Ferdinand Tonnies was best known for distinguishing between two
types of social groups, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft.
Peter Blau developed exchange theory.
2 types of rewards: Intrinsic and extrinsic.
The parties cannot always reward each other equally; when there is inequality in the exchange. A difference of power will emerge within
an association.
Blau’s concept of social exchange is limited to actions that are contingent, that depend, on rewarding reactions from others.
Talcott Parsons was an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his socialaction theory and structural functionalism.
Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown, FBA was an English social anthropologist who helped further develop the theory of structural functionalism.
Both Durkheim and Radcliffe-Brown posited one basic societal need, the integration and the analysis of its systemparts, to determine how they meet this need.
The hypothesis cannot be tested, even in principle.
Bronisław Kasper Malinowski was a Polish- British anthropologist and ethnologist whose writings on ethnography, social theory, and field research have exerted a lasting influence on the discipline of
anthropology.
Malinowski offered a way for modern sociologists to employ
functional analysis (1) the notion of system levels and (2) the concept of different and multiple system needs at each level.
(2) TWO MOST SOCIOLOGICALLY RELEVANT SYSTEM LEVELS: (1) Cultural system level; (2) Structural system level.
Institutional analysis: Organized to meet critical requisites; certain universal "elements".
6 essential features of institutions: (1) Personnel; (2) Charter; (3) Norms; (4) Material apparatus; (5) Activity; (6) Function.
Personnel: Who and how many people will participate in the institution?
Charter: What is the purpose of the institution? What are its vowed
goals?
Norms: What are the key that regulate and organize conduct?
Material apparatus: What is the nature of the tools and facilities used to organize and regulate conduct in pursuit of goals?
Activity: How are tasks and activities divided? Who does what?
Function: What requisite does a pattern of institutional activity meet?
Talcott Parsons' 1937, 1st Published work "The Structure of Social Action.
Social (voluntaristic) action basic elements: (1) Involves actors making subjective decisions about the means to achieve goals(2) Possess alternative means to achieve the goals; (3) Governed by values, norms, and other ideas; (4) Viewed as goal-seeking.
Parsons made the conceptual transition from unit acts to social system.
3 types of values: (1) Cognitive (objective standards); (2) Appreciative (aesthetic standards); (3) Moral (absolute
rightness and wrongness).
According to Parsons, actor is driven by motives and values.
Composite type of action: (1) instrumental; (2) expressive; (3) moral.
Systems of action were conceptualized to have four survival problems, or requisites: (1) adaptation; (2) goal attainment; (3) integration; and (4) latency.
Adaptation: response to or manipulation of external environment.
Goal attainment: definition and achievement of primary functions.
Latent pattern maintenance: cultural patterns that sustain and refresh motivation for action.
Integration: oversight and coordination of component parts/functions.
Weber's main concern is with regularities and patterns of action within civilizations, institutions, organizations, strata, classes, and groups.
Weber's Pessimism and the Basic Problem for Early European Theory.
Max Weber: new utopian society and rationalization.
Weber felt, involves the ever- increasing penetration of means-
ends rationality into more spheres of life, thereby destroying older
traditions and moral fabric.
Weber agreed with Georg Simmel that this rationalization of life brings individuals a new freedom from domination by traditional forces.