Summary
Max Weber
- Major Contribution: Social Action, Ideal Types, PESC
- Perspective, methods: Micro interpretativist & voluntarist perspective, Verstehen, Ideal types, rationality, casual pluralism
- Context: rise of capitalism, industrialization, growth of bureaucratic institutions
- Famous for: change in perspective of socio from macro to micro. Social action as subject matter of socio. Bridged gap b/w +vism & idealism
Mead
- Major Contribution: theory of self, symbolic interactionism
- Perspective, methods: micro, +vist, empiricist, symbolic interactionism, evolutionary
- Context: understanding human personality & dev in pre existing society
- Famous for: laying foundations of SI & pioneering social psychology
Parsons
- Major Contribution: Social Action, Social System
- Perspective, methods: macro & micro; structural functionalist, synthesis perspective
- Context: post colonialism chaos, modern world complexities, emergence of welfare state
- Famous for: grand functional paradigm, combining macro & micro, employing multi disciplinary approach
Merton
- Major Contribution: Theory of reference groups, deviance, middle range theories
- Perspective, methods: macro + micro, functionalist & inductive perspective
- Context: failure of pure functional perspectives & grand theories
- Famous for: functional paradigm
Functionalism
Summary
society works as a system of interconnected parts and each part exists because it has to perform certain functional prerequisites of the whole system
Thinkers
- August Comte, Durkheim, Spencer
- Malinowski: studies religion with this perspective
- Murdock: evaluate universality of family
- David & Moore: study stratification
- Herbert J Gans: analyzed functions of poverty
- Merton: studied deviance
Discussion
- consider only beneficial aspects?
- ignore dysfunctions
- conservative and status quoist
- teleological explanations
- confuse cause w/ effect
- eg. Davis & Moore: explain +ve functions of stratification, then use it to explain origin of stratification
Conflict Perspective
- focus on why unequal divisions exist on society
- eg. Marx
- predominantly +vist, suggest grand framework
- Frankfurt School: carried Marxist ideas but also ridding it of deficiencies
- introduced an element of culture into structural analysis
- Gramsci: used Marxist ideas to give concept of hegemony
- Pierre Bordieu: developed his model of 4 fold capitals in modern societies
- Functionalist perspective declined significantly after 1960s, but Conflict perspective has endured
Ralf Dahrendorf
- combined Marxist & Weberian ideas
- related conflict to difference in interests
- unlike Marx, who related conflict only to class, RD added dimension of power, authority
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
- Major Contribution: historical materialism, class conflict, alienation
- Perspective, methods: Macro, conflict, evolutionary. Method of Dialectical Materialism
- Context: Chaos in industrial society, exploitation and poor workers condition, absence of welfare state
- Famous for: radical approach, concern for poor and deprived, gave primacy to society over individual
full text: Karl Marx
Emile Durkheim
Durkheim
- Major Contribution: Social Facts, Suicide, Division of Labour & Religion
- Perspective, methods: macro fundamentalist, evolutionary & positivist perspective, indirect experimentation, inductive & casual functionalism
- Context: Social disorder in Europe (esp. France). Uncertainty & anxiety due to change
- Famous for: first true sociologist, father of sociology, purely sociological explanation, developed distinct methods for sociology, estd. first dept in 🇫🇷
full text: Emile Durkheim