Sociology: Theory and Methods - Definitions

-Through our actions we produce and reproduce structures, while these structures are what makes our actions possible in the first place.

-Examples include language, the family and schools.

-This encourages social solidarity within society that leads to a value consensus, comprised of shared values.

Links to other areas of sociology:

-New Right thinkers take a conflict stance on a lot which is described by these sociologists - particularly with how they view the family.

-The family promotes a value consensus through its functions of primary socialisation and warm bath theory.

-Education promotes a value consensus through secondary socialisation and the ethnocentric curriculum.

-Evaluations:

-It is useful for seeking to understand how institutions within society work interdependently with each other.

-Conflict theorists would argue it is too positive about society and ignores social inequalities.

-Feminists would question the roles allocated to men and women, likely seeing them as outdated and preferring weakened gender identities.

-These are the Bourgeoisie (ruling-class) and the Proletariat (working-class).

-The former owns the means of production.

-The latter are the wage-earners, whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work).

-The classes are conflicting as the Bourgeoisie seek to instil ruling-class ideology (dominant ideology) in the Proletariat, to stop them from achieving class consciousness leading to a revolt and overthrow of the dominant class.

Links to other areas of sociology:

-In the family, children are socialised to become consumers and compliant docile workers.

-In education, social class is a factor of achievement and Althusser claims it acts as an Ideological State Apparatus.

Evaluations:
-It suggests reasons as to why certain social institutions function the way they do. For example, Marx described religion as the 'opium of the people', as he suggested it was used to make the Proletariat accept their position in society, through the promise of future rewards in heaven if people put up with their suffering.

-Functionalists would argue that the theory fails to explain society as working harmoniously most of the time.

-Postmodernists would see the theory as too deterministic.

-Interpretivist - they focus on the meanings that people give to situations and their own behaviour.

-Wanting to understand the processes by which actions of individuals take place, how people interpret things, how people define themselves, how others react to us.

-Society is a system.

-Behaviour of individuals and the formation of their identities are the result of social forces.

-Individuals have little control or choice - their lives are the result of determinism.

-Purpose of sociology is to study the structure of society and the social institutions that make up the structure - macro approach.

-Methodology is positivist - social forces are measurable - individual behaviour is seen as a reflection of social forces.

-It emphasises the meanings that individuals place on social situations and relationships.

-By focusing on the meaning we attach to relationships - for example in families - this perspective focuses on who we feel is important to us, not who society says counts as family.

-The definition of the situation - the 'label' if we believe something to be true, we believe it as if it is true.

-The looking-glass self - our 'self-concept' - our idea of who we are - we become how others see us - leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

-The career - the stages of labelling, self-fulfilling prophecy, master status.

-Example of a positive label: 'ideal pupil' which is a middle-class, quiet but hardworking girl who is pro-school with educated parents.

-Example of a negative label: criminal which is a working-class young Black male.

-Instead, these types of feminists see women's subordination as rooted in capitalism.

-Although individual men may benefit from women's subordination, the main beneficiary is capitalism.

-For them, women's subordination in capitalist society results from their primary role as unpaid homemaker, which places them in a dependent economic position in the family.

Women's subordination performs a number of important functions for capitalism:

-Women are a source of cheap exploitable labour for employers - they can be paid less because it is assumed they will be partially dependent on their husbands' earnings.

-Women are a reserve army of labour than can be moved into the labour force during economic booms and out again at times of recession - they can be treated as marginal workers in this way because it is assumed their primary role is in the home.

-Women reproduce the labour force through their unpaid domestic labour, both by nurturing and socialising children to become the next generation of workers and by maintaining and servicing the current generation of workers - their husbands. They do this at no cost to capitalism.

-Women absorb anger that would otherwise be directed at capitalism - Fran Ansley (1972) describes wives as 'takers of shit' who soak up the frustration their husbands feel because of the alienation and exploitation they suffer at work. For these types of feminists, this explains male domestic violence against women.

Because of these links between women's subordination and capitalism, they argue that women's interests lie in the overthrow of capitalism.

-Men hold powerful positions in society and use those positions to exploit and harm women.

Links to other areas of sociology:

-It has contributed to a critique of traditional research methods, such as structured interviews.

-It challenges traditional, male-centric ('malestream') sociological perspectives (as found in functionalism).

-Marxists would argue that the conflict is class-based rather than sex-based.

-Functionalists would argue that the smooth running of society is based on the conjugal roles of men and women.

-Patriarchy is universal - male domination of women exists in all known societies. According to Shulamith Firestone (1974), the origins of patriarchy lie in women's biological capacity to bear and care for infants, since performing this role means they become dependent on males.

-Patriarchy is the primary and most fundamental form of inequality and conflict. The key division is between men and women - men are women's main enemy.

-All men oppress women - all men benefit from patriarchy - especially from women's unpaid domestic labour and from their sexual services.

The personal is political:

-For these types of feminists, patriarchal oppression is direct and personal.

-It occurs not only in the public sphere of work and politics, but also in the private sphere of the family, domestic labour and sexual relationships.

-They see the personal as political - all relationships involve power and they are political when one person dominates another.

-Personal relationships are therefore political because men dominate women through them.

-They refer to these power relationships as sexual politics.

-Society is based on agreement and is mainly harmonious.

-Social order is maintained through people agreeing on the rules - norms and values - and goals that support society.

-Functionalism is part of this type of structural theory.

-Through language, communication and interaction, humans produce meaning that forms the basis of their understanding of the social world.

-People act in terms of symbols - such as words, objects, gestures.

-Individuals have attached meanings to these symbols.

-We act towards people and things in accordance with these meanings.

-For example, a table may be seen as a desk, a table tennis table or a dining table.

The Interpretive Process:

-People try to interpret the meanings others give to their actions by imagining themselves in their position and taking on their role.

-People are in a constant process of forming and negotiating roles and how they interact with others, and making choices about how they do this - contrast with structural theories that say our roles are determined by the social structure.

-Laws and policies: they believe women can achieve gender equality in this way. For example, they argue that laws and policies against sex discrimination in employment and education can secure equal opportunities for women.

-Cultural change: they also call for cultural change. In their view, traditional prejudices and stereotypes about gender differences are a barrier to equality. For example, beliefs that women are less rational and more dominated by emotion and instinct are used to legitimate their exclusion from decision-making roles and their confinement to childbearing and housework. They reject the idea that biological differences make women less competent or rational than men, or that men are biologically less emotional or nurturing.

Sex and Gender:

Like Ann Oakley (1972), they distinguish between sex and gender:

-Sex refers to biological differences between males and females, such as their reproductive role, hormonal and physical differences.

-Gender refers to culturally constructed differences between the 'masculine' and 'feminine' roles and identities assigned to males and females. It includes the ideas that cultures hold about the abilities of males and females, such as whether they are capable of rationality. These ideas are transmitted through socialisation.

While sex differences are seen as fixed, gender differences vary between cultures and over time:

-Thus, what is considered a proper role for women in one society or at one time may be disapproved of or forbidden in another.

-For example, until fairly recently it was rare to see women bus drivers in Britain, but this is now quite common, while in Saudi Arabia, women are forbidden to drive any vehicle.

-For these types of feminists, then, sexist attitudes and stereotypical beliefs about gender are culturally constructed and transmitted through socialisation.

-Therefore, to achieve gender equality, we must change society's socialisation patterns.

-Hence, they seek to promote appropriate role models in education and the family - for example, female teachers in traditional male subjects, or fathers taking responsibility for domestic tasks.

-Similarly, they challenge gender stereotyping in the media.

-Over time, they believe, such actions will produce cultural change and gender equality will become the norm.

-Society is divided between social groups with different amounts of power.

-Society is based on inequality rather than consensus.

-Marxism and Feminism are part of this type of structural theory.