QUESTION: What does C. Wright Mills mean when he describes sociology as “the intersection of biography and history”? What is the relationship between personal life and larger social structures? Are personal lives determined by social structures? This paper explores the very intelligent critical thought describing sociology through writing. These actions and words are expounded on C. Wright Mills thoughts.
The first sociological perspective, structural factualism, was established by Auguste Comte. Comte discussed the stages that societal knowledge must surpass, with significance on logical reasoning, as well as society as a structure and how it is composed of many parts (Murray, 2011). Herbert Spencer compared the structure of society to a human body due to the contribution of the many organs it takes to sustain life. Max Weber, one of the symbolic interactionists introduced the approach that society is a product of individual interactions (Murray, 2011). Central conflict theorist Karl Marx asserted that society is not a harmonious system, but riddled with unfairness, conflict and disorder.
Core Assessment: Sociological Imagination Sociology Abstract This paper will use the sociological perspective to discuss problems and issues in society. I will then discuss major theoretical perspectives that best explain these problems and issues and what some of the cultural components and elements contribute to the causes, effects and/or solutions to these problems. To sum up the first portion of this paper I will identify and discuss the relationship of the socialization process to the issue/problem, causes and solutions and what agents of socialization are important. To start the second part of this paper I will identify my own personal social class as it relates to my personal wealth, income, and occupational status, wealth and income. I will also identify my gender and race ad discuss consequences of each as it relates to my current or potential occupational status, wealth, income and restraints that my race may have in regards to access to educational opportunities.
Karl Marx was a late 19th Century thinker. He saw class as being the central category for analysing social relation and social struggles. This is because he believed that class struggles drive the social changes in our societies ‘The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles’. (Marx, Engels, 1848, pg.8) He viewed class objectively, defining it by the ownership of property. The class struggle’s which Marx refers to above is that of the Bourgeoisie, who own the means of production and the proletariat, who sell their labour.
Through this we have learned that as working class, we expect and accept that we will be exploited by the ruling class in terms of our surplus value. This is known as a crisis of Hegemony. They go on to say that we have internalised the DVS to such an extent that any other value system seems absurd, resulting in a state of false class consciousness. Marx believed that we will see a social revolution which will overthrow capitalism and replace it with true communism. Marxism sees religion as a feature which is only relevant in a society based on class division I.E the ruling classes and the working classes.
The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception is a critique of popular culture by critical theorists Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer. This reading is a look into the development and organization of the culture industry as a tool of mass control and conditioning. For Horkheimer and Adorno, the culture industry was basically what we refer to today as popular culture. However, to them culture was only genuinely popular when the people had actually produced it, not just consumed it. Simply put, the culture industry is a factory that mass-produces inadequate cultural goods.
Structural theories such as functionalism and Marxism are macro (large scale), and deterministic: they see society as a real thing existing over and above us, shaping our ideas and behaviour – individuals are like puppets, manipulated by society. Social action theorists use qualitative research methods to gather an in-depth understanding of human behaviour and the reasons behind such behaviour. This method investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where and when, for example, covert or overt participant observations and unstructured interviews. Structural approaches use methods that are scientific, as they want quantitative data (e.g. questionnaires and surveys).
Durkheim sees anomie as responsible for the world’s disorder of economics- the lack of morality and regulation resulted in overpowering the weak; thus, he feels that only norms can prevent the abuse of power and calls for regulation and equal opportunity from birth- the greater the equal opportunity the less need for restraint. Marx looked at how capitalism separated humanity by making work a simple means of individual existence. In addition he describes society in terms of class and economic conflicts. Marx saw proletariat or people of a working class as being underneath the bourgeoisie or the capitalist of a modern society. Marx looked at how alienation of production of commodities by workers also leads to alienation of social life.
Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat” (Marx and Engels 1848). Social class, therefore, is based upon economic criteria and conflict occurs between those who own the means of production (bourgeoisie) and the wage-labourers (proletariat). As well as having economic control over the proletariat, the bourgeoisie also have the power to determine the superstructure; the ruling class can distort perceptions of the world and hide the true nature of social relationships and the exploitation of the proletariat and, above all, promote bourgeoisie interests. Marx defines production as workers selling their labour for wages in order to exchange money for commodities that will meet their most basic needs. As Marx
This instance is most often looked for in the dichotomy of society and technology. Approaches which lean toward society being this instance begin with the assumption that technology and its resulting consequences are planned and inaugurated by social actors, most often large institutional entities (Hollinger, 1991). The main focus is either on the political economy of the object of study (Hickey, 2009) or on the social construction of the artifact of interest (Demers, 2001). Particularly the latter, the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT), "points to technology as being through and through social." (Huber et al, 2011) The most extreme position on this side of the spectrum is "social