questionnaires and surveys). Weber stated that there were an endless number of subjective meanings that individuals may give to their actions. These meanings consisted of an instrumentally rational action, a value-rational action, a traditional action and an affectual action. An instrumentally rational action is when an individual measures out the best methods of achieving a goal. For example, an industrial may measure out the best way of maximizing profit in order to pay low wages.
‘Assess the usefulness of Social Action Theory to our understanding of Society’ (33 marks) Social action theories are radical opposites of structural theories. Structural theories commonly view people as ‘puppet’s’ of the social system, passively and unthinkingly playing out their lives as determined by pre-existing social laws. The main disagreements between this social structure is that Functionalists emphasise the benefits for the entire society, whilst others believe that it is only beneficial to one type of group, via means of production; these are Marxists or Feminists. Social action theories have an issue with determinism, they alternatively believe that people within society are social actors and have free will, consciousness, meanings and motives. Social action theorists believe that illusion of a stable and constant society is slightly more than hundreds of individual interactions each carried out by choice and interpretation.
Karl Marx’s negative connotation to the word i.e. “delusion and mystification” also plays a big part. Marx applied ideology as a critical notion whose use is to expose a course of systematic perplexity. Engels referred to ideology as “false consciousness” Marx distinguished his ideas as scientific as they were constructed precisely to unmask the workings of history and society (encyclopaedia of philosophy 2005 p100). The difference between ideology and science, "false and truth’ is highlighted and therefore crucial to his usage of the term.
The role of unconscious in human services: This is concerned with the unconscious negative dynamics pertaining to human services that contribute to the devaluation of particular groups of people in society. The techniques of 'Program Analysis of Service Systems' (PASS) (Wolfensberger and Glenn, 1978) and Program Analysis of Service System's Implementation of Normalisation goals (PASSING) (Wolfensberger and Thomas 1983) are proposed by their authors as suitable for assessing how far services enhance service users social
ECON 1312 Homework Assignment # 2 Chapter 4 1. Why do we need a units-free measure of the responsiveness of the quantity demanded of a good or service to a change in its price? Answer: To measure or to compare the demand of the two unrelated goods or services. 2. Define the price elasticity of demand and show how it is calculated.
Gattaca, 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 essay "A blueprint, a mirror, a warning or simply fanciful entertainment" what is the purpose of utopia and dystopia texts you have studied. Utopias and Dystopias are alternate societies created to serve as a platform to highlight the values associated with the contexts of their respective times. While they may be antonymous concepts, utopias and dystopias are ultimately a critique of the events of a certain time or the attitudes and values of a society, thus such a text offers a vision of how cultural values have changed through the process of appropriation as a result of the changing connects that shape these texts. This is illustrative in the text 1984 a novel by George Orwell published in 1949, Andrew Niccols 1997 Gattaca film and Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury, the novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and firemen burn any house that contains them. Through a variety of literary and visual techniques, all texts concurrently present themes of technology and physiological manipulation revealing the disgusting homogeneity of a superficial utopia.
ASSIGNMENT 1 CHAPTER 1 – Limits, Alternative and Choices 1. Economics may best be defined as the: A. interaction between macro and micro considerations. B. social science concerned with how individuals, institutions, and society make optimal choices under conditions of scarcity. C. empirical testing of value judgments through the use of logic. D. use of policy to refute facts and hypotheses.
They take clear stands on issues. What is Huxley’s specific criticism of escapism? How does escapism contribute to a dystopia. Write something like: “ Huxley uses foil, symbolism, and irony to illustrate how escapism breeds a passivity in society that enables the rise of a dystopian regime.” Remember that your thesis needs two parts: a topic and a specific opinion. In this thesis, the topic is escapism; the specific opinion is: escapism breeds passivity which leads to dystopia) In Brave New World, John the Savage and Lenina Crowne serve as foils to display the effects of escapism in human beings .
One of the important concepts in his understanding of power is the defined word ‘doxa’ which is the combination of both norms and beliefs: the This would be described as a common sense or assumed resort. Bourdieu also uses the term ‘misrecognition’ which is closely resembled to the Marxian ideas of ‘a false conscious’ but working at a level much deeper that passes any intent at conscious influences by a group or several groups. Misrecognition is more of a cultural trend than an ideological trend, mostly because it expresses a set of active social processes that way down the common sense assumptions into the reality of social life and crucially they are born in the middle of culture. All forms of power require structure and culture are in the specific grounds where the conformity is disputed and eventually imbedded between agents, thus creating social indifferences and unequal circumstances. (Such as that with disability) Habitus is utilized
The main criticisms of mass society theory, namely the limited effects model, will be discussed. Social Movements Keywords Collective Identity; Demagogues; Frame; Industrial Era; Industrial Revolution; Limited Effects Model; Mass Media; Mass Society Theory; Social Movement Theory; Society; Sociology; Symbolic Interactionism Social Movement Theory: Mass Society Theory Overview Mass society theory is an interdisciplinary critique of the collective identity that results from the mass commodification of culture and the mass media's manipulation of society. Mass society theory invokes a vision of society characterized by alienation, absence of individuality, amorality, lack of religion, weak relationships, and political apathy. Mass society theory developed at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century in response to the rise of the media industry and the socio-political changes created by industrialization, urbanization, and the fall of established political regimes. Major contributors to mass society theory include Alexis de Tocqueville, Emile Durkheim, Emil