Review essay: Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political [1927/1932]. With Leo Strauss’ Notes on Schmitt’s Essay, ed. by George Schwab, Chicago and London, 1996. Carl Schmitt (1888-1985), arguably the most influential yet controversial political thinker of the twentieth century, had long term intellectual influence in post war Europe, and his ideas have attracted the attention of renowned academics such as: Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, and many more. Schmitt is associated with conservative nationalist and authoritarian fascist thought.
(Goffman was one of the greatest North American sociologists of his generation. He was heavily influenced by George Herbert Mead and Herbert Blumer in developing his theoretical framework. He soon went to study face-to-interaction, also known as micro-sociology. Erving Goffman is often thought of as the last major thinker associated with the original Chicago School (Ritzer). Goffman published a series of books and essays that birth the dramaturgical analysis.
W. E. B. Dubois (1868 - 1963) was one of the first sociologists to describe how racism and ethnic discrimination influenced society. He wrote a book each year from 1896 - 1914 describing relations between whites and African-Americans. He was one of the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was a sociologist whose contributions came from theory and social reform, an attacker of injustice and a defender of freedom. How effective are current social programs designed to improve quality of life?
Brittany Johnson SOC 170 June 4, 2010 Final Paper: Karl Marx, Ralf Dahrendorf, and Lewis Coser on Underclass Insurgency and Social Movements Introduction: Insurgency and social movements have been issues of sociological debate and interest ever since the emergence of the field, and they remain of great importance in more contemporary social thought. Nineteenth century sociologist Karl Marx, for example, was very much preoccupied with the uprising of the proletariat and the social and economic revolution that would ensue. Doug McAdam, a modern-day sociologist, has written entire books on black insurgency and the development of tactics, protests, and cognitions that resulted in the American Civil Rights Movement. Countless other scholars have also offered significant contributions to the growing body of knowledge concerning the development of insurgency and the execution of social movements. As the cycle of insurgency and social movement constantly regenerates itself, the need for explanatory theories and insight on social change also remains ubiquitous.
Emile Durkheim – ‘Le Suicide: Etude de Sociologe’ 1897 Emile Durkheim (1858-1916) is regarded as one of the founder of the discipline of sociology. He, along with the triumvirate of Marx and Max Weber laid the foundations to which, at present, has been cultivated into social science. Durkheim wrote a groundbreaking book ‘Le Suicide: Etude de Sociologe’ 1897, that propelled the study of sociology through its empirical-based approach. Through the use of statistics, Durkheim wanted to establish and demonstrate that suicide rates are dependent upon the degree to which individuals were integrated into society and the degree to which society regulates each individual’s behaviour. He concluded that there is significance in the rates of suicide to the probable social cohesion of the individual in society.
Durkheim first began to work on the problem of suicide in 1888 when he offered a series of public lectures on the topic while he was at University of Bordeaux By 1897, Durkheim had published Suicide as a book length study and this constituted his third major sociological work Promoted from Bordeaux to Paris There are several reasons why Durkheim took up the theme of suicide when he did FIRST, by 1850 there was a spike in the suicide rates throughout Europe and many felt that this was associated with the development of industrial society Industrialization had advanced individualism, accelerated social fragmentation, and weakened the social bonds tying individuals to social groups outside themselves SECOND, industrial society made the economy dominant over other institutions This served to place the pursuit of self interest and private gain stage center over the collective purposes of society, accelerating social fragmentation As economic gain became the private affair of the individual, social separation and social isolation increased This set loose egoistic forces in which individuals withdrew to themselves and to the private ego in order to pursue their private economic interest THIRD, with the development of industrial society Durkheim found that the social bonds that once tied the individual directly to groups outside themselves began to decline As individualism accelerated, gaps formed between the individual and the points of social contact These gaps reduced the attachments to the family group, the religious group and the national group * Durkheim thought that the gaps that formed in industrial society were the result of declining integrative functions an that this showed up in the higher suicide rate of industrial society FOURTH, Durkheim discovered that the suicide data of different societies pointed to a direct link between higher
Essay – Analysis of scene five of “Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder” Bertolt Brecht is one of the most influential German writers of the 20th century well known especially for his playwright, poetry and theatre director career. He lived between 10th of February 1898 until the 14th of August 1956, period which has been proven to have influenced both him and his writings throughout life. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, as soon as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis took over power over Germany, Brecht found himself in the desperate situation of finding a way to leave Germany as he was known as being a Marxist, there for a communist which the new regime would not tolerate. Even though he was a communist he has never been a member of the Communist Party, but this did not stop him from keeping his sympathy for this political view. During the war he became a prominent writer of “Exileliteratur”, showing his opposition to the National Socialist and Fascist movements through his famous plays : “Leben des Galilei”, “Der gute Mensch von Sezuan”, “Der aufhatsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui”, “Der Kaukasische Kreidekreis”, “ Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches” and last but not least “Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder” written in 1939 considered to be one of the greatest anti-war play of all time having as a protagonist a woman, Anna Fierling also known as “Mutter Courage”.
It will touch on sociological theories and key reports such as The Black Report (1980), The Health Divide (1987), The Acheson Report (1998) and The Marmot Report (2010) these will explain the impact of what does influence health and why. Social Class was defined by the Registrar General in a system which was used from 1911 up until the 1990s which set this out in relation to occupation, housing, income and education in what may be referred to as a ‘Hierarchy’ system, Graham (2000). There was a growing need to replace this system as the original data collected was based largely on the status, wealth and occupation of the man of the household. Today’s structure of society has changed enormously for example, more women now work outside of the home and work full time even though unemployment levels are at their highest because of the economic recession, (Giddens 2009). Today the classification system used to denote socio-economic class reflects a different society and the terms for different classes have been replaced by; The ‘Advantaged’, ‘Marginalised Insecure’ and the ‘Disadvantaged’ (Graham 2000).
He believed in the concept of comparative advantage, the idea of nations to specialize in specific industries and trade with other nations for products not produced nationally. (David Ricardo) Comparative advantage is the foundation of industrialization as a means for globalisation. Classical economics was very much in fashion till the early 20th century with the advent of the Great Depression. John Maynard Keynes, a British economist, was the founder of Keynesian economics and the concept was first published in Keynes' book The General theory of Employment, Interest, and Money published during the Great Depression. (Keynesian Economics) Keynes attempted to explain the causes of the Great Depression, and how to to deal with the recession.
A documentary photographer would attempt to produce a truthful objective, usually the photographs would be of a particular subject, and the pictures would more than likely be of people. The artists I have chosen to discuss in my essay are Lewis Hine and Robert Frank: - Lewis Hine (b.September 26,1874 – d.November 3,1940) was an American sociologist who took up photography in 1905 and used it as a ‘documentary tool’, to show the working class conditions of the poor immigrants from Europe. From 1911-191 he toured the United States as an official photographer for the National Labour Committee, where he depicted in a sensitive and heart-rending manner the plight of children working in the mills. He often hid his camera so that he could take authentic photographs, and had first to lean how to get a presentable picture without using flash. (1) Robert Frank (b.November 9, 1924) was a Swiss photographer that was not only famous for his photography work, but also for his film work, arguable to date his most famous film is “Cocksucker Blues”(3) a film about the rock band the Rolling Stones on