Sociological Theories SSU 3207

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Sociological Theories- SSU 3207

• Harini Amarasuriya
• tantalus_at_sltnet.lk

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Dialectical Conflict Perspective

• Ralf Dahrendorf

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Main concepts

• Argues for the need to study areas of society
  marked by conflict and division
• Unlike Marx however, Dahrendorf argues that
  conflict of interests exists between different
  groups in society with differential levels of
  authority and power rather than economic
  interests
• Thus, argued that there were other social groups
  (not only the proletariat and the capitalist)
  such as managers etc

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Authority and Power

• Authority is associated with social position or
  roles
• Eg Teacher
• Power comes from the personality of the
  individual
• Eg Preacher

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Imperatively Coordinated Associations

• Organisations organised around authority
  relations
• There are many such associations in society
  school, cricket team, the army
• In each ICA there are those who exercise
  authority and those who are subordinated by
  authority
• An individual may have positions in multiple ICAs
  and have multiple roles with different levels of
  authority
• Eg The cricket captain may also be a member of
  the school Parent Teacher Association
• There are groups within the organisations who may
  have similar interests
• Quasi groups those who share interests because
  of their position in relation to authority (in a
  university academic staff, support staff,
  students)
• Interest groups groups with an organisation,
  goal and programme teachers union, students
  union
• Conflict occurs through the struggle that takes
  place between the different interest groups

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Critical Theory
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Basic principles

• Reworked and extended Marxian concepts taking
  into consideration the economic determinism,
  failure of working class revolutions and the rise
  of fascism
• Attempts to understand the social structure and
  to realise human emancipation through social
  change
• School of thought that refers to itself as
  critical because it is geared towards radical
  social change presents a critique of existing
  social reality
• Made an extensive study of the culture industry

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Georg Lukacs

• Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic
• Lukacs work expands on Marxist ideas of
  ideology, reification, class consciousness and
  false consciousness
• Asserted the primacy of social relations in
  determining human existence
• Defined ideology as the projection of the class
  consciousness of the bourgeoisie which seeks to
  prevent the proletariat from realising its class
  consciousness

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Main concepts

• Reification is the consideration of an
  abstraction, relation or object as a living
  thing with human qualities
• In Marxian theory reification is a necessary part
  of capitalist systems whereby things such as the
  market, trade is treated as inherent or natural
  rather than a result of particular social
  relationships

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Class consciousness

• False consciousness is an inherent quality within
  capitalism which is seen as eternal and not as a
  particular moment in history
• This is linked to the alienation that happens as
  a result of reification where the worker is
  estranged from the product of his or her own work
• Only the proletariat can understand the totality
  of the historical process since it is both the
  object of capitalist social formation and the
  subject of as it is its labour that shapes the
  world

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Adorno

• German born sociologist, philosopher and musician
  
• Like others of the Frankfurt School, he believed
  that capitalism had contained the forces that
  would have created the socialist revolution
• He argued that the cultural industry manipulated
  the population and eliminated critical tendencies
  where people became docile and accepted their
  economic circumstances however terrible
• Developed a powerful critique of modernity where
  he argued that reason has become irrational

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Max Horkheimer Main concpets

• Details the difference between objective,
  subjective and instrumental reason
• Objective reason deals with universal truths that
  dictate that an action is either right or wrong.
  It is a concrete concept, and a force in the
  world which requires specific modes of behaviour.
  The focus in the objective faculty of reason is
  on ends, as opposed to means.
• Subjective reason is an abstract concept of
  reason, and focuses primarily on ends.
• In instrumental reason, the sole criterion of
  reason is its operational value or
  purposefulness, and with this, the idea of truth
  becomes contingent on mere subjective preference
  (hence the relation with subjective reason).
• Because subjective/instrumental reason rules,
  the ideals of a society, for example democratic
  ideals, become dependent on the "interests" of
  the people instead of being dependent on
  objective truths.

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Herbert Marcuse Main concepts

• Celebrated in the media as father of the new
  left
• His theory of "one-dimensional" society provided
  critical perspectives on contemporary capitalist
  and state communist societies
• Marcuse argued that much Marxist thought had
  degenerated into a rigid orthodoxy and thus needs
  concrete lived and "phenomenological" experience
  to revitalise the theory
• At the same time, Marcuse believed that Marxism
  neglected the problem of the individual and
  throughout his life he was concerned with
  individual liberation and well-being in addition
  to social transformation and the possibilities of
  a transition from capitalism to socialism.

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• Marcuse argued that "advanced industrial society"
  created false needs which integrated individuals
  into the existing system of production and
  consumption. Mass media and culture, advertising,
  industrial management, and contemporary modes of
  thought all reproduced the existing system and
  attempt to eliminate negativity, critique, and
  opposition. The result was a "one-dimensional"
  universe of thought and behaviour in which the
  very aptitude and ability for critical thinking
  and oppositional behaviour was withering away.
• Not only had capitalism integrated the working
  class, the source of potential revolutionary
  opposition, but they had developed new techniques
  of stabilization through state policies and the
  development of new forms of social control.
• Thus Marcuse questioned two of the fundamental
  postulates of orthodox Marxism the revolutionary
  proletariat and inevitability of capitalist
  crisis. In contrast with the more extravagant
  demands of orthodox Marxism, Marcuse championed
  non-integrated forces of minorities, outsiders,
  and radical intelligentsia and attempted to
  nourish oppositional thought and behaviour
  through promoting radical thinking and
  opposition.

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Jurgen Habermas

• Two broad lines in his work
• Political domain
• Issues of rationality, communication and
  knowledge
• Was deeply influenced by the moral and political
  failure of Germany under its National Socialist
  system

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Key concepts

• Traced the emergence and decay of the public
  sphere which is defined as an arena of public
  debate in which issues of general concern can be
  discussed and opinions formed
• The public sphere involves individuals coming
  together as equals in a forum for public debate
• Democratic debate in modern society is stifled by
  the development of the culture industry. The
  spread of mass media and mass entertainment
  causes the public sphere to be largely a sham
• Commercial interests triumph over public interest
• Instead of public opinion being formed through
  open rational discussion it is formed through
  manipulation and control such as advertising

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Theory of Communicative action

• Distinguishes between
• Work or labour
• Social interaction or communicative action
• Work (purposive rational action) has 2
  components
• Instrumental action individual self interests
• Strategic action two or more individuals
  pursuing a common goal
• Distorted communication is a barrier to free
  communication
• The purpose of critical theory is to describe the
  conditions that distort communication

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Legitimation crisis

• Legitimation crisis is a result of the decline of
  the public sphere
• Public sphere is essentially the framework of
  democracy
• Public sphere has declined due to
• Dominant role of the state in economic
  development
• Dominance of science and technology in serving
  the interests of the capitalist classes
• Solutions to political issues are found in
  technology

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Interactionism and Symbolic Interactionism
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Key concepts

• Interactionism and symbolic interactionism fall
  within interpretive sociological theories
• This perspective believes that social processes
  are a result of social interactions, action and
  negotiations among people
• The daily interactions of people shape social
  processes the social actor (individual) is
  directly involved in shaping social processes
• People do not simply react to external stimuli
  they make conscious choices about their behaviour
  based on how they interpret a given situation
• Eg Using a pedestrian crossing
• Thus, studying how people interact in various
  situations and contexts help us to understand
  society
• Unlike functionalism and conflict perspectives
  which provide models for how society as a whole
  operates, interactionist perspectives focus on
  the analysis of how individual actors behave or
  orient themselves towards each other and society

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Max Weber
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Key concepts

• Weber identified key characteristics of modern
  industrial societies and key sociological debates
  that are relevant even today
• He too sought to understand the nature and causes
  of social change
• Rejected the materialist conception of history
  and saw class conflict as less important than
  Marx
• According to Weber, ideas and values have as much
  of an impact on social processes as economic
  factors
• Significantly, he believed that sociology should
  study social action not social structures
• Unlike Durkheim and Marx, did not believe that
  the structures were external or independent of
  individuals but that structures in society were
  formed by a complex interplay of actions

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Key concepts

• He compared religious traditions in India, China
  and the West and concluded that Christianity had
  a strong influence on the rise of capitalism
• An important concept he introduced was that of
  the ideal type
• Ideal types are conceptual or analytical models
  which rarely if ever exist in reality. However,
  these hypothetical constructions are useful for
  understanding the real world by comparing it to
  an ideal type
• By ideal Weber did not mean that the conception
  was a perfect or desirable goal, but rather that
  it was the pure form of certain phenomenon
• He used ideal types to understand forms of
  bureaucracy and the market

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Rationalisation

• Weber believed that in modern society individuals
  were increasingly engaging in rational,
  instrumental calculations that took into account
  efficiency and future consequences
• Rationalisation was described by Weber as the
  development of science, technology and
  bureaucracy the organisation of social and
  economic life according to the principles of
  efficiency and on the basis of technical
  knowledge
• Weber believed that capitalism was not dominated
  by class conflict but by the rise of science and
  bureaucracy
• However, Weber was fearful of modern society as a
  system that would crush the human spirit by
  attempting to regulate all spheres of social life
  and by the potentially dehumanising and
  suffocating effects of bureaucracy

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Ideal Types for Social Action

• Instrumentally rational action
• Person considers the behaviour of others and uses
  this knowledge to attain goals
• Value rational
• Social actions based on values
• Traditional
• Social actions which are determined by
  traditions, habits and customs
• Affectual
• Social action determined by the individuals
  emotional responses to a particular social
  situation

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Symbolic Interactionism
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Key principles

• The emphasis is on
• Interactions among people
• Use of symbols in communication and interaction,
• Interpretation as part of action,
• Self as constructed by others through
  communication and interaction,
• Flexible, adjustable social processes
• Its concern tends to be the interaction order of
  daily life and experiences, rather than the
  structures associated with large scale and
  relatively fixed social forces and laws.

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George Herbert Mead

• Is concerned with language and meaning
• Language allows us to become self conscious and
  aware of our own individuality and see ourselves
  as others see us
• Symbols are a key element in this process and a
  symbol is something that stands for something
  else
• Waving at somebody
• Mead argues that humans rely on shared symbols
  and understandings in their interactions with one
  another
• Virtually all interactions between human
  individuals involve an exchange of symbols

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The Social Act

• In humans the "manipulatory phase of the act" is
  socially mediated
• That means that when engaged in social acts,
  humans take the perspectives of others into
  consideration
• Eg Interaction between teacher and student
• Mead also argues that the self is entwined within
  a sociological existence For Mead, existence in
  community comes before individual consciousness.
  First one must participate in the different
  social positions within society and only
  subsequently can one use that experience to take
  the perspective of others and thus become
  self-conscious.

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Mind, Self and Society

• Human beings begin their understanding of the
  social world through "play" and "game
• Eg Children
• Through participating in the "game", she gains
  the understanding that she has to relate to norms
  of behaviour in order to be accepted as a player
• Through understanding "the generalized other" the
  individual understands what kind of behaviour is
  expected, appropriate and so on, in different
  social settings

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• Mind, according to Mead, arises within the social
  process of communication and cannot be understood
  apart from that process.
• The communicational process involves two phases
• The "conversation of gestures" and
• Language, or the "conversation of significant
  gestures."
• Both phases presuppose a social context within
  which two or more individuals are in interaction
  with one another.

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Conversation of gestures

• In the conversation of gestures, communication
  takes place without an awareness on the part of
  the individual of the response that her gesture
  elicits in others and since the individual is
  unaware of the reactions of others to her
  gestures, she is unable to respond to her own
  gestures from the standpoint of others.
• The individual participant in the conversation of
  gestures is communicating, but she does not know
  that she is communicating. The conversation of
  gestures, that is, is unconscious communication.
• Eg Dog fight

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The Act

• Mead speaks of the act as determining "the
  relation between the individual and the
  environment
• It is by way of the act that the relation between
  the individual and his world is defined and
  developed.
• What is of interest in this description is that
  the individual is not merely a passive recipient
  of external, environmental influences, but is
  capable of taking action with reference to such
  influences he reconstructs his relation to his
  environment through selective perception and
  through the use or manipulation of the objects
  selected in perception

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• Mead describes the act as developing in four
  stages
• The stage of impulse, upon which the organic
  individual responds to "problematic situations"
  in his experience (e.g., the intrusion of an
  enemy into the individual's field of existence)
• The stage of perception, upon which the
  individual defines and analyzes his problem
  (e.g., the direction of the enemy's attack is
  sensed, and a path leading in the opposite
  direction is selected as an avenue of escape)
• The stage of manipulation, upon which action is
  taken with reference to the individual's
  perceptual appraisal of the problematic situation
  (e.g., the individual runs off along the path and
  away from his enemy)
• The stage of consummation, upon which the
  encountered difficulty is resolved and the
  continuity of organic existence re- established

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Ervin Goffman

• Goffman directed the focus of sociology to how
  even our most minute and insignificant activities
  are socially structured
• For Goffman, society is not homogeneous. We act
  differently in different settings. The context we
  have to judge is not society at large, but the
  specific context

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Dramaturgy

• Within the dramaturgical perspective what is
  studied is not human behaviour but the context
• The theatre is the basis for an analogy with
  everyday life
• Social action is viewed as a performance in which
  actors both play parts and stage manage their
  actions seeking to control the impressions they
  convey to others
• The aim of actors is to present themselves in a
  generally favourable light in ways appropriate to
  particular roles and social settings