamental (essential) differences be-

tween males and females - both biologicaland psycho-logical (how men and women think, act and feel).

Butler(1990): Essentialism mistaken for two reasons:

Ignores differences in the life experiences ofwomen; working class women do not havethe same advantages as upper classwomen; black women have different lifeexperiences and chances to white women.

Pages: 45 - 46 / 48 - 51

Most womens lives are not characterised by unlimited choice, freedom and in-dividual self-expression.

Coppock (1995): "The irony isthe proclamation of 'post-feminism' has oc-curred at precisely the same moment as acclaimed feminist studies demon-

strate that not only have women's real advancements been limited, but alsothere has been a backlash against feminism of international significance".

LifeChances

Liberal

Feminism Promotion ofequal opportunitiesformen and women (the chance tocompete equally in the workplace,for example) and the outlawing of all

forms ofsexual discrimination.

Promote anti-discriminatory lawsto redress the historical genderimbalance.UK Examples: SexDiscrimination Act(1975)madeworkplace discrimination illegal.Equal Pay Act(1970) made itillegal to pay men and womendifferent rates for same work.

Womens dual role (as both carers within the familyand paid employees) is a major area of inequality.Need to change male attitudes to family life anddevelop anti-discriminatory laws and practices .Example: Affordable child-care for working women.

ProblemsLegal equality is not the same as status

equality. Women still treated in ways thatassume they are inferior to men. In the UKwomen earn, on average during theirworking lifetime, 80% of male income even when doing comparable work.

"Post-feminism" has had popular usage in Western society sincethe late 1980's. It refers to a belief that gender equality has beensuccessfully achieved, while simultaneously castigating thefeminist movement for making women frustrated and unhappy.

Butler: Gender is we do rather than something we are. Itinvolves a range of social processes; some similar (gaymen displaying traditional female traits or womendisplaying traditional masculine traits) and some different.

Men and women have arange of gender choicesavailable in contemporarysocieties and canconstruct gender identityin any way they choose.

Cutting across categories or boundaries.Identity transgression involves women, forexample, adopting traditionally masculinebehaviours (e.g.. Ladettes). Traditionalconcerns of feminism (patriarchy, equality andso forth) now redundant. As society haschanged so too have notions about gender.

Problems

For women with enough money, amassive range of behaviouralchoices exist. For those with little orno money, behavioural choices are

more restricted. Class, age andethnicity impact on the choicesopen to both men and women.

Legal System

Equal

Opportunities

Dual Role

Status

Post-Feminism

AttitudesLegal changes not always effectivein changing discriminatory attitudes.

Anti-Essentialism

Women are not a sex class -their interests converge and

differ in various ways.

Rejects usefulness of categories likeman and woman - they involve more

differences than similarities.

Performance

Choice

Transgression

Choice

Backlash

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The social world is created by themeaningful interactions between people.Interactionism

The emphasis on individuals, meaningsand interaction ignores how social

structures impact on our lives. Byfocusing on the social-psychologicalaspects of social life, Interactionists failto explain adequately how and whypeople behave in broadly similar ways.

Problems

Labelling shows how Interactionistsview social structures as forms of socialinteraction. Labelling theory, forexample, argues that when we namesomething (such as categorising peopleby age or gender) we associate thename with a set of characteristics, ourknowledge of which is used to guide ourbehaviour.

Example: Police officer is a label witha range of associated characteristicsthat vary in terms of how individualsdefine a particular situation.

Because meanings are negotiated (argued over) bothsociety and culture can rapidly change. Interactionists dontsee society as a thing acting on our behaviour (since ithas no objective realityoutside of social interaction); societyis a convenient labelwe give to the pressures, rules and

responsibilities that arise out of social relationships.

This perspectivestresses the

importance of

meanings(what weeach understand bysomething) that work

on two levels.

Social interaction is based onshared definitions of anysituation. If people do notshare the same - or verysimilar - definitions interactionbecomes difficult or impossible.

If meanings only develop

through interaction they canchange fairly easily.

Example: The meaning ofbeing masculinity andfemininity has changed inour society quite dramaticallyover the past few years.

Meanings

Definitions

Change

Labelling

Negotiation

We are not equal in our ability to define situations

some groups (or classes) have greater power than oth-ers when it comes to defining a situation as real.

Clegg (1989): Although Structuration theorytalks about structure andaction being equallyimportant, Giddens sees action asconsiderably more significant...

Layder(1987): Structuration pays little attentionto structures as determinants of action. Thereis little sense that social structures (as opposedto human practices) can have very much affecton peoples behaviour.

Structures

Power

Individualism

Structuration

Structure and actionare equally significantfor the understandingof human behaviour.

These represent the things people do - we

structure the world through our (routine) actions.Giddens:. As people develop relationships, therules of their behaviour are formalised (asnorms, for example) into practices routineways of behaving towards each other. The hugerange of practices surrounding our livestranslates into the structure of the social world.

Although our actions createbehavioural rules they becomeexternalised (take on a life of theirown, separate from our individualbehaviours). Although we may beinvolved in rule-making behaviour,such rules reflect back on our

behaviour in ways that suggest ordemand conformity.

This refers to concepts like powerand relates to how and why rulesare created. Some rules arenegotiatedbetween individuals butothers such as laws - are non-negotiable (created by powerfulgroups and imposed on people).

Problem

Structuration doesnt take account of how power is unequallydistributed (in terms of class, gender, ethnicity, age and the like). Thepractices of the powerful may become entrenched and beyond theability of the powerless to change. The powerless do not, through theireveryday practices, create society; most people experience thepower of society through the everyday practices of the powerful.

Failure to explain how individual meanings, definitions andinterpretations are affected by social structures.Example: The fact of being black in a racist society will haveconsequences for how social reality is defined from both theperspective of the majority and minority ethnic groups.

ResourcesPractices

Rules

Power

StructureOr Action?

Pages: 51 - 53 / 56 - 57

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The downside to almost unlimited choice (fromwhich we pick-and-mixour identities) is confusionabout who we are and how were supposed tobehave. The old certainties of class, gender,age and ethnicity no longer tell us how to behaveappropriately. Fear (at having made the wrongchoices) is a feature of postmodern society.

Pages: 53 - 56

Problems

For the majority of people in any societychoice is an illusion - they do not have themoney, power or resources to exercise choicein any significant way. Postmodernism ignoresthe ways choice is socially produced.

Large numbers of people in our society stilldefine themselves (or are defined by others) intraditional ways when it comes to categoriessuch as class, gender, age and ethnicity.

Narratives (or stories) are central tounderstanding social behaviour; peopleslives are viewed as a seamless web of inter-locking narratives which we define and movebetween at will. Social life, therefore, consistsof a multiplicity of different narratives.

Big stories, culturally constructed to explainsomething about the nature of the social /natural worlds.

Examples: Religions (Christianity or Islam) andpolitical philosophies (Socialism or

Conservativism).

Lyotard(1986): Postmodernism characterisedby an incredulity towards metanarratives - bigstories about the world are not believable orsustainable since, at some point their claims toexplain everything about something arechallenged, breakdown or co-exist uneasily.

We live in a global society andno-longer think or behave interms of national boundaries.How we think about,communicate and interact with

people is changing rapidly, withunforeseen consequences forsocial and economicorganisation (such as thechanging nature of work).

Who we believe ourselvesto be or how we define

ourselves. In the past,identities more:

Clear, relatively fixed and certain.

Example: Clearer (centred) ideasabout the meaning of masculinity inthe past because there wererelatively few choices available tomen. In postmodern society, thereexists a range of possible choices

about how to be a man; this leadsto uncertainty and identities that are:

As the range of possible meanings about something (like sexualityor lifestyle) expand, people become less certain(de-centred)about how they are supposed to behave. The globalisationof

culture, for example, involves categories such as class, gender, ageand ethnicity being combined to create a new range of identities.Example: British Asians defining themselves as Brasian a mix ofBritish and Asian cultures and identities.

Identit

Centred

Decentred

Narratives

Globalisation

Metanarratives

Uncertainty

IdentitChoice

Post Modernism

Choice

Economic, political and culturalglobalisation has created almostunlimited choice in terms of howpeople live their lives. Choiceextends from goods and services,through lifestyle choices to areaslike sexuality (from heterosexualthrough homosexual totransgendered).

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