FINAL EXAM- SOCI4333

Prussian theorist who wrote The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels

Developed the idea of the “collective conscience”

French philosopher said to be the father of sociology

Described social geometry using the geometric coefficients of numbers and distance

Tunisian theorist from the 14th century who developed a “science of culture” featuring attention to sociological factors

This theory has been noted to problematize “sexual and gender categories, and of identities in general.

Alexis de Tocqueville

G.F.W.Hegel

Herbert Spencer

Labor

Eternal and coercive

The forces of production

Rational-legal authorities

Class, status and party

Thinkers argued that the universe could be explained and controlled via reason and empirical research.

they promoted religion and saw GOD as the source of society rather than research.

impacted Comte, Durkheim, and Parsons

impacted Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel

impacted Marx

impacted Jane Addams and Harriet Martineau

impacted Weber and Simmel

impacted many early sociologists as most were personally religious or had professional interests in religion

impacted Comte, Durkheim, Spencer, Mead, and others

Italian Sociologist- saw society had consisted of independent parts in equilibrium

Pareto argued that social change comes from the elites first going down the chain (top-down)

1) are alienated from their productive activity.

2) are alienated from the object of their productive activity (the product)

3) are alienated from their fellow workers

4) are alienated from their own human potential

Capitalists (the bourgeoisie) own commodities, the means of producing commodities, and the labor time of workers

When objects become commodities, they become treated as if they have intrinsic value rather than value measurable from human labor.

(General law of capitalist acclimation) Surplus Value- the difference between what it costs to produce products (including the cost of labor) and the amount that the products of labor can be sold for

Marx utilized Hegel’s dialectic philosophy (dealing with understanding the history of contradictions) AND He Advocated for solving contradictions using philosophy in one’s mind

How people provide for their material needs determines their social institutions, how they interact, and their prevalent ideas

Wage earners/workers (the proletariat) are paid for their labor time

who own the means of production (the capitalists or bourgeoisie) and those who do not (the workers or the proletariat).

Karl Marx

(Exploitation) Marx- “The constant tendency of capital is to force the cost of labor back towards…zero.”

state of normlessness where the standard norms and values are weak or unclear in a society. (state of confusion or disorder)

“the totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society.”

represent the sum total of collective practices of society (often represented by material objects but not always)

collective energy in groups (Classroom acts as microcosmos of society)

two combinations: population density and the amount of social interaction within that population. why societies transition from simple to more complex forms, specifically in terms of the division of labor within that society.

prevalent moods across people which are not as crystalized as beliefs or practices

Material- directly observable social structures

-styles of architecture

-laws

-forms of technology

Nonmaterial- not directly observable

-norms

-values

-culture

Mechanical solidarity- found where there is homogeneity (where people are very similar)

  -primarily utilizes repressive law

Organic solidarity- found where there is heterogeneity (where people differ in tasks and responsibilities)

  -primarily utilizes restitutive law

The Anomic Division of Labor—(people lack moral restraint)

The Forced Division of Labor— (so they may lack

  competence)

The Poorly Coordinated Division of Labor— (so labor may be inefficient)

1) Egoistic Suicide-Detached from society

2) Altruistic Suicide-(social integration is too high) MORE LIKELY

3)Anomic Suicide- Low regulation (destructive)

4) Fatalistic Suicide-High regulation leads to feelings of hopelessness

-Sought to explain religion via social facts (SACRED AND PROFANE)

-Conceptualized God as “society transfigured and symbolically expressed.”

Said, “Religion protects man against the desire for self-destruction…the stronger the integration of the religious community, also the greater its preservative value.”

If x occurs, then it is probable that y will occur

Legitimate domination

  -Rational-legal- Based on belief in the legality of enacted rules and the right of those elevated under those rules to issue commands

  -Traditional- Authority exercised based on agreement that traditions establishing positions are legitimate

  -Charismatic- Exercised based on belief by followers in the charisma of the leader

*Consists of a continuous organization of offices bound by rules

*Offices have specified spheres of competence/obligations/authority to carry out functions

*Organized hierarchically

*Offices may carry technical qualifications

*Staff do not own the means of production

*Incumbents do not appropriate positions—positions remain part of the organization

*Administrative acts, decisions, and rules recorded in writing

Protestantism (and Calvinism in particular) provided a moral justification for the pursuit of money.

-in the same economic or market situation

Historical ideal types- found in some particular historical time period

General sociological ideal types- cut across multiple time periods/societies

Action ideal types- based on actors’ motivation

Structural ideal types- about the causes and consequences of social action

“structures struggling for domination”

-“every typical component of the life of men that is determined by a specific, positive or negative, social estimation of honor.”

1)substantive rationality  -ordering actions into patterns and choosing a means to an end within a system of values

formal rationality  -means-end calculation regarding “universally applied rules, laws, and regulations.”

Rational Action -means-end rationality vs. value rationality

Affectual Action-action determined by the emotional state of actors

Traditional Action -action determined by the actor’s habitual and customary ways of behaving

Teaching

-Academics should leave their values out of the classroom

Research

-Academics should be careful to distinguish between reporting data and commenting on it from a personal standpoint reflecting individual values

Understanding!! Social phenomena are not intuitive or easy to understand but can be understood with rigorous research and study (whereas some concepts in natural science cannot)

Heterosexual matrix- Makes heterosexuality seem like the only natural form of sexuality

imposes compulsory heterosexuality

leads to homosexual melancholy

1) Sexuality is Conceptualized by Relations of Sexual Power

2) Sexual and Gender Categories are Problematized

3) Deconstruction/Decentering Rather than Civil Rights

4) Areas Not Typically Seen as Sexual Interrogated Through the Lens of Sexuality

1) Racism is a “normal” part of American life.

2) Most Americans do not have much incentive to get rid of racism.

3) Race is not objective.

4) Racialization changes over time

Critical Race Theory

-emerged primarily from legal studies

-focused on legal scholarship and activism

Critical Theories of Race and Racism

-from social science

-consider issues like agency vs. structure, globalization, political economy, etc.

-incorporate many forms of classical and contemporary theory

Color-blind racism

-a smokescreen for oppression

Individual-Level Approaches

-focus on issues between people

Structural-Level Approaches

-Focus on social structures and institutions

Archaeology of Knowledge- search for a general system of speech and writing

Language as “genealogy of power”-Wanted to understand how discourses begin and change and how knowledge is passed through history by the powerful

Madness and Civilization- (Foccult) During the Renaissance, the mad were not separated from the sane.  This changed between 1650 and 1800 through the power of discourse.

Response to French humanism (which had emphasized human value and agency)

Focuses on how language shapes the social world

Language is orderly and stable and constrains people.

There is a hidden logic to what people are doing and saying that empiricism can’t really determine…

Language structures are disorderly and unstable, and words can mean different things depending on the context.  Thus, language must be deconstructed.

Economic Theory -Four factions of the transnational capitalist class

(corporate, state, technical, and consumerist)

-Efficiency

-Calculability

-Predictability

-Control by Means of Technology

-Irrationality of Rationality

Globality vs. Transnationalism

Our present globality is different from previous transnationalism in that it:

-covers more geographic space

-has become more stable over time

-involves denser transnational relationships and networks

The human consequences of globalization for winners and losers

Globalization = a space war with winners (with more freedom of movement) and losers (with less freedom of movement)

Winners still face certain constraints (inability to slow down, seemingly unending choices, and the constant possibility of risk or danger

Agency

-usually refers to ability to at the micro-level by individuals (although collectivities can also act)

Macroscopic/macro-level theories: primarily focused on large-scale social phenomena such as groups or societies

Ex: World Systems Theory, structural functionalism

Microscopic/micro-level theories:  primarily focused on the individual actor

Ex: Symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, exchange theory, rational choice theory

Wanted to overcome opposition between objectivists and subjectivists and bridge agency and structure

-usually refers to large-scale social structures (although it can refers to micro structures of interaction)

the “mental, or cognitive structures” people use to deal with the social world—“internalized, ‘embodied’ social structures”  (common sense based on socialization

inappropriate habitus = hysteresis

economic capital- assets easily converted to currency

cultural capital- the ability to act “cultured” through language, accents, and mannerisms of the eliteà objectified in cultural goods (e.g., art, literature, etc.)

social capital- value from personal connections (through family, clubs, and other groups)

Claims that women are different from men but important because they offer cooperation, caring, pacifism, nonviolence, etc

Liberal Feminism

-The Future of Marriage- men and women experience different marriages within the same marriage based on societal expectations of roles and conformance to those expectations

-Patriarchy: Patriarchy is the most significant form of social inequality and drives men and women to other forms of tyranny

-Psychoanalytic Feminism: Boys grow up ambivalent toward their mothers whom they love but also feel controlled by and develop a deep emotional need to control women.

-Radical Feminism: Physical violence is the fundamental way of maintaining patriarchy.

Different roles/divisions of labor between men and women lead to differences in behaviors and personalities.

Women are oppressed differently based on race, sexual orientation, social class, etc.

essence vs. existence -The Second Sex

Essence (what we truly are) follows existence (what we actually do

Focus on how domination is achieved through social structures

Two major forms:

-Socialist Feminism

-Intersectionality

-First Wave Feminism: Wave-focus on women’s political rights

-Second Wave Feminism: focus on economic and social equality

-Third Wave Feminism: incorporation of women of color, lesbians, working-class women, women in the global South, and others left out by previous forms of feminism

James Coleman

of Social Theory extended rational choice theory principles to sociology

Founded the journal Rationality and Society

Influenced sociology to incorporate rational choice theory as president of ASA, including in his keynote address

3 key assumptions of rational choice theory:

1)Individuals try to maximize benefits and reduce costs (maximizing behavior)

2)The market will maintain a basic equilibrium in the face of maximizing behavior

3)Preferences will maintain a relative stability over time

-Betweenness Centrality

-Closeness Centrality

-Degree Centrality

Individual- (the realm of Psycology)

Social- (the realm of sociology)

Exchange theory

Developed two kinds of behavior

1. individual behavior

2. Social behavior

structural functionalism

• wrote The Structure of Social Action and The social system

-Became center of sociology for a strong connection to religion, social reform and empirical work.

People attended:

• Charles Cooley- the looking glass: your sense of self grows out of your interactions with others and their perceptions of you (primarily developed in primary groups)

• George Mead- MOST IMPORTANT theorist at the school and developed symbolic interactionism

• The veil: African Americans and Whites separated by thin but deliberate barrier

• Double-Conscious: African-Americans see themselves not just through their eyes but also through prejudicial eyes of others