Review of Turn Key Online Courses Introduction to Sociology Publisher Packages

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section you should be able to:

• Depict the ways that sociological theories are used to explain social institutions.
• Differentiate betwixt functionalism, disharmonize theory, and symbolic interactionism.

Figure 1.vii Sociologists develop theories to explain social occurrences such equally protestation rallies. (Credit: David Shankbone/flickr)

Sociologists report social events, interactions, and patterns, and they develop theories to explain why things work as they practise. In folklore, a theory is a way to explain different aspects of social interactions and to create a testable proposition, called a hypothesis, nigh society (Allan 2006).

For example, although suicide is generally considered an individual miracle, Émile Durkheim was interested in studying the social factors that affect it. He studied social solidarity, social ties within a group, and hypothesized that differences in suicide rates might be explained past religious differences. Durkheim gathered a large corporeality of data about Europeans and institute that Protestants were more probable to commit suicide than Catholics. His work supports the utility of theory in sociological research.

Theories vary in scope depending on the calibration of the issues that they are meant to explicate. Macro-level theories relate to large-scale issues and large groups of people, while micro-level theories look at very specific relationships between individuals or small groups. Grand theories attempt to explain large-scale relationships and respond fundamental questions such as why societies form and why they change. Sociological theory is constantly evolving and should never be considered complete. Classic sociological theories are still considered important and current, but new sociological theories build upon the piece of work of their predecessors and add to them (Calhoun, 2002).

In sociology, a few theories provide broad perspectives that help explicate many dissimilar aspects of social life, and these are called paradigms. Paradigms are philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to codify theories, generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them. Three paradigms have come up to dominate sociological thinking because they provide useful explanations: structural functionalism, disharmonize theory, and symbolic interactionism.

Sociological Theories/Paradigms	Level of Analysis	Focus	Analogies	Questions that might exist asked
Structural Functionalism	Macro or Mid	The way each part of lodge functions together to contribute to the performance of the whole.	How each organ works to continue your body healthy (or not.)	How does educational activity piece of work to transmit culture?
Conflict Theory	Macro	The style inequities and inequalities contribute to social, political, and ability differences and how they perpetuate ability.	The ones with the about toys wins and they will change the rules to the games to keep winning.	Does educational activity transmit merely the dominant certain cultures?
Symbolic Interactionism	Micro	The mode i-on-one interactions and communications behave.	What's it mean to be an X?	How practice students react to cultural letters in schoolhouse?

Tabular array 1.1 Sociological Theories or Perspectives Different sociological perspectives enable sociologists to view social problems through a variety of useful lenses.

Functionalism

Functionalism, also called structural-functional theory, sees club every bit a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of the individuals in that lodge. Functionalism grew out of the writings of English philosopher and biologist, Herbert Spencer, who saw similarities between society and the human body. He argued that just equally the various organs of the body work together to go on the body operation, the various parts of society work together to proceed social club functioning (Spencer, 1898). The parts of society that Spencer referred to were the social institutions, or patterns of beliefs and behaviors focused on coming together social needs, such as authorities, education, family, healthcare, organized religion, and the economic system.

Émile Durkheim applied Spencer'south theory to explain how societies change and survive over fourth dimension. Durkheim believed that society is a complex organization of interrelated and interdependent parts that work together to maintain stability (Durkheim, 1893), and that society is held together by shared values, languages, and symbols. He believed that to study society, a sociologist must look beyond individuals to social facts such as laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, manner, and rituals, which all serve to govern social life (Durkheim, 1895). Alfred Radcliff-Brown (1881–1955) defined the function of any recurrent activity as the role information technology played in social life as a whole, and therefore the contribution it makes to social stability and continuity (Radcliff-Brown 1952). In a healthy society, all parts work together to maintain stability, a country chosen dynamic equilibrium by later sociologists such as Parsons (1961).

Durkheim believed that individuals may make up gild, but in order to study guild, sociologists have to await beyond individuals to social facts. . Each of these social facts serves one or more functions within a gild. For case, one function of a gild'due south laws may be to protect social club from violence, while another is to punish criminal beliefs, while another is to preserve public health.

Another noted structural functionalist, Robert Merton (1910–2003), pointed out that social processes frequently have many functions. Manifest functions are the consequences of a social process that are sought or anticipated, while latent functions are the unsought consequences of a social process. A manifest function of a higher education, for example, includes gaining knowledge, preparing for a career, and finding a expert task that utilizes that education. Latent functions of your college years include coming together new people, participating in extracurricular activities, or even finding a spouse or partner. Another latent office of education is creating a hierarchy of employment based on the level of education attained. Latent functions can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful. Social processes that have undesirable consequences for the operation of order are called dysfunctions. In education, examples of dysfunction include getting bad grades, truancy, dropping out, non graduating, and not finding suitable employment.

Criticism

One criticism of the structural-functional theory is that it tin't fairly explicate social modify even though the functions are processes. Likewise problematic is the somewhat circular nature of this theory: repetitive behavior patterns are assumed to have a function, all the same we profess to know that they take a office merely because they are repeated. Furthermore, dysfunctions may go on, even though they don't serve a office, which seemingly contradicts the basic premise of the theory. Many sociologists now believe that functionalism is no longer useful as a macro-level theory, only that it does serve a useful purpose in some mid-level analyses.

Big Picture

A Global Culture?

Effigy 1.8 Some sociologists see the online world contributing to the cosmos of an emerging global civilization. Are y'all a part of whatever global communities? This Indiana rabbi is participating in what was recognized as the longest Zoom meeting, which started in Australia after the Sabbath and proceeded through each of the earth's time zones, effectively lasting much longer than a day. (Credit: Chabad Lubavitch/flickr)

Sociologists effectually the world look closely for signs of what would be an unprecedented issue: the emergence of a global culture. In the by, empires such as those that existed in Cathay, Europe, Africa, and Central and S America linked people from many different countries, but those people rarely became part of a common culture. They lived too far from each other, spoke unlike languages, practiced different religions, and traded few goods. Today, increases in communication, travel, and trade have made the earth a much smaller place. More and more people are able to communicate with each other instantly—wherever they are located—by telephone, video, and text. They share movies, television shows, music, games, and information over the Internet. Students can study with teachers and pupils from the other side of the globe. Governments find it harder to hide weather inside their countries from the remainder of the world.

Sociologists research many different aspects of this potential global culture. Some explore the dynamics involved in the social interactions of global online communities, such as when members feel a closer kinship to other group members than to people residing in their own countries. Other sociologists study the impact this growing international culture has on smaller, less-powerful local cultures. Yet other researchers explore how international markets and the outsourcing of labor impact social inequalities. Sociology can play a fundamental role in people's abilities to sympathise the nature of this emerging global civilization and how to respond to information technology.

Conflict Theory

Disharmonize theory looks at order every bit a competition for limited resources. This perspective is a macro-level approach well-nigh identified with the writings of German philosopher and economist Karl Marx, who saw club as existence fabricated up of individuals in unlike social classes who must compete for social, material, and political resources such as food and housing, employment, education, and leisure fourth dimension. Social institutions like government, education, and religion reflect this contest in their inherent inequalities and help maintain the unequal social structure. Some individuals and organizations are able to obtain and keep more than resources than others, and these "winners" utilise their power and influence to maintain social institutions. The perpetuation of power results in the perpetuation of oppression.

Several theorists suggested variations on this bones theme like Polish-Austrian sociologist Ludwig Gumplowicz (1838–1909) who expanded on Marx'southward ideas by arguing that war and conquest are the bases of civilizations. He believed that cultural and ethnic conflicts led to states existence identified and divers by a dominant grouping that had power over other groups (Irving, 2007).

German sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) agreed with Marx but likewise believed that, in addition to economic inequalities, inequalities of political power and social structure cause disharmonize. Weber noted that dissimilar groups were afflicted differently based on instruction, race, and gender, and that people's reactions to inequality were chastened by grade differences and rates of social mobility, as well as by perceptions about the legitimacy of those in ability. A reader of Marx, Georg Simmel believed that conflict can help integrate and stabilize a society. He said that the intensity of the disharmonize varies depending on the emotional interest of the parties, the degree of solidarity inside the opposing groups, and the clarity and express nature of the goals. Simmel likewise showed that groups work to create internal solidarity, centralize power, and reduce dissent. The stronger the bail, the weaker the discord. Resolving conflicts can reduce tension and hostility and can pave the manner for future agreements.

In the 1930s and 1940s, German philosophers, known equally the Frankfurt School, developed critical theory every bit an elaboration on Marxist principles. Critical theory is an expansion of disharmonize theory and is broader than only sociology, incorporating other social sciences and philosophy. A critical theory is a holistic theory and attempts to accost structural issues causing inequality. It must explain what's wrong in electric current social reality, identify the people who tin brand changes, and provide practical goals for social transformation (Horkeimer, 1982).

More recently, inequality based on gender or race has been explained in a similar manner and has identified institutionalized power structures that assist to maintain inequality betwixt groups. Janet Saltzman Chafetz (1941–2006) presented a model of feminist theory that attempts to explain the forces that maintain gender inequality too as a theory of how such a arrangement can exist changed (Turner, 2003). Similarly, disquisitional race theory grew out of a critical analysis of race and racism from a legal point of view. Disquisitional race theory looks at structural inequality based on white privilege and associated wealth, ability, and prestige.

Sociology in the Real World

Farming and Locavores: How Sociological Perspectives Might View Nutrient Consumption

The consumption of food is a commonplace, daily occurrence. Yet, information technology can also be associated with important moments in our lives. Eating can be an individual or a group action, and eating habits and customs are influenced by our cultures. In the context of society, our nation'south food system is at the core of numerous social movements, political issues, and economical debates. Any of these factors might become a topic of sociological study.

A structural-functional approach to the topic of nutrient consumption might analyze the part of the agriculture industry inside the nation'south economic system and how this has changed from the early days of manual-labor farming to modern mechanized production. Another might study the different functions of processes in food production, from farming and harvesting to flashy packaging and mass consumerism.

A conflict theorist might exist interested in the power differentials present in the regulation of food, by exploring where people's right to data intersects with corporations' drive for profit and how the regime mediates those interests. Or a conflict theorist might examine the power and powerlessness experienced by local farmers versus large farming conglomerates, such as the documentary Food Inc., which depicts as resulting from Monsanto's patenting of seed technology. Another topic of written report might be how nutrition varies between different social classes.

A sociologist viewing food consumption through a symbolic interactionist lens would exist more interested in microlevel topics, such as the symbolic use of nutrient in religious rituals, or the part it plays in the social interaction of a family unit dinner. This perspective might also explore the interactions among group members who identify themselves based on their sharing a particular nutrition, such as vegetarians (people who don't eat meat) or locavores (people who strive to eat locally produced food).

Criticism

Just as structural functionalism was criticized for focusing too much on the stability of societies, conflict theory has been criticized considering information technology tends to focus on disharmonize to the exclusion of recognizing stability. Many social structures are extremely stable or accept gradually progressed over fourth dimension rather than irresolute abruptly as conflict theory would suggest.

Symbolic Interactionist Theory

Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory that focuses on the relationships among individuals within a society. Communication—the exchange of pregnant through linguistic communication and symbols—is believed to be the way in which people make sense of their social worlds. Theorists Herman and Reynolds (1994) note that this perspective sees people as beingness active in shaping the social world rather than simply beingness acted upon.

George Herbert Mead is considered a founder of symbolic interactionism though he never published his piece of work on information technology (LaRossa and Reitzes, 1993). Mead'south pupil, Herbert Blumer (1900-1987), coined the term "symbolic interactionism" and outlined these basic premises: humans interact with things based on meanings ascribed to those things; the ascribed significant of things comes from our interactions with others and club; the meanings of things are interpreted by a person when dealing with things in specific circumstances (Blumer 1969). If you love books, for instance, a symbolic interactionist might suggest that you learned that books are good or important in the interactions yous had with family, friends, schoolhouse, or church. Maybe your family unit had a special reading time each week, getting your library card was treated as a special event, or bedtime stories were associated with warmth and comfort.

Social scientists who apply symbolic-interactionist thinking await for patterns of interaction betwixt individuals. Their studies oft involve observation of 1-on-ane interactions. For example, while a disharmonize theorist studying a political protest might focus on class difference, a symbolic interactionist would be more interested in how individuals in the protesting group interact, as well equally the signs and symbols protesters use to communicate their message.

The focus on the importance of symbols in building a society led sociologists similar Erving Goffman (1922-1982) to develop a technique called dramaturgical analysis. Goffman used theater as an illustration for social interaction and recognized that people'south interactions showed patterns of cultural "scripts." He argued that individuals were actors in a play. We switched roles, sometimes minute to minute—for instance, from student or daughter to dog walker. Because information technology can be unclear what part a person may play in a given situation, he or she has to improvise his or her role as the situation unfolds (Goffman, 1958).

Studies that use the symbolic interactionist perspective are more likely to employ qualitative enquiry methods, such as in-depth interviews or participant observation, considering they seek to understand the symbolic worlds in which research subjects live.

Constructivism is an extension of symbolic interaction theory which proposes that reality is what humans cognitively construct information technology to be. We develop social constructs based on interactions with others, and those constructs that last over time are those that have meanings which are widely agreed-upon or by and large accepted past most inside the order. This approach is often used to examine what'southward defined every bit deviant within a gild. In that location is no absolute definition of deviance, and different societies have constructed different meanings for deviance, also as associating different behaviors with deviance.

I state of affairs that illustrates this is what you believe you're to practice if you observe a wallet in the street. In the United States, turning the wallet in to local authorities would be considered the advisable action, and to keep the wallet would be seen as deviant. In contrast, many Eastern societies would consider it much more than appropriate to keep the wallet and search for the owner yourself. Turning information technology over to someone else, even the authorities, would be considered deviant behavior.

Criticism

Research done from this perspective is often scrutinized because of the difficulty of remaining objective. Others criticize the extremely narrow focus on symbolic interaction. Proponents, of course, consider this i of its greatest strengths.

Sociological Theory Today

These three approaches nevertheless provide the main foundation of modern sociological theory though they have evolved. Structural-functionalism was a dominant force later on World War 2 and until the 1960s and 1970s. At that time, sociologists began to feel that structural-functionalism did not sufficiently explain the rapid social changes happening in the United States at that time. The women's movement and the Civil Rights movement forced academics to develop approaches to report these emerging social practices.

Conflict theory then gained prominence, with its emphasis on institutionalized social inequality. Critical theory, and the particular aspects of feminist theory and critical race theory, focused on creating social change through the application of sociological principles. The field saw a renewed emphasis on helping ordinary people understand sociology principles, in the grade of public sociology.

Gaining prominence in the wake of Mead's work in the 1920s and 1930s, symbolic interactionism declined in influence during the 1960s and 1970s only to be revitalized at the plough of the twenty-beginning century (Stryker, 1987). Postmodern social theory developed in the 1980s to look at social club through an entirely new lens by rejecting previous macro-level attempts to explain social phenomena. Its growth in popularity coincides with the rise of constructivist views of symbolic interactionism.

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Source: https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-3e/pages/1-3-theoretical-perspectives-in-sociology

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