The social action approach, argues that individuals experience the social world by interpreting their actions and interactions with others and the meaning they assign to social phenomena. The starting point for understanding society should be the individual as they are authors of their own ideas. Emphasis should be given to how shared meanings develop and how these influence the way individuals define, act and react to their environment. Opposing the social action approach are the structural theories. 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.
Similar claims were made around the ways of understanding singular issues in interaction, although Foucault focuses on the power of historical precedent and powerful discourse on shaping the individuals and society while Goffman focuses on individuals shaping society through their interactions, rituals and habits. Their differing theories both attempt to explain the links between the individual and the society. Foucault examined the subject by focusing on historical precedent and discourse for his
Social Policy is driven by ideology. Discuss. Ideology is usually defined as a body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture. –Louis Giannetti In this essay I will explain and show how social policy is in fact driven by ideology. I will explain the different ideologies that exist in societies such as Left Wing, Right Wing, Centre, Feminism, and Greenism and how they have each in their own way transform our societies.
These big ideas can be categorized under social thinking, social influence, or social relations. The idea that we construct our social reality falls under social thinking, it describes the natural human urge to explain behavior, by attempting to attribute it to a cause, in order to make it seem orderly, predictable, and controllable (Myers, 2010). According to social psychology our social intuitions are powerful and sometimes perilous, suggesting that the human ability to understand something immediately, molds or influences behavior because it also shapes fears, attitudes, impressions, and relationships (Myers, 2010). It is also believed that social influences shape behavior as does behavior shape social influences. Myers (2010) provides an example as to how behavior is shaped by social influences making humans social creatures, “We speak and think in words we learned from others (Social psychology, p. 7).
Subculture theories is a theory where individuals have the same interests, problems and concerns which will form a subculture. Deviance in terms of the subculture of a social group arguing that certain groups develop norms and values which are to some extent different from those held by other members of society. There are a number of sociological theories. Functionalist see shared norms and values as the basis of social order and social solidarity. they consider crime and deviance, ahead of a certain level to be dysfunctional to society, as it is seen as threat to social order.
Present an outline of subcultural theories of crime and deviance and asses the values of these theories. Functionalism is a consensus structuralist theory which sees the source of crime and deviance looted in the structure of the society. Social order is bases on value consensus and social control aims to protect this by controlling the threat posed by crime and deviance. A former functionalist Merton, attempted to explain why deviance arises in the first place. He believes that the society survives because al the members of society have shared norms and values which he calls the collective conscience.
In this article an attempt is made to define the theory focusing on the structure of society as it has originally been equated to the human body. In the human body the individual organs each perform a function, together these functions make a system and the systems function as the body. The interdependence of the structures within society is alluded to with particular emphasis on the consensus that should exist for the establishment and maintenance of equilibrium in society. The equilibrium will be achieved through evolutionary change which implies a gradual and non confrontational process. An account is given of the application of the theory and how the various structures within society functions for the good and benefit of the whole as well as a reflection on the relevance of the theory in modern society.
Thus, groups like those that represent singular ideas form to counter the ideas of other groups. 2)What is an interest group, and why are they important in our political system? Interest groups are bodies of people who try to effect change in behavior in other portions of society. They are,
He studied the characteristics of societies and how they affect the relationships or social bonds between individuals. However, he became concerned about the shift from the traditional society to the modern society and its effects on the society, social order and the individual. He begins by explaining the characteristic of a social fact. A social fact “is a way of acting, whether fixed or not that is able to cast an external constraint on an individual and it exists outside the individual” (Edles and Applerouth 2010 87) Durkheim defines society which is a social fact as “an ideal phenomenon with its own distinctive consciousness over and above its material location in space and time. It is a consciousness that is emergent from but irreducible to the individual consciousness which comprise it”.
Each of our own influences, in turn, influences others. From there, we again take in and learn what we can so we can make our own decisions on how to define our selves. Later, society influences our thoughts on who we are as people and our relation to the world as a whole. There is a constant norm that people try to assimilate to or diverge from. Society presents its own ideas of who we should be as people, and it is then our own job to take that information and do what we will with it to make our own definition for ourselves of who we are.