What Sociology Has Promised Me

7/31/2019 What Sociology Has Promised Me

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WHAT SOCIOLOGY HAS

PROMISED ME?

Moving Beyond Books



CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGY

Marx talked about the State: his theory of economic determinism gave

primacy to economic structure over politics.

Durkheim talked about the society, collective consciousness and culture.

Auguste Comte talked about positivism: data derived from sensory

experience, and logical and mathematical treatments of such data, are together

the exclusive source of all authentic knowledge



MODERN SOCIOLOGY

Modern sociological theory emerges from the historical foundations

of functionalist (Durkheim) and conflict-centered (Marx) accounts of social structure

Contemporary sociological theory retains traces of these approaches.

Weber is regarded as the father of modern sociology.

Weber talked about methodological individualism: social phenomenon

results from the intentional states of individual actors.



THEORY OF

FUNCTIONALISM

It was theorised by Emile Durkheim and taken forward by

anthropoligists such as Malinowski, Mauss and Brown. It determines the social structure as a whole and in terms of the

necessary functions of its constituents parts.

According to Anthony Giddens, “functionalism strongly

emphasizes the pre-eminence of the social world over its individualparts (i.e. its constituent actors, human subjects).



DECLINE OF

FUNCTIONALISM

The functionalist theory began to decline in the 1960s.

Modern sociologists began searching for middle-range theories: between

functionalism and conflict theory (emphasizing the inequality of a particular group).

Third 'generation' of social theory includes

a) Phenomenologically inspired approaches

b) Critical theory

c) Symbolic interactionism

d) Structuralism

e) Post-structuralismf) Theories written in the tradition of hermeneutics and ordinary languagephilosophy



THE PROMISE BY MODERN

SOCIOLOGISTS

The modern sociologists, in an attempt to move towards the

middle-range theories, seem to move towards no where.

They do not seem to make any promise as such as the theories do

not build upon or are complementary to one another.

Anthony Giddens is considered the main proponents of

structuralism.Structure Agency



THE PROMISE TO ME

As I grew up as a child, I was constrained upon doing certain things that I wanted to do. The

structure, as referred by Anthony Giddens, can act as a constraint upon action. The common

frames of meanings attached to the actions were family’s rules and the ethical code of conduct. When I entered the college, my self-identity seemed lost. It wasn’t because of the change in

my behaviour, but to carry forward, in Gidden’s terms, the narrative of being constrained.

The environment was dynamic: a lot of changes were taking place around me. However, is it

a post-modernist world that I am living in that I find myself constrained with a lot of things or,

in Gidden’s terms, a “radicalised modernity era, produced by extension of same social forces that

shaped the previous age.

What Sociology Has Promised Me

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