Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
SOC105 A5
Cite any print or online sociological theory references in answering the following questions
for your reading assignment:
Q: What were the major periods in Sociological theorizing in the United States after
World War 11?
“In 1949 the International Sociological Association was established under the
sponsorship of UNESCO, and Louis Wirth of the University of Chicago was elected its
first president. The rapid increase of full-time sociologists, along with the growth of
sociology publications, allowed the content of the discipline also to expand rapidly.
Research grew throughout the 20th century at an accelerated pace, especially after World
War II, partly because of strong financial support from foundations, government,
commercial sources, and individuals. This period was also marked by the rising
popularity of anthropology, and many universities formed joint anthropology-sociology
departments.”
“In the mid-20th century there was a general—but not universal—trend for U.S.-
American sociology to be more scientific in nature, due to the prominence at that
time of action theory and other system-theoretical approaches. Robert K.
Merton released his Social Theory and Social Structure (1949)”
Q: What was the positivist methodology developed by American sociologists in the 1950s?
Q: What sociological theory was dominant in America during the 1940s and 1950s along
with the empiricist-positivist methodology
Parsons’s brand of systematic and grand theory was dominant through the 1940s
and 1950s. arsons synthesized the classical theoretical ideas of Weber, Durkheim,
and Vilfredo Pareto to develop (with Edward Shils) his “action theory.” Parsons’s
action theory focused on the integration of social structural, psychological, and
cultural elements of human behavior in the hopes of creating a unified theory of
social action for the social sciences.
Parsons and the functionalist approach to sociology occupy an intermediate
position between classical and contemporary sociology. Some new sociological
approaches were developed in North America before Parsons. But Parsons and
the functional approach to sociology became so dominant that by the late 1950s,
sociology and functionalism became more or less identical (Adams and Sydie, p.
345). This meant that sociology studied the roles of institutions and social
behaviour in society, the way these are related to other social features, and
developed explanations of society in social terms (Wallace and Wolf, p. 17).
Q: What were the major changes that erupted in the 1960s and how did American
Sociology deal with these phenomena?
“Sociology once debated ‘the social’ and did so with a public readership. Even as
late as the Second World War, sociologists commanded a wide public on
questions about the nature of society, altruism and the direction of social
evolution. As a result of several waves of professionalization, however, these
issues have vanished from academic sociology and from the public writings
of sociologists. From the 1960s onwards sociologists instead wrote for the public
by supporting social movements. Discussion within sociology became constrained
both by ‘professional’ expectations and political taboos. Yet the original
motivating concerns of sociology and its public, such as the compatibility of
socialism and Darwinism, the nature of society, and the process of social
evolution, did not cease to be of public interest. With sociologists showing little
interest in satisfying the demand, it was met by non-sociologists, with the result
that sociology lost both its intellectual public, as distinct from affinity groups, and
its claim on these topics. “
The Alliance for Progress emerged in the 1960s, aiming to strengthen the ties
between the United States and Latin America. The modernization theory,
elaborated by political scientist Walt Whitman Rostow, supported the alliance
ideologically.
This theory’s premise is the establishment of an ideal of modernized nation,
setting universal standards of economic, social and cultural development to all
countries. Countries whose societies differ from these standards should follow a
path to modernization to accomplish the ideal model of nation-state.
According to Catton (1971), 1970s is the time for troubles to for mankind. The
1970s is the continuation that has plague people all over the world. The world in
such a condition both ecologically and politically, and modern social system have
evolved such as characteristics, the increasing numbers of people to alienation and
the sense of meaninglessness in their lives. This crisis of identity has affected
sociology, because sociologist themselves has spent agonizing hours rethinking
what means to be sociologist, as well as what it means to be a human being, or an
academic, or a Protestant, etc.
According to Berger ( 1989),the 1980's have not been kind to sociology. The field
has become impoverished, fragmented, vulnerable, precisely the kind of subject
sociologists like to study.
During the early Reagan years, Federal administrators, who considered the
failures of the Great Society's antipoverty programs evidence that sociology was
expendable, sharply cut funds for research on housing, crime, welfare and health.
The level of financing is still 30 percent below what it was in 1980, and
sociologists continue to scale down projects, forsake new inquiries and disguise
their work as anything but sociological.
At the same time, fewer students are studying sociology or choosing careers in the
field. The number of sociology doctorates dropped to 451 in 1986-87 from a peak
of 729 in 1975-76. Even the content of sociology - the field that gave the world
such concepts as ''the lonely crowd,'' ''the organization man'' and ''the power elite''
- is in turmoil. One part of the field advocates more rigorously mathematical
studies, while others worry that such an emphasis would drive away students keen
to solve social problems or learn about themselves.
Calhuon, Craige (n.d.). Mid Twentieth Century American Theory. Retrieved from
http://routledgesoc.com/profile/mid-twentieth-century-american-theory
Steinmetz, George (2005). The politics of method in human sciences, positivism and its
Epistemological Others. Duke University Press. Retrieved from http://www-
personal.umich.edu/~geostein/docs/SteinmetzPoMch.pdf
Steinmetz, George (2005). The politics of method in human sciences, positivism and its
Epistemological Others. Duke University Press. Retrieved from http://www-
personal.umich.edu/~geostein/docs/SteinmetzPoMch.pdf
Early modernization
Neo-Evolutionism and Modernization Theory
Underdevelopment Theory
Menzies, Ken. 1982. Sociological Theory in Use. London, Boston, and Henley: Routledge &
Kegan Paul
Feminist Theory
Post-modernism theory
Theories of Socialization and Idnetity
Role-learning Theory
Social Construction Theory
Pschoanalytic Theory
Elitist Theories
Ritzer, Goerge. 2000. Sociological Theory(5th ed). New York:Oxford University Press