Sociological Schools of Thought Different Ways of Looking
- Slides: 24
Sociological Schools of Thought Different Ways of Looking at Sociology and Theories of the Foundations of Society
Structural Functionalism • Theory: Institutions or structures shape society and work together to meet the needs of individuals • Institutions exist because they have a positive function
Structural Functionalists
Conflict Theory • Society is shaped by the conflict between different groups for power. • This theory is shaped by theories of Karl Marx • According to Marx the conflict is between the wealthy and the working class • others have shifted the place of conflict to gender, race or other factors
Feminist Sociology • This school of thought focuses on gender inequality in power, economics, even their own bodies • they examine symbols, values and norms of their society • Dorothy Smith: women are “alienated from their experiences” • global feminism
1890's caricature of gender role reversals (satire of the "New Woman"), with a smoking woman aggressively pursuing a coy man. http: //commons. wikimedia. org/wiki/File: Kvinde-emancipation. gif
Symbolic Interactionism • focus is on the micro (individual) level • theory is individual is at the centre of society and social values and roles are formed by individual interpretation • we need to see ourselves in social roles and see ourselves reflected in the experiences of those around us
• behaviour is rooted in how others respond to us • we can adjust our personality to different situations • How would a symbolic interactionist interpret the experiences of immigrants adjusting to life within a new society? • How would you adjust to a new job/school/ university or college?
Max Weber • rationalization: social actions motivated by efficiency or benefit, not custom or emotion • liberation through bureaucracy (large administration or agency that pursues a wide variety of goals) • bureaucracy can de-humanize (make us cogs) or it can elevate (social services)
Chicago School • focus: how physical environment and social structures determine individual behaviour • how does community shape behaviour • The sociologists would immerse themselves in urban environments and conduct ethographies and participant observation: study social trends in their setting
Charles Cooley, George Herbert Mead and the • society and individual are Looking-Glass Self interconnected • individuals shape society as society shapes individual through the primary group • a primary group is a set of people with whom an individual has strong emotional and personal connections • we influence through these relationships
The Looking-Glass Self • The primary group is essential to developing social identity - we become a reflection and a representative for the primary group. • OUR SENSE OF SELF IS MIRRORED AND REFLECTED BY OTHERS. • like our avatars
• There are three main components of the lookingglass self (Yeung, et al. 2003). 1. We imagine how we must appear to others. 2. We imagine the judgment of that appearance. 3. We develop our self through the judgments of others.
George Herbert Mead • looked at the way that language, symbols, and communication influence relationships • Mead suggests we take on a variety of roles depending on the social situation (masks) • these theories provide a basis for analysis of individual socialization (the process where an individual learns appropriate behavioural patterns, skills, values)
C. Wright Mills and Sociological • sociological imagination is the ability to Imagination connect experience to social reality, where we need to understand the society and structures as well as historical forces that create the sense of imagination • society is a living organism capable of change where problems can be eradicated in time
Conclusion • schools of thought provide different lens or philosophies through which to view how we are socialized in society, from the macro or whole society level, to the micro or individual level
- Sociological imagination vs sociological perspective
- Breadth of penetration
- Looking out looking in chapter 9
- Ways of looking at the world
- Incomplete thoughts
- Islamic schools of thought map
- School of thoughts in criminology
- Schools of management thought
- Three schools of thought in education
- Lesson 1 schools of thought in ancient china
- Macro vs micro sociology
- Major schools of thought in psychology
- 100 schools of thought philosophy
- Gods ways are not our ways
- What is a target school
- Huntsville.powerschool.com
- Different ways to cite evidence
- Different methods of presenting information
- 6-2 other ways of expressing the future
- Describe the different ways
- Three different ways humans regionalize the earth
- Expressing future
- Ways of making permanent joints
- Ways of expressing future tense
- How many different ways