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.
Or we can say that conflict theory deals with the incompatible aspects of human society. Conflict theory emerged out of the sociology of conflict, crisis and social change. Consensus theory, on the other hand, is a sociological perspective or collection of theories, in which social order and stability/social regulation forms the base of emphasis. In other words consensus theory is concerned with the maintenance or continuation of social order in society; in relation to accepted norms, values, rules and regulations as widely accepted or collectively by the society-or within a particular society- itself. It Emerged out of the sociology of social order and social stability/social regulation.
THEORY OF SOCIAL ORDER Social order: the manner in which a society is organized and the rules and standards required to maintain that organization. (Farlex) It is basically the totality of interpersonal human relationship in the society. Social Disorder: Excessive fear of embarrassment in social situations that is extremely intrusive and can have huge effects on the personal and professional relationships. It can also be called social phobia. It is very persistence and can be termed as a irrational fear of certain situations or objects (Medicine.net, 2000) INTRODUCTION: Erving Goffman and Michael Foucault are social scientists trying to explain that how social order is created in a society and where is it originated from.
However Marxists would argue that social problems such as underachievement are simply aspects of a wider structure of class inequality, and unlike functionalists, they do not see the state and its policies beneficial to all members of society. In Marxists view, the state represents the ruling class, and social policies serve the interests of capitalism as opposed to society as a whole. For example Marxists would state that social policies, such as the NHS, maintain the labour force for further exploitation. From a social democratic approach, sociologists, such as Townsend, believe that sociologist
In this perspective, people who are in poverty could link their personal situation to the social forces relevant to their present circumstance” (Macionis and Plummer, 2008: 11-12). This term is used today and can be seen in social problems. Sociological imagination is seen in unemployment where people will attach their incapability to find a job based on their own personal traits when instead it is due to forces such as the economy. They have a narrow minded view to unemployment as described by sociological imagination. ‘Critical thinking’ as described by Michel Foucault is a “process whereby society’s power is inserted into our lives in very subtle ways such as discourse” (Macionis and Plummer, 2008: 551-552).
Karl Marx was one of the founders of sociology. He focused on the effects of capitalism. He thought that the economic system of the society determined the beliefs and values of that society. Marxists believe that the most important force in society is class conflict. In capitalist societies, workers are employed to produce goods which are sold by their employers at a profit.
Braverman presents an argument against what he regards as the degradation of work and the de-skilling of the labour force which is a result of the inhuman aspects of capitalism (Kanungo, 1982). The three terms, alienation, bureaucracy and de-skilling shall be explained, and the degree to which these conceptions are still applicable in modern day work organisations and industries. In the theory of alienation, Marx shows the damaging impacts of capitalist production on the workers(Ollman, 1976) by distinguishing four forms of alienation. Firstly, he argues that workers do not control the process of their work because they do not own the means of production that is necessary to manufacture a product. The worker has no role in deciding what to do or how to do it.
“Ethnicity is a concept referring to a shared culture and way of life, especially as reflected in language, folkways, religious and other institutional forms, material culture such as clothing and food, and cultural products such as music, literature and art” (Johnson, 2000). This is a direct reference from the Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology, neatly summing up ethnicity in terms of this essay. The essay will further explain the key concepts of ethnicity and race, and go onto explain various sociological reasons as to why there are health inequalities. To understand why an explanation of health inequalities between different ethnic groups is needed, first, an understanding of the statistics themselves need to be understood. Using data from the 2001 census, it can be seen that both Pakistani and Bangladeshi people, of both sexes, have the worst reported health, in terms of having ‘not good’ health (ONS, 2004.
This paper gives several responses to the idea of genetic or biological determinism from the viewpoint of sociology. Sociology, according to Abercrombie, is the “analysis of the structure of social relationships as constituted by social interaction” (Abercrombie, 2006 p.367), and thus provides a basis for the evaluation of such ideas and theories. Sociologists may argue that rather than genetics, social forces influence the way we act and interact within society. The structure/agency debate in sociology examines the extent to which human behaviour is determined by social
SOCL 151 PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY CHAPTER ONE – THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. Define the following: sociology, types of functions: manifest, latent and dysfunction, positivism, science, hypothesis, reliability, variable, independent variable, dependent variable, theory, random sample, validity, and replication. 2. Discuss what the concept “sociological perspective” means to sociology. 3.