Browne once said "sociological perspectives centre on how much freedom or control the individual had to influence society" He goes on to comment on the two main approaches "structuralism is concerned with the overall structure of society and the way social institutions act as a constraint, or limit and control individual behaviour". Structuralism offers a view of the individual being controlled by the society they live in, Marx and Durkheim are similar in that they can both be described as structuralists, however their individual ideas are somewhat different. Functionalism was developed by Emile Durkheim, he believed like Comte that sociology should be viewed as a precise science and that society should be studied objectively. Durkheim placed an enormous amount of emphasis on social facts which he saw as ways of acting, thinking or feeling that are external to individuals and have their own reality outside the lives and perceptions of individual people. This is known as the macro approach, which places a great emphasis on the structure of society and how an individual operates with that society.
3. Distinguish between micro-sociology and macro-sociology. 4. Explain how the industrial revolution contributed to sociology. 5.
4. Discuss the similarities and differences between conflict/Marxist theories and functionalist theories in sociology. Marxism was founded by Karl Marx. Marx saw society as divided into two major parts, the economic base otherwise known as the infrastructure and the super-structure. Functionalists see society as a set of parts which work together to form a whole.
The society’s superstructure or culture comprising of laws, morality, religion and politics. These are determined by society’s infrastructure, methods of production and exchange. He sees in history the conflicts that existed between different classes of people in society – the ruling class and the serfs during feudal times. The French Revolution brought an end to feudalism. But during his time, Marx witnessed the industrial Revolution bringing about conflicts between the capitalists and the proletariat, creating two classes in society – the rich and the poor.
Assess the view that sociology can be considered a science. (33 marks) The idea that sociology is a science is mainly associated with the founding fathers of sociology – Comte, Durkheim and Marx. They believed that sociology was the science of society. Supporters of this idea are known as positivists. However, not all agree that sociology is a science.
Sociologists carry out their research from a number of theoretical perspectives, and depending on the views they adopt they will have different ideas about the nature of social problems and know how to solve them. Early positivist and functionalist sociologists, such as Comte and Durkheim, would argue that sociology was a science and would discover both the cause of social problems and scientifically based solutions to them. Both positivist and functionalists see social policies beneficial to society as a whole, and contribute to it running smoothly. For example, educational policies help to promote equal opportunity and reduce class boundaries. 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.
It is the opium of the people”. (Clark, 1981, p.14) Karl Marx’s view on social life is based on the objective laws and the growth of nature and society. According to Davie, It is within this view that Marx takes an empirical approach to his opposition to religion. There are two key elements to
Furthermore, the essay will donate to link the aforesaid historical phenomenon’s (protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism) to the advantages and of bureaucracy; it will also critically discuss the conflict theory (Karl Marx) and the functional theory (Weber) then critically discuss Weber and Marx views on class social stratification and status, it also going to discuss four values of social action and lastly answer the question why I support his ideas. Weber, by rationalisation, meant the process by which explicit, abstract, intellectually calculable rules and procedures are increasingly substituted for sentiment, tradition and rules of thumb in all spheres of activities (Wrong, 1970:26).What weber basically mean by this definition is that the social actions for people are becoming more and more based on fulfilling self-luxury rather than motivations drives like tradition, morality etc. For example, if you could ask a very determined and successful business man, why he works so hard to keep his business functioning and alive, he will answer that he is working for his children and grandchildren to have good life (Geddens, 1971:), whereas bureaucracy is the specialized adherence to fixed rules and hierarchical fixed authority (Website 1).This definition basically mean that bureaucracy is a type of domination that is organized hierarchically with strict chains of command from top to bottom(Website 1). Looking at the vesting that constitute this essay, it is definitely clear that the essay will
There is increasing interest in something called "phenomenological sociology." If this interest is to be sustained, indeed if this sub-discipline is to contribute to our knowledge of the social world, we must become clear on what phenomenological sociology is and can become. At present serious problems exist in the writings of many sociologists who have contributed to, and implicitly defined, this approach to sociology. In general, they display only a metaphorical understanding of phenomenology as a philosophy and as a set of methods. In addition, and partly as a result, they fail to understand the relationship between sociology and phenomenology.
FUNTIONALIST THEORY AND THER MAJOR TENENTS The functionalist perspective, also called functionalism, is one of the major theoretical perspective in sociology. It has its origins in the works of Emile Durkheim, who was especially interested in how social order is possible or how society remains relatively stable .A perspective is a point of view. Major tenants are people who contributed in the theory example Herbert Spencer Talcott Parsons, Robert K. Merton. A concept is a fundamental category of existence. In contemporary philosophy there are least three prevailing ways to understand the concepts.