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 Review Notes;  The Later Years of Sociology
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The Context of the Later Years of Sociology   
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Herbert Spencer   
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William Graham Sumner         1840 - 1910   
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Lester F. Ward          1841 - 1913   
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The Chicago School of Sociology   
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      W. I. Thomas   
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      Robert Park        1864 - 1944   
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      Charles Horton Cooley       1864 - 1929   
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      George Herbert Mead      1863 - 1931   
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Women in Early Sociology 
 
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      Mary Wollstonecraft        1759-1797   
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      Harriet Martineau             1802 - 1876   
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      Harriet Taylor & John Stewart Mill            1807 -1857         1806 - 1873   
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      Jane Addams                    1860 - 1935   
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Pitirim Sorokin   1889 - 1968 
 
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Intro to Structural Functonalism 
 
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      Talcott Parsons        1902 - 1979   
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The Frankfurt School & Critical Theory:  Marxism in the Early Years of Sociology   
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Karl Mannheim   
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C. Wright Mills   
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Intro to Conflict Theory 
 
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      Ralf Dahrendorf         1929 -   
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      Randall Collins   
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Intro to Exchange Theory 
 
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     Homans         1910 - 1989   
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     Blau   
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     Emerson 
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Intro to Dramaturgical Sociology   
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     Erving Goffman     1922  -  1988   
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Intro to Phenomenological Sociology   
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    Alfred Schutz     1899 - 1959   
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Intro to Ethnomethodology   
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     Harold Garfinkel   
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Early Marxism in America   
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Early Feminist Theory in America   
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Structuralism   
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Post Structuralism   
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Micro Macro Integration   
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Agency Structure Integration   
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Metatheorizing   
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Introduction to Modernity   
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Post Modernity   
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Theories of Consumption   

 
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 Outline on the Socio Historical Context of the Later Years of Sociology 
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  -  Project:  Theory of the Later Years of Sociology & Your Term Paper 
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  SOCIOLOGY BEGAN AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE IN THE MID 1800s   
  In the US, it is believed that the term Sociology was used as early as 1854 by George Fitzhugh
 
  A course in social problems was taught at Oberlin College, Ohio, around 1858
 
  Sumner taught social science courses at Yale in 1873
 
  During the 1880's "sociology" courses first began to appear regularly
 
  The first dept. of Sociology was at the U of KS in 1889
 
  In 1892, Albion Small moved to the U of Chicago & set up a Soc Dept. which became the first major sociology school
 
  EARLY AM SOCIOLOGISTS WERE LIBERAL, BUT NOT ACTIVISTS   
  Early Am. sociologists were "liberals" compared to the "conservatives" of Europe in that they believed: 
 
  a.  the social sciences should try to preserve / enhance freedom & improve the welfare of the individual
 
  b.  in an evolutionary view of social progress
 
  Some early sociologists believed, just as many do today, that the govt should aid / engineer social reform while others believed in social laissez faireism
 
  Unlike liberals of today, early sociologists refrained from criticizing the system as a whole, not questioning the fundamental tenets of Am. religion, capitalism, govt, race relations, etc.
 
  Because early sociologists refrained from criticizing the system as a whole, this meant that while the early sociologists were helping individuals, at some level they helped rationalize exploitation, imperialism & social inequality
 
  Sociologists, all social scientists, govt employees, activists, politicians, religious leaders, et al, all struggle w/ the dilemma of how to help people & improve the system while not becoming part of the problem
 
  In the post Civil War era, social scientist became well aware of the power & the danger of industrialization
 
  IN THE 1900s, AM SOCIOLOGISTS EMBRACED A MINISTERIAL TYPE OF ACTIVISM   
  According to Vidich & Lyman (1985), early Am. sociologists retained the Protestant interest in saving the world & merely substituted one dialogue ( science ) for another ( religion )  
  Many sociologists were midwestern ministers who supplemented their ministry w/ an education in the social sciences
 
  The fact that early Am. sociology developed as the Am. university system developed, allowed it to develop in a more liberal vein, since it did not have the conservative force of an existing education system as was the case in Europe
 
  Early Am. sociology turned away from a historical perspective examining long term social trends, which was the focus in Europe, toward a "positivistic," "scientistic," or activist orientation examining short term social problems
 
  Despite all the differences that Am. sociology had compared to European sociology, the well established though ot Durkheim, Weber, Marx, & other Europeans remained very influential in Am.  

 
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 Outline on  Herbert Spencer  1820  -  1903
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  INTRO:  SPENCER'S SOCIAL DARWINISM MADE HIM THE MOST WELL KNOWN SOCIOLOGIST   
 
Spencer was more popular & widely read than even such important European contemporaries such as Comte, Marx, Durkheim or Weber because his theory was soothing & reassuring to a society struggling through industrialization, urbanization, etc.  
  Spencer was an English philosopher who applied a wide study of the natural sciences & psychology to philosophy & social problems  
  Spencer was a laissez faire Social Darwinist who was influenced by Lester Ward, Charles Horton Cooley, E. A. Ross, & Robert Park  
  SOCIETY WAS EVOLVING, BUT EVOLUTION SHOULD NOT BE TAMPERED W/ BY SOCIAL SCIENTISTS OR OTHERS   
 
According to Spencer, society was moving, improving, progressing, evolving  
  Because of this natural, evolutionary, progress, Spencer believed the world should be left alone  
  For Spencer, activities by social scientists, govt officials, activists, social reformers, etc. were outside interference which could only worsen the situation  
  Spencer developed the doctrine of evolution into a social philosophy that could be universally applied to all phenomena  
  Spencer was a materialist in that he dealt only w/ those things which could be compared w/ & related to other things  
  The laissez faire Social Darwinist theory holds that some races & ethnic groups were superior to others, evolution was continuing & superior humans were evolving & evolving their superior social systems   
  SOCIAL SCIENTISTS, THE STATE, ETC. SHOULD NOT INTERVENE IN SOCIAL AFFAIRS   
  The state should not intervene in individual affairs except in passive functions such as protecting people  
  Thus, Spencer, unlike Comte, was not interested in social reforms  
  Spencer wanted life to evolve free of external control
 
  Social institutions, like plants & animals, adapted progressively & positively to their social environment
 
  Spencer coined the phrase, "Survival of the fittest" before Darwin & applied it to the social world
 
  If unimpeded, people who were fit, would survive & proliferate whereas the "unfit" would die out
 
  Spencer emphasized the individual, whereas Comte focused on the family & other larger units
 
  THERE IS AN INCREASING COMPLEXITY OF INSTITUTIONS & THEREBY FUNCTIONS / OPERATIONS OF SOCIETY   
  Comte, Spencer & Durkheim were committed to a science of sociology
 
  Comte, Spencer & Durkheim saw society as an organism where the study of sociology should examine the interrelationship of the parts of society, & the functions of the parts for each other as well as for the system as a whole
 
  Spencer, like Comte, had an evolutionary conception of historical development, but rejected Comte's law of the three stages
 
  Spencer's evolutionary theory looked at the size of society as the increased numbers of individuals & compounding, which is the union of groups
 
  The greater the size of a society, the greater its differentiation of functions, thus making society more complex
 
  The greater the size of a society, the greater its level of compounding, i.e. the greater the unification of adjoining groups
 
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The Figure on Spencer's General Model of Evolution shows that social evolution follows a meandering path from pop growth, to differentiation, integration, disintegration, solutions, interdependence or collapse, adaptation, all of which will spur pop growth   
  In compounding, Spencer sees a transition from simple to compound, to doubly compound, & trebly compound organizations
 
  INDUSTRIALISM WOULD EVENTUALLY MAKE MILITARISM OBSOLETE   
  On war, Spencer saw a transition from militant to industrial societies
 
  The militant society brings societies together & prepares them for the evolutionary leap to industrialization
 
  In industrial society, war ceases to be functional because industrialism is based on friendship, altruism, specialization, recognition of achievements, voluntary cooperation, & contractual relations  
  War replaces all these relationships w/ power / force & industrial society replaces power / force w/ altruism, etc.  
  Spencer & many social theorists today believe that modern industrial societies are less warlike  
  SPENCER'S SOCIAL DARWINISM WAS NOT ONLY CRITIQUED BUT ALSO 'ACADEMICALLY EXILED'   
  Spencer's laissez faire Social Darwinism was rejected by any social scientists in the US & Europe who believed that the task of the social sciences was to aid the poor, correct social problems, etc.  
 
By the 1930s, Spencer's laissez faire Social Darwinist ideas fell out of favor in the US because they seemed ineffective in light of the massive social problems, a world war, & the Great Depression  
  Even the conservative Talcott Parson's abandoned Spencer's line of thought  

 
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Figure on Spencer's General Model of Evolution
The Figure on Spencer's General Model of Evolution shows that social evolution follows a meandering path from pop growth, to differentiation, integration, disintegration, solutions, interdependence or collapse, adaptation, all of which will spur pop growth 

 
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Herbert Spencer
1820  -  1903
Born in Derby, England
Was educated in technology & was civil engineer for a railway until he was 26 yrs. old
Then became editor of The Economist
Had insomnia & nervous breakdowns
Had an inheritance that allowed him to live as a gentleman scholar
Following the Civil War, any educated person knew of & studied Spencer
Andrew Carnegie studied Spencer & respected him very highly
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Major Works of Spencer

Social Statics.        1850
First Principles.  1862
the Principles of Biology   1864-67
The Principles of Psychology  1855
The Principles of Sociology  1876-96
The Principles of Ethics    1891

CVDE

 
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 Outline on   William Graham Sumner   1840  -  1910
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-  Biography & Major Works   
  Sumner was a sociologist & economist at Yale   
  In economics, he advocated an extreme laissez faire policy   
  Sumner taught the first course in the US that could be called sociology   
  SUMNER ADVOCATED SOCIAL DARWINISM, OPPOSED GOVT 
INTERVENTION, & BELIEVED IN THE 'SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST' 
 
  Sumner was the major advocate of Social Darwinism in the US, though he changed his view in later life   
  Sumner adopted a survival of the fittest approach to the social world   
  Like Spencer, Sumner saw people struggling against their environment, and the fittest were those who were successful   
  Like Spencer, Sumner was opposed to any govt intervention   
  "If we do not like the survival of the fittest, we have only one possible alternative, and that is survival of the unfittest." 
 
  Sumner's sociology & Social Darwinism fit well w/ the development of capitalism because it provided legitimacy for the existence of great differences in wealth & power 
 
  Sumner concluded that human folkways & customs were so entrenched as to make reform useless 
 

 
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William Graham Sumner 1840  -  1910
American sociologist & economist, professor at Yale
CVDE
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Major Works of Sumner

Folkways.  1907
Science of Society.  4 vols.  w/ A. G. Keller, in 1927


 
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 Outline on  Lester Frank Ward  1841  -  1913
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-  Biography & Major Works  
  WARD BELIEVED IN SOC DARWINISM, ADVOCATED GOVT INTERVENTION, 
& THOUGHT SOC SCIENTISTS SHOULD BE ACTIVISTS 
 
  Like Sumner, Ward was influenced by Spencer  
  Ward accepted the idea that people evolved form lower forms  
  Early society was characterized by its simplicity & moral poverty, whereas modern society was more complex, happier, & offered greater freedom  
  One task of sociology, pure sociology, was to study the basic laws of social change & social structure
 
  But unlike the laissez fairist Sumner, Ward advocated an applied, i.e. active sociology
 
  Ward believed the conscious use of scientific knowledge to attain a better society
 
  Ward believed in the need for & importance of social reform
 
  Ward developed the concept of telesis
 
  Telesis is the process whereby people, through education and development of intellect, could direct social evolution
 

 
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Lester Frank Ward  1841  -  1913
Spent most of his career working as a paleontologist for the fed govt
1906  Elected the first president of the American Sociological Society
1906 took an academic position at Brown
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Major Works of Ward

Dynamic Sociology.  1883


 
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 Outline on the Chicago School
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  THE C-SCHOOL WAS THE FIRST MAJOR AM SOCI DEPT   
  The first major American Dept. of Sociology was founded in 1892 at the University of Chicago by Albion Small 
 
  In 1895, Small founded the American Journal of Sociology 
 
  In 1905, Small cofounded the American Sociological Society (ASS), later, 1959, it was renamed the American Sociological Association (ASA) for obvious reasons! 
 
  The Chicago School dominated until the 1930s when Harvard & Parsons ascended   
  The Chicago School was instrumental in institutionalizing sociology as an academic discipline in the US through the founding of the AJS, the ASA & the first sociology textbook   
  THE C-SCHOOL WAS EMBEDDED W/ RELIGION & AN ACTIVIST AGENDA ON SOC PROBS   
  The Early Chicago school had a strong connection w/ religion 
 
  The Chicago school had a focus on social problems & used Chicago as a laboratory 
 
  The focus on social problems predated Functionalism and Conflict Theory 
 
  The Chicago school focused on social deviance which was seen as a violation of society's norms or rules for appropriate behavior 
 
  For the Chicago school, the term social deviance became synonymous with the term social problems 
 
  According to many thinkers at the Chicago, school social problems were caused by factors external to the individual (ecological) 
 
  THE C-SCHOOL DEVELOPED THE IDEA OF SOCIAL FORCES, 
MOVING OUR UNDERSTANDING AWAY FROM STRICT INDIVIDUALISM 
 
  The Chicago School observed that the individual had little or no control and little or no responsibility in modern, urban society 
 
  The cause of social problems was the unhealthy social environment of the inner city 
 
  Social problems can be solved by integrating the groups in the unstable areas into mainstream American life; another version of the melting pot 
 
  W. I. Thomas ( 1863 - 1947 ) was one of the earliest members of the Chicago School   
  Ecological Sociology has its origins in the work of Thomas & the Chicago School   
  The Chicago School is credited w/ developing Urban Sociology 
 
  Urban Sociology often divided the city into the inner, middle, & outer zones 
 
  The Chicago School theorists saw that the delineation of the urban zones were based on income 
 
  Each type of urban zone had it's own unique type of social problems which were common to a zone from city to city 
 
 
The Chicago School theorists saw that the social problems of each urban zone stayed the same as the people changed   
  Social problems were result of social factors in the city & not the result of various ethnic or immigrant groups   
  THE C-SCHOOL LAID THE FOUNDATION FOR FUNCTIONALISM & MOVING SCHOLARSHIP AWAY 
FROM SOC DARWINISM & INDIVIDUALISM TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF SOCIAL FORCES 
 
 
Durkheim's findings, that social organization is more linked to social density (frequency of contacts and exchanges) than with physical density, were consistent w/ the Chicago School's findings 
 
 
Both the Chicago School & Durkheim found that social problems were not the result of population density only 
 
  The Chicago School laid the foundation of the contemporary examinations of modernity, community & human nature   
  After Tonnies, the concern w/ the natural human becomes hard to find   
  The Chicago School was concerned with human nature & how communities form themselves   
  The Chicago School explicitly recognizes that we have a biological & cultural basis   
  The Chicago School accepted Darwinian & Spencerian competition for survival as the main mechanism of social change, adaptation & spatial organization   
  The Chicago School fostered dualisms that still exist to this day; i.e., the dualism of community & society, as well as the dualism of the natural & the social   
  For Chicago School theorists, people are partly natural & these inborn instincts giving rise to community life   
  Community is both an underlying mechanism which affects people as well as an observable object   
  The Chicago School developed the idea that social differentiation is functional because specialization results in the most effective action   
  A key Chicago School theorist, Hawley, held that there are key units that are important for adaptation such as manufacturing   
  Hawley also developed the concept of Dominant Units (DUs), which holds that DUs have a high degree of influence over other units in the env   
  THE C-SCHOOL WANED AS THE FOCUS CHANGES TO FUNCTIONALISM, SOCIAL FORCES, & EURO SOCI   
  The Chicago School peaked in the 1920s & the death of Mead & the departure of Park in the 1930s caused a loss of prestige   
  The Chicago School had become preoccupied w/ being scientific through the use of sophisticated methods & statistical analysis   
  The use of statistics conflicted w/ Thomas' methodology of descriptive, ethnographic studies focusing on the subjects' personal orientation, i.e. their definitions of the situation   
  Park despised statistics because it prohibited the analysis of subjectivity   
  Thus the division btwn qualitative & quantitative methods, which still exists today, began in the Chicago School   
  The Chicago School declined because it became a victim of its own success because a number of other schools sought to challenge its supremacy   
  Sociology became important at Harvard in the 1930s as the Chicago School began to decline   
  Pitirim Sorokin organized the sociology department at Harvard   
  From Harvard, Parsons became the dominant figure in American sociology for introducing European theorists   
 
DESPITE THE DECLINE OF THE C-SCHOOL IT DEVELOPED SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM 
GIVING SOCI A MICRO LEVEL THEORY IN CONTRAST TO SOC DARWINISM & INDIVIDUALISM 
 
  The Chicago School was declining compared to the ascendancy of Harvard, but still produced major scholars, such as Anselm Straus, into the 1950s   
  Herbert Blumer, 1900 - 1987, who was the symbolic interactionist who coined the term, was the central figure at the Chicago School during its decline 
 

 
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 Outline on  W. I. Thomas  1863 - 1947
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  -  Project:  Beliefs Becoming True in Their Consequences 
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Link
-  Biography & Major Works   
  SOCI SHOULD BE ACTIVIST & REFORMIST; QUALITATIVE METHODS ARE EFFECTIVE   
  His landmark study, The Polish Peasant in Europe & America, (1918), co-authored w/ Florian Znaniecki, reflected the American, & the Chicago school position that sociology should be activist & work toward actual social reform rather than merely, in the European tradition, an academic endeavor  
  Representative of the ecological viewpoint, the Polish Peasant was a study of social disorganization among Polish immigrants  
  The Thomas' used a unique methodology using sources such as autobiographies, paid writings, family letters, newspaper files, public documents & institutional letters  
  PERCEPTIONS ARE AS IMPORTANT AS 'REALITY' IN UNDERSTANDING PEOPLES' SOCIAL ACTION   
  In the Polish Peasant, Thomas coined his now famous phrase, "If men (sic) define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." (Thomas and Thomas, 1928)
 
  Thomas made the connection which emphasized the importance of what people think and how this affects what they do
 
  Thomas' microscopic, social psychological focus contrasted w/ the macroscopic, social structural & social cultural perspectives of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, et al
 
  Symbolic interactionism was to become a major movement w/in the Chicago School
 
  SOCIAL SITUATIONS HAVE AN 'AGREED UPON' REALITY   
  Thomas' work, in emphasizing the power of people's definition of the situation, thereby emphasized the importance of the social situation
 
  The social situation is a reality that is "agreed upon" that is ad hoc (exclusively for a special purpose) for those who participate in it
 
  Each situation confronts one w/ specific expectations & demands specific responses to these expectations
 
  Powerful social pressures exist in just about any social situations to ensure that proper responses occur
 
  Most times, people's definitions of the situation at least approximately coincide even though there can be quite divergent interests
 
  Example of man w/o a shirt:  I construct meaning around this
 
  In actuality, there are only a few unique situations in our life that require definitions that are "societally new"
 
  Examples
Writer & publisher:  each has their expectations about what a book will be about, the style, etc.
Students in a class:  Different students have different preconceived notions about a
      discipline
      Professor
      the subject, etc.
People in a relationship:  friends or lovers or associates
Each of these social groups has expectations that will impact the social construction of their reality 
 
  DEFINITIONS OF SOC SITUATIONS CREATE 'SELF FULFILLING PROPHECIES'   
  Thomas is famous for his quote:  “If men (sic) define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.”
 
  "You are my best friend." 
One's interpretation of a social situation influences the way they act
 
  Much of social behavior is a self fulfilling prophecy in that our expectations determine our behavior & the behavior of others
 
  You will come to believe your own act
You will believe it faster if others reinforce it
 

 
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W. I. Thomas  1863 - 1947

Thomas is noted for his pioneering work on the sociology of migration on which he co-operated with Florian Znaniecki, and for his formulation of what became known as the Thomas theorem, a fundamental law of sociology: "If men define situations as real they are real in their consequences". [Thomas, William I.; Thomas, Dorothy: The Child in America (Alfred Knopf, 1929, 2nd ed., p. 572)]

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Major Works of WI Thomas

Sex and Society.  1907
The Polish Peasant in Europe and America.  1918-1920
With Robert E. Park and Herbert A. Miller as main authors: Old world traits transplanted.  1921
The unadjusted girl. With cases and standpoint for behavior analysis.  1923
Edited by Morris Janowitz): W.I. Thomas on social organization and social personality.  1966


 
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 Outline on  Robert Park  1864  -  1944
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-  Biography & Major Works   
  INTRO:  PARK DEVELOPED THE SOCI OF RACE, CULTURAL ANALYSIS, THE PRESENTATION OF SELF, & ECOLOGICAL SOCI   
  Park had been a reporter & this experience tuned him to the importance of urban problems & the need to go to the field to collect data through personal observation  
  Park studied in Europe under Georg Simmel & was important for bringing those ideas to the Chicago School  
  After Europe, Park joined the Congo Reform Association which worked to alleviate the exploitation in the Belgian Congo  
  Here he met Booker T. Washington & became his secretary  
  Under Washington, Park worked at the Tuskegee Institute  
  W. I. Thomas was giving a presentation at Tuskegee, met Park & invited him to give a course on "the Negro in America" at the University of Chicago  
  This connection eventually resulted in Park moving to the University of Chicago  
  Park & Burgess published the first important sociology text: An Introduction to the Science of Sociology.  (1921) 
 
  CULTURAL ANALYSIS FOCUSES ON THE CONCRETE & ABSTRACT SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS OF SOCIETY   
  Park was interested in the cultural level of analysis & he focused on: 
 
  a.  systems & beliefs 
 
  b.  artifacts & technology 
 
  c.  non material cultural forms 
 
  d.  the natural resources of the habitat 
 
  THE PRESENTATION OF SELF IS THE 'SEMI-CONSCIOUS' DISPLAY OF OUR CONCEPTION OF OUR SELF   
  Park developed some concepts that were important to symbolic interactionism, such as the Presentation of Self or Impression Management
 
  Park said of impression management, "One thing that distinguishes man from the lower animals is the fact that he has a conception of himself, & once he has defined his role, he tries to live up to it.  He not only acts, but he dresses the part, assumes quite spontaneously all the manners & attitudes he conceives as proper to it." 
 
  ECOLOGICAL SOCIOLOGY EXAMINES HOW THE PHYSICAL & HUMAN ENV IMPACTS SOCIETAL RELATIONS   
  Park was also important in the development of Human Ecology, also called Ecological Sociology, or Urban Social Ecology  
  Ecological Sociology is concerned w/ the interrelationship btwn people & territory including how people adjust & adapt to their environment
 
  Park is an important figure in the study of collective behavior, offering perhaps the first sociological analysis of crowd behavior, noting that people imitate each other & under stressful conditions this imitation increases dramatically giving the impression that 'behavior has become contagious'   
  'Contagious behavior' manifests itself in a number of stage, the most notable being the circular reaction wherein when the behavior of a person is imitated that original behavior is reinforces, or encouraged, thus motivating the first person to repeat or act out in an even more extreme behavior, estbing a circular reaction feedback loop  
  Due to his interest in race relations, he took a position at Fisk University (a black university) in 1934  

 
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Robert E. Park  1864  -  1944

Robert Ezra Park (February 14, 1864 - February 7, 1944) was an Am urban sociologist, one of the main founders of the original Chicago School.

Park was born in Harveyville, PN, & grew up in MN. He was educated at the U of Michigan, where he was taught by the pragmatist philosopher John Dewey. His concern for social issues, & especially issues related to race in the cities, led him to become a journalist in Chicago.

After being a journalist in various U.S. towns 1887-1898, he then studied Psychology & Philosophy for an MA at Harvard 1898-9, being taught by another prominent pragmatist philosopher, William James. After graduation, he went to Germany, studying in Berlin, Strasbourg & Heidelberg btwn 1899 & 1903, before returning to the USA. He studied philosophy & sociology in 1899-1900 w/ Georg Simmel at Berlin, spent a semester in Strasbourg 1900, & took his PhD in Psyc & Phil in 1903 at Heidelberg under Windelband (1848-1915). He returned to the USA in 1903, briefly becoming an assistant in philosophy at Harvard 1904-5.

Park taught at Harvard, until Booker T. Washington invited him to the Tuskegee Institute to work on racial issues in the southern US. He joined the Dept of Sociology at the U of Chicago in 1914, staying there until his retirement in 1936. He continued teaching until his death, however, at Fisk University. Park died in Nashville, TN at the age of seventy nine.

At various times from 1925 he was president of the ASA & of the Chicago Urban League, & was a member of the Social Science Research Council.

Park was influential in developing the theory of assimilation as it pertained to immigrants in the United States. 

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Major Works of Park

Dissertation on Crowd Behavior in 1904 resulted in:  Park, Robert. The Crowd & the Public.  1904.
1912: The Man Farthest Down: a Record of Observation & Study in Europe w/ Booker T Washington, New York: Doubleday 
Park, Robert & Ernest Burgess:  Introduction to the Science of Sociology.  "Collect Behavior."  1921. (with Ernest Burgess) Chicago: University of Chicago Press 
1921: Old World Traits Transplanted: the Early Sociology of Culture w/ Herbert A Miller, & Kenneth Thompson, New York: Harper & Brothers 
1922: The Immigrant Press & Its Control New York: Harper & Brothers 
1925: The City: Suggestions for the Study of Human Nature in the Urban Environment (with R. D. McKenzie & Ernest Burgess) Chicago: University of Chicago Press 
1928: Human Migration & the Marginal Man, American Journal of Sociology 33: 881-893 
1932: The University & the Community of Races Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press 
1937: Cultural Conflict & the Marginal Man in Everett V Stonequist, The Marginal Man, Park's Introduction, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 
1939: Race relations & the Race Problem; a Definition & an Analysis w/ Edgar Tristram Thompson, Durham, NC: Duke University Press 
1940: Essays in Sociology w/ C W M Hart, & Talcott Parsons et al., Toronto: University of Toronto Press 
1946: An Outline of the Principles of Sociology, w/ Samuel Smith, New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc
1950: Race & Culture, Glencoe Ill: The Free Press, ISBN 0029237807 
1952: Human Communities: the City & Human Ecology Glencoe, Ill: The Free Press 
1955: Societies, Glencoe Ill: The Free Press 
1967: On Social Control & Collective Behavior, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 113554381X 
1975: The Crowd & the Public & Other Essays, Heritage of Society 


 
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 An Overview on  Charles Horton Cooley   1864  -  1929
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Link
-  Biography & Major Works   
  THE LOOKING GLASS SELF TAKES ACCT OF OTHER'S IMPRESSION OF US & OUR OWN IMPRESSION OF US   
  Cooley had an interest in the nature of consciousness   
  Cooley saw consciousness as integrally related to it's social context   
  Cooley's view of a social consciousness contrast's w/ Mead's view that consciousness is, at some level, independent of it's social context  
  Cooley developed his understanding of a social consciousness in the concept of the Looking Glass Self 
 
  PRIMARY GRPS ARE FAMILY & CLOSE FRIENDS; SECONDARY GRPS ARE ACQUAINTANCES OR LESS   
  Cooley also explored the nature of primary & secondary groups, where the former is characterized by intimate, face to face, regular contact that plays a key factor in linking the actor to the larger society 
 
  Critical primary groups include the family & the peer group 
 
  W/in the primary groups of the family & the peer group, the individual grows into a social being 
 
  It is w/in the primary group that the looking glass self emerges & the ego centered child learns to take others into account &, thereby, to become a contributing member of society 
 
  BEHAVIORISM COULD NOT ACCT FOR HOW WE INTERPRET OUR & OTHER'S ACTIONS & RESPOND TO THEM   
  Cooley & Mead rejected a behaviorist view of humanity where people blindly & unconsciously respond to external stimuli 
 
  Cooley & Mead's views directly contradicted the behaviorism that was important at that time (and remains a major force in psychology today) which held that psychologists should ignore people's consciousness, feelings etc. & instead focus only on observable behavior 
 
  For Cooley & Mead, people had consciousness & a Self 
 
  Cooley urged sociologists to try & put themselves in the place of those they were studying through a method called sympathetic introspection 
 
  Through sympathetic introspection, sociologists could understand meanings & motives that are at the base of social behavior 
 
  Cooley & Mead believed the focus of sociology should be on such social psychological phenomena as consciousness, action, & interaction 
 

 
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Charles Horton Cooley 

1864  -  1929

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Major Works of Cooley

Charles Horton Cooley. Social Organization: A Study of the Larger Mind. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. (1909).

Charles Horton Cooley,  Human Nature and the Social Order. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1956.


 
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 Overview of  George Herbert Mead  1863  -  1931
External
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Link
-  Biography & Major Works
 
  THE SELF EMERGES AS A RESULT OF INTERACTION W/ THE ENV & OTHERS   
  Mead is the most important thinker of the Chicago School & of symbolic interactionism   
  Mead taught that people & their environment created the unity of the individual   
  Mead emphasized natural emergence of self & mind w/in the social order  
  For Mead, the emergence of self & mind comes about as a result of interaction w/ the environment & other beings 
 
  The self emerges from social experience & this social experience is based on the exchange of symbols   
  THE "I" & THE "ME" REPRESENT THE INSTINCTUAL & SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE SELF   
  When fully developed, the self is composed of the "I" & the "me"   
  The I is the self as subject & the me is the self as object   
 
See Also:  Mead on the Genesis of the Self   
  WHILE BEHAVIORISTS' VIEW OF SOC INTERACTION WAS MECHANICAL, MEAD ADDED PEOPLE'S UNDERSTANDING / CONSCIOUSNESS   
  Mead's work must be contrasted against psychological behaviorism 
 
  Mead accepted may of the tenets of psychological behaviorism, but also reject many others   
  Mead adopted the focus on the actor & his/her behavior 
 
  Mead accepted behaviorism's focus on observable behavior, rewards, & punishments 
 
  Mead & Cooley did not accept the behaviorists insistence on excluding any examination of the consciousness of the Actor 
 
  The term symbolic interactionism was not used during Mead's life, but his work on consciousness & Simmel's interest in action & interaction served as the foundation for that school 
 

 
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George Herbert Mead  1863  -  1931

American pragmatist, philosopher, & social psychologist
b South Hadley, MA
Educated at Oberlin College, Harvard University, & in Europe
Taught at the University of Chicago from 1894 - 1931
Influenced by theory of evolution & the social nature of experience & behavior
At the U of Chicago in the 1920's, Mead worked w/ colleagues
  Charles H. Cooley, W. I. Thomas, and others to develop field of Symbolic Interactionism
 
 Timeline on Mead: The Mead Project, Dept of Soc, Brock U, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada L2S 3A1
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Image of George Herbert Mead
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Major Works of Mead

Mead published very little.  His students compiled his work

Mind, Self and Society.  1934, 1962


 
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 Outline on  Women in Early Sociology
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  WOMEN IN EARLY SOCIOLOGY EMPHASIZED WOMEN'S EXPERIENCE & WOMEN'S LIVES & WORK AS BEING EQUALLY IMPORTANT AS MEN'S  
 
Female contemporaries of Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, Cooley, Mead, et al, formed a well connected network of social reformers who develop important sociological theories
 
  Mary Wollstonecraft        1759-1797  
 
Harriet Martineau             1802 - 1876  
 
Harriet Taylor & John Stewart Mill            1807 -1857                   1806 - 1873  
  Beatrice Potter Webb        1858 - 1943  
 
Anna Julia Cooper   1858 - 1964
 
 
Jane Addams   1860 - 1935  
 
Charlotte Perkins Gilman        1860 - 1935  
 
Ida Wells-Barnett        1862 - 1931
 
 
Marianne Weber        1870 - 1954
 
 
Many who lived in the mid 1800s except Cooper were connected through Jane Addams
 
 
Sexism resulted in the ideas & work of women in early sociology being oppressed, ignored, or marginalized
 
 
Addams, et al, developed the idea that women, all people, speak from a situated & embodied standpoint
 
 
Because we all speak from a position in society, history, gender, etc., the tone of male objective theory was misleading if not incorrect
 
  Addams, et al believed that the focus of social theory should be social reform
 
  Addams, et all believed that inequality was the major social problem
 
  There are different types of inequality that need addressing including, class, race, & gender
 
  As did Marx, Addams, et al believed in the interaction & simultaneous development of theory & social activism, which Marx called Praxis
 
  Addams et al were marginalized by labeling them as reformers and activists & therefore not sociologists
 
  However, the ideas of the early women in sociology were incorporated into much mainstream sociology
 
  The tactic of marginalizing activists frequently occurs even today in academe  

 
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 Outline on  Mary Wollstonecraft   1759-1797
External
Links
Link
-  Quotes   
Link
-  Biography   
  - Project: Can education eliminate sexism? 
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  - Project: Wollstonecraft, Education, Rousseau 
Link
 
WOLLSTONECRAFT BELIEVED THAT THE ENLIGHTENMENT HAD NOT IMPROVED WOMEN'S LIVES 
 
  Wollstonecraft was aware that the Enlightenment had improved the lives of the common man, but not women's lives 
 
  Wollstonecraft recognized that the failure of the Enlightenment to improve the lives of women could be traced to: 
- no education for women 
- men's control of "things" 
- the Bible
- classical Greek thought 
 
  WHILE ROUSSEAU HAD ALWAYS BEEN VIEWED AS VERY PROGRESSIVE, WOL REVEALED THE SEXISM OF A MAN WHO ELEVATED WOMEN IN HIS TIME   
  Wollstonecraft attacked Rousseau's point of view on education & women in her famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Women  
  Rousseau believed that men & women should be taught differently, while Wollstonecraft believed that women could rise to a higher position w/ a better ed   
  WOMEN NEEDED EQUAL EDUCATION TO BE EQUAL TO MEN   
  Wollstonecraft distinguishes btwn political & intellectual freedom & women's freedom 
 
  For W, unwilling submission to any person, institution, or custom is limiting, degrading, & destructive   
  Wollstonecraft believed sexism could be eliminated through the education of women 
 
  Women must have the freedom to cultivate reason, the key to self improvement & social change   
  Is education enough to end sexism?   
  Today, it is naïve to imagine that simply equalizing educational opportunity will ensure true equality for women   
  But the century after Wollstonecraft was a progression of newly opened doors for women's education, & that ed significantly changed the lives & opportunities for women in all aspects of their lives   
  Without equal & quality education for women, women would be doomed to Rousseau's vision of a separate & always inferior sphere   
  One's social env & education shape character & morality   
  Ed is the right of all humankind & he vehicle through which women can gain independence & equality   
  EDUCATION & REASON CAN ELIMINATE SEXISM   
  Is Wollstonecraft correct? Can education eliminate sexism? 
 
  Education is certainly part of the solution to eliminating sexism   
  Education may not be sufficient, but it is one path to ‘enlightenment’ 
 
  In viewing education in the larger sense, one sees that many cultures do not/did not have formal education, but they did teach equality 
 
  Wollstonecraft believes that women should be educated, because they educate the young   
  She also argues for the right of woman to be educated, because she is primarily responsible for the education of the young   
  Before 1789 & her Vindication of the Rights of Man, Wollstonecraft was known primarily as a writer about the education of children, & she still accepts this role as a primary role for woman as distinct from man   
  Reason, infallible & God given, should control all human thought & action   
  EDUCATION & WOMEN'S EQUALITY IMPROVE RELATIONS BTWN MEN & WOMEN   
  Wollstonecraft believes that education will improve marriage because marriage is a contractual partnership & thus the woman needs equal knowledge & sense to maintain the partnership   
  Wollstonecraft also argues that educating women will strengthen the marriage relationship, & her concept of marriage underlies this argument   
  A stable marriage, she believes, is a partnership btwn a husband & a wife   
  For Wol, a marriage is a social contract btwn two individuals   
  A woman thus needs to have equal knowledge & sense, to maintain the partnership   
  A stable marriage also provides for the proper ed of children   
  Education will rarely convert someone, but it does add weight to convictions already held 
 
  Education may teach that all people are equal   
  Education gives women employability, & thus economic power 
 
  EDUCATION BENEFITS HUMANITY IN GENERAL   
  Education is power 
 
  Education makes people aware of inequality   
  Education  makes people aware of mechanisms of inequality   
  Education gives tools to work for equality   
  Humankind is evolving social toward perfectibility   
  WOL'S IDEAS OF EQUALITY FOR WOMEN & THE POWER OF ED INFLUENCED MANY IMPORTANT THINKERS OF THE TIME   
  These thinkers influenced/agreed w/ Wollstonecraft:   
  In agreement w/ Wollstonecraft, Baron d’Holbach advocated education for women in System Social (1773)   
  In agreement w/ Wollstonecraft, Condorcet supported ed for women in his “Memoir on Public Instruction” in 1790   
  Catherine Macauley, English author of History of England & Letters on Education, 1790, advocated ed for women, in agreement w/ Wollstonecraft   

 
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Mary Wollstonecraft
1759-1797
William Godwin

Eldest daughter of a drunken, brutish father & a weak but harsh mother
Had a troubled youth, not untypical for Women of the time
Wollstonecraft educated herself by studying books at home
She & her sisters ran a school for a short period
From this she wrote, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, 1787. 
She attacked the cruel treatment of girls, that was common at the time
She also wrote other essays, stories & translations
1797:  married William Godwin, a British political reformer
Their daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, wrote the horror novel, Frankenstein in 1818


 
A quote:
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Quotes by Wollstonecraft
A quote: I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.
A quote: Contending for the rights of women, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge, for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its influence on general practice. 
A quote: Make women rational creatures, and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives; — that is, if men do not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers. 
A quote:   Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in.  In every age there has been a stream of popular opinion that has carried all before it, and given a family character, as it were, to the century. It may then fairly be inferred, that, till society be differently constituted, much cannot be expected from education. 
A quote:   It appears to me impossible that I should cease to exist, or that this active, restless spirit, equally alive to joy & sorrow, should be only organized dust, ready to flay abroad the moment the spring snaps or the spark goes out, which kept it together.  Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable, & life is more than a dream
A Short Residence in Sweden

 
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 An Overview of   Harriet Martineau  1802 - 1876
External
Links
  -  Project:  Martineau on Slavery 
Link
  -  Supplement: Video:  The Rosa Parks Story 
Link
Link
-  Biography & Major Works 
 
  THE 1st STRUGGLE OF DEMOCRACY, OVER THE LEGITIMACY OF DEMOCRACY, WAS BTWN ITS OPPONENTS & SUPPORTER; I.E. THE ARISTOCRATS & THE COMMONERS   
  Democracy demonstrated that people can rule themselves, but aristocrats doubted this & feared the people   
 
The first struggle of democracy took place primarily in Europe   
 
Martineau agreed w/ James Madison & Tocqueville, that the US was proving things that had long been regarded as impossible, i.e. that a people can govern itself 
 
  Martineau saw two classes, or parties, the aristocratic & the democratic   
  The men of learning, feared the ascendancy of the uneducated & allied w/ the aristocratic & they also feared the principle of merit would no longer prevail   
  Martineau saw the classes in America embodied in the parties of 1799 of the Jacksonian era as the Federal ( aristocratic ) & Republican ( democratic )   
  The democratic ( Republican ) party consisted of the hopeful who had not yet risen, people who had gained knowledge from life, not books   
  Martineau noted that Jefferson said one party, "fears most the ignorance of the people, the other, the selfishness of rulers independent of them."   
  IN THE US, THE STRUGGLE OVER THE LEGITIMACY OF DEMOCRACY DID NOT OCCUR BECAUSE OF THE FEW ARISTOCRATS, THE MERITOCRACY, THE CHANCE FOR ADVANCEMENT, & THE GREATER GENERAL EQUALITY   
  The first struggle over the legitimacy of democracy did not occur in the US 
 
  Like Tocqueville, Martineau recognized that this class division bore no resemblance to the classes in Europe   
  For Martineau, the classes in America are different because here the poor respected the institution of private property   
  Martineau was in awe of the energy, intelligence, & competence & the absence of poverty & ignorance & that there was nosign of servility   
  Martineau noted that in Am even villages had libraries, factories, newspapers & public debates   
  Yet poverty did exist, & the rich did flaunt their wealth   
  Thus, for Martineau, the question in America must be framed as the nature of the struggle btwn aristocracy & democracy   
  BECAUSE THERE WAS SOMEWHAT OF AN ARISTOCRACY IN THE SOUTH, DEMOCRACY WAS LESS POPULAR & EFFECTIVE   
  For Martineau the question is 'Should the people govern or should the rich, who were also, presumably, the wise, save the people from themselves, and rule?'   
 
The aristocrats believed the rich, i.e. the govt of the rich should rule 
 
 
The aristocrats saw the will of the majority as the flaw in the new republic because, for example, the poor might overtax the rich 
 
 
The democrats believed in a govt of the people & that rulers in general are prone to use their power for selfish purposes 
 
 
While the Southerners saw this as a struggle between pauperism & property, the Northerners saw it as a question of who should win... & they both should win 
 
 
When property succeeds, it becomes despotic 
 
 
Martineau believed that the new system promised & delivered better material conditions than could be expect elsewhere 
 
 
While the system posited that the majority wills the best policies & elects the best officials, this was not true in practice 
 
 
Yet the Federal (rich) party had produced superior leaders 
 
 
For Taylor & Mill the dilemma of democracy was choosing better leaders w/ aristocratic values or worse leaders w/ popular values 
 
 
America had a self correcting feature:  the ability to throw out corrupt politicians 
 
 
ABOLITION WAS THE ONLY MORAL STANCE ON SLAVERY BECAUSE OF ITS VIOLENCE & CORRUPTION OF THE GENERAL POPULACE 
 
  From 1834-1836 she traveled in the US & met leading abolitionists & became a strong opponent of slavery   
  She attacked slavery in her book Society in America, 1837   
  A democratic republic that is half slave, half free is a contradiction in terms   
  But the threat of slavery to freedom was caused not only by the Southern states but by the Northern states as well   
  The Southern media took no notice of slave burnings  
  A St. Louis paper feared retaliation for reporting on white on black violence   
  The mobs in the North, the South, & in Europe were very different   
  In Europe, mobs were an expression of the exasperated misery of workers & peasants rebelling against oppression   
  In the US, a Boston mob was wholly composed of gentlemen of social status   
  Northerners became compromised in that the merchants & professional men of Boston & other New England cities were fond of Charleston because of commerce   
  People learned that friends & relatives were ostracized if they criticized slavery   
  There was no law limiting the expression of opinion on moral & political subjects, but many wanted it   
  Martineau was temporarily taken in by the anti abolitionist propaganda   
  While Southerners complained that Northerners distributed anti slave into, she never found any   
  Abolitionist meetings were followed by mobbing & rioting, & ironically it was the abolitionists who were blamed   
  Women played a central role because they were not silenced by the anti abolitionists, & continued to pursue abolition   
  George Thompson was a well known English, antislavery orator who was threatened & then did not speak   
  US abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, spoke & was attacked by the mob   
  Garrison published The Genius of Universal Emancipation & was thrown into jail for libel & later he helped found the Liberator in 1831   
  Garrison also adopted other unpopular causes: feminism, anticlericalism, anarchism, further estranging himself   
  On visiting the South, Martineau learned that opposition to slavery & abolition were not the same thing to Southerners   
  Thus, Martineau concluded that Garrison & other abolitionists were retarding the antislavery movement   
  Segregation & discrimination were facts of life in the North & black schools were often not tolerated   
 
SLAVERY DEMEANED LABOR & JUSTICE 
 
  Martineau demonstrated that the institution of slavery contradicted democracy   
  By 1834, when Martineau visited the US, indentured servitude of white immigrants had been abolished   
  13 Southern states allowed slavery, numbering 2.5 mm slaves   
  Some states produced slaves to sell to the other states   
  In the North, work was respected & acquired a moral significance but in the South, work was stigmatized & was seen as degrading   
  In the South, there were two classes, the servile & the imperious   
  The fundamental morality of the slave system was that labor is demeaning & disgraceful   
  Children grow up pitying all whites who have to work   
  This produced the another class among whites:  the mean whites   
  Those who have the stigma of work w/o the color are despised among the blacks   
  Those who have the color w/o the stigma of work are despised among the whites   
  Martineau asks, where there is no justice, what other social virtues are possible?   
  Mercy, the affection that slave holders often showed for their slaves, was mistakenly regarded as an adequate substitute for justice   
  Martineau became weary of explaining that indulgence cannot atone for injury   
 
SLAVERY INJURED THE WHITE FAMILY MORALITY BECAUSE OF THE INHERENT PROSTITUTION IN THE INSTITUTION 
 
  The Quadroon girls of New Orleans were mistresses of white gentlemen & boys were also sex slaves 
 
  Quadroon girls were educated & refined & had a master/lover for life or until the white man was married   
  Then Quadroon girls often committed suicide or remained his mistress   
  Conjugal relations were also common on the plantations btwn slaves & masters   
  Wives of planters were only "the chief slave of the harem."   
  Female slaves became mothers at 15   
  The stricter emancipation laws were a response to the mixed races resulting from these relations   
  To set them free would have been a serious breach of the slave system   
  Martineau notes that the planter accused the abolitionists of their own practice of mixing the races   
  The cruelty to slaves & the sex system created a deep hatred of whites   
  The ideology of the South was such that they did not grasp the true nature of their relationship with the slaves   
  In religious matters there was segregation in church w/ the proclamation that god loves all equally   
  To Martineau, the contradiction btwn segregation in church & god's love was an insult   
 
SOCIETY IS WASTING THE RESOURCES OF HALF IT'S POPULACE, IT'S WOMEN 
 
  If the US govt derives its power from the consent of the governed, then how can half the people have no voice?   
  Why should women obey laws that they never consented to?   
  Jefferson had excluded infants, women & slaves from the US democracy   
  Because women were denied education, their intellectual & other creative capacities remained undeveloped   
  The denial of education & undeveloped capacities reflects Wollstonecraft's analysis   
  But true love ran smoother in the US than in Europe in that there was less abuse & easier divorce   
  Marriage vows were reciprocal, property arrangements were more favorable to the wife, & the wife was not totally a slave of the man   
  The emancipation of any class takes place primarily through the efforts of the individuals of that class   
  It is not known if Martineau encountered any of the writings of Marx, but her belief that individual emancipation was impossible, that the emancipation of a class of people was the only route to freedom is exactly what Marx believed 
 
 
THE ECONOMY IS ONE OF THE CENTRAL FEATURES OF SOCIETY IN THAT IT SHAPES MANY OTHER TYPES OF SOC RELATIONS
 
  Martineau first gained notoriety w/ a series of stories & dialogues illustrating classical economics, esp the ideas of Malthus & Ricardo   
  After a visit it the US from 1834-1836 she began promoting the abolition of slavery & she abandoned her belief in a laissez faire econ for a more utopian system   
  She visited almost every type of institution:  prisons, asylums, hospitals, literary & scientific association, factories, plantations, farms & lived in palatial homes & log cabins   
  A trip to the near east in 1846 led to a study of the evolution of religious beliefs & an increasing skepticism   
  Her chief historical work, The History of the Thirty Years Peace, 1816-1846 (1849) was very popular & widely read   
  Her unorthodox views gain hear a reputation for radicalism that alienated some of her friends but failed to impede her pursuit of ideas   
  She became an adherent of positivist philosophy of Comte which today is known as positivism   
  She translated Comte's Positive Philosophy & offered an insightful discussion of it   

 
 
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Harriet Martineau  1802 - 1876

Martineau was born in Norwich, England. She was educated at home because of poor health. 
Harriet Martineau was the sister of James Martineau, the Unitarian leader. Member of a literary circle including John Stuart Mill, Harriet Taylor, & Thomas Carlyle. Martineau lost most of her hearing at age 12 & had to use a large ear trumpet. Her father, brother & lover all died before she was 24, leaving her impoverished & dependent on her pen for a livelihood.  She was the first English woman journalist writing for the Monthly Repository, the Unitarian journal, in 1821 when she was 19. Martineau was known as a British writer & social reformers who wrote widely on economic, philosophic, & social issues. 

She wrote more than 30 books & thousands of articles in spite of nearly constant illness.  She became famous for a series of stories called Illustrations of Political Economy, 1832-1834.
These stories explained economics for the ordinary reader. Martineau also wrote biographies, essays, fiction, history, poetry, religious works & children's stories. In her writing, Martineau opposed cruel treatment of children in factories & supported voting rights for women. She called for better education & health care for the poor & mentally ill. 

She wrote her Autobiography in three volumes & translated Comte's The Positive Philosophy & believed before she encountered Comte, that the study of society ought to become a rigorous discipline. 

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Major Works of Harriet Martineau

Illustrations of Political Economy, 25 vol.  1832-1834
Poor Laws and Paupers Illustrated, 10 vol.  1833-34
Illustrations of Taxation, 5 vol  1834
How to Observe Manners and Morals, 1834
Society in America, 1837
Retrospect of Western Travel, 1838
Eastern Life, Past and Present, 1848
Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development, 1851
The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte, Freely Translated and Condensed, 1853

 
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 An Overview of   Harriet Taylor & John Stewart Mill
                          1807 -1857                   1806 - 1873
External
Links
Link
-  Biography & Major Works   
  TAYLOR & MILL WERE CONCERNED W/ THE 'TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY," I.E. THE TENDENCY FOR DEMOCRACIES TO RULE IMPULSIVELY & W/O REGARD FOR BASIC RIGHTS   
  Zeitlin believes that Taylor's work was in many ways more important than Mill's work, & many others agree 
 
  Mill embraced the Greek insight that how to think was more important than what to think 
 
  Taylor & Mill began the strand of thought that anticipated what Tocqueville later called the "tyranny of the majority
 
  The tyranny of the majority was the danger of social conformity 
 
  "What is called the opinion of society... is a combination of the many weak, against the few strong; an association of the mentally listless to punish any manifestation of mental independence.  The remedy is, to make all strong enough to stand alone, and whoever has once known the pleasure of self dependence, will be in no danger of relapsing into subserviency" 
Thus Taylor's influence can be seen in Mill's On Liberty
 
  TAYLOR & MILL THOUGHT THE PURSUIT OF LIBERTY WAS THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL STRUGGLE & A FACET OF THAT WAS THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN   
  Taylor & Mill had TWO missions in their life, the emancipation of women & the enhancement of liberty for all 
 
  Taylor & Mill's missions of the emancipation of women & the enhancement of liberty had to be accomplished w/o repressing the few   
  The influence of Comte & St. Simon on Taylor & Mill can be seen in there embrace of the idea of societal progress but in a rejection of an intellectual elite designing & ruling such a society   
  Taylor & Mill's economic theory stresses personal responsibility, allows people to get wealthy, & is a mix of socialism   
  On the subjugation of women, Taylor & Mill demonstrate that we are not going to talk or educate people out of being sexist, rather women will have to become educated & defeat sexist policies &  prejudices   
  Taylor & Mill's political theory advocates the development of govt that protects liberty by protecting the weak from the strong & from the govt   

 
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Harriet Taylor 
       1807 -1857
Born Harriet Hardy, the daughter of a surgeon.  Both families were Unitarians and Dissenters.  The Unitarians were almost entirely free from bigotry.  ( Zeitlin, p. 124 )
Born Harriet hardy in Walworth, near Durham, England. 
1826 married John Taylor, a merchant.
Met JS Mill about 1930, and became close friends.
Taylor died in 1849; she married Mill in 1851
While all of Mill's main works were published after her death, they all were greatly influenced by her. Only the essay “Enfranchisement of Women” bears her name.  It appears in her husband's Discussions and Dissertations, a four volume work published from 1859 to 1875. 
WBE, 1991, Vol. 13, p. 552
Mills became distressed, Taylor brought him back to health & he wrote on corporal punishment, punishment of children, wife murder, & more
They now both had tuberculosis and so outlined their intellectual goals
Mill retired from a position at India House in 1858, they went together to the south of France, where Taylor died at Avignon on November 3rd.  She was 51 years old.  Zt0612p128
JS bought a house there so he could always be near her. 
JS died 15 years later at the age of 67 after a brief illness attended by his wife's daughter Helen, who had looked after him since her mother's death  EP314

 
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John Stewart Mill
    1806 - 1873

Mill was the most influential philosopher in the English speaking world during the 19th century.  ( Encyclopedia of Phil, p. 314 )  Mill was born in London and educated by his father, James Mill, 1773-1836.  By the age of 14 he had mastered Latin, classical literature, logic, political economy, history, & math.  He entered the East India Company as a clerk at 17.  Like his father, he became director of the company. He retired after 33 years of service and was elected to Parliament in 1865. Was the leader of the utilitarian movement. [ The utilitarian movement today is not highly regarded.  But his other works are widely respected. ] Mill tried to help the English working people by promoting measures leading to a more equal division of profits.  He favored a cooperative system of agriculture and increased rights for women. WBE, 1991, Vol. 13, p. 552 1826  JS Mill had an attack of intense depression.  It took the poetry of Wordworth to help cure him.  Mill felt he had been overly rational and that his capacity for emotion had been unduly weakened by strenuous training in analytical thought, with the result that he could no longer care for anything at all  EP315. William John Fox was the most prominent Unitarian of the time and ran the Monthly Repository.  In 1830, after her second son was born, Taylor remarked to Fox that she needed a discussion partner.  Fox introduced her to JS Mill.  Zeitlin. In 1831 when he was 25 and she was 24.  they developed a deep though Platonic love and for the next 20 years they saw each other almost constantly despite the increasing social isolation this created  EP315. Dissenters and Radicals became closer.  The Unitarians and the Utilitarians became closer  ( Zeitlin )


 
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Major Works of Harriet Taylor & J.S. Mill
Mill:
He served as editor of the Westminster Review  from 1835 to 1840 and wrote many articles on economics. 
His greatest philosophical work, System of Logic, 1843, ranks with Aristotle's work in that field.
Mill applied economic principles to social conditions in Principles of Political Economy, 1848. 
Utilitarianism, 1863
On Liberty, 1859
The Subjection of Women, 1869
Autobiography, 1873
WBE, 1991, Vol. 13, p. 552

 
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James Mill, father of John Stewart Mill
       1773 - 1836                       1806 - 1873

Mill was born in Scotland and graduated from Edinburgh University where he studied for the ministry.  he became a Presbyterian minister in 1798 but left the ministry in 1802 to become a journalist. Established a reputation as a writer with A History of British India, 1817.  this work influenced changes in the Indian government.  It won him a job with the East India company in 1819 which he headed from 1830 until his death.  In 1808, Mill met Jeremy Bentham, a political economist and the father of utilitarianism.  The utilitarians believed that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the sole purpose of all public action.  Mill followed Bentham and became editor of the utilitarian St. James’ Chronicle. Mill's writing helped clarify the meaning of utilitarianism. Analysis of Phenomena of the Human Mind, 1829:  a study of psychology
Elements of Political Economy, 1821:  wrote it for his son and became the first textbook of English economics. Fragment on Mackintosh, 1835:  views of utility as the basis of morals.
WBE, 1991, Vol. 13, p. 552


 
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 Outline on  Jane Addams   1860 - 1935 
External
Links
Link
-  Biography & Major Works
 
 
ADDAMS WAS A PRAGMATIC PROGRESSIVE WHO, MORE THAN MOST SCHOLARS, COMBINED ACTION & THEORY 
 
 
Jane Addams can be labeled the first woman "public philosopher" in US history 
 
 
Addams is best known for her pioneering work in the social settlement mvmt, the radical arm of the progressive mvmt whose adherents so embraced the ideals of progressivism that they chose to live as neighbors in oppressed communities to learn from & help the marginalized members of society 
 
 
Addams is part of the progressive / pragmatist phil mvmt & she worked w/, influenced & was influenced by other pragmatists & social scientists of her time such as John Dewey, William James, & George Herbert Mead 
 
 
Her dozen published books & over 500 articles display a robust intellectual interplay btwn experience & reflection 
 
 
Like any true pragmatist, Addams experiences & actions provided the foundation for a robust intellectual perspective 
 
 
Addams viewed her settlement work as a grand epistemological endeavor but in the process she also never forgot the humanity of her neighbors 
 
 
Addams was indeed a public philosopher, one who was not afraid to get her hands dirty 
 
 
Addams’ philosophy combined feminist sensibilities w/ an unwavering commitment to social improvement through cooperative efforts 
 
 
Although she sympathized w/ feminists, socialists, & pacifists, Addams refused to be labeled 
 
 
This refusal was pragmatic rather than ideological in that Addams' commitment to social cohesion & cooperation prompted her to eschew what she perceived as divisive distinctions 
 
 
Active democratic social progress was so essential to Addams that she did not want to alienate any group of people from the conversation or potential participation 
 
 
Her audience varies as she directs her writing toward influencing different constituencies of the public   
 
Addams did not intend to engage in philosophical narratives removed from social improvement, but neither did she intend to pursue social activism w/o theorizing about the nature of her work   
  In this respect, through her integration of theory & action, Addams carried pragmatism to its logical conclusion taking up applied philosophy   
  THE HULL HOUSE OFFERED A COMPLETE RANGE OF SOCIAL SERVICES & WAS PRAGMATICALLY BASED IN THAT MANY DIFFERENT APPROACHES WERE TESTED   
 
While in London, Addams was influenced by Andrew Mearn's essay, The Bitter Cry of Outcast London, which highlighted slum & visited Toynbee Hall, a settlement house in the East End of London 
 
  In 1889 she & her friend, Ellen Gates Starr cofounded Hull House in Chicago, Illinois, one of the first settlement houses in the US   
  At its height, Hull House was visited each week by around two thousand people   
  Hull House's facilities included a night school for adults, kindergarten classes, clubs for older children, a public kitchen, an art gallery, a coffeehouse, a gymnasium, a girls club, a swimming pool, a book bindery, a music school, a drama group, a library, & labor related divisions   
  She is probably most remembered for her adult night school, a forerunner of the continuing education classes offered by many community colleges today   
  Hull House also served as a women's sociological institution   
  Addams was a friend & colleague to the early members of the Chicago School of Sociology, influencing their thought through her work in applied sociology &, in 1893, co-authoring the Hull House Maps & Papers that came to define the interests & methodologies of the School   
  The near half century that she lived & worked as the leader of the social settlement, Hull House, gave her an opportunity to bring her commitment to social improvement, feminism, diversity, & peace to direct action   
  The diversity & oppression in the neighborhood surrounding Hull House was staggering   
  Accordingly, her writing is replete w/ examples from her Hull House experience addressing untypical topics for philosophic discourse such as garbage collection, immigrant folk stories, & prostitution   
  Hull House also offered an employment bureau, an art gallery, libraries, & music & art classes.   
  Among the projects that the members of the Hull House opened were the Immigrants' Protective League, the Juvenile Protective Association, the first juvenile court in the US, & a Juvenile Psychopathic Clinic  
  ADDAMS INTERMIXING OF ACTION & THEORY RESULTED IN A MORE RADICAL PRAGMATISM, WHICH COMBINED SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM, PHIL, FEMINISM, SYMPATHETIC KNOWLEDGE, & 'STANDPOINT EPISTEMOLOGY   
  She worked w/ George H. Mead on social reform issues including promoting women's rights, ending child labor, & the mediating during the 1910 Garment Workers' Strike   
  Although academic sociologists of the time defined her work as "social work", Addams did not consider herself a social worker   
  She combined the central concepts of symbolic interactionism w/ the theories of cultural feminism & pragmatism to form her sociological ideas (Deegan, 1988)   
  Within Addams' work, a wellspring of nascent feminist philosophical insight can be found. Addams' ethical philosophy was guided by the notion of sympathetic knowledge that she described as, "the only way of approach to any human problem" (NCA)   
  Sympathetic knowledge is a mingling of epistemology & ethics: knowing one another better reinforces the common connection of people such that the potential for caring & empathetic moral actions increase   
  Addams not only theorized about the idea of sympathetic knowledge, but she lived it   
  Sympathetic knowledge underwrote Addams' approach to the diversity that she confronted in the immigrant neighborhood surrounding Hull House & allow her to develop a precursor to standpoint epistemology   
  Addams' leadership among the American pragmatists in understanding the poor & oppressed resulted in a more a radical form of pragmatism than Dewey & James, imbued w/ a class & gender consciousness   
 
Addams' development of the ideas of sympathetic knowledge & standpoint epistemology are leading edge ideas in the social sciences today as seen in the contemporary pursuit of post modernists & others who seek understandings that move beyond individualist methodology towards a version of a perspectival truth that reconciles many diverse points of view   
  Ultimately, Addams exemplifies & theorizes about what today is described as care ethics   
  Addams' version of care ethics does not privatize caring relationships in metaphors of parent child relationships, but assertively extends the notion to the community & society   
 
AFFILIATIONS
 
  Addams helped organize the Women's Peace Party & the International Congress of Women in an effort to avert the first World War   
  In 1917, after America entered the war, she was expelled from the Daughters of the American Revolution   
  Jane Addams was a member of the NAACP, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, & the first vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Assoc in 1911   
  She was also actively involved w/ Pi Gamma Mu, the social science honor society   
  In 1901 she founded the Juvenile Court Committee which has since become the Juvenile Protective Association, a private nonprofit organization in Chicago that protects children from abuse & neglect   

 
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Jane Addams  1860 - 1935 

Laura Jane Addams was born in Cedarville, IL on September 6, 1860. She grew up in the shadow of the Civil War & during a time when Darwin's Origin of the Species achieved widespread influence. Her childhood reflected the material advantage of being the daughter of a politician & successful mill owner, John Addams. When Jane was 2 years old her mother, Mary, died in childbirth. She went to the all women's institution, Rockford Seminary (renamed later, Rockford College). 

After college she failed at medical school & then slipped into a decade long malaise over the direction of her life.  In searching for direction, she trekked to Europe, & visited Toynbee Hall, which was a community of young men committed to helping the poor of London by living among them. Addams eventually decided to replicate the settlement in the US, as Hull House.  Although Hull House was co-educational, it was clearly a woman identified space. 

Addams became one of the most respected & well recognized individuals in the nation. She played a key role in numerous progressive campaigns. Addams was a founding figure in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the American Civil Liberties Union, & the Women's International League for Peace & Freedom. 

Addams had challenged the borders of the public & private spheres, but after World War I broke out in Europe, her outspoken pacifism & refusal to endorse the war or the U.S. entry into it, was more gender role transgression than the public could tolerate from a woman. Addams' popularity fell & she became the victim of vicious gender specific criticism. From 1914 through the end of her life, Addams' publications became decidedly more focused on issues of peace & war including two books exclusively dedicated to the topic Although initially criticized, Addams' pacifist tenacity was recognized w/ the Nobel Peace Price (1931). In the last years of her life, she spent less time at Hull House & more time working for world peace & an end to racism. Addams died of cancer on May 21, 1935, leaving a tremendous intellectual legacy that has yet to be fully explored.

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Major Works of Jane Addams 


 
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 Outline on   Pitirim Sorokin   1889  -  1968
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-  Biography  & Major Works   
  SOCIAL CHANGE OCCURS IN CYCLES OF SENSATION, IDEATION, & IDEALISM  
  In his Social & Cultural Dynamics Sorokin developed a general theory of social & cultural change  
  In contrast to evolutionary theories of social change, Sorokin developed a cyclical theory   
  Societies oscillate among three different types of mentalities:  the sensate, the ideational, and the idealistic   
  Sensate societies emphasize the role of the senses in comprehending reality   
  Ideational societies have a transcendental & religious way of understanding reality 
 
  Idealistic societies balance the senses & the transcendental understanding of reality 
 
  Social change occurs as a result of the internal logic of each of these systems 
 
  Each type of society extends it mode of thinking to its logical extreme so that it provides the groundwork for its own demise 
 
  As people reach the end of the development of the sensational understanding, they turn to the transcendental mode of understanding 
 
  As the society becomes excessively religious, the stage is set for the rise of an idealistic culture 
 
  And this cycle of the three mentalities will repeat itself 
 

 
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Pitirim Sorokin  1889  -  1968
Established the Harvard School of Sociology which came to
displace the Chicago School as the dominant force in American Sociology

Supporting himself as artisan & clerk, he was able to study at the U of St. Petersburg & to teach sociology. Sorokin was imprisoned 3 times by the czarist regime of Russian Empire; during the Russian Revolution he was a member of Alexander Kerensky Russian Provisional Govt. After the October Revolution he engaged in anti Bolshevik activities, for which he was condemned to death by the victorious Bolshevik government; the sentence was commuted to exile. He emigrated in 1923 to the US & was naturalized in 1930. Sorokin was professor of sociology at the U of MN (1924–30) & at Harvard University (1930–55), where he founded the Dept of Sociology.

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Major Works of Sorokin

Social Mobility. (1927)
Contemporary Sociological Theories.  1928
Principles of Rural Urban Sociology.  1929 with Carle C. Zimmerman
A Systematic Source Book in Rural Sociology.  1929 with Zimmerman and Charles J. Galpin
Social and Cultural Dynamics.  4 volumes.  1937 - 1941
Facts and Foibles in Modern Sociology and Related Sciences.  1956
The Crisis of our Age
Power and Morality

His writings cover the breadth of sociology; his controversial theories of social process and of the historical typology of cultures are expounded in Social and Cultural Dynamics (4 vol., 1937–41; rev. and abridged ed. 1957) and many other works. He was also interested in social stratification, the history of sociological theory, and altruistic behavior.

Sorokin is author of books such as The crisis of our age and Power and morality, but his magnum opus is Social and Cultural Dynamics (1937-1941). His unorthodox theories contributed to the social cycle theory and inspired (or alienated) many sociologists.

In his Social and Cultural Dynamics he classified societies according to their 'cultural mentality', which can be ideational (reality as spiritual), sensate (reality is material), or idealistic (a synthesis of the two). He has interpreted the contemporary Western civilization as a sensate civilization dedicated to technological progress and prophesied its fall into decadence and the emergence of a new ideational or idealistic era.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitirim_Sorokin


 
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 Outline on the Introduction to Functionalism
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FUNCTIONALISM VIEWS SOCIETY AS A LIVING ORGANISM 
 
 
Functional theory is often traced from Durkheim to the Chicago School to Parsons & Merton
 
 
Early social thinkers likened the operation of society to that of a living organism, such as the human body, exemplifying the quality of consensus  
 
LIKE AN ORGANISM, SOCIETY EXEMPLIFIES THE CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE:  NEEDS, REPRODUCTION, COMPETITION, COOPERATION, & ORDER  
  Like an organism, society exemplifies the FIVE characteristics of life:
- has needs (need inputs)
- has ways to reproduce
- competes
-  cooperates
- needs order or it is "sick" or has "cancer"
 
  THE QUALITIES OF SOCIETY ARE THAT IT HAS PARTS CALLED SOCIAL STRUCTURES, THAT ARE INTERDEPENDENT, & THEY FUNCTION TO PRODUCE CONSENSUS & STABILITY   
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Functionalism views society as having FOUR qualities:
Society has
- parts                                    ( social structures ) ( PF REG M CEML )
- that are interdependent         ( mutual interrelations )
- that function to produce       ( functional requisites )
- consensus & stability           ( society is in equilibrium ) 
 
 
FUNCTIONALISM IS A MACRO PARADIGM 
 
  Functionalism is a macro paradigm / perspective (set of theories)   
  Functionalism is a paradigm & is therefore contains many theories such as:
- order perspective                - systems theory 
- structural functionalism        - neo-functionalism
- consensus theory
 

 
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4.  Society is made up of interdependent parts:
The parts / components of society are termed Social Structures 
1.   Peers  6.   Military
2.   Family 7.   Charity
3.   Religion 8.   Education
4.   Work (economy) 9.   Media
5.   Government 10. Recreation/leisure
       PF REG M CEML

 
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 An Overview of  Talcott Parsons  1902  -  1979
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PARSONS DEVELOPED A NATIVIST FUNCTIONAL THEORY WHICH VIEWS SOCIETY AS A COMPLEX MECHANISM OF INTER-RELATED SOCIAL PROCESSES ORGANIZED BY SOCIAL STRUCTURES   
  Parsons was responsible for making the Harvard School the dominant school of American sociology from the 1930s & into the 1960s  
  In 1937 Parsons wrote the Structure of Social Action which introduced many American sociologists to Durkheim, Weber, Pareto, & other European sociologists
 
  Parsons elevated theory to a position above social reform & activism, reversing the activist trend of the Chicago School
 
  Parsons' body of theory grew to have profound influence on American sociology
 
  Parsons' structural functionalism & structural functionalism in general examined relationships among large scale social structure and institutions
 
  Because of the nearly exclusive focus on large scale social structure and institutions, Parsons' structural functionalism was unable to explain social change & behavior at the individual level  
  Parsons was concerned w/ how order was maintained in & by the various elements of society
 
  Change was seen as an orderly process
 
  Parsons examined social systems as well as how these systems interacted w/ cultural & personality systems 
 
  Cultural & personality systems operated in the same manner as the social system in that they are defined by cohesion, consensus, and order
 
  Cohesion, consensus, and order are maintained in any system because of the functions that any system must carry out
 
  Most writers now recognized that Parsons' interpretation of European sociologist reflected his own orientation & omitted much that contradicted his orientation, totally ignoring such theorists as Marx
 
  Like many other sociologists he attempted to combine human agency and structure in one theory and was not confined to functionalism  
  Parsons had a vision of an integrated social science, he produced a general theoretical system for the analysis of society  

 
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Talcott Parsons  1902  -  1979

Talcott Parsons was for many years the best known sociologist in the United States, and indeed one of the best known in the world. His work was very influential through the 1950s and well into the 1960s, particularly in America, but fell gradually out of favor from that time on. The most prominent attempt to revive Parsonian thinking, under the rubric "neofunctionalism," has been made by the sociologist Jeffrey Alexander, now at Yale University.

Parsons served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1927-1973. A central figure first in Harvard's Department of Sociology, and then in its Department of Social Relations (created by Parsons to reflect his . 

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Major Works of Parsons

The Structure of Social Action (1937) 
The Social System (1951) 
Economy and Society (with N. Smelser) (1956) 
Structure and Process in Modern Societies (1960) 
Sociological Theory and Modern Society (1968) 
Politics and Social Structure (1969) 
The American University (with G. Platt) (1973)) 
Social Systems and the Evolution of Action Theory (1977) 
Action Theory and the Human Condition (1978) 


 
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 Outline on the Frankfurt School
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  THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL LOOKED AT ECON FORCES, THEN CULTURAL FORCES IMPACT ON SOCIETY   
  From the 1900s to the 1930s Marxism developed outside of mainstream sociology
 
  The Frankfurt School was perhaps the only mainstream school of Marxism 
 
  The Frankfurt School was the product of Felix J. Weil
 
  The Institute of Social Research was officially found in Frankfurt, Germany in 1923
 
  Because of Nazism, the Frankfurt School moved to Columbia University from 1934 - 1949
 
  The Frankfurt School thinkers focused on the economic domain until the 1930s when they also focused on the cultural system
 
  Thinkers at the Frankfurt School began to see the cultural system as being as important as the economic system in understanding the functioning of capitalism
 
  The emphasis on the economic system or the cultural system is one of the major aspects that separates orthodox Marxists from Neo Marxists  
  The focus on the cultural system is similar to that taken earlier by Hegelian Marxists such as George Lukacs & is also more in line w/ conflict theorists & pluralists today
 
  In order to understand the cultural system, the Frankfurt School adopted many of Weber's ideas 
 
  Many at the Frankfurt School adopted the methodologies, including statistical analysis, of the American sociologists
 
  Many at the Frankfurt School also integrated the work of Freud into their analyses of culture
 
  MODERN ASPECTS OF INDUSTRY, CAPITALISM, FASCISM, & WAR WERE IMPACTING SOCIETY   
  The Frankfurt School tried to diagnose the ruined, pathological world of the early 20th century which was dominated by industrial capitalism, national socialism (Nazism), and war
 
  The Frankfurt School consistently returned to two questions:  How did we get here? and Where does salvation lie? 
 
  The Frankfurt school turned away from the solutions of traditional Marxists & other activists who focused on political activism, a revolutionary labor movement, etc.
 
  Instead, the post 1930 Frankfurt School advocated the positive, liberation qualities of avant garde art, psychoanalysis, dialectical philosophy, messianic religion, etc. 
 
  These analysis at first went under the name of Critical Theory and were the first embodiments of truly interdisciplinary theory
 
  By the time of Horkheimer & Adorno, the Frankfurt School thinkers no longer referred to their work as philosophy, sociology, aesthetics or psychology; was, simply, "Theory"  

 
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 Outline on  Karl Mannheim  1893  -  1947
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-  Biography & Major Works 
 
  Mannheim is responsible for the creation of the field known as the sociology of knowledge 
 
  Mannheim also examined rationality in a manner that picks up on Weber's views but offers a more concise examination 
 
  FOR MANNHEIM, EPISTEMOLOGY:  THE SOCIOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE, 
SHOWS THAT KNOWLEDGE IS CREATED IN / BY SOCIAL EXISTENCE 
 
  Mannheim's first area of exploration was of epistemology & the sociology of knowledge   
  Mannheim's developed a comprehensive sociological analysis of the structures of knowledge   
  Mannheim follows Comte & Hegel who believed that in the past people had been dominated by histl processes, but in the future we would gain ascendancy over them   
 
For Mannheim, the sociology of knowledge is the systematic study of knowledge, ideas, or intellectual phenomena in general 
 
 
Mannheim fundamentally agrees w/ Marx on the relationship btwn econ structure & culture, the base & the superstructure   
  See Also:  The Base & the superstructure   
  There is a correlation btwn the econ struc of a society & its legal & political organization, & that even the world of our thought is affected by these relationships   
 
Mannheim examined the relationship among political, legal, phil, religious, & other ideas & their relationship w/ econ & soc changes   
  The ideas that people hold vary w/ changing econ circumstances & they are "somehow connected w/ the social context in which they live"   
 
To Mannheim, knowledge is determined by social existence 
 
 
Mannheim relates the ideas of a group to their position in the social structure 
 
 
Marx related the ideas of social classes to their positions in the social structure while Mannheim focused on social groups in the social structure 
 
  Mannheim's theories structures of knowledge were not embraced by Marxists or the neo Marxists of the Frankfurt School   
  For the Marxists &  neo Marxists a focus on the theories of the sociology of knowledge reduced the examination of class analysis & critiques of capitalism   
 
THE SOCIAL SCIENCES SHOULD ADDRESS SOCIAL PROBLEMS   
  Mannheim's second area of exploration was why & how the social sciences should address "the challenging present"   
  Mannheim had an ethical commitment to develop the social sciences as "a specifically modern way of thought which contributes to the rational self orientation of man [sic] in indl society"   
  In his belief in another way of thinking, in the 'new intellectual tools,' Mannheim is laying the foundation for Mills' concept of the sociological imagination   
  Mannheim also developed a comprehensive analysis of the structure of modern society by way of democratic social planning &  education  
  IDEOLOGY IS A GRP'S MENTAL REPRESENTATION OF THEIR HISTL POSITION IN SOCIAL STRUCTURE & CULTURE, IE BY SOCIAL CONTEXT   
 
Mannheim extends Marx's views on social classes, ideology, positions in the social structure to include a variety of different positions in society such as generations 
 
 
Mannheim is also well known for his idea systems of ideology & utopia 
 
 
An ideology is an idea system that seeks to conceal & conserve the present by interpreting it from the point of view of the past 
 
  Mannheim saw ideology as the perhaps deliberate obscuring of facts   
  Mannheim traced the history of the term ideology from what he called a 'particular' view   
 
Those who are advantaged use their power to influence the opinions of others so that, for a time, people tend to believe in values & ideas that support the existing order   
 
From Mannheim's work, an ideology may be defined as a set of  knowledge, values, & beliefs that support, or give legitimacy to the social structure 
 
 
Though Mannheim was by no means a Marxist, his conception of ideology as a culture that supports the social structure is something that sociologists of both the functionalist & conflict perspectives acknowledge   
  Mannheim inquired into the roots of culture   
 
A utopia is a system of ideas that seeks to transcend the present by focusing on the future 
 
 
For Mannheim, conflict btwn ideologies & utopias is an ever present reality in society 
 
  In 'Ideology &  Utopia' he argued that the application of the term ideology ought to be broadened   
  Mannheim's view gave way to a 'total' conception of ideology (most notably in Marx) which argued that a whole social group's thought was formed by its social position (e.g. the proletariat's beliefs were conditioned by their relationship to the means of production)   
  Mannheim developed a general, total conception of ideology, in which it was recognized that everyone's beliefs, including the social scientist's, were a product of the context they were created in   
  He feared this could lead to relativism but proposed the idea of relationism as an antidote   
  To uphold the distinction, Mannheim maintained that the recognition of different perspectives according to differences in time & social location appears arbitrary only to an abstract & disembodied theory of knowledge   

 
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Karl Mannheim  1893  -  1947

Karl Mannheim (March 27, 1893, Budapest - January 9, 1947, London) was born in Budapest, Hungarian & died in London.  He was a sociologist, who influential in the first half of the 20th century & one of the founding fathers of classical sociology. Mannheim rates as a founder of the sociology of knowledge.

He studied in Budapest, Berlin -- in 1914 he attended lectures by Georg Simmel --, Paris & Heidelberg. During the brief period of the Hungarian Soviet in 1919 he was offered a position by his friend & mentor Georg Lukacs. After the collapse of the government Mannheim moved to Germany. From 1922 to 1925 in Heidelberg he worked under the German sociologist Alfred Weber, brother of the well known sociologist Max Weber. Norbert Elias worked as one of his assistants (from spring 1930 until spring 1933). He immigrated to England in 1933.  He held posts at Heidelberg, Frankfurt, the London School of Economics & the University of London. 

Mannheim's biography, one of intellectual & geographical migration, falls into three main phases: Hungarian (to 1919), German (1919-1933), British (1933-1947). Among important intellectual influences are Georg Lukacs, Georg Simmel, Edmund Husserl, Karl Marx, Alfred & Max Weber, Max Scheler & Wilhelm Dilthey. Through these & others, German historicism, Marxism, phenomenology, sociology & Anglo American pragmatism entered his work.

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Major Works of Mannheim

([1922-24] 1980) Structures of Thinking. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 
([1925] 1986) Conservatism. A Contribution to the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 
Ideology & Utopia.  1929 
(1936) Ideology & Utopia. London: Routledge. 
(1940) Man & Society in an Age of Reconstruction. London: Routledge. 
([1930] 2001) Sociology as Political Education. New Brunswick, NJ. Transaction 
(1971. 1993) From Karl Mannheim. New Brunswick, NJ. Transaction 


 
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 Outline on    C. Wright Mills   1916  -  1962
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  MILLS DEVELOPED THE CONCEPT OF THE SOC IMAGINATION WHICH PROVIDED A PERSPECTIVE OF ONE'S OWN LIFE AS SHAPED BY HISTL / SOCIAL FORCES   
  Mills almost single handedly kept a Marxist line of thought alive in American sociology
 
 
Mills was considered to be very radical in the 1950s when he Americanized European Marxism 
 
  THE POWER ELITE ARE A NETWORK OF UPPER CLASS MEMBERS WHO DOMINATE WESTERN SOCIETY THROUGH CONTROL OF THE ECON   
 
Mills' Power Elite Theory is 'applied conflict theory or Marxism' in that he delineates the extent & influence of the bourgeoisie, i.e. the power elite in America
 
  As a compliment to his power elite theory, Mills also examines the middle class of his era, i.e. the industrial middle class & compares it w/ the previous middle class, i.e. the agrarian or small land owner, independent businessman middle class
 
  Mills developed the concept of the Sociological Imagination which demonstrates the value of an education in the social sciences as a tool which allows one to understand their individual life in its particular historical context
 
 
In White Collar  (1951) Mills critiqued the status of the growing occupational category of white collar workers
 
  Mills' Character and Social Structure (1953), co-authored by Hans Gerth, was a Weberian & Freudian analysis of society & the individual
 
  Mills' The Power Elite (1956) demonstrated how America was dominated by a small group of businessmen, politicians, and military leaders
 

 
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C. Wright Mills
1916  -  1962
The Power Elite
Born in Waco, TX, to a conventional middle class background
Received a BS & a MA from TX University in 1939
Published sociology articles before he enrolled in grad school in Wisconsin
Earned a Ph.D. from U of Wisconsin
1st job at U of Maryland
Spent most of his career at Columbia:  from 1945 to 1962
Mills was known as being combative & had a tumultuous life w/ many affairs, 3 marriages & a child from each marriage
Mills was an outsider who estranged most of his friends & colleagues
Even when he visited the Soviet Union as an American critic, he toasted an outsider there, Leon Trotsky
He died in 1962, of his 4th heart attack
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The Major Works of C. Wright Mills

White Collar.  1951
Character and Social Structure (1953)  co-authored w/ Hans Gerth
The Power Elite. 1956
The Sociological Imagination.  1959
Listen Yankee:  The Revolution in Cuba.  1960
The Marxists.  1962


 
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 Outline on the Introduction to Conflict Theory
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  CONFLICT THEORY FOCUSES ON CLASS CONFLICT OVER CONTROL OF THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION (THE ECONOMY)   
  The conflict paradigm is a macro sociological perspective based on the key premise that society is made up of groups that compete, usually w/ unequal power, for scarce resources; conflict & change are seen as the natural order of things  
 
PEDIGREE:  Conflict theory generally runs from Marx to Mills to Dahrendorf & Collins  
  SUMMARY of the principles of conflict theory:
1. Our human nature is that we labor / create 7. Conflict does not always mean violence
2. Economic relations are the "base" of society 8. Capitalism is destructive of humanity
3. People, groups, etc. have conflicting self interests 9. The upper class controls the economy, & thus all of society
4. There is class conflict 10. Culture is shaped by the economic base of society
5. Conflict is the energy of social change 11. Consciousness is shaped by the interaction of material (working)
6. Society is in state of struggle & social change         conditions & the dominant culture in which one finds oneself
 
  THE QUALITIES OF SOCIETY INCLUDE CLASSES IN CONFLICT, OVER RESOURCES, OVER IDEOLOGY, IN A HISTL CLIMATE OF DOMINATION BY THE UPPER CLASS   
  Conflict theory focuses on FOUR qualities of society:
a.  Society has 2 or more classes of people who are in conflict    (competition)
b.  Different groups in society are in conflict over control of resources
c.  Different groups in society are in conflict over control of ideology
     ( Ideology is a world view, including  knowledge, opinions, etc.)
d.  Historically one group has dominated
 
  MARX, THE FATHER OF CONFLICT THEORY, WAS A REPORTER, ACTIVIST, & ACADEMIC IN THAT HE WROTE & ABOUT & PARTICIPATED IN SOCIAL CHANGE IN HIS TIME   
  Modern conflict theory is largely an outgrowth of the theories of Karl Marx  1818  -  1883  
  Review:  Marx  
  Marx was an advocate for the workers, a radical organizer, a newspaper writer, & was exiled from several countries in Europe
 
  Again, the question is:   "Why does the society take the form that it does?"
 
  Off shoots of Marxism include conflict theory, neo Marxism, critical theory, Frankfort School, post modernism, class theory, pluralism 
 

 
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  An Overview of  Ralf Dahrendorf  1929  - 
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  THE COMBINATION OF FUNCTIONALISM & CONFLICT THEORY EXAMINES SOCIETAL NORMAL OPERATIONS, & SOCIAL CHANGE   
  Dahrendorf integrated Marxism & structural functionalism  
  Dahrendorf operates at the same, macro, level as structural functionalists & looks at many of the same issues of stability, functions, etc.  
  Dahrendorf theorized that on the one hand some parts of society fit together well & function smoothly while on the other hand, other parts of society experience considerable conflict  
  Ritzer believes that Dahrendorf's theory suffers from a lack of Marxism  
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Dahrendorf's Chart on the Continuum from Structural - Functionalism to Conflict Theory shows that many of the most important differences btwn structural functionalism & conflict theory actually represent poles on the end of a continuum, rather than different realities  
 
Society exists btwn these two poles & may even have two simultaneous faces:  consensus & conflict  
  Consensus is an illusion
Society is held together by authority
Legitimacy/authority is precarious
 
  DAHRENDORF FOLLOWS MARX ON THE POWER OF GRP INTERESTS BUT DIVERGES ON ECON INTERESTS, HOLDING THAT MULTI CLASS SOCIETAL GRPS DEVELOP OTHER COMMON INTERESTS   
  Dahrendorf interprets Marx through structural functionalism  
  The criticisms of structural functionalism that are addressed by Dahrendorf's theory are that it ignores change & upheaval & is too conservative  
  Dahrendorf accepts Marx's ideas on
- the two class theory where Dahrendorf calls the two classes the superordinate & the subordinate classes
- organized ( or manifest ) group interests such as the labor movement
- & unorganized ( or latent ) group interests such as conservative workers
 
 
Dahrendorf differs from Marx is his beliefs that:
 
  1.  The revolution will NOT end class conflict.  There will always be conflict  
  2.  Class conflict in advanced industrial society is NOT based primarily or only on economic interests  
  3.  The upper class no longer owns & controls the means of production  
  4.  Dahrendorf accepts the managerial control thesis that control is divorced from ownership w/ non owning managers controlling the economy  
  5.  The growth of the middle class in industrial societies has altered the nature of the economic divisions as described by Marx  
  6.  Conflict theory ignores order & stability; it's too radical  
  7.  For most Marxism & conflict theory, conflict emerges, unexplained, from structural functional like systems   
  INTERESTS ARE NOT BASED ONLY ON CLASS, BUT ON LIFESTYLE AS WELL   
 
Dahrendorf is similar to Marx on his belief that interests are not psychological, but structurally generated by defined positions
 
 
Taking Marx's understanding of interests, Dahrendorf combines it w/ the structural functionalist's understanding of manifest & latent functions
 
 
Manifest interests are conscious / intended interests and
Latent interests are unconscious / unintended interests
 
 
Dahrendorf's examination of manifest & latent interests is similar to, but an expansion of, Marx's concept of class consciousness
 
 
Interest groups are groups in support of latent/manifest interests
Conflict groups are interest groups that are engaged in conflict
 
  Social change occurs when conflict groups form  
  Dahrendorf is similar to Weber in his beliefs on authority  
  -  Authority resides in positions not individual thus one may have authority in one sphere but not another  
  -  Legitimate authority has sanctions to back it up  
 
Dahrendorf accepts Weber's position that power struggles in modern society occur inside bureaucracies, & not as direct conflict btwn classes 
 
  IMPERATIVELY COORDINATED ASSOC (ICAs) ARE BASED ON PEOPLE'S COMMON INTEREST IN AN ISSUE OF IMPORTANCE TO THEM   
  Class conflict will occur in imperatively coordinated associations ( ICAs )  
 
ICAs include any association of people that is controlled by a hierarchy, thus an ICA is composed of dichotomous interest groups
 
 
ICAs are like bureaucratic organizations centered around the major tasks/ structures in society i.e. economic or businesses, religion, politics, family, etc.
 
  Conflict will be spread among various power groups w/in organizations & among interest groups in society  
  ICAs come in all sizes & examples of ICAs in the social structures include: 
1.  Peers               fraternities, sororities, a network of friend, NGOs, social mvmts, etc.
2.  Family              tribal, extended, nuclear/traditional, single parent, grandparent, etc.
3.  Religion            church, mosque, synagogue, temple, a high church official or a simple member
4.  Work               executive or consumer or worker or watch dog group
5.  Govt                political elite or just a citizen
6.  Military            family support grps, citizen honor guards, welcome committees
7.  Charity             support grps, public interest grps, watch dog grps
8.  Ed                    university president or student
9.   Media             watch dog grps, citizen watch grps
10.  Leisure / Rec   informal rec grps, rec assoc
 
 
ICAs are so pervasive in society, that individual & group interests are structured by the individual or group relationships to these associations such as personal connections, org to org connections; org to network connections, network to network connections
 
  W/in all ICAs there are authority roles of domination & subordination  
  On ICAs, Dahrendorf said, "One of the central theses of this study consists in the assumption that this differential distribution of authority invariably becomes the determining factor of systematic social conflicts of a type that is germane to class conflicts in the traditional (Marxist) sense of this term."  
  Unlike Marx, Dahrendorf recognized all kinds of individual or group interests
 
  Dahrendorf recognized all kinds of individual or group interests related to
- material rewards
- freedom
- status recognition
- leisure
- all kinds of services from each other
- any kind of interest that develops inside an ICA
 
  ICAs ARE BASED ON COMMON LIFESTYLE INTERESTS, BUT CLASS / ECON INTERESTS STILL PLAY A ROLE   
  The key is that the means to attaining interests are related to authority positions in ICAs
 
  The haves get what they want while the have nots do not get what they want & so they tend to challenge the status quo  
  A critique of Dahrendorf is that while he is examining org behavior, organizational analysis, org conflict, org development, etc. is not examined  
 
Individuals take positions in many ICAs at the same time
 
  Each position in an ICA represents a different set of interests in relation to the authority or lack of authority held  
  An ICA's interests are latent until they become recognized & acted upon at which time they may become manifest to the actors  
  Each of the social structures may be seen as being made up of ICAs each of which acts upon it's latent & manifest interests
1.  Peers
2.  Family 
3.  Religion 
4.  Work 
5.  Govt 
6.  Military 
7.  Charity 
8.  Ed 
9.   Media 
10.  Leisure / Rec
 
 
Critiques of Dahrendorf
 
 
a.  ICA conflict is much different than class conflict & therefore Dahrendorf loses the primacy of the economic base of conflict
 
  In Dahrendorf's defense, he believes that the dominate ICAs in most societies are the economy & religion  
 
b.  It is not clear where the middle class fits in the two class system of superordinate & subordinate classes
 
  Dahrendorf says the location of the middle class depends on the particular interests of that ICA member, but this makes his analysis very complicated, but the world is complicated!  
 
c.  ICAs obviously must be seen in a hierarchy of importance / influence in society but Dahrendorf gives no logic for comparing them
 
 
However, other analysts & Dahrendorf have noted that most nations today are dominated by economic, religious, & political ICAs, indicating that these are the most influential ICAs today  

 
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Ralf Dahrendorf  1929  - 

He was born in Hamburg, the son of Lina Dahrendorf and the late Gustav Dahrendorf a social democrat member of the German Parliament. He studied philosophy, classical philology and sociology in Hamburg University between 1947 and 1952, became a doctor of philosophy and classics (Dr. phil.) in 1952. He continued his academic research at London School of Economics as a Leverhulme Research Scholar 1953-54, gaining a PhD in 1956. He was a professor of sociology in Hamburg (1957-60), Tübingen (1960-64) and Konstanz (1966-69).

From 1969 to 1970 he was a member of the German parliament for the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party), the German liberals, and a Parliamentary Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1970 he became a Commissioner in the European Commission in Brussels. From 1974 to 1984 he was director of the London School of Economics, when he returned to Germany to become Professor of Social Science, Konstanz University (1984-86).

He settled in the United Kingdom in 1986, becoming a Governor of the London School of Economics, and also (from 1987 to 1997) Warden of St Anthony's College at Oxford University.

Having adopted British citizenship in 1988, in 1993 Dahrendorf was granted a life peerage and was created Baron Dahrendorf of Clare Market in the City of Westminster by Queen Elizabeth II. He sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.

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Major Works of Dahrendorf

Class & Class Conflict in Industrial Society.  1959.  Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 

Europe's Economy in Crisis.  1982. 

Society and Democracy in Germany.  1993. 

Reflections on the Revolutions in Europe.  2004.


 
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Chart 1:  Dahrendorf's Continuum from Structural - Functionalism to Conflict Theory
This chart shows that many of the most important differences btwn S - F & Conflict Theory actually represent poles on the end of a continuum, rather than different realities
Structural Functionalism Conflict Theory
1.  Equilibrium 1.  Continual change
2.  All elements contribute  to stability 2.  All elements contribute to conflict/change
3.  Common morality 3.  False consciousness / imposed morality
4.  Order 4.  Coercion / dominance

 
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 Outline on  Randall Collins 
External
Links
Link
-  Biography & Major Works  
  MARXISM'S STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS COULD BE SUPPLEMENTED BY A MICRO ANALYSIS   
  Collins, like many conflict theorists, attempted to bring Marxism into mainstream sociology by modifying it   
  Ritzer believes that the common problem of the conflict theorists is that they do not embrace enough Marxism   
  Collins believed Marxism was weak because it focused primarily on social structures & had little to say about actors, their thoughts, & actions   
  Collins integrated Marxism w/ phenomenology & ethnomethodology in order to examine the micro level of social action   
  COLLINS COMBINES THE SOC CONSTRUCTION OF THE SELF, POWER, & STRUCTURE   
  The principles of Collins' conflict theory are that: 
 
  a.  people live in self constructed, subjective worlds 
 
  b.  people have power over others 
 
  c.  people are in control of others through frequent, interpersonal conflict 
 
  d.  Strategy & organizations are grounded (created) in everyday life 
 
  For Collins,  most theorists see social structure as external to & coercive of the actor, but social structure is inseparable from actors who construct them 
 
  COLLINS HOLDS THAT LIFESTYLE, MATERIAL CONDITIONS, & CLASS IMPACT ONE'S BEING   
  Collins & Marx agree that: 
 
  a.  the way in which one earns a living is a major determinant of lifestyle (ideology) 
 
  b.  material conditions affect the nature of individuals & groups 
 
  c.  classes have varying access to the cultural system 
 
  COLLINS HOLDS THAT MANY FACTORS (MORE THAN JUST ECON) AFFECT LIFESTYLE, INCLUDING ORG LIFE & CULTURE   
  Collins & Weber agree that: 
 
  a. multi causal conflict & a system of stratification create one's life chances (lifestyle / class) 
 
  b. on a theory of organizations where organizations are the primary centers of where we live/conflict 
 
  c. culture, especially religion, is a major determinant of social life   
  ADDING MICRO THEORY TO CONFLICT THEORY ADDS AN EXAMINATION OF EVERYDAY LIFE, OTHER SOC STRUC'S THAN ECON, EXPLOITATION, & CULTURE   
  Collins' theory integrates FIVE principles to examine conflict and to bring it to the micro level   
  Collins believes sociology should:   
  a.  focus on real life, not abstract structures   
  b.  examine material arrangements that affect interaction:  places, communication, weapons, media, etc., & access to them   
  c.  how groups exploit other's lack of resources   
  d.  how those without resources have culture imposed upon them   
  e.  conduct scientific examination w/ testable hypotheses   
  Collins' five principles on the examination of conflict creates a holistic, integrative view of conflict among classes, sexes, ages, etc.   
  THE ORG LEVEL IS THE CONFLICT ARENA OF THE MODERN ERA:   
  Collins has integrated the operation of power into org analysis   
  Collins embraces the Marxist practice of keeping historical comparative research at the heart of conflict analysis   
  Collins' power / org analysis has the effect of integrating network theory & conflict theory   
  Conflict at micro level examines interaction ritual chains   

 
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Randall Collins           19  - 

Randall Collins is the Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor in Sociology at the U of PN. 
1963 A.B. Harvard College
1964 M.A., Psychology, Stanford University
1969 Ph.D., Sociology, University of California Berkeley
Research:
Sociological Theory 
Macro Historical Sociology of Political and Economic Change 
Micro Sociology: Face to Face Interaction 
Sociology of Intellectuals 
Social Conflict (Especially Violent Conflict) 

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Major Works of Collins

Collins' Conflict Sociology (1975): integrative of S-F & Conflict Theory; micro- oriented
2004. Interaction Ritual Chains. Princeton University Press.
2004. “Rituals of solidarity and security, and processes of mass hysteria, in the wake of terrorist attack.” Sociological Theory 21
2003. “A Network location Theory of Culture.” Sociological Theory 21: 69-73.
2003. “Fuller, Kuhn, and the Emergent Attention Space of Reflexive Studies of Science.” Social Epistemology 17: 145-150.
2003. “Sociology and Philosophy.” in Craig Calhoun, Chris Rojek, and Bryan Turner (eds.) International Handbook of Sociology. London: Sage.
2003. “The Durkheimian Movement in France and in World Sociology.” in Jeffrey Alexander and Phil Smith (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Durkheim. Cambridge Univ. Press.
2003. “Mann’s Transformation of the Classical Sociological Traditions.” In John A. Hall and Ralph Schroeder (eds.), An Anatomy of Power: The Social Theory of Michael Mann. Cambridge Univ. Press.
2002. “Introduction.” with Mauro Guillen, Paula England, Marshall Meyer. in The New Economic Sociology: Developments in an Emerging Field. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
2002. ‘On the Acrimoniousness of Intellectual Disputes.’ Common Knowledge 8: 47-70.

2002. “Geopolitics in an Era of Internationalism." Social Evolution and History Journal vol. 1
2002. "Conflict Theory and Interaction Ritual: the Microfoundations of Conflict Theory." (with Jörge Rössel) In Jonathan Turner (ed.), Handbook of Sociological Theories. New York: Plenum Publishers.
2002. “Credential Inflation and the Future of Universities.” In Steve Brint (ed.), The Future of the City of Intellect. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Excerpted in Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 2002.
2002. “Black’s Contributions to a General Theory of Conflict.” [review essay] Contemporary Sociology 31: 655-58.
2000. "Comparative and historical patterns of education." In Maureen T. Hallinan (ed.), Handbook of the Sociology of Education. New York: Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, 213-239.
2000. "Situational Stratification: A Micro macro Theory of Inequality." Sociological Theory 18
1999: Macro History: Essays in Sociology of the Long Run. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
1999. Macro History: Essays in Sociology of the Long Run. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
1988: The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
1998. "Democratization in World Historical Perspective." In Ralph Schroeder Weberian Political Sociology: Democracy, Nationalism and Modernization. London: Macmillan.
1998. The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Russian edition 2002. Italian, Chinese and Spanish editions forthcoming.

 
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 Outline on  Social Exchange Theory
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  SOCIAL EXCHANGE THEORY EXAMINES THE METHODS OF, & THE INFLUENCING FACTORS IN THE EXCHANGE OF STATUS, PRESTIGE, SOCIAL REWARDS, & OTHER 'SOCIAL GOODS'  
 
Social exchange theory ( SET ) has its roots in psychology, especially behaviorism, as well as economics, but builds on individual psychological relationships to develop & show the connection btwn the micro level, the group level, & the institutional level
 
  See Also:  Behaviorism  
 
"Social behavior is an exchange of goods, material goods but also non material ones, such as the symbols of approval or prestige. Persons that give much to others try to get much from them, and persons that get much from others are under pressure to give much to them. This process of influence tends to work out at equilibrium to a balance in the exchanges. For a person in an exchange, what he gives may be a cost to him, just as what he gets may be a reward, and his behavior changes less as the difference of the two, profit, tends to a maximum"
Homans, "Theories Used in Research"
 
  SET HOLDS THAT ACTORS ARE RATIONAL, EXPERIENCE DIMINISHING UTILITY, SEEK SOCIAL PROFIT, & MONITOR SOCIAL EXCHANGES  
  The basic tenets of SET include
 
  a.  actors, for whom events are beneficial, act rationally
 
  b.  actors become satiated & thus experience diminishing utility
 
  c.  actors seek "profitable relationships" which are those relationships where what the actor obtains has less value than what the actor gave to get it
 
  d.  there is a focus on the flows of exchanges
 
  A subfield of exchange theory is social dilemma theory which holds that:
 
  a.  if all members cooperate, all gain something, but some members may gain more than others
 
  b.  in a social dilemma, it may be beneficial for a particular member to not cooperate
 
  c.  it may be beneficial for the group for a particular member to not cooperate
 
 
Example:  a slow or violent person
 
 
The subfields of exchange theory include decision theory, cognitive science, social dilemma theory, & more
 
  SET explains social change & stability as a process of negotiated exchanges between parties  
  All human relationships are formed by the use of a subjective cost benefit analysis & the comparison of alternatives  
  When a person perceives the costs of a relationship as outweighing the perceived benefits, then the theory predicts that the person will choose to leave the relationship  
  When the costs & benefits are equal in a relationship, then that relationship is defined as equitable  
  The notion of equity is a core part of SET in that actors behave in such a manner as to estb either equity or superiority  
  A limited number of people may attempt to achieve inferiority in order to satisfy some dysfunctional / neurotic / need  
  SET also examines relational development & maintenance rules  
  In his work Social Intercourse: From Greeting to Goodbye, Mark Knapp defines the stages of relationship development, including initiation, experimentation & bonding  
  Gerald Miller and Mark Steinburg’s book, Between People, notes the differences in the types of cultural, sociological & psychological info we have about one another which we use to make exchanges  
  Harumi Befu discusses exchange in relation to cultural & social ideas & norms such as gift giving & marriage  
  Feminists have long examined gender relationships as exchanges, noting that men dominate & distort this exchange so that women often end up in an inferior position  
  HISTORY: SET GREW FROM THEORY DEALING W/ RECIPROCITY & THE REFLEXIVENESS, OR ABILITY OF PEOPLE TO REACT TO SITUATIONS   
  SET evolved from social penetration theory as the focus shifted to the examination of the motivations & processes by which relationships grow or dissolve  
  The early variations of SET stem from Gouldner's (1960) norm of reciprocity, which simply argues that people ought to return benefits given to them in a relationship  
  CRITIQUE:  SET OVER RATIONALIZES HUMAN EXCHANGES, IS DANGEROUSLY OPEN, FOCUSES TOO MUCH IN INTIMACY, & VIEWS RELATIONSHIPS AS LINEAR  
  Katherine Miller criticizes SET by stating that it:   
  -  reduces human interaction to a purely rational process that arise from economic theory  
  -  favors openness as it was developed in the 1970s when ideas of freedom & openness were preferred, but there may be times when openness isn't the best option in a relationship.   
  -  assumes that the ultimate goal of a relationship is intimacy when this might not always be the case  
  -  places relationships in a linear structure, when some relationships might skip steps or go backwards in terms of intimacy  

 
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 Outline on  George Homans   1910  -  1989
External
Links
  -  Supplement:  Karl A. Castellanos "What is the role of self interest in group life? from: the perspective of Homans" 
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Link
-  Biography & Major Works   
 
FOR HOMANS, ALL SOC RELATIONS ARE EXCHANGES BASED ON OUR PERSONAL CALCULATION OF VALUES 
 
  Homans respected Parsons but held that his work was not a theory, but a vast system of intellectual categories into which most aspects of the social world fit   
  Homans is perhaps best known, outside the academic discipline of sociology, for his model of wk grp behavior where the "emergent behavior," in the form of informal orgs, comes btwn the requirements & plans of mgt, derived from technological, social & economic env, & wk productivity & satisfaction   
  For Homans, theory should be built from the ground up on the basis of observation of the social world   
  Parsons work started at the general theoretical level & worked its way down to the empirical level   
  HOMANS USED BEHAVIORIST / EMPIRICALLY BASED METHODS   
  Homans amassed a large number of empirical observations   
  In the 1950s, Homans developed a theory in line w/ psychological behaviorism closely allied w/ the behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner which he called Exchange Theory   
  Homans eschewed Parsons' deductive methodology of theory building & instead used an inductive, empirical method 
 
  Homans stayed away from the cultural & structural foci of Parsonian theory & concentrated on people & their observable behavior 
 
  Homans applied the behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner's ideas of reward & punishment schedules to small groups & anthropological studies of primitive societies 
 
  Homans first published this work in an article entitled "Social Behavior as Exchange" (1958) & then in a book, Social Behavior:  Its Elementary Forms  (1961) 
 
  Like a psychological behaviorist, Homans was interested in individual behavior & interaction & had little interest in consciousness, beliefs, etc. nor in large scale structures & institutions 
 
  PEOPLE ARE RATIONAL CALCULATORS OF REWARDS & COSTS   
  Homans examined how reinforcement patterns of punishment & reward, & the history of rewards & costs shape social behavior 
 
  Homans' primary thesis is that actors may be viewed as rational profit seekers when profit is viewed in terms of money & social gain   
  People continue to do what they have been rewarded for in the past 
 
  People cease to do what has been costly in the past 
 
  In order to understand behavior, we need to understand a person's history of rewards & costs 
 
  Homans expanded the psychological behaviorist position, which at this time had focused mostly on animals, to people & to interaction btwn people involving the exchange of rewards & costs 
 
 
Social interactions are likely to continue when there are rewards, or conversely, cease when there are costs 
 
  Exchange theory, & Homans' exchange theory are psychological in that it deals w/ individuals   
  Homans believes that reductionism is a positive quality & thus the fundamental principles of sociology should be based in psychology   
  EXCHANGE THEORY HOLDS THAT PSYCHL FACTORS EMERGE IN A SOC CONTEXT WHICH MAKES THEM QUALITATIVELY SOCIOLOGICAL   
  Homans agrees w/ Durkheim that social activity does emerge & it is different than psychological activity, but still sociology's basic principles are psychological   
  Social behavior is an exchange of activity, tangible or intangible, more or less rewarding or costly, btwn at least two people   
  All behavior can be explained in terms of rewards & costs   
  Homans’ ET is based on behaviorist psychology & economics   
  When a pigeon pecks target, it is rewarded w/ grain & the operand has been reinforced   
  The grain is the reinforcement & the pigeon has undergone operant conditioning   
  When a pigeon undergoes operant conditioning, it has learned to peck the target by being rewarded for doing so   
  But human exchanges are always at least two sided, otherwise they are just individual behavior   
  Homans sought to develop propositions to explain social exchanges   
 
THE SUCCESS PROPOSITION HOLDS THAT WE REPEAT SUCCESSFUL ACTIONS 
 
  The success proposition holds that the more often an action is rewarded, the more likely the person is to repeat that action   
  The sequence of events for a success proposition is action reward repetition   
  But the success proposition cannot go on forever because one becomes satisfied, or bored   
  Examples:  Eating cake:  I get full   Playing a video game:  I get bored   
  The shorter the interval btwn the behavior & the reward, the more likely the subject is to repeat   
  Intermittent rewards are best because they limit boredom & satiation   
 
THE STIMULUS PROPOSITION HOLDS THAT WE EXHIBIT SIMILAR BEHAVIORS FOR SIMILAR STIMULI 
 
  Similar stimuli are more likely to elicit similar behavior than are dissimilar stimuli   
  The generalization of stimuli holds that people behave similarly in similar situations   
  The stimulus proposition holds that stimuli discrimination is the tendency to not behave similarly in similar situations   
 
THE VALUE PROPOSITION HOLDS THAT THE HIGHER THE VALUE, THE MORE LIKELY WE ARE TO PURSUE IT 
 
  Homans' value proposition is that the more valuable the result, the more likely one is to perform the action creating the result   
 
THE DEPRIVATION / SATIATION PROPOSITION HOLDS THAT AS WE EXPERIENCE A STIMULUS, THE VALUE GOES DOWN 
 
  The more a person has received a reward, the less valuable that reward becomes   
  A cost may be a rewards that is lost in forgoing an alternative line of action   
  Homans does not discuss opportunity cost as the cost incurred in gaining rewards as do Behaviorists   
  Profit is the greater amount of a reward over the cost incurred; i.e. rewards minus costs equal profits   
 
THE AGGRESSION / APPROVAL PROPOSITION HOLDS THAT WE BECOME ANGRY / AGGRESSIVE WHEN EXPECTED REWARDS ARE W/HELD
 
  When one does not receive an expected reward, one is more likely to become angry;  -is more likely to become aggressive   
  When one receives the expected or greater reward, then one is pleased & is more likely to perform the approving behavior   
 
THE RATIONALITY PROPOSITION HOLDS THAT WE CALCULATE REWARDS, COSTS, & PROBABILITIES 
 
  People will choose the alternative that they believe has the greatest result as calculated by multiplying value times probability   
  The most desirable rewards are those that are both very valuable & highly attainable   
  Perceptions of values & probabilities are determined by past experience   
 
A CRITIQUE OF EXCHANGE THEORY IS THAT REWARDS & COSTS ARE SOCIALLY DETERMINED 
 
  Exchange theory is weak on it's examination of mental states & large scale structures   
  Exchange theory is boiler plating behaviorism w/ an expansion to include social factors as stimulus & response, reward & punishment  
  Exchange theory depersonalizes relationships & reduces all human behavior to cold calculation   
  Homans holds that the most desirable rewards are those that are valuable & attainable; however, it is clear that in many cases the desirability of a reward is related to the fact that it is not easily attainable by others   

 
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George Homans   1910  -  1989

A wealthy Bostonian
B.S. Harvard, 1932
Unemployed during the Great Depression
Homans was drawn to the views of Pareto because they were anti Marxist

Homans entered Harvard College in 1928 w/ an area of concentration in English & American literature. From 1934 to 1939 he was a Junior Fellow of the newly formed Society of Fellows at Harvard, undertaking a variety of studies in various areas, including sociology, psychology & history. He attended a special faculty student seminar on the general sociology of Vilfredo Pareto. In 1939 he became a Harvard faculty member, a lifelong affiliation in which he taught both sociology & medieval history. By virtue of his later theoretical writings (discussed below), he became a major theorist & in 1964 was elected President of the American Sociological Association.

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Major Works of Homans

An Introduction to Pareto.  Homans & Curtis.  1934
English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century. (1941) 
The Human Group. (1950) 
"Social Behavior as Exchange." American Journal of Sociology 63:597-606. (1958) 
Social Behavior:  Its Elementary Forms.  (1961, rev ed. 1974)
Coming to My Senses: The Autobiography of a Sociologist. (1984)


 
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 Outline on   Peter Blau
External
Links
  ProjectGeneralized Credit
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  ProjectBlau on Values
Link
Link
-  Biography & Major Works  
  BLAU EXAMINED SOCIAL EXCHANGES AT THE STRUCTURAL & CULTURAL LEVELS   
  Blau adopted Homans' perspectives, but extended it to exchange at the macro level  
  While Homans dealt w/ exchange w/in elementary forms of social behavior, Blau wanted to integrate this w/ exchange at the structural & cultural levels  
  Blau began w/ analyzing exchanges among actors, & extended his analysis to the larger structures that emerge out of this exchange  
 
Blau examined exchanges among large scale structures, organizational & social structures, in particular bureaucracy
 
  Blau examined many social phenomena, including upward mobility, occupational opportunity, heterogeneity, & how population structures can influence human behavior  
  Blau was the first to map out the wide variety of social forces, dubbed "Blau space" by Miller McPherson  
 
Blau's work returns to large scale structure examination as did Parsonianism
 
 
Blau asked, 'How does social life become organized into increasingly complex structures?'
 
  SOCIAL EXCHANGE OCCURS IN STAGES, INCLUDING PERSONAL EXCHANGE, DIFFERENTIATION, LEGITIMATIZATION & ORGANIZATION, & OPPOSITION & CHANGE   
 
Social life is organized into complex structures through a FOUR stage sequence from interpersonal exchange to social structure to social change including a. personal exchange;  b. differentiation of status & power;  c. legitimation & organization;  d. opposition & change
 
  a.  personal exchange transactions between people give rise to
 
  Personal exchange transactions are routine social interactions  
  b.  differentiation of status & power, which leads to
 
  The differentiation of status & power occurs in each & every social interaction, & thus transactions may be viewed as equal exchanges (mutually rewarding); unbalanced (one actor is rewarded or punished more that the other); or in rare cases, mutual losses  
  c.  legitimatization & organization, which sew the seeds of
 
  Legitimation & organization is the critical step where routine social interactions become institutionalized in customs, rules, laws, organizations etc.   
  d.  opposition & change
 
  The stage of opposition & change denotes that social change is a constant social phenomenon, & that equilibrium is the exception rather than the rule
 
  Personal exchanges may continue after rewards quit coming
 
  Social exchanges end if rewards quit coming
 
  Rewards in social exchanges can be intrinsic rewards such as love, affection, respect
 
  EXCHANGES FUNCTION AS REWARDS, PUNISHMENTS, STIMULI, RESPONSE, & MORE   
  The social, intrinsic nature of rewards, punishments, stimuli, response, etc. is the major factor that distinguishes exchange theory from behaviorism
 
  Rewards in social exchanges can be extrinsic rewards such as money, physical labor, etc.
 
  Exchanges are not always equal & a power relationship develops w/ routinized inequality
 
  If an actor needs something from another, but has nothing to exchange, one can:
 
  a.  force another to help
 
  b.  find another source to obtain their need
 
  c.  attempt to get along w/o what they need  
  d.  subordinate one's self to other, thereby giving the other “generalized credit” in their relationship  
  For Blau, social scientists cannot analyze social interaction apart from the structure  
  Structure emerges from social interaction, but once this occurs, structures have a separate existence that affect the process of interaction  
  Social interaction exists first w/in groups  
  One is attracted to a group that offers a profit (more reward than cost)  
  To be accepted in a group, one must offer rewards to the group members   
  A newcomer tries to impress the group by showing that associating w/ them will be rewarding  
  A relationship is solidified when members have received the rewards they expected  
  IMPRESSIVENESS IS THE STRENGTH OF THE FEELING, STATUS, REWARD, LOSS, ETC. ONE IS GIVING OR RECEIVING IN AN EXCHANGE   
  Newcomers' efforts to impress generally leads to cohesion, but competition & differentiation can occur when too many people try to impress each other   
  Impressiveness may also create fear of dependence  
  Early on, competition for social recognition among group members acts as a screen for potential leaders  
  Impressing leads to differentiation, so group integration is needed  
 
A DISPLAY OF WEAKNESS CAN ACHIEVE PARTICULAR GOALS IN AN EXCHANGE 
 
  People may "choose" to display their weaknesses  
  The display of weakness can mean one does not want to be leader  
  The display of weakness can be an attempt to disarm one's impressiveness  
  The display of weakness can be, in an individual interaction, an attempt to display openness  
  For Blau, a display of weakness leads to sympathy & social acceptance  
  Blau does not discuss the display of strength.  What are parallel displays of strength?  
 
EMERGENCE IS A PRIMARY CHARACTERISTIC OF SOCIAL EXCHANGE IN THAT THE PERCEPTION OF REWARDS, VICTORY, LOSS, WEAKNESS, IMPRESSIVENESS, ETC. ALL COME OUT OF, OR A RESULT OF THE EXCHANGE   
  Blau differentiated between properties that emerge from social groups & explicitly established properties of organizations (formal organizations)  
  Opposition groups & leaders emerge in both social groups & formal organizations  
  For Blau, in informal organizations both opposition groups & leaders are emergent  
 
STRUCTURATION IS THE EMERGENCE OF REGULAR PATTERNS IN SOCIAL EXCHANGE 
 
  In formal organizations both opposition groups and leaders are structured into the organization & so do not emerge  
  Moving to societal structures, Blau recognized that since there is no social interaction btwn members of a society (while there is interaction in groups), some other mechanism must mediate the structure of social relations  
  Norms & values, i.e. a value consensus, mediate among the complex structures in society  
        See Also:  Values  
  Norms & values make indirect social exchange possible; they substitute indirect exchange for direct exchange  
  Via norms, the collectivity engages in an exchange w/ the individual  
  An example of the collectivity exchanging w/ the individual can be seen in the general respect from the community one receives when one dresses professionally & achieves a good job  
  Values mediate the exchanges btwn the largest collectivities  
  THERE ARE FOUR TYPES OF VALUES INCLUDING PARTICULARISTIC VALUES, UNIVERSALISTIC VALUES, LEGITIMIZATION VALUES, & OPPOSITION VALUES   
  A.  PARTICULARISTIC VALUES FUNCTION AS A MEDIA OF INTEGRATION & SOLIDARITY   
  Particularistic values unite people on such things as patriotism, or the good of the college  
  While particularistic values exist on the societal level, on the individual level they are expressed in terms of integrative bonds such as friendship, personal attraction etc.  
  Particularistic values also differentiate the in group from the out group  
  B.  UNIVERSALISTIC VALUES FUNCTION AS A MEDIA OF INDIRECT EXCHANGE   
  Universalistic values make a contribution to the community & the actor who practices them receives the indirect reward of honor, status, etc.  
  An example of universalistic values includes heading a Girl Scout Troop  
  On the individual level, the reciprocal of a universalistic value for volunteering as a Girl Scout Leader might be the direct personal reward the actor receives from the Girl Scouts, the girls & the parents  
  C.  LEGITIMIZATION VALUES FUNCTION AS THE MEDIA OF POWER OR AUTHORITY   
  Blau pursues a decidedly different path than Weber's discussion of the relationship btwn legitimacy, power, & authority and his differentiation of them  
  A legitimization value system accords bosses, presidents, etc. more power than others  
  Actors inside & outside an organization recognize the legitimacy of all bosses  
  On the individual level, the reciprocal value to a legitimization value, i.e. a particularistic value, is the worker's recognition of their boss' authority  
 
D.  OPPOSITION VALUES FUNCTION AS THE MEDIA OF CHANGE   
  Opposition values legitimize opposition to those whose power is legitimized  
  Opposition values allow for the spread of a feeling for change  
  Opposition values, by their very nature, often conflict w/ the other three values  

 
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Peter Blau           1918  -  2002

Peter Michael Blau was a sociologist who was born in Vienna, Austria,  He emigrated to the United States in 1939. He received his PhD at Columbia University in 1952 before moving on to teach at the University of Chicago from 1953 to 1970. In 1970 he returned to Columbia, where he continued to teach until 1988. In 1974 Blau served as president of the American Sociological Association.  He died of acute respiratory distress syndrome.

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Major Works of Blau

Exchange and Power in Social Life.  1964
The American Occupational Structure.  1967
A Formal Theory of Differentiation in Organizations.  1970


 
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 Outline on   Emerson on Exchange Theory
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  -  Project:  A Personal Exchange 
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  THE EXCHANGE OF SOCIAL & MATERIAL RESOURCES IS A FUNDAMENTAL FORM OF HUMAN INTERACTION  
  For Emerson, social exchange theory (SET) is based on a central premise that the exchange of social & material resources is a fundamental form of human interaction   
  Emerson wanted to move beyond the basics of exchange theory to examinemore complex situations 
 
  Emerson examined what he called exchange networks 
 
  NETWORKS: 
A.  ARE SETS OF INDIVIDUALS OR COLLECTIVES 
B.  POSSESS RESOURCES 
C.  EXCHANGE OPPORTUNITIES 
D.  PARTICIPATE IN A STRUCTURE 
 
  The qualities of exchange networks include
 
  a.  that they are sets of individuals or collective actors
 
  b.  that they have vital resources distributed amongst them
 
  c.  that they exchange opportunities
 
  d.  that exchange relationships are connected to one another in a single structure
 
  Example: A social work organization may have access to a grant that will support potential workers w/ daycare, training, and housing.  The social work organizations has none of these capacities, but establishes a network, & organizes all four organizations to meet the goals of the grant
 
  Example:  Persons 1 & 2 want to buy blue BMWs.  They have no link:  don't know each other.  If they see that the other has the car, their utility is diminished because they have the value of uniqueness.  Thus, the 2 people & the dealer comprise a network
 
  PEOPLE EXCHANGE POWER, & ALL EXCHANGES ARE FRAMED BY POWER   
  In Emerson's exchange theory, power may be defined as a level of potential cost which one can induce another to accept
 
  Power is often defined as the ability to get someone to do what they wouldn't have done
 
     See Also:  Power  
  In Emerson's exchange theory, dependence may be defined as a level of potential cost an actor will accept w/in a relationship
 
  Emerson, in his work w/ others, is interested in exchange theory as broader frame for power dependence relationships
 
  EMERSON DEVELOPED AN EX TH THAT ACCTED FOR LESS THAN RATIONAL PARTICIPANTS & LINKED INDIVIDUAL & COLLECTIVE LEVELS OF ACTION   
  Emerson & others use behaviorism (operand psych) as the foundation of exchange theory but avoid Homan's assumption that people are entirely rational
 
  Emerson, et al, wanted to deal w/ structure & social change using social relations & social networks as building blocks that spanned different levels of analysis
 
 
Emerson, et al, wanted to close the gap between dyads & aggregates
 
 
With roots in earlier theories developed in cultural anthropology, neoclassical econ, & psych, Emerson focused on how interaction patterns are shaped by power relationships btwn individuals, & the resulting efforts to achieve balance in exchange relations
 
 
In relation to social power & equity in exchange networks, Emerson, et al shows that a variety of factors & constraints affect the use of power in negotiated trade agreements
 
 
In one simulation, Emerson, et al involved 112 male & female participants in a specially developed computerized laboratory & communication network
 
  In the simulation, each of eight subjects was connected to three others as bargaining partners, forming two separate four person networks  
  In the simulation, subjects sought to increase their profits by entering into "trade agreements" for "resource units"  
  In the simulation, subjects could pursue either formal or informal negotiating procedures before a "transaction" was completed  
  The experimental design allowed the researchers to study power, equity, & the creation of commitment during these bargaining processes  

 
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 Outline on the Dramaturgical Approach
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  -  Project:  Dramaturgical Life
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  LIFE MAY BEST BE UNDERSTOOD AS THEATER, A PERFORMANCE, IN THAT WE ACT AT BEING OUR SELF   
  The dramaturgical approach uses the theater as a metaphor for life, assuming that we are all, more or less, acting at being our self  
  For many people, the theatrical approach of sociology is simultaneously dismaying & empowering  
  The theatrical approach of dramaturgical theory is dismaying in that lay people find it disturbing to believe that "we all simply put on an act"  
  The implication of dramaturgical theory is that we are, in existentialist philosophers' terms, inauthentic, or in Marxist terms, alienated  
  However, this lay view is inaccurate, because what the dramaturgical approach is saying is that we all must act at something & the act which we choose is authentic to the extent that we freely choose it, & alienated to the extent that we act an act that we did not choose  
  Dramaturgical theory is empowering, at least on the micro- or individual level in that, if I am merely acting, then I can choose to change my act   
  At times, dramaturgical theory can seem somewhat cavalier in its assumption of the ease w/ which one can change one's act  
  While symbolic interactionism emphasizes the extent to which we create ourselves, as does the dramaturgical approach, symbolic interactionism also emphasizes the extent to which others, socialization, & social structures impact our micro- level behavior, while the dramaturgical approach largely chooses not to address these factors  
  For the dramaturgical approach, we are not merely acting in that we never know who is the actor & who is the character we are portraying  
  The actor tends to actually become the character; the character becomes the actor  
  Because our life has a live audience, the actor shapes the character in relation to the audience setting, etc., thus our character is not only of our own construction, it is socially constructed  
  Because we have only our actor & our character, we have a 'true self' only to the extent that we know our actor, our character, & what we believe we can & cannot be  
 
MANNING ( 1992) HOLDS THAT WE STRIVE TO POSSESS PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE, TO SHOW INVOLVEMENT, TO SHOW ALOOFNESS, TO BE ACCESSIBLE 
 
  1. Actors must display situational propriety in that they need practical knowledge of the social situation; i.e. the etiquette of the situation
 
  2. In most situations, actors must show an appropriate level of involvement
 
  3. In most anonymous situations, actors must show an appropriate level of civil inattention & maintain the appropriate role distance
 
  4. In most situations, actors must be accessible to others & demonstrate similar meanings/symbols
 
  A DIALECTIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE ORGANIZATION THEATER METAPHOR HOLDS THAT ORGS STRIVE TO PRESENT THE SELF THAT THEY WANT OTHERS TO EXPERIENCE   
  For Boje, Luhman, & Cunliffe, org studies uses "theater" as a metaphor for org life as:   
  -  organizing is like theater, a perspective adopted by those who subscribe to a Goffman approach to dramaturgy  
  -  the more literal organizing is theater, a perspective adopted by those who subscribe to a Burkean approach  
  -  a dialectic view wherein theater is both life & metaphor  
  -  a method for empowerment & consciousness raising  
  The dialectic view contrasts the theatrical opposition society of spectacle & society as carnivalesque resistance  
  The concept of the theater of the oppressed empowers spectators to be become spect-actors  
  The theater of the oppressed fosters the possibility of critical consciousness & praxis transforming formal spectacle through experiments in emancipatory carnival like theater  
 
DRAMATURGICAL ANALYSIS EXAMINES "THE PRESENTATION OF SELF," I.E. HOW & WHY WE DEPICT PARTICULAR ASPECTS OF OURSELF
 
 
Dramaturgical analysis consists of the definition of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance
 
 
The presentation of self, an individual's effort to create specific impressions in the minds of others, is a central focus of dramaturgy
 
 
A.  PERFORMANCES ARE SHORT PRESENTATIONS OF THE SELF IN PARTICULAR CONTEXTS 
 
  Performances include dress, i.e. costume, objects carried along, i.e. props, & tone of voice & gestures, i.e. manner  
  1. An Application: The Doctor's Office  
  Performances have front & back regions  
  The reception area is the "front region" of a physician's office  
  The physician's private office & examination rooms are the "back region" of the setting  
  B.  NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION IS OFTEN MORE INFLUENTIAL THAN WHAT IS SAID IN THE PRESENTATION OF THE SELF   
  Nonverbal communication consists of communication using body movements, gestures, & facial expressions rather than speech  
  Most of Nonverbal communication is culture specific  
  Close attention to nonverbal communication is often an effective way of telling whether or not someone is telling the truth  
  1. Body Language & Deception  
  The key to detecting lies is to view the whole performance w/ an eye for  inconsistencies  
  C.  GENDER, LIKE ANY DEMOGRAPHIC OR STRUCTURAL FACTORS, BOTH LIMITS & EXPANDS PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITIES   
  Gender affects personal performance in such areas as:
a.  demeanor.
b.  use of personal space, the surrounding area over which an individual makes some claim to privacy.
c.  staring, smiling, & touching
 
  D.  FOR THE SELF, OUR PERFORMANCE IDEALIZES OUR SELF TO OUR SELF, BUT OTHERS MAY BE ABLE TO 'SEE THROUGH IT'   
  Performances usually idealize our intentions   
  From the dramaturgical perspective, we are more likely to fool ourselves than others   
  E.  EMBARRASSMENT OCCURS WHEN WE FEEL OUR PERFORMANCE IN INADEQUATE   
  Embarrassment, i.e. discomfort following a spoiled performance, & tact, i.e. helping someone save face, are additional important dramaturgical concepts  

 
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 Outline on an Intro to   Erving Goffman   1922  -  1988
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Link
-  Biography & Major Works  
  PEOPLE INTERACT THROUGH DRAMTURGY OR IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT WHEREBY WE CHOOSE WHAT ROLES TO FILL, & WHAT ASPECTS OF THE SELF TO EMPHASIZE   
  Erving Goffman is often thought of as the last major figure from the original Chicago School  
  All the world’s a stage,
And all the men & women merely players.
They have their exits & their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven stages.
William Shakespeare, As You Like It ( Act II, Scene 7 )
 
  Goffman saw much in common btwn theatrical performances & the kinds of "acts" we all put on in our day to day actions & interactions.   
  Interaction is seen by Goffman as very fragile, & maintained by social performance  
  Actors both on the stage & in social life are seen as interested in appearances, wearing costumes, & using props
 
  Goffman saw strong tension btwn what we see ourselves as & what people expect us to be  
  For Goffman, people respond w/ dramaturgy or impression management to the tension we experience btwn what we want to be & what people expect us to be  
  Goffman believe that we are highly attuned to the needs of others:  the audience  
  Goffman believe that we attempt to control the audience  
  According to dramaturgy, people manage their self image that they present to others by choosing what roles to fill & emphasize in their lives  
  THE CONTEXTS OF LIFE PARALLEL THE ASPECTS OF A STAGE W/ FRONT STAGE BEING THE WORKPLACE, HOME BEING THE BACKSTAGE, ETC. 
 
For Goffman, there is a front region in both the theater & in life
 
 
The front region parallels the front stage in the theatrical performance
 
 
The back region is the place to which actors retire to prepare themselves for their performance 
 
 
Backstage / offstage, the actors can shed their roles & be themselves
 
 
The major criticism of Goffman's work is that he examined esoteric topics rather than the essential aspects of everyday life  

 
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Erving Goffman   1922  -  1988

Goffman was a Jewish Canadian sociologist & writer. Goffman received his B.A. at the University of Toronto in 1945 & his M.A. & Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1949 & 1953 respectively.  He taught at the universities of California & Pennsylvania.

b. Manville, Alta. 
Developed a performance oriented theory of behavior in Asylums (1961), which dealt w/ personality changes among inmates of a mental asylum.  This led to his study of other institutions

Died 1988    His Last Exit

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Major Works of Goffman

1959:  The Presentation of Self  in Everyday Life.
1961: Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients & Other Inmates. New York, Doubleday. 
1963: Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Prentice Hall. 
1974: Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. London: Harper & Row. 
1981: Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 


 
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 Outline on  Phenomenological Sociology
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PHENOMENOLOGY EXAMINES THE NATURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS & HOW IT AFFECTS HUMAN INTERACTION 
  The philosophy of phenomenology, w/ its focus on consciousness, has a long history
 
  Phenomenology is a philosophy that was developed by the German philosopher Edmund Husserl in the early 1900's & because of its parallels to symbolic interactionism & other micro sociological theories it has been widely integrated into many sociological & psychological theories   
  The methodology of phenomenology has been applied to specific fields, such as anthropology, law psychiatry, psychology, religion, & sociology   
  Husserl examined how consciousness works & how it affects human experience 
 
  Consciousness refers to the power of the mind to be aware of acts, sensations, & emotions 
 
  MANY PHENOMENOLOGISTS ARE RELATIVISTS IN THAT THEY ONLY BELIEVE WHAT THEY EXPERIENCE THROUGH CONSCIOUSNESS 
  Husserl believed that everything we know about reality derives from our consciousness 
 
  PHENOMENOLOGISTS ATTEMPT TO UNDERSTAND THE 'RULES OF CONSCIOUSNESS,' FOR EXAMPLE EVERYTHING IS EITHER THE OBJECT OF CONSCIOUSNESS OR THE ACT OF CONSCIOUSNESS   
  For phenomenologists, experience has two parts, the objects of consciousness & the acts of consciousness 
 
  Objects of consciousness, the things of which one is conscious which include material objects, ideas, and wishes, are called phenomena 
 
  The second part of experience consists of acts of consciousness, such as perceiving, believing, thinking, and desiring 
 
  Phenomenologists believe that all acts of consciousness are related to objects of consciousness and thus must also be considered phenomena 
 
  This relationship btwn acts & objects of consciousness is called intentionality
 
  The phenomenological method starts with the theory that people normally make certain assumptions about their experiences
 
  They consider the things they have been taught, and remember past experiences & such presuppositions limit their experiencing of phenomena
 
  Phenomenologists realize that it is impossible to entirely eliminate these presuppositions from the mind & so they try to expand their experiencing of phenomena by dealing with the presuppositions critically
 
  One critical method involves fantasy variations
 
  The philosopher varies the presuppositions, imagining how the experience would be perceived under varying circumstances
 
  The features of the experience that remain constant despite the variations are considered its essence
 
 
The French psychologist Maurice Merleau Ponty and the German philosopher Martin Heidegger argued that phenomenology should not be limited to an analysis of consciousness  
  Merleau Ponty and Heidegger used the phenomenological method to analyze human existence in general  

 
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 Outline on   Alfred Schutz   1899  -  1959
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Link
-  Biography & Major Works
 
  SCHUTZ EXAMINED PHENOMENOLOGICAL SOC, ESP THE RELATIONSHIP OF ONE'S STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS W/ THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF OTHERS WHICH TOGETHER FORMED INTERSUBJECTIVITY  
  Schutz integrated the philosophy of Edmund Husserl which was aimed inward toward an understanding of the transcendental ego, & turned it outward toward a concern for intersubjectivity  
  Schutz examined the way people grasp the consciousness of others while they live w/in their own stream of consciousness  
  Schutz developed the concept of intersubjectivity, which means a concern w/ the social world, especially the social nature of knowledge  
  THE LIFE WORLD IS THE EVERYDAY WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE WHICH CONSISTS OF INTERSUBJECTIVITY  
  Schutz focused on everyday life, which is often called the life world  
          See Also:  Habermas on the Life World  
  The life world in an intersubjective world in which people both create reality & are constrained by the preexisting social & cultural structures created by their predecessors
 
  While much of the life world is shared, there are also private worlds, biographically articulated which are aspects of the life world
 
  'WE RELATIONSHIPS' ARE FACE TO FACE; 'THEY RELATIONSHIPS' ARE IMPERSONAL   
  W/in the life world, Schutz differentiated btwn we relationships & they relationships
 
          See Also:  Primary & Secondary Groups  
          Another theorist, Mannheim, has a similar schema  
  We relationships are intimate, face to face relationships
 
  They relationships are distant & impersonal
 
  It is easier to study they relationships scientifically
 
  Schutz moved away from examining consciousness & examined meaning & motives
 
  Schutz saw a dialectical relationship btwn people's construction of the life world & the obdurate social & cultural reality that they inherit
 
  PEOPLE ARE REFLEXIVE IN THAT THEY SEE SITUATIONS & REACT TO THE BEST OF THEIR ABILITY; THUS PEOPLE ARE NOT JUDGEMENTAL DOPES, I.E. MERE PAWNS OF SOCIAL FORCES   
  Schutz, ethnomethodologists, & phenomenologists do not see actors as judgmental dopes, but yet they do not believe that people are "almost endlessly reflexive, self conscious & calculative"  
  Like Schutz, the ethnomethodologists recognize that most often action is routine & relatively unreflective
 
  Coleman's rational choice theory has been applied to Schutz's phenomenological approach
 
  Many sociological models of subjectivity, visa vie Mead & Schutz, assume that in role taking the actor learns to see the self through the eyes of others, & thus the actor is deemed more or less the same as the actor
 
  A validation of Schutz can be seen in feminist sociology, where women are socialized to see themselves through the eyes of men
 
  SCHUTZ WISHES TO OVERCOME THE INDIVIDUAL / SOCIAL, SUBJECTIVE / OBJECTIVE SPLIT BY NOTING THAT SOCIAL STRUCTURES ARE THE HABITS / PROCESSES THAT PEOPLE CREATE; I.E. THEY ONLY APPEAR OBJECTIVE   
  Pierre Bourdieu wants to overcome the 'false opposition btwn objectivism & subjectivism, i.e., the absurd opposition btwn individual & society
 
  To overcome the false opposition btwn objectivism & subjectivism, Bourdieu moves to a subjectivist position similar to that of Sartre's existentialism, Schutz's phenomenology, Blumer's symbolic interactionism, & Garfinkel's ethnomethodology
 
  Phenomenological theorist's subjective actor examines who agents think about, account for, or represent the social world while ignoring the objective structure in which those processes exist  
  Habermas addressed the ideas of Schutz, Mead, Parsons, Durkheim, et al when he examined the colonization of the life world  
  Colonization of the life world addresses the agency structure issue through paradigm combination which sees structure as a social process that invades, i.e., colonized the life world  

 
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Alfred Schutz           1899  -  1959
Alfred Schutz (1899-1959, aka Alfred Schutz) was a philosopher & sociologist. He was born in Austria & studied law in Vienna, but moved to the US in 1939, where he became a member of the faculty of the New School for Social Research. He worked on phenomenology, social science methodology & the philosophy of Edmund Husserl, William James & others.

Schutz's principal task was to develop the phenomenological philosophy of Edmund Husserl as a basis for a philosophy of the social sciences. Although Schutz was never a student of Husserl, he, together w/ a colleague, Felix Kaufman, studied Husserl's work intensively in seeking a basis for a "sociology of understanding" derived from the work of Max Weber. This work & its continuation resulted in his first book, Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt (literally, The meaningful construction of the social world, but published in English as The phenomenology of the social world). This work brought him to the attention of Husserl, w/ whom he corresponded & whom he visited until Husserl's death in 1938. In fact, he was offered the position of assistant to Husserl at Freiburg University in the early 1930s, but declined.

Schutz is probably unique as a scholar of the social sciences in that he pursued a career as a banker for almost his entire life, teaching part time at the New School for Social Research in New York & producing key papers in phenomenological sociology that fill three volumes (published by Nijhoff, The Hague).

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Major Works of Schutz

The Phenomenology of the Social World. 1932, English Trans. 1967.


 
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 Outline on an Intro to  Ethnomethodology
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-  Project:  Assessing Ethnomethodology
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  -  Project:  Breaching Experiment
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  -  Project:  Your Ethnomethodological Research
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  -  Project:  Mediation
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  ETHNOMETHODOLOGY IS AN OFF-SHOOT OF DRAMATURGY, PHENOMENOLOGY, & SIMILAR FIELDS   
 
Harold Garfinkel, a student of Alfred Schutz & Parsons, is the founder & major contributor to ethnomethodology
 
  Ethnomethodology is a subfield of sociology which studies the way people make sense of their everyday lives  
  Ethnomethodology was founded by Garfinkel in late 1940s  
  The first systematized publication of Studies in Ethnomethodology occurred in 1967  
  Garfinkel coined the term ethnomethodology in the 1960s to signify the methods members of the society use to make & maintain sense of the social world around them  
 
Ethnomethodology was the first distinctive, significant theory of the American West Coast
 
  Ethnomethodology is now considered mainstream sociology in that ethnomethodologists regularly publish in the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, & so on  
  However, the criticisms of ethnomethodology are stinging  
  ETHNOMETHODOLOGY EXAMINES PEOPLES' EVERYDAY KNOWLEDGE & HOW THEY USE IT TO LIVE IN & CONSTRUCT THEIR DAILY WORLD; IT IS 'THE STUDY OF THE PEOPLES' METHODS'  
 
Ethnomethodology is the study of the "body of common-sense knowledge & the range of procedures & considerations [the methods] by means of which the ordinary members of society make sense of, find their way about in, & act on the circumstances in which they find themselves 
 
  Ethnomethodology examines the methods people use daily to accomplish their everyday lives  
  Ethnomethodology is the body of common-sense knowledge & range of procedures & considerations by means of which ordinary members of society make sense of, find their way about in, & act on the circumstances in which they find themselves  
 
Theorists in ethnomethodology are interested in the study of everyday life
 
 
While phenomenological sociologists tend to focus on what people think, ethnomethodologists are concerned w/ what people actually do
 
 
Ethnomethodologists study conversations & eschew the study of bureaucracy, capitalism, the division of labor, & social systems
 
 
Ethnomethodologists are interested in how the social forms of bureaucracy, capitalism, the division of labor, social systems, etc. are created in everyday life
 
 
Ethnomethodology is empirical & does little theorizing
 
 
Accounts are the process by which people offer accounts of the world; that is, make sense of the world
 
 
People are reflexively accountable:  we make sense of our internal world & the external world simultaneously via description, criticism, idealization, etc., & as we do so, we alter both worlds
 
 
The concept of the double hermeneutic, made popular by Schutz & advanced by Giddens, holds that others can never know our world or the world we see because they are both hermeneutically sealed
 
 
An examination of accounting practices, which detail how members make sense of the world & create micro & macro structures, is the project of ethnomethodology
 
 
STRAINS W/IN ETHNOMETHODOLOGY / CRITIQUE / WEAKNESSES:  ETHNOMETHODOLOGY FOCUSES ON THE MARGINS OF SOCIETY, WHICH SOME CONSIDER TO BE TRIVIAL 
 
 
Ethnomethodology focuses on trivial matters such as game rules, deviant sexuality, conversation, laughter, applause, booing
 
 
Sociology should not lose track of it's consideration of "serious social problems" such as poverty, alienation, etc.
 
 
In it's pursuit of the trivialities of everyday life, Ethnomethodology lost sight of its phenomenological roots & the concern for conscious, cognitive processes  
 
While the micro macro link has been central to the theory of Ethnomethodology, a valid examination of the micro macro link  has not materialized   
  Ethnomethodology lost sight of its original radical reflexivity where social activity is always bi directional & is "accomplished" i.e. modified in process to accompanied actors & audience  
  Ethnomethodology & conversation analysis have split into two factions  
 
Lewis Coser, the President of the ASA in 1975, said ethnomethodology is trivial, a massive cop out, an orgy of subjectivism, & a self indulgent enterprise
 
  Coser says ethnomethodology fails to generate any insights at all:  'it elaborates points which are so commonplace that they are banal'
 
  ETHNOMETHODOLOGY EXAMINES PEOPLES' ACCTS:  HOW THEY MAKE SENSE, CONSTRUCT UNDERSTANDING, DISPLAY MEANING, USE UNDERSTANDING, ETC.   
  Ethnomethodology means, literally, 'the study of people's methods'  
  Ethnomethodology focuses on the way people:
-  make sense of the world, the way they 
-  construct their understanding of the world, the way they 
-  display their understandings, & the way they 
-  use their understanding
 
  Our understanding of the world is not simply an individualistic, unorganized random body of knowledge, rather it is shaped by many forces, physical, natural, social, etc. & it is sociology's job to uncover & understand these forces  
  The term accounts is used to describe a person's, or several person's understandings of a situation  
  Accounts make one's actions & interpretations mutually intelligible meaning that they are commonsensical & intuitive to others  
  Accounts are more or less reflexive in that at times they are flexible & adapting to changing understandings & situations, which at other times they may be solid, maintained by existing culture & social structure  
  Ethnomethodology focuses on how accounts, our systematized understandings, are organized in the ongoing moment to moment maintenance of social order  
  The social sciences seeks to provide accounts of society which compete with those offered by other members; all accounts compete w/ other accounts  
  The documentarian method is used to read every day events as opportunities by which members of the community use their cultural competence & indexical (contextual) knowledge to make sense of the world  
  To say that words, behavior, understanding are indexical means that they are reliant for their meaning on the context in which they are used  
  Ethnomethodology provides insights into the objectivity of social science & the difficulty in establishing a description of human behavior which has an objective status outside the context of its creation   
  Ethnomethodology has had an impact on linguistics & particularly on pragmatics, spawning a whole new discipline of conversation analysis  
  Ethnomethodological studies of work have played a significant role in the field of human computer interaction, improving design by providing engineers w/ descriptions of the practices of users  
 
ETHNOMETHODOLOGICAL INDIFFERENCE IS THE RELUCTANCE TO EMBRACE THEORY FROM OTHER SCHOOLS, OR EVEN FROM THEIR OWN SCHOOL 
 
  Ethnomethodological indifference is a policy of deliberate agnosticism towards social theory  
  It is a specialized application of the phenomenological technique of bracketing  
  By deliberately suspending our preconceived notions of how the social order is maintained, we are able to more clearly see the social order in its actual, real time, moment to moment production  
 
DURKHEIM WOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AN ETHNOMETHODOLOGIST, BUT HE DID ADVOCATE 'TREATING SOCIAL FACTS AS THINGS' 
 
  Durkheim famously recommended that we 'treat social facts as things'  
  Treating social facts as things is usually taken to mean that we should assume the objectivity of social facts as a principal of study   
  For Durkheim & many others the establishment of social facts provided the basis of founding sociology as a science  
  Garfinkel's alternative reading of Durkheim is that we should treat the objectivity of social facts as an achievement of society' members, thus making this achievement of objectivity the focus of study  

 
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 Outline on an Intro to  Harold Garfinkel
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-  Biography & Major Works 
 
  GARFINKEL'S ETHNOMETHODOLOGY HOLDS THAT BEHAVIOR JUSTIFIES ITSELF THROUGH THE PROCESSES OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF EVERYDAY LIFE   
 
Harold Garfinkel, a student of Alfred Schutz & Parsons, is the founder & major contributor to ethnomethodology
 
 
Garfinkel rejected Parsons' structural functional perspective & rediscovered the classical sociological ideas of Durkheim & Weber
 
 
Ethnomethodology and Garfinkel rejected Parsons' notion that the normative order is separate from the behavioral order & yet still controls the behavioral order
 
 
Behavior creates its own norms/justification; i.e., the social world was not reified (i.e., an independent thing) but linked to everyday life activity
 
 
Garfinkel focused mostly on trivial or deviant behavior and thus earned the disdain of many mainstream sociologists
 
 
Garfinkel worked on the Parsonian issue of order not from the theoretical direction but rather from the direction of the details of their workings, in their achievement
 
  THE SOCIAL WORLD IS NOT REIFIED NOR OBJECTIFIED; RATHER ALL SOC SYSTEMS INCLUDING CULTURE, ORGS, & STRUCTURES CAN BE UNDERSTOOD THROUGH THE PROCESSES OF EVERYDAY LIFE   
 
Garfinkel found that the social world was not reified, in contrast to Parsons' tendency to reify cultural & social systems
 
 
Garfinkel's refusal to reify was similar to that of Weber and Durkheim
 
 
Durkheim's orientation was to study, not reify, external and coercive social facts
 
  Garfinkel, like Durkheim, holds that social facts are fundamental in sociology  
  Durkheim's social facts were external to & coercive of individuals  
  For Durkheim, actors are constrained/determined by social structures & institutions  
  For Garfinkel, social facts are the accomplishments of members as a product of member's methodological activities which Garfinkel believes are reasoned & patterned  
  PEOPLE ARE REFLEXIVE, NOT MERE PAWNS OF SOC FORCES   
  For Garfinkel, Durkheim treats people as "judgmental dopes" because Durkheim does not treat them as active actors  
  The production of objective reality, of social facts, is society's fundamental phenomenon & it is the fundamental project of sociology to examine it  
  Classic studies of social order & ethnomethodological studies agree that the social relationship they are researching is the production & accountability of the phenomena of order, reason, logic, etc., which is the same early question that social scientists such as Hobbes & Durkheim explored  
  For Garfinkel, social life is the the great recurrences of immortal ordinary society, really, actually, evidently, distinctively, and in detail  
  Some ethnomethodological studies offer evidence for locally produced, naturally accountable phenomena of order, logic, reason, meaning, method, objective knowledge, evidence, detail, structure, etc.  
  Everyday life exhibits unavoidable & irremediable individuality / singleness of immortal ordinary life  
 
The point of view of ethnomethodology that the creation of everyday life is continuous, fragile & on going is contrary to the classic policies, methods, claims, & findings of professional sociology & the world wide social science movement
 
  THE SOCIAL SCIENCES SHOULD FOCUS ON RADICAL BEHAVIOR, SUSPEND ALL JUDGEMENT, USE BRACKETING, & STUDY THE PRACTICE OF LANGUAGE   
 
In contrast to the social constructionist version of phenomenological sociology, Garfinkel emphasizes a focus on radical phenomena, rather than on the various ways they are interpreted
 
  Garfinklel's recommendation that sociologists suspend their assumption of social order is often wrongly taken to mean that he believes social life to be chaotic, or that members of society are free agents  
  The suspension (bracketing in the phenomenological jargon) is merely an analytic move designed to bring the existing social order more clearly into focus  
  Garfinkel emphasizes the indexicality of language & the difficulties this creates for the production of objective accounts of social phenomena  
  Objective accounts of reality are reflexive to the settings in which they are produced in that they depend upon that setting for their meaning  
  Ethnomethodological studies come in a wide variety of forms, including: 
-  the sequential analysis of conversation
-  the study of social categorization practices, through membership category analysis
-  studies of workplace settings & activities
-  studies of deviant human behavior such as drug use, prostitution, crime, sexuality, etc.
 

 
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Harold Garfinkel           1917  - 

Harold Garfinkel is Professor Emeritus in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Garfinkel is one of the key developers of the phenomenological tradition in American sociology

PROFESSOR EMERITUS 
Ph. D., Harvard University 
Phone: 310-825-3328 
E-mail: GARFINKEL@SOC.UCLA.EDU 
Office: 264 HAINES 
Mailing Address:
UCLA Department of Sociology
264 Haines Hall - Box 951551
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1551
Fax: 310-206-9838 

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Major Works of Garfinkel

1946 "Color trouble." in Primer for white folks. Edited by B. Moon, 269-286. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Doran 
1956 "Conditions of successful degradation ceremonies." American Journal of Sociology 61: 420-424. 
1956 "Some sociological concepts and methods for psychiatrists." Psychiatric Research Reports 6: 181-198. 
1963 "A conception of, and experiments with, 'trust' as a condition of stable concerted actions." in Motivation and social interaction. Edited by O.J. Harvey, 187-238. New York: The Ronald Press 
1967 Studies in ethnomethodology . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall 
1967 "Practical sociological reasoning: Some features in the work of the Los Angeles suicide prevention center." in Essays in self destruction. Ed by E. Shneidman, 171-186. NY: Science House 
1968 "Discussion: The origin of the term 'ethnomethodology'." in Proceedings of the Purdue Symposium on Ethnomethodology. Ed. by R. Hill and K. Grittenden, 15-18. Institute Monograph Series #1 
1970 (with Harvey Sacks) "On formal structures of practical actions." in Theoretical sociology: Perspectives & developments. Edited by J. McKinney and E. Tiryakian, 337-366. New York: Meredith 
1972 "A Comparison of Decisions Made on Four 'Pre Theoretical' Problems by Talcott Parsons and Alfred Schultz" in . Edited by, . ms.. [first published in 1960] 
1972 "Studies in the routine grounds of everyday activities." in Studies in social interaction. Edited by D. Sudnow, 1-30. New York: The Free Press. [first published in 1964] 
1972 "Conditions of Successful Degradation Ceremonies." in Symbolic Interactionism. Edited by J. Manis and B. Meltzer, 201-208. New York: Allyn and Bacon 
1976 "An introduction, for novices, to the work of studying naturally organized ordinary activities." in . Edited by, . ms. 
1981 "The Work of a Discovering Science Construed with Materials from the Optically Discovered Pulsar." Philosophy of the Social Sciences 11: 131-158. 
2002 Ethnomethodology's program: Working out Durkheim's aphorism . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield,


 
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 Outline on   Early Marxism in America
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  BEFORE THE 50s, MARXISM WAS NOT ACCEPTED IN THE US, BUT W/ THE WORK OF MILLS ET AL, & THE RADICALIZATION OF THE 60s, IT ENTERED AM ACADEMIC CIRCLES & SOCIETY IN GENERAL   
  In the 1960s, because of the groundwork laid by C. Wright Mills, Marxism began to be accepted by American sociology 
 
  When Marxism was first accepted in the US, the dominant theory of structural functionalism was under attack because it was too conservative, could not explain change, was too macro oriented, etc. 
 
  Marxism addressed many of the problems of structural functionalism 
 
  The 1960s & the 1970s was the era of black protests, the women's mvmt, the student mvmt, & the anti-war in Vietnam mvmt & people were energized by this radical thinking & were thus more accepting of new ideas like Marxism 
 
  Henri Lefebevre's, The Sociology of Marx, 1968, was an important work in the era of early Marxism in America 
 
  American theorists were drawn to Marxists off shoots such as the critical school of the Frankfurt School which combined Marxism & Weberianism
 
  Important journals of Early Marxism in America included Theory & Society, Telos, Marxist Studies, The Insurgent Sociologist, etc. 
 
  Jurgen Habermas, perhaps the most important scholar in Europe, was tied to Marxism & the Critical School 
 
  American Marxism declined in the late 70s, & then the Fall of Communism in the 1990s made most Marxism illegitimate to American sociologists 
 
  With the Fall of Communism, Marxists felt like they had theory w/o practice, which contradicted their central purpose 
 
  Some important post Fall of Communism publications include the journal Rethinking Marxism & Ronald Aronson's After Marxism, 1995 
 

 
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 Outline on   Early Feminism in America
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FEMINISM GOES THROUGH STAGES REPRESENTING ITS VARIOUS CONCERNS W/ TRADL WOMEN'S ISSUES AS WELL AS ISSUES RELATED TO SOC PROBLEMS & SOC MVMTS 
  In the late 1970s, when Marxism was gaining acceptance, contemporary feminist theory became well established & challenged sociological theories, as well as Marxism 
 
  This era of Feminism is known as Second wave feminism  
       after the First Wave Feminism, circa 1700 - 1920s   
  Three factors helped create Second Wave Feminism 
 
  a.  Women activists in civil rights, the anti Vietnam War mvmt, student mvmts encountered sexism from liberal & radical men in those mvmts & therefore became energized to confront sexism 
 
  b.  Women experienced prejudice & discrimination as they moved into other spheres of life 
 
  c.  Women understood that their experience was significantly different from that of men & that theory, practice, etc. would have to be reconsidered to take into account women's views 
 
  Feminism has continued to grow in the 90s & 00s even as other mvmts come & go 
 
  Feminist theory is now frequently intl in scope 
 
  Third wave feminism is now active, focusing on women around the globe & the diverse types of women   
  Women's studies programs are now common in all major universities 
 
  Feminism now examines substantive issues such as gender in the workplace, rape, popular culture, motherhood, writing, etc. 
 
  Feminism often uses contextualize theory / research similar to Weber's verstehen or Schutz's phenomenology   
  Important journals in feminism include Signs, Feminist Studies, Sociological Inquiry, Gender & Society, etc. 
 
  Professional associations include Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS), the National Women's Studies Association (NSWA) 
 
  Feminism looks at the world from a vantage point, the vantage point of women 
 
  Feminism examines the ways in which the activity of women, subordinated by gender & various stratificational practices such as class, race, age, heterosexuality, geosocial inequality, etc., recreate the world   
  Feminists & women have been marginalized from society in general, but also from academe, & even sociology 
 
  As a social science, feminism is unique because it has the goal of social reform 
 
  Feminism focuses on sexism, or gendered inequality, but also on inequality in general 
 
  Feminists believe that gender is perhaps the fundamental stratification or inequality, visa vie economic inequality, race inequality, national inequality, etc.   
  Feminism has often become tied to sexual politics, including  abuse, rape, sexual preference, abortion, etc.   
  Germaine Grear, Female Eunich, Betty Friedan  

 
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 Outline on the  Introduction to Structuralism
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  STRUCTURALISM HOLDS THAT SOCIAL GROUPS, STRUCTURES, ETC. ARE PRIOR TO THE PERSON; I.E. THEY CONSTRUCT THE PERSON & ARE CENTRAL TO UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL RELATIONS   
 
Structuralism was a reaction against French humanism, the especially existentialism of Jean Paul Sartre
 
 
Structuralism has enjoyed periodic revivals, mostly, as now, in response to new ideas about language, rhetoric, or the function of criticism vis à vis other disciplines
 
 
Review:   Jean-Paul Sartre   
 
Structuralism is a generic term denoting the school which believes that society is prior to the individual
 
 
Structuralism is often used to refer to a particular style of sociological work, although it is not at all distinctive
 
  Structuralism focuses on structures that are fundamentally different than Marxist structures or functionalist structures  
  In many ways, structuralism, functionalism, conflict theory, modernism, & others are the opposite of dramaturgy, exchange theory, phenomenology, ethnomethodology in that the former see various types of structures as central to understanding society while the latter sometimes even deny the existence of such structures & see the interaction w/in the consciousness or btwn people as central   
 
There are several variants of structuralism, including: psychological, Marxist, & linguist 
 
 
a.  PSYCHOLOGICAL STRUCTURALISM EXAMINES THE "DEEP STRUCTURES OF THE MIND" 
 
 
Psychological structuralism examines aspects of consciousness that are more fundamental than instincts 
 
 
Freud & Marcuse are examples of psychological structuralism
 
 
Structuralism focus on the unconscious structure which leads people to think & act as people do
 
 
b.  MARXIST STRUCTURALISM LOOKS AT ALL THE SOCIAL STRUCTURES OF SOCIETY ESP THE ECON STRUCTURES 
 
 
Marxist structuralism focuses on the invisible large structures of society & see them as determinants of the actions of people as well as of society in general
 
 
Marx examined the unseen economic structure of capitalist society
 
  The works of Marx, Mills, Dahrendorf are examples of Marxist structuralism  
 
At its most general level structuralism simply refers to a sociological perspective based on the concept of social structure & the view that society is prior to individuals
 
 
c.  LINGUIST STRUCTURALISTS FOCUS ON HOW LANGUAGE, ITS CONSTRUCTION & USE IMPACT SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS 
 
  Linguistic structuralists believe that the individual & the individual structures they create are prior to society  
 
Note that most linguists today, contrary to structural linguists, believe that society & language evolved simultaneously & that one could not arise w/o the other  
  For contemporary linguists, language is such an important part of society & human consciousness that one could not exist w/o the other  
 
The anthropologist Claude Levi Strauss is an example of a linguist structuralist
 
 
Structuralists see a link btwn the structures of the mind & the structures of society
 
 
Linguist structuralism focuses on the dialectical relationship btwn individuals & social structures
 
 
Structuralism, as constituted by the linguistic turn, is a part of that wider formalist enterprise in the humanities which may be seen in Aristotle's Poetics which analyzes language
 
 
The linguistic turn is the idea that all perceptions, concepts, & truth claims are constructed in language, along with the corresponding 'subject positions'
 
  For structuralists, subject positions are nothing more than transient epiphenomena of this or that cultural discourse  

 
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 Outline on an Intro to  Post Structuralism
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  POST STRUCTURALISTS EXAMINE WHAT THEY BELIEVE TO BE THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL OF STRUCTURES SUCH AS POWER, KNOWLEDGE, SEXUALITY, CRIME, & MORE 
  Jacques Derrida's 1966 speech proclaimed the dawning of the post structuralist age
 
 
Review:  Derrida  
 
The major post structuralist is Michel Foucault, but he is also considered to be a post modernist  
  Review:  Foucault  
  Foucault focused on structures, but he later moved beyond structures to focus on power & the linkage btwn knowledge & power
 
 
Post structuralism is the school of thought which emerged in the late 1970s, claiming to supersede, or at any rate to 'problematize,' the earlier structuralism  
  Post structuralists accept the importance of structure but go beyond to encompass a wide range of other concerns
 
  Post structuralists have the most in common w/ the linguistic structuralists
 
  It is difficult to differentiate btwn structuralists, post structuralists, & post modernists
 
  LANGUAGE / COMMUNICATION / DISCOURSE IS A FUNDAMENTAL ASPECT OF SOCIETY SINCE WHAT WE SAY ABOUT 'REALITY' DEFINES THAT REALITY   
  Post structuralism is best understood as a French inspired variant of the so called 'linguistic turn'
 
  The linguistic turn is the idea that all perceptions, concepts, truth claims & their corresponding 'subject positions' are constructed in language & thus are nothing more than transient epiphenomena of this or that cultural discourse
 
  From Saussure, post structuralism takes the notion of language as a system of immanent relationships & differences 'without positive terms'
 
  Post structuralism takes from Nietzsche its outlook of extreme epistemological & ethico evaluative relativism
 
  Post structuralism takes from Foucault the counter Enlightenment rhetoric of 'power/knowledge' as the motivating force behind the talk of reason or truth
 
  Post structuralist  is vulnerable to all the familiar criticisms - including forms of transcendental refutation - rehearsed against thorough-going skeptics & relativists down through the ages
 

 
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 Outline on the Intro to Micro / Macro Integration
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  MICRO / MACRO INTEGRATION EXAMINES THE RELATIONSHIP BTWN THE MICRO LEVEL / THE INDIVIDUAL & INDIVIDUALISTIC PROCESSES, W/ THE MACRO LEVEL / SOCIAL STRUCTURES & LARGER SOCIAL FORCES   
  The micro macro problem is, in many ways, the American version of the European agency structure problem  
  Micro means small, minute or diminutive & in social theory usually refers to the range of social behavior including the personal, individualistic, the lived life world, everyday life, social psychological, subjective etc. spheres
 
  Macro means large, significant, or outsized & in social theory usually refers to the range of social behavior such as structural, objective, large group, societal, cultural, systemic, etc. spheres
 
  Micro macro integration became a central problem in sociology in the 1980s
 
  Norbert Elias (1939 - 1994), a European sociologist was a leader on the micro macro issue
 
  The micro macro problem is concerned w/ several issues including whether social behavior is the result of micro or macro forces, whether the micro sphere creates the macro sphere or vice versa, whether there even is a micro or a macro level, whether the differentiation of the two levels is false, & so on  
  Ritzer (1979, 1981a) has developed a paradigm that integrates micro & macro levels in both their subjective & objective forms  
  MOST ATTEMPTS TO INTEGRATE MICRO & MACRO LEVEL ANALYSIS FOCUS ON HOW EACH LEVEL CONSTITUTES & IS CONSTITUTED BY THE OTHER LEVELS   
  For Ritzer there are four major levels of social analysis, including   
  -  macro subjectivity
 
  -  macro objectivity
 
  -  micro objectivity
 
  -  micro objectivity
 
Link
The Table on Ritzer's Major Levels of Social Analysis shows that Ritzer accords priority to no level of analysis, & is instead concerned w/ the dialectical relationship among all of them   
  Jeffry Alexander (1982-83) has formulated a schema, similar to Ritzer's, which is called Multidimensional Sociology  
  As a functionalist, Alexander develops his model around the concepts of Order & Action
 
 
Each of Alexander's structures has an individual (micro) level & a collective macro level, creating four major levels of social analysis
 
 
-  collective idealist
 
 
-  collective materialist
 
 
-  individual idealist
 
 
-  individual materialist
 
 
In his schema, Alexander accords priority to the collective idealist level  
 
Norbert Wiley (1988) delineates four major levels of analysis that are similar to Alexander's schema, including the:   
  -  self or individual level  
  -  interaction level  
  -  social structure level  
  -  culture level  
  James Coleman (1986) has concentrated on the micro macro problem & later extended it into a Rational Choice Model (1990)  
  Allen Liska (1990) extended Coleman's work   

 
  INTRO TO MICRO / MACRO INTEGRATION 
Top
          The Micro / Macro Question   
          Social Insight   
          C W Mills:  The Sociological Imagination   
 
MANY THEORIES HAVE APPROACHED THE MICRO / MACRO ISSUE, USUALLY FROM A MICRO PERSPECTIVE 
 
          Overview of Marx   
                  Base & Superstructure   
                  The Mode of Production   
                  Alienation   
                  Ideology   
                  Marx on Micro / Macro Integration   
          Overview of Weber   
                  Rationality   
                  The PESC   
                  Weber's Debate w/ the Ghost of Marx   
                  Weber on Micro / Macro Integration   
          Overview of Durkheim   
                  Mechanical & Organic Solidarity   
                  The Division of Labor   
                  Durkheim on Micro / Macro Integration   
          Goffman on Micro / Macro Integration   
          Intro to Blumer: Micro / Macro Integration in Symbolic Interactionism   
          Ethnomethodology on Micro / Macro Integration   
          Intro to Baldwin: Symbolic Interactionism & Micro / Macro Integration   
          Coleman's Rational Choice Theory   
          Burt's Structural Theory of Action   
          Why Study Orgs?  Because the orgl level encompasses mid range theory & the micro / macro integration   
          Intro to Marcuse: A psychological theory is a foundation of social theory, bridging the micro / macro chasm   
          Figurations   
                  Micro Figurations   
                  Macro Figuratons   
  SOME THEORIES HAVE ACHIEVED MICRO / MACRO INTEGRATION   
          The Micro / Macro Continuum   
          Micro to Macro Models   
          A Micro / Macro Model  

 
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Table on Ritzer's Major Levels of Social Analysis
Objective
Macroscopic
Subjective
I.  Macro objective
e.g. society, law, bureaucracy, architecture, tech, language, etc.
II.  Macro subjective:
e.g. culture, norms, values, etc.
Microscopic
III.  Micro objective:
e.g. patterns of behavior, action, interaction, etc. 
IV.  Micro subjective:
e.g. perceptions, beliefs, social construction of reality, etc.
The Table on the Major Levels of Social Analysis shows that Ritzer accords priority to no level of analysis, & is instead concerned w/ the dialectical relationship among all of them 

 
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 Outline on an Intro to  Agency Structure Integration
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  AGENCY STRUCTURE INTEGRATION EXAMINES THE NATURE OF INDIVIDUALISTIC POWER / REFLEXIVITY INTERACTS W/ STRUCTURAL FORCES INCLUDING CULTURE, POWER, THE ECON, STRUCTURES OF THE MIND, ETC.   
  The agency structure problem is, in many ways, the European version of the American micro macro problem
 
  Agents are usually micro level actors but may also be collective level actors such as families, churches, businesses, unions, etc.
 
  Structures are usually macro level phenomena, but structures also impact & operate in everyday life
 
  AGENCY STRUCTURE ANALYSIS TENDS TO SEE THIS SPLIT AS A DICHOTOMY WHEREAS MICRO MACRO ANALYSIS IS LIKELY TO VIEW SEVERAL LEVELS OF ANALYSIS   
  Giddens' structuration theory sees agency & structure as a "duality"  
  Giddens' concept of a duality denotes that the parts of the duality cannot be separated from one another if one is to depict an accurate understanding of the phenomenon
 
  Agency is implicated in structure & structure is implicated in agency
 
  Giddens sees structure as both constraining & enabling
 
  Margaret Archer (1982) views agency & structure as a "dualism"  
  In a dualism, the components can & should be separated for examination
 
  Thus, for Archer, agency & structure can & should be separated
 
  Archer is also examines the relationship btwn culture & agency & recently developed a more general agency structure theory (1995)
 
  Pierre Bourdieu differentiates btwn habitus & field  
  Habitus is an internalized mental, or cognitive, structure through which people deal w/ the social world
 
  Habitus both produces, & is produced by the society
 
  The field is a network of relations among objective positions
 
  The structure of the field serves to constrain agents, be they individuals or collectivities
 
  THE RELATIONSHIP BTWN AGENCY & STRUCTURE IS NOT OF INDEPENDENCE BUT RATHER OF MUTUAL INTERACTION, EACH CONSTITUTING THE OTHER   
  The relationship btwn the habitus & the field of one of mutual interaction:
 
 
Mutual interaction is seen when the field conditions the habitus & the habitus constitutes the field
 
 
Jurgen Habermas, a critical theorists, & viewed as being sympathetic to the modernist school, examines the agency structure problem in his consideration of the colonization of the life world  
 
The system arises from the life world but ultimately the system comes to develop its own structural characteristics & colonization of the life world
 
  The life world is a micro world where people interact & communicate  
  The system has its roots in the life world  
  As structures grow in independence & power, they come to exert more & more control over the life world  
  In the modern world, the system is "colonizing, " that is exerting control over the life world  
  Ulrich Beck's The Risk Society:  Towards a New Modernity (1992) discusses the unprecedented risks facing society today  
  THEORETICAL SYNTHESIS BTWN MICRO MACRO ANALYSIS & AGENCY STRUCTURE ANALYSIS IS ON-GOING, BUT THERE IS STILL A WIDE GAP BTWN MICRO ANALYSIS SUCH AS DRAMATURGY, WHICH DENIES THE EXISTENCE OF STRUCTURE, & STRUCTURALISM, WHICH SEES MICRO RELATIONSHIPS AS CONSTITUTED BY STRUCTURES / SOCIAL FORCES   
  The micro macro & the agency structure problems bring to light the overall problem of fragmentation in sociology  
  Many theorists are attempting to combine theories to come up w/ a general theory of Society  
  Levine (1991a) is synthesizing Simmel & Parsons  
  Alexander is examining neofunctionalism to combine it w/ symbolic interactionism, feminism, exchange theory, etc.  
  Elster, 1985; Mayer, 1994; Roemer, 1996c are post Marxists who are bringing mainstream ideas to Marxism  
  Harvey, 1989; Jameson, 1984; Laclau & Mouffe, 1985 are bringing post modernism ideas to Marxism  
  Crippen, 1994; Maryanski & Turner, 1992 are working w/in sociobiology  
  Coleman, 1990 is working on rational choice theory which combines sociology & economics  
  Systems Theory has its roots in the physical science but Niklas Luhmann, 1982, has applied it to the social world  
  Marcuse develops a social theory based on psychology, esp Freudian psych, thus illuminating the relationship btwn free will & the social structures that limit & empower it  

 
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 Outline on an intro to  Metatheorizing
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  -  Project:  Metatheorizing
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  METATHEORIZING IS THE SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE UNDERLYING STRUCTURE OF THEORY   
  While metatheorists take theory as their subject of study, theorists think about the social world  
  Many theorists are also metatheorists in that they examine theory and the process of theory construction, as well as the social world
 
  Fuhrman & Snizek, 1990 are metatheorists
 
  Marx was a metatheorists in that he examined Hegel, the Young Hegelians, political economists, and the utopian socialists
 
  Parsons describe his The Structure of Social Action, 1937, 1949, as an "empirical" study of his theoretical ancestors  
  Paul Furfey, 1953, 1965 offered the first, but flawed, effort to define metatheory
 
  Gouldner, 1970, wrote The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology to define a sociology of sociology
 
  Friedrichs, 1970; Ritzer, 1975a, examined the concept of the Paradigm, which is key in metatheoretical work, in light of Thomas Kuhn's, 1962, 1970 work
 
  Kuhn wrote The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.  1970.  2nd ed.  1970.  Chicago, University of Chicago Press which is an examination of theoretical models as paradigms which compete w/ each other on a variety of levels
 
  METATHEORIZING CREATES NEW THEORY, DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF EXISTING THEORY, & A THEORETICAL OVERVIEW  
  For Ritzer, there are three types of metatheorizing are delineated on the basis of their end products including the: 
a.  creation of new theory
b.  attainment of a deeper understanding of theory
c.  creation of an overarching theoretical perspective (a metatheory)
 
  Metatheory is inherently interdisciplinary & thus should be thought of as a dialogue with other nearby disciplines and with contemporary political and moral conversations about the social world  
  Metatheory exposes the assumptions of social scientists so as to make them more aware of where they stand in relation to other contemporary dialogues  
  Metatheory has a commitment to give up assumptions which have weakened other perspectives, such as positivism  
  Metatheory gives up positivistic assumptions & instead rests on the epistemological ground of relativism and, more importantly, on judgmental relativism  
  Metatheory pulls social theory into reviews of the history of ideas, textual debate, philosophical discourse, ideological critique, & other unresolvable intellectual issue  
  Metatheory directs attention away from the analysis of the operative dynamics of the social world  
  Despite the possibility of metatheory to move away from scientifically testable proposition, metatheory can also be used to produce better, testable, theories  
  Ritzer holds that social theory is improved by systematic, comparative & reflexive attention to implicit conceptual structures & oft hidden assumptions  
  For Ritzer metatheory has an integrating impulse that differentiates it from grand theory  
  The difference btwn meta & grand theory is that the former has a commitment to interdisciplinary exploration, i.e. a theory constructed of theories, as opposed to grand theory which may or may not be composed of other theories, which attempts to explain everything  
  Ritzer’s metatheorizing depicts & analyzes the strengths & weaknesses of a variety of major & less common paradigmatic approaches to the conceptualization of society and culture  

 
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 Outline on an Introduction to Modernity
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  -  Project:  Most Important Features of Modernity
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  MODERNISTS HOLD THAT SOCIETY CONTINUES TO EXIST AS THE RATIONALIZATION OF SOCIAL RELATIONS & OTHER ENLIGHTENMENT PRINCIPLES   
  Today, social theorists are trying to determine whether society, as well as theories about it, have undergone a transition from the modern era to a new & fundamentally different post modern era
 
  Modernists such as Habermas, Giddens, et al, believe we continue to live in a society that is still best described as modern  
  Modernists believe we theorize & research in much the same way that social thinkers have always done
 
  Post modernists, such as Jean Baudrillard, Jean Francois Lyotard, Fredric Jameson, et al, believe society has changed so dramatically that we now live in a qualitatively different world  
  Post modernists believe we theorize & research in new & different ways in the post modern world  
  Giddens uses terms like radical, high, or late modernity to describe society today & to indicate that it is not the same society as the one of the classical theorists, but it is continuous w/ that society
 
  WHILE SOCIETY CONTINUES TO RATIONALIZE, SOME BELIEVE THIS IS AN OUT OF CONTROL RATIONALIZATION, & A LIMITED RATIONALIZATION   
  Giddens sees modernity today as a juggernaut that is, to some degree, out of control
 
  Structuration theory best describes the processes & consequences of the juggernaut  
  In Modernity & Self Identity (1991) Giddens views the self as developing reflexively w/in the juggernaut of modernity  
  In The Transformation of Intimacy (1992) Giddens examines how intimate relations are affected by modernity, & how intimate relations may transform the structures of modernity itself  
  Ulrich Beck holds that classic modernity was an industrial society concerned w/ maximizing production / wealth & its distribution, while the new modernity is a "risk society" concerned w/ prevention, minimization, & channeling of risk
 
  In Risk Society:  Toward a New Modernity, (1992) Beck examines how modernity has generated both unprecedented risks & unprecedented reflexive capacities to deal w/ those risks  
  FOR HABERMAS THE PROBLEM IS LESS THE OUT OF CONTROL RATIONALIZATIONS, THAN THE REMNANTS OF TRADITIONALISM INCLUDING CORRUPTION, PATRIARCHY, RACISM, CRONYISM, ETC.   
  Habermas sees modernity as an unfinished project
 
  For Habermas, the central phenomena of the modern world today continues to be rationality as it was in Weber's day
 
  For Habermas, the utopian goal is still the maximization of rationality both in the system & in the life world
 
  Ritzer examines the growth of formal rationality & the danger of an "iron cage of rationality"
 
  While Weber focused on bureaucracy in general, Ritzer examines specific bureaucracies including McDonalds & American Express
 
  In The McDonaldization of Society, (1993) & Expressing America:  A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society, (1995) Ritzer examines operation & impact of hyperrationality in Modernity  
  Touraine, 1995; Wagner, 1994 see the world in modern terms & they use modernist techniques of standing apart from society, from a vantage point, rationally & systematically analyzing & describing & portraying using grand narratives
 
  Pre Enlightenment ideas had few glimpses of what modernity was about in terms of progress, science, rationality, etc.  
  The Enlightenment thinkers developed & made popular the idea of modernity  
  Marx viewed the development of the modern era as fraught w/ both immense problems & immense potentials  
  Weber viewed the development of the modern era as dominated by the iron cage of rationality  
  Durkheim viewed the development of the modern era as a difficult transition from traditional society to a new one characterized by isolation, the division of labor, etc.  
  Simmel viewed the development of the modern era as allowing people to express potentialities that were repressed in pre modern society  
  Rationality  
  An example of globalization can be seen in the US & Japanese auto industries  
  Fordism is an example of formal rationality  
  Globalization requires the development of rationalization  
  Americanization is a powerful quality of globalization  

 
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An Introduction to Post Modernity
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  -  Project:  Post Modernism & Optimism
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  POST MODERNISM HOLDS THAT RATIONALIZATION ULTIMATELY HAS NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON SOCIETY & THAT RATIONALITY WHEN PURSUED TO ITS FULL DEVELOPMENT BECOMES IRRATIONAL   
 
Post modernity (P-M) is an ideology/ school of thought/ which holds that through rationality, as embodied in the social sciences, we are lead to exploitation & oppression
 
  Post modernism developed as a philosophical view from romanticism, which directly followed the Enlightenment & was a reaction against the Enlightenment  
  For P-M, Friedrich Nietzsche is an important influence; Nietzsche saw Weber's rationalization as mere regimentation & constraint  
  Post modernism evolved out of the principles of Marxism which hold that we need to reject mainstream culture & create a new culture  
  For Marx, the proletariat had to create a non bourgeoisie culture, a workers' culture  
  P-M EMBRACES A FORM OF RADICAL ATHEORETICALITY, METHODS, & FORM OF PRESENTATION   
 
Post modernism embraces a complete openness to perspectives in social inquiry, art, political empowerment, etc.
 
 
Many post modernists will not define their position in the affirmative because to do so, is too rational, limiting, oppressive
 
 
Post modernism's critique of modernity is that it is a flawed ideology or school of thought because rationality crushes the human spirit
 
 
Post modernity is a new historical epoch that has succeeded the modern era, modernity
 
 
Post modern social theory is a new way of thinking about post modernity
 
 
According to the P-Ms, the world is so different it requires a new way to think about it
 
 
Post modernists ask whether technology, rationality, science, etc. have been given too great a role in society today
 
 
Post modernists believe that technology, rationality, science, etc. as characterized in modern, industrial society are harmful to society in various ways
 
  P-M ADVOCATES MULTI PERSPECTIVALISM WHEREIN ALL POINTS OF VIEW / KNOWLEDGE ARE TAKEN INTO ACCT   
  See Also:  Mannheim on multi perspectivalism  
 
P-M believes that no one kind of knowledge can tell us, or society, what we need to do
 
 
P-M believes that only one way of knowing things, whether it be science, religion, or an ideology such as Marxism, is inadequate to provide the knowledge we need because there are multiple ways of knowing
 
  For the P-M, no one paradigm can tell us "the truth"  
 
P-M believes that knowledge consists of more than what can be tested scientifically
 
 
Ways of knowing embraced by P-M include cultural knowledge, artistic knowledge, ethics & examine fields such as justice, happiness, beauty, etc.
 
  P-M HOLD THAT SOCIETY NEEDS TO ESCHEW OR EVEN DESTROY THE LARGE BODIES OF 'TAINTED KNOWLEDGE' WHICH EXISTS TODAY BECAUSE IT IS EXPLOITATIVE, BIASED, ETC.   
 
Postman argues that modern societies are technopolies which are societies in which technology defines religion, art, family, politics, history, truth, privacy, intelligence, etc.
 
 
For Postman, technopolies have robbed modern people of their souls & invalidated alternative ways of living & believing
 
 
P-M rejects the positivist notion that things have one meaning
 
 
For P-M, art, religion, even scientific findings have different meanings to different people
 
 
Like ethnomethodology, subjective, interpretive meaning is the only valid type of meaning
 
  Post modernism rejects mainstream culture to create greater freedom & respect for all  
  P-M rejects mainstream culture because each school, culture, etc. in some way rejects or limits others  
  P-Mism advocates total inclusion  
  CULTURE IS A WINDOW TO UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY; ALL ASPECTS OF CULTURE, ESP MARGINALIZED CULTURE, ARE IMPORTANT   
  P-M rejects the stratification of culture into "high" & "low" or popular culture & embraces the values of all cultural representations  
  P-M views high culture as merely culture that, in the past was created for the upper class & was a cultural representation used to differentiate the rich from the poor  
  An example of the stratification of culture is classic music where the elites paid composers, who were usually lower class, who were elevated to a medieval professional class, to write music that took hundreds of performers  
  The film Amadeus depicts the relationship of lower class composers writing music for the elites  
  P-M notes that an example of the stratification of culture is the early depiction of jazz as unsophisticated & not suitable for the upper class  
  Today jazz & much music of the middle & lower classes, i.e. folk, appalachian, hip hop, etc. are all respected forms of music  
  For P-M, the people need to create a range of alternative cultures from punk & alternative rock to classic  
 
Post-modernism rejects many schools of thought such as:
- positivism
- functionalism
- Marxism
- conflict theory
- Weberianism
 
  For Christopher Lash, P-M is an outgrowth of post-industrial society because the "new classes" of information specialists, & people who have "expressive occupations" such as writers, researchers, entertainers, etc., like Nietzsche embrace diverse forms of knowledge & lifestyles  
  RATIONALITY IS AN INCOMPLETE METHOD OF UNDERSTANDING / KNOWLEDGE   
  P-M demonstrates that while scientific knowledge is useful, it cannot by itself solve problems  
  While modern medicine has the ability to provide better healthier than the world has ever seen, business, ethical, political, & philosophical factors determine the level of access & benefit people receive  
  The development of P-M demonstrates an important social dynamic in that modern, industrial society calls on people to reject tradition, while post-modern, post-industrial society calls on people to reject science, rationality, etc.  
  From the point of view of traditionalists, science & rationality offer no real life or morality & instead offer only chaos & nihilism  
  From the point of view of modernists, post-modernism offers only chaos & nihilism  
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For the post modernists, progress is an illusion
 
  Post modernism abandons focus on economic & scientific progress by asking questions such as:
-  Have we really made progress? 
-  Who has benefited under "progress"? 
-  Under what criteria does "progress" exist? 
 
  Post-modernism opposes globalization because it is the ultimate imposition of rationalization  
  Deconstructionism is a branch of post modern philosophy which emphasizes tearing down "popular culture," e.g., global culture   
  THE MAIN CRITIQUE OF P-M IS THAT IT ONLY OFFERS CRITICISMS OF SOCIAL THEORY, & NO ALTERNATIVE THEORY OR VISION OF SOCIETY   
  Critics of P-M note that P-M is very good at deconstructing society, but it really offers no alternatives  
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The critique of post modernism is that it substitutes only individualism, cultural diversity, etc. for all of Modernity & popular culture
 
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Jurgen Habermas' critique of post modernism is that post modernism is merely an embrace of radical individualism.  The   
  For Habermas, the post modernist's rejection of rationality offers nothing in its place  

 
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 Outline on an Introduction to  Theories of Consumption
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  THEORIES OF CONSUMPTION EXAMINE THE INDIVIDUAL & SOCIAL FORCES WHICH SHAPE CONSUMPTION OF MATERIAL GOODS   
  Consumer theory exists in both the modernist & post modernist schools  
  Coming of age during the Industrial Revolution, energized by the ensuing social problems, sociology has always focused on industry, industrial organizations, work, & workers
 
  The industrial / economic focus of social theory is most obvious in Marx, Marxism, etc., Durkheim and the division of labor, Weber on capitalism & bureaucracy, the interest of the Chicago school in work, etc.
 
  Simmel looks at consumption in his examination of the tragedy of culture produced by the proliferation of human products
 
  Simmel also examined money and fashion  
  Thorstein Veblen, 1889, 1994, has a famous work on conspicuous consumption
 
  Post modernism defines post modern society as a consumer society w/ the result that consumption plays a central role in that theory
 
  Baudrillard, 1970/1998 wrote the Consumer Society
 
  Lipovetsky conducts a post postmodern work on the importance of fashion
 
  Urry, 1995, Consuming Places
 
  Ritzer, 1999, Enchanting a Disenchanted World
 
  Humphrey, 1998, Shelf Life
 

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