Concluding Lecture

1
Concluding Lecture

• Themes in Social Thought

2
Themes from the first class

• the problem of order
• the process of social change
• the function of conflict
• the practice of sociology
• the question of value freedom vs. value commitment

3
Who was most concerned about order?

• Durkheim
• concepts of
• anomie
• forms of solidarity
• collective conscience

4
Who was most concerned about order?

• Spencer
• more subtle
• laissez-faire approach
• Martineau
• concern for social order tempered by concern for
  social justice

5
Social Change

• Marx
• view from the underside
• saw social order as oppressive
• revolutionary change was needed
• Weber and Durkheim
• view of change as gradual, orderly

6
Social Change

• Webb
• Fabian socialist
• change could come through democratic government
• Addams
• also had reformist view
• not a socialist

7
Function of Conflict

• Durkheim, Spencer, Martineau
• opposed to conflict
• Weber
• no explicit position
• Addams
• wary of confrontations

8
Function of Conflict

• Simmel
• could resolve divergent dualisms
• Marx
• would bring about needed change
• Webb
• did not rule out confrontation
• (e.g., in trade unions)

9
The practice of sociology

• Marx
• aimed at bettering the human condition
• Martineau, Webb, and Addams
• also saw their work as alleviating social
  problems

10
The practice of sociology

• Du Bois
• change-oriented, especially with regard to race
• Marianne Weber and Gilman
• change-oriented, especially with regard to gender

11
The practice of sociology

• Durkheim and Spencer
• more detached
• insisted on objectivity
• Max Weber
• advocated value-freedom
• Simmel
• ambiguous
• somewhat criticalbut not strongly

12
Summary of core ideas

• Human beings are best
• understood as social beings
• Cannot survive without society
• Learn at an early age how to interact within
  their particular society

13
Summary of core ideas

• 2. Society is more than a collection of
  individuals
• Interaction produces structures
• People then have to deal with those structures
• Social reality goes beyond individual motivations

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Summary of core ideas

• 3. Structures are not necessarily
• permanent or stable
• For order theorists, the structures must be
  maintained
• For conflict theorists they may be changed
• In either case, social structures are seen as
  humanly created

15
Summary of core ideas

• 4. Despite the complexities
• involved in studying societies,
• it is still possible, and necessary,
• to study human social reality
• in a careful and disciplined manner
• that integrates theorizing
• with empirical observation.

16
In addition . . .

• Some early theorists were
• concerned about social justice.
• This was an important dimension
• in the development of social theory
• that has not completely vanished.
• Theme for 2006 ASA meeting
• Is another world possible?