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LECTURE NOTES 1. THE SOCIOLOGICAL

PERSPECTIVE

THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE.

Sociology is the systematic study of human

society.

The sociological perspective helps us to see

general social patterns in the behavior of

particular individuals.

It also encourages us to realize that society

guides our thoughts and deeds - to see the

strange in the familiar.

Sociology also encourages us to seeindividuality in social context.

For example, Emile Durkheim's research

showed that the suicide rate was strongly

influenced by the extent to which people were

socially integrated with others. Modern

scholarship supports this thesis.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE.

Sociologists also strive to see issues in global

perspective, defined as the study of the larger

world and our society's place in it.

Economic Development in Global Perspective.

There are three different types of nations in the

world.

The world's high-income countries are

industrialized nations in which most people

enjoy material abundance.

The world's middle-income countries have

limited industrialization and moderate personal

income.

The world's low-income countries have little

industrialization; severe poverty is the rule.

Thinking of the population breakdown if the

world were a village of one thousand people.

Global thinking is an important component of

the sociological perspective for three reasons:

Societies all over the world are increasinglyinterconnected, making traditional distinctions

between "us" and "them" less and less valid.

A global perspective is important because

many human problems faced in the United

States are far more serious elsewhere.

Thinking globally is important because

studying other societies is an excellent method

of learning more about ourselves.

THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE IN EVERYDAY

LIFE.

Certain situations like the following promote a

sociological way of viewing reality.

Encountering social diversity.

Experiencing social marginality, the state of

being excluded from social activity as an

"outsider." This is why minorities, women andthe elderly, among others, are particularly likely

to embrace the sociological perspective.

Living through periods of social crisis like the

Great Depression or the 1960s.

Benefits of the sociological perspective.

The sociological perspective helps us assess

the truth of commonly held assumptions.

It prompts us to assess both the opportunities

and the constraints that characterize our lives.

It empowers us to participate actively in our

society.

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It helps us recognize human variety and

confront the challenges of living in a diverse

world.

Applied sociology. Sociology is more than just

a discipline for enhancing intellectual growth.

Sociology plays a role in shaping public policy

and laws. It also provides training for many jobs.

THE ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY.

Early social thought consisted mostly of

utopian philosophical speculation. Auguste

Comte, the father of sociology, in contrast, felt

that the field should be scientific or, as he

termed it, positive, meaning a means to

understand the world based on science. Comte

believed that societies progress through three

stages:

The theological stage, in which thought was

guided by religion.

The metaphysical stage, a transitional phase.

The scientific or positive stage.

Scientific sociology developed because of

three major social trends in the seventeenth

and eighteenth centuries:

The growth of a factory-based industrial

economy.

The emergence of great cities in Europe.

Political changes, including a rising concern

with individual liberty and rights. The French

Revolution embraced these ideas.

Although pushed into the margins because

they lived in a male-dominated society, women

such as Harriet Martineau and Jane Addams

made important contributions to sociology.

SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY.

A theory is a statement of how and why

specific facts are related.

Theories are based on theoretical paradigms,

sets of assumptions that guide thinking andresearch. There are three major sociological

paradigms:

The structural-functional paradigm is a

framework for building sociological theory that

sees society as a complex system whose parts

work together to promote solidarity and

stability.

It asserts that our lives are guided by socialstructures (relatively stable patterns of social

behavior).

Each social structure has social functions or

consequences for the operation of society as a

whole.

Important figures in the development of this

paradigm include Comte, Herbert Spencer,

Emile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons.

Robert Merton introduced three concepts

related to functions:

Manifest functions, the recognized and

intended consequences of any social pattern

Latent functions, largely unrecognized and

unintended con-sequences and

Social dysfunctions, undesirable consequences

of a social pattern for societal operation.

Critical Evaluation: This paradigm is widelyused, but also subject to several criticisms:

It minimizes the importance of social change.

It overlooks divisions based on class, race,

ethnicity and gender.

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The social-conflict paradigm is a framework

for building sociological theory based on the

assumption that society is characterized by

inequalities and conflicts that generate change.

Most sociologists who favor the conflict

paradigm attempt not only to understandsociety but also to reduce social inequality.

Key figures in this tradition include Karl Marx

and W. E. B. DuBois.

Critical evaluation: This paradigm has

developed rapidly in recent years. It has several

weaknesses.

It ignores social unity based on

interdependence and shared values.

Because it is explicitly political, it abandons

the goal of scientific objectivity.

Like the structural-functional paradigm, it

envisions society in terms of broad abstractions.

Thesymbolic-interaction paradigm is a

theoretical framework based on the assumption

that society is the product of everyday

interactions between individuals.

The structural-functional and the social-

conflict paradigms share a macro-level

orientation, meaning that they focus on broad

social structures that shape society as a whole.

In contrast, symbolic-interactionism has a

micro-level orientation; it focuses on patterns

of social interaction in specific settings.

Max Weber, George Herbert Mead, ErvingGoffman, George Homans and Peter Blau are

important theorists in this tradition.

Critical evaluation. Symbolic interactionism

attempts to explain more clearly how

individuals actually experience society.

However, it has two weaknesses:

Its micro orientation sometimes results in the

error of ignoring the influence of larger social

structures.

By emphasizing what is unique, it risks

overlooking the effects of culture, class, gender,

and race.