SOCIOLOGY

Positivism: claims to build scientific theories of society through observation and experimentation,
demonstrating the law of social development. Positive or scientific stage.

The role of sociologists is to analyze the statics (laws governing the social order) and the dynamics (laws
governing social change) of society

Organic Analogy Three stages of evolution

Society operates in a way comparable to the functioning of a biological organism

Order & Progress

The theoretical stage during all natural phenomena and social events, were explained in terms of supernatural
forces
Example: Christian theory of one almighty God

The metaphysical during an abstract and even supernatural forces were the main sources of explanation but
they were more consistent and systematic

The positivist stage during which though and explanation are based on science, not speculation; on empirical
experimentation, not abstract philosophy

The role the role of sociology is to provide an overview to analyze the both, the statics and the dynamics


Natural facts = social facts
Scientific method

Social facts are ways of acting, thinking and feeling external to the individual and endowed with a power of
coercion by reason which they control him.
Positivism can be defined as the philosophical view
that empirical science is the only form of human knowledge

Functionalism
Society is constructed in various institutions (families, political parties)
Society operates in a way comparable to the functioning of a biological organism (organic analogy)
Some groups in society are more powerful than others because only a limited number can take important
decisions. Otherwise it would be chaos
Society changes because it occurs when it is functionally necessary for it to do so. Adaptation (an existing
institution readjusts to meet new needs) and Integration (society adopts an element and makes it part of itself)
Order and equilibrium are normal to society. The existence of moral consensus (consensus means that
everybody or almost everybody in a society share the same values)
The individual is the point of arrival
Is to analyze and explain the normal functioning of society. Studying the relationship of the different parts of
society to one another


The Biological Analogy

The various parts of the organism know as society are to be consider for total is of the whole. Each part of the
whole is considered a microcosm of the whole. Each element of society will have a sit main function, the stability
and order of the whole society


Integration and Regulation

The social division of labor (DOL) much more pervasive than the law (its more informal and implicit)
The law (codified and explicit)

It can integrate individuals into a community with each other, and yet differentiate individuals

DOL must be balanced one with neither too little nor to much integrative process

Social solidarity at the bases of every society and that ideas are socially created and society inherited through
the generations

Saved all ideas and activities which a society agrees to be in some sense special from the every day
The profane in the category in which we find a society references to the ordinary

The collective conscience forms the moral consensus of a society. Durkheim is pointing to the collective basis of
our ideas in society and the way in which thay are shared between us and transmitted and refined by our social
institutions: education, media and the family

Suicide

Egoistic: the ties attaching the individual to society are too weak

Alturistic: a state opposed to egoism in which ths individual is extremely attached to society

Anomic: the state in which the individual believes that social regulations are too weak

Fatalistic: social regulations are completely installed in the individual, eliminating any hope of change against
the oppressive discipline in the society

Marx:
Society is constructed by classes
Society operates mainly through class conflict
Classes are the base of power. Some are more powerful than others because they own more property and
wealth and this gives them the means to defend and keep what they hold
Social change occurs as a result of class conflict (class conflict is the dynamo of history)
Society is in a state of fundamental class conflict between the classes
Individuals are powerless to affect either his or her own life
The purpose of sociology is to analyze and describe class conflict


Marx was primarily interested in social development and social change and believed that wealth and power were
unequally distributed in society. He was therefore not interested in social consensus

Social renewal
All societies are founded in conflict
The basic motor of all social change is economics
The individuals shaped by society but can also change society through rational action based on scientific,
historical, materialistic premise
Work in a capitalist society, produces alienation


Capitalism a worldwide system
Marx central proposition was that capitalism was a new form of social organization based on exploitation
of the workers by the owners of capital

The profit Motive Marx argued that the profit making production of commodities led inexorably to an entire
serial system that was a reflection of this pursuit of profit. The infrastructure determined the suprastructure

Class relations class opposed to groups or elites. The division of labor. Class was an objective external
criteria, determined by relationship to the means of production. The owners exploited the workers

The most important is conflict between the different groups in society.

How is society constructed in order to survive we enter a relationship that ensures production. The forces of
production and the social relationship to this form the economic basis of infrastructure of society

The suprastructure (religion, education, politics, beliefs, traditions, ideology, etc.) is shaped by the infrastructure
(economics)

Infrastructure = Forces of Production (F.o.P.) + Social Relationship to the F.o.P.
Classes and economy


Marx society is constructed from classes

1) Contradiction: Wages vs. Profit the bourgeois and the proletarian are opposed. The real wealth was
only created by the labor power of the workers
2) Large number of workers acting collectively achieve production. One individual owns the factory (and other
means) of production

New forces of production causes social change

Capitalism took over it, swept out the old social relationships of feudalism. A New Epoch

Capitalists had monopolized political power to maintain their control. The ruling elite is able to dominate the
ideology. They produce false pictures

For Weber stratification was much more than an economically determined class portion. It also involved a
consideration of the status, power and political parties

The decomposition of capital (ownership and control)
The decomposition of labor
The development of new Middle Class
Growth of Social Mobility
Growth of Equality

Weber

Social interaction is the behavior of people consciously relating to one another
The individuals influence on society and of society influence on the individual
He combined elements of consensus and conflict sociology in this treatment of this matter
Social change is multifunctional (ideas / new inventions)
Society is not normally in balance or in conflict
The relationship of the individuals to society is of central importance in social action theory
The purpose of sociology is to understand and explain the meaning of social action and interaction



Social Action Theory
The Protestant Ethic had an affinity with capitalism. He argued that religious ideas were the product of
certain economic conditions. He was interested in the way people behaved and in how their behavior influenced
the wider society as well as in social structure

Bureaucracy in modern societies became burocratic or controlling big brother

Rationalization is a process by which every little part of society subjected to analysis organization,
professionalization and burocracy. Weber was concerned that the way in which the state constantly intervened
more and more in the life of its citizens

Webers attitude it could not develop scientific laws, it could not predict or evaluate future development

Sociology is a science concerning itself with the interpretivist understanding of social action and there by with an
explanation of its causes and consequences

Webers Theory suggested that if it is the meaning and motives of individuals which are the motor of human
history

Emotional
Social action is motivated by the human emotions (love, anger, etc.)

Instrumental Rational it only appears in modern societies

To gain salvation by doing good and hard work in the material world

Elective affinity to suggest that there was association between this protestant ethics and what he calls The
Spirit of Capitalism
The belief of capitalism and its accounting system
Protestant ethics: the basic and dominant belief system in modern society
The development of capitalism and modern societies as the result of change in the motivation and meaning
which individuals hold
He took the view that societies were product of human intentions and actions. Weber perceived social
institutions and structure as the product of socialization

Interpretive Perspectives
Symbolic interactionism (language, dressing and gesture)
Ethno methodology
Basically philosophical perspective of phenomenologist


Mead

He describes two general stages, in the development of the self: the play and the game stage
Play stage: the child only attempts to perform the role of certain significant others. The child gets to know
some leading parts but has little sense of the plot as a whole
Game stage: involves virtually a double progression. The child must have the attitude of all the others involved
in that game. The full development of self depends not only on the awareness of all the other roles in a situation
but on the further ability to realize that the group.
For mead group is generalized other
If he learns to take the attitude of the others he will became a full member of the society

Mead used the term making indications to describe the operation of consciousness
Making indications is the central in the specifically human process of conducting meaning and actions


The I and the Me


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I help to create my own social experience


<-------------------------------------------------
Society forms and structures my experience

Language is the major vehicle to social communication

The language creates new words and linguistic forms

The symbolic interactionism is with meaningful communication

A social institution is a product of interaction of people whom is composed

Erving Goffman has compared social interaction with the dramatic action of a play and Berne the founder of
transactional psychoanalysis entitled one of his books. For him the main difference in life is that there is more
scope for role interpretation in life itself. The social change greatly depends on such original and creative
improvisation

Scope opportunity or ability to do something

Criticism
Despite the perspective emphasis of self and society it does not adequately deal with large scale issues
of power and structure. For instance the question of a group or class control society is not one that is central to
interactionism
It suffers from a certain nave, liberal optimism. This criticism does not obviously emerge from the above
account of Mead key concept, but Chicago interactionists tended to believe that gives the freedom, to interact
and learn through experience people would reach rational and human conclusions and therefore create a rational
human society

Ethnomethodology (Garfinkel)
Ethic means people or cultural groups

The basic method social actors use to create meaning is commonsense reasoning
Inter-subjective communication and reasoning can lead to shared interpretation of experience

Social order is created and recreated by actors reasoning and communicating and it is not the product of
externally imposed norms

Has influenced organizational and institutional analysis

Structuration theory beyond the structural interpretive dualism

1- The structural theories emphasize society as something external to the individuals actions which influences
and even determines their behavior
2- The interpretivist theories stress individual action which is taken to be meaningful and purposeful


Dualistic approach
Structural
Agency / action

We should think as two aspects of the same phenomenologists duality

Duality of structure involves both, structure and agency

Sociologists aim to investigate and understand the social world and human behavior within it
They are particular interested in understanding the ways in which society influences and shapes our lives

Sociologist asks important questions covering a huge range of topics

To answer them, they research techniques methods of collecting data such as questionnaires, interviews and
observation. They also make use of existing sources of data such as official statistics or newspaper reports

Primary data in actually generated and collected by the sociologist doing the research. (questionnaires,
structured and unstructured interviews, and participant observation)
Secondary data already exists and has previously been generated or collected by other people (official statistics,
media reports, letters and diaries)

Quantitative data is presented in numerical form

Qualitative data is presented as words (media reports, letters, diaries for example)

A research design is a particular combination of techniques and sources

A social survey involves collecting information from large number of people (questionnaires or structures
interviews)

Cross sectional survey take a cross-section of the population and questions them on the relevant issues only
once

Longitudinal studies are studies of the same group of people conducted over time. Shows social change (over
time)

Before a survey the researcher must identify the population, depending on the aims of the study

A sampling frame is a complete list on all members of the population
Its representative of the population
Generalizations are general statements and conclusions , this apply to the population as a whole

Sampling techniques are used by sociologists in order to obtain a sample

Random sampling one in which each member of the sampling frame has equal chance of being selected
A- Simple random sampling is a way of selecting random sample is by drawing names out of a hat (for small
populations) the random sample may not be representative of the population
B- Stratified random sampling, you know from advance their age and gender. This involves dividing the
population into strata or sub-populations. Then the sample is then drawn randomly from each group in
proportion to their number in the population as a whole
C- Cluster sampling that involves selecting certain areas (of large territories, such as a whole big country (the
fucking yankees for instance)) at random

Non Random Sampling

A- Systematic sampling this involves taking every nth name from the sampling frame, the researcher would
select a number at random between 1 and 10 (if he chooses 5 for example, the selected individuals would be
number 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 )
B- Snowball sampling in making contact with one member of the population, gradually gaining his confidence
until that person is willing to divulge the names of others that might cooperate (not representative of the
population as a whole)
C- Quota sampling is a technique favored by market research companies which employ and train workers to
interview people on the street. This depends on the interviewers ability, to spot the right type of person to fill
their quota. His only works when the researcher knows about the population under study

Questionnaire consists of a list of preset standardized questions to which the respondent supplies the
answers

1- Postal questionnaires: is posted to the respondent who completes it and sends it back to the researcher
2- Formal interviewers: the interviewer reads the standard questions from a preset list and the respondent
gives him the answers
3- A third possibility is that the researcher hands the question at a later date


Two types of question

Closed require the respondent to choose between number of given answers to such questions

Open-ended allows the respondent to put forward his answers to the set question

The Pilot Study is a small-scale trial run before the main research. This allows the researcher to check whether
the chosen method of gathering data is appropriate

Questionnaires
Advantages
Provides a relative cheap, quick and efficient way of obtaining large amounts of information from large number
of people (postal questionnaires)
Data is statistical form (50%)
It is easy to check
Disadvantages
Postal response is low
Postal is usually closed question
Result might not be valid
Structured interviews are questionnaires that are delivered face to face
Disadvantages
The interviewed might give answers that he thinks that are socially acceptable (doesnt reveal true picture)
Interviewed might lie to shock the researcher
Seen invalid because they do not provide a true picture of what is being studied (questionnaires and structures
interviews)

Unstructured the interviewer will have an idea of the areas to be covered
Advantages
Higher response than postal q.
Talk using their own words and ideas
Gives a more in depth account
Disadvantages
Interviewers need to be skilled and trained
Interview might be affected by interview bias
Interviewer can influence in the interviewee
Expensive and time consuming

Sociological research involves asking questions and using observation
Observation involves watching and listening to the group under study and recording what he observes

Participant Observation the researcher joins a group and participates in its activities as a full member on a
daily basis in order to study it (overt or covert)

Covert P.O. involves the researcher going without the groups knowledge of his research activities. It is
dishonest to the people on the group and considered unethical.
Advantages
less artificial
discover more and obtain a deeper understanding of the group
true picture of the group
Disadvantages
Difficult to gain entrance to the group under study
Difficult to take notes
The researcher can became to involved with the group
Overt influences the groups natural attitude and activities
Takes time and is expensive

Non Participant Observation
Advantages
Researcher is more objective and less influenced by feelings about the group
Disadvantages
Difficult to see the situation

Secondary data is information which has been collected by other people such as government agencies and which
is available to the sociologist second hand
Qualitative 50% Census
Advantages (of official statistics)
Cheap
Readily available
Disadvantages
Data is collected by officials
Cannot check the validity
Data can be incomplete


Qualitative includes historical documents such as (diaries, letters) media reports (newspapers)


Tombs are sacred fellow writer

Icon Borges is an iconic figure
Cuture

Lexical cohesion union

Functionalism (Emile Durkheim)

Each organ has a function, which contributes to the working of the greater whole. It's the same with societies,
where the organs might be family, work, education, religion, etc. As the body has the skin, societies have norms
and values. If one of the organs fails, everything fails. Society is more than the sum of its individual parts
(organic analogy)
Collective Conscience: We adopt the rules of society so that they shape our thoughts, feelings and desires.

. How is Society Constructed? : Of various institutions. A social institution is a group of people organized for a
specific purpose. As societies develop, the number and complexity of social institutions increases. This process is
called Differentiation. Institutions are grouped in Four (4) Subsystems:
. Economic (Factories-Offices)
. Political (Political Parties)
. Kinship (Families)
. Cultural (Schools-Churches)
. How does it operate? ORGANIC ANALOGY: Society is more than the sum of its parts. Social Institutions
function in combination for the benefit of society as a whole.
. Groups more Powerful than others? It is practically necessary that some individuals and groups be more
powerful than others, because only a limited number can take important decisions. There must be leaders in
society, if not, there would be chaos.
. What causes Social Change? It occurs when it is functionally necessary for it to do so. It may occur through
integration or adaptation. Adaptation occurs when an existing institution readjusts to meet new needs.
Integration occurs when a society adopts a new element and makes it part of itself. Change is evolutionary
(Gradual), not revolutionary.
. Society normaly in balance or in conflict? Balance is normal to society. Disequilibrium is abnormal, like a
sickness in a body. If there is moral consensus (everybody or nearly everyone, shares the same values). There is
equilibrium.
. How's Individual and society relationship? Individuals are formed by society through institutions. They leave
little room for the view that the individual can significantly control her or his own life, let alone change society.
. Primary purpose of sociological study? Analyse and explain the normal and abnormal functioning of society.

-Holism: The whole determines how the parts behave (society is more than the sum of its parts (organic
analogy))

Social Facts: ways of thinking, feeling, acting, external to the individual and endowed with coercive power (they
can impose what they want). These way of thinking and feeling consist of representations and actions which
only exist in the consciousness of an individual and through it. The way in which we behave and think everyday
are external to the individuals. When we fully accept and accord these conducts we feel little preadssure.
Before i violate the law, it reacts against me.

Agencies of Socialisation:
-Family
-School
-Peer groups
-Law Sanctions
-Work
-Media
-Religion


Two Institutions of Regulation and Integration: D.O.L and LAW
The DOL is very important because it can bth integrate individuals into a community and yet differentiate
individuals according to occuppational groupings. The condition of feeling an outsider or estranged is called
Anomie.
Four(4) types of Suicide:
-Egoistic (insufficient integration, Eg: Divorced man)
-Altruistic (excessive integration, Eg: Kamikazi)
-Anomic (insufficient regulation, Eg: great depression)
-Fatalistic (excessive regulation, Eg: limited social mobility due to many norms)

Mechanical Solidarity: A small, isolated homogeneou population/ little or no specialization/ division of labour
based on cooperation/ shared values and beliefs (religion is dominant, legal system based on repressive
sancrtions, they share values so can movilise as a mass)/little indiviual freedom (individualism is undeveloped,
status of individual is determined by family)
Organic Solidarity: Larger population spread out in larger area/complex DOL (individuals depend on others to
perform economic functions, ensures interdependence and development of social ties)/ much individual freedom
/individual status, determined by occupation not by kinship)/ legal system based on restitutive sanctions.

Categories of ideas: Sacred: no ordinary ideas and activities (to remain sacred, rituals are needed; binds the
group or society into a collective sense of belonging) and Profane: mundane-ordinary ideas. These categories
are the fundamentals of a society's collective representations. The ideas and values of the Coll. Repr. consitute
the Collective Consciense. The Coll. Cons. forms the moral consensus of a society.





Marxism (Karl Marx): Conflict Structuralism

Marx wanted to play a part in changing the world. He tried to understand the way in which modern industrial
societies change. He had a theory named "Historical Materialism". Marx argued that ideas themselves are
products of the material struggle for existence in the economic base of society. Changes in society come from
this struggle.

There are four epochs in the way human societies are organized:
-Classical Societies: (relations of production between slave-master and slave)
-Feudal times: (relations of production between land-owner and serf)
-Development times (relations of production between bourgeoisie who were the owners of the means of
production and the proletariat (landless workers)
-Final Epoch: (communist society, classless, workers controlled MOP)

It is conflict about ownership of the Means of Production, that is the class struggle that causes society to
change. He believed that the change would come when the working class took the MOP from the bourgeoisie.
Labor Theory of Value: The bourgeoisie put the money, but the ones who actually worked were the proletariats,
who had the ability to work (labor power)
Profit and Surplus value:
The Capitalist needs raw material, labor hands, machinery, etc. to make a product. After it sells it all, they get a
lot of money. They want to gain as much profit as possible. They pay workers as little as they can. Without
workers nothing could have been produced and instead they are poorly paid. This profit made is the surplus
value. Marx calls this "Worker exploitation". He says that when the proletariat realize about this exploitation,
when they achieve class-consciousness they will become revolutionary and overthrow bourgeoisie.

Two Contradictions of Capitalism:
-Wages vs. Profit: The labor force generates the profit, which is accumulated by the people who own the
factors of production. Wages are paid well below their real value.
-Organization vs. Nature of Ownership: Lots of workers, acting collectively achieve production. One man owns
the Factors of Production and takes all the profit.

How is society constructed? By classes. It's people's relationship to the means of production which determines
which class they are in. business control labor.
How does society function? Through class conflict. Each class pursuing it's own interests, clashes with others
generating change.
Are some groups more Powerful than others? Class is the basis of power. Some classes have more power
because they hold more wealth, and gives means to defend what they have. Socialism could achieve a more
equal sharing of power.
What causes social change? Caused by social conflict, Conflict is the dynamo of history. The victory of a new
class introduces a new historical period.
Is society normally in balance or in conflict? Periods of social order and equilibruim can occur, in which class
conflict is temporarely submerged. This periods benefit the rich and powerful more than others.
Relationship of the individual to society? Individual identity comes from class membership. An individual is
powerless to affect his own life or that of the rest.
Primary Purpose of Sociological study? Describe, analyze and explain class conflict.


False Conciousness: we see our exploitation as just, natural and necessary.
Superstructure: non economic aspects of societies that are capitalists
Alienation: Condition of working classes in capitalist societies. Lack of sense, interest, freedom and integration.

Social Action Theory (Max Weber)

He recognized that although social structure was important it was made up by individuals, with their own
understanding of the meaning of their actions. This work is also considered structural conflict, but differs greatly
from Marx. To him, economic relations are not the only source of conflict. Every society is unique, human action
is very important as a cause of conflict.
Weber considered that the growth of rational thinking was taking over, from previous, supernatural, sacred ways
of looking at the world. He is concerned with the simultaneous emergence of a particular type of Protestantism
(Calvinism), and capitalism. He argues they are not casual, and describes their alongside growth as "elective
affinity". That means the spirit of capitalism matched the ideal of Calvinism's way to get to heaven. He describes
the growth of rationalization as the downfall of industrial society. Bureaucracy, the white-collar class, would end
to to cage all society in a rationalized, meaningless way of life.
Weber highlighted the need for sociology to move away from seeing human behavior as a response to external
stimulus and, instead to develop an understanding of what he called social action (interaction of people with
each other, in social situations), meaningful and purposive, not reactive. To do this he introduces Verstehen: The
understanding of human behavior as being rational, (existing inside in a social context). Weber wanted
sociologist to adopt a particular approach or methodology when studying society.

Ideal Type: A hypothetical example used to analyze an area of society.
Four Ideal types of social action:
-Emotional or Affectual: Motivated by human emotions, spontaneous inn character.
-Traditional: "Eternal Yesterday". Contemporary thinking and action habits.
-Value-Rational: Motivated by an abstract idea as God. Ideal needs to be not religious.
-Instrumental-Rational: only in modern societies. (Pursued after evaluating its consequences and various
means to achieve
How is society constructed? Through social interaction (behavior of people consciously relating to one another).
In the process of interaction, people form institutions, which then in turn influence people. He recognized that
classes are important as Marx said, but considered Political parties and Status Groups (social and friendship
groups) to be further more powerful and important forces in society, not necessarily dependent on class as Marx
thought. Stressed the power or large organizations or bureaucracies over individual's life.
How does Society Operate? Individuals influence society and vice versa. Powerful and dynamic figures can
change the course of events. Ideas and feeling people have sometimes inspired action and affect history. Most
people's lives are limited and formed by society and institutions they contact with.
Are some Groups more powerful than others? Power is central for Weber. In modern Bureaucratic organization,
there are always powerful people at the top and less powerful at the bottom. They are organized hierarchically.
The powerful use their position for their own interest in most cases.
What Causes Social Change? It's multifactorial. Ideas, new inventions, war, the rise and fall of power groups,
and other factors
Is society normally in balance or conflict? Society is not normally either in balance or in conflict- the state of
society varies from case to case.
How's the Individual to Society relationship? Individuals are affected by social institutions. Individual action is
uniquely experienced by a social actor. To understand the meanings that individuals experience in their lives we
have to analyze what "causes" or "influences" them to act as they do
Primary purpose of Social Study? Understand and explain the meaning of social action and interaction.

Sociology as "Going Native" and Empathy: He took the view that societies were the product of human intentions
and actions. Social institutions and structures are the product of social action (opposite to Marx). Individuals
socially construct the society in which they live. He wanted sociologist to go "native", emathise witht he one they
are stuidying and put in thei shoes. The sociologist shouldn't adopt the values of the one studied, instead, it's
value-free. The Participant Observation method comes from here.


Symbolic Interactionism (George Mead)

It's essentially a theory of socialisation. Becoming a human is not just a matter of being born. It's all about
becoming a social Being, which happens through interactions between the child and those around it. To Mead,
the Inner "I" has to be converted into the social "Me". Self-Conscious beings learn to understand that if they
wish to take part on social interactions, they will have to recognize that they have a role into play, and the way
the play this role will affect other people. They must learn to try and gauge the effect they are having on other
people, to see themselves as others see them. Mead calls this "taking on the attitude of the other". Humans
have evolved beyond other animals due to the complexity of human consciousness linked to the symbols he uses
to communicate. This system is called Language.

-Primary Socialisation: Information which the individual acquires from significant others. It's a crucial stage in
the development of the social self. He learns he is a separate human being, an individual. At about 8 months
they recognize themselves at the mirror so psychologists use the rouge test to prove this (tienen que sacarse
una mancha de rouge de la nariz). He tries on the role of others. He will be capable of seeing his own actions
and the effect they have on people.
-Secondary socialisation: It's the game stage. One recognizes he is one of the team. To do this, the individual
must gauge the response of a whole group of people. When you learn to operate as a member of wider group,
you're taking the attitude of the generalised other. You make yourself the guardian of your behaviour.
Stigmatization: The labelling of the person prevents them from operating as a normal member of society.
Labelling: Role which society infers upon an individual. It may derive in a negative form, defined as
Stigmatisation.
Self-Fulfilling prophecy: When you accept the judgement of society and submits to the role assigned to him
(Pygmalion p18)