Sociology

• Four factors that lead to the development of Sociology:

  1. The turmoil of Industrial Revolution
  2. The success of American and French Revolution
  3. Imperialism
  4. The success of the Natural Sciences
• By the middle of 19th century, Europe was changing from agriculture to factory production. Moving in the cities in search for work, they found anonymity, crowding, filth, and poverty. Life no longer looked the same


  The turmoil of industrial revolution
• Britain was the birthplace of Industrial Revolution
• New ideas arose, including the conviction that individuals possesses inalienable rights

  The success of American and French Revolution
• Voltaire was a French philosopher and writer of Age of Enlightenment
• European had been successful in conquering many parts of the world. This exposed them to different cultures and began to ask why culture differed

  Imperialism
• Fourth Impetus for the development of sociology

  The success of the natural sciences
• Scientific method- Using objective, systematic observations to test theories
• Auguste Comte proposes Positivism- using scientific methods to reveal the laws by which society and individuals interact
• Harriet Martineau is the First woman sociologist, Political Economy
• Karl Marx- Social conflict, communist manifesto- looks at the society as a result of the struggles of different classes
• Herbert Spencer- The study of sociology, he favored the government that allowed market forces to control capitalism
• George Simmel- addressed topics such as social conflict, micro level-theories
• Emile Durkheim- helped establish first European department of sociology at the University of Bordeauz
• George Herbert Mead- Symbolic interactionism and the social self
• Max Weber- Verstehen, and proposed antipositivism
• Charles Wright Mills- the sociological imagination, author of the power of elite
• Sociology is the science of society and the social interaction taking place among individuals in a social group
• The areas of concern of sociology are:

  1. Social organization
  2. Social psychology
  3. Social change and disorganization
  4. Population studies
  5. Human ecology
  6. Sociological theory and methods
  7. Applied sociology
• Involves the study of social group, social institutions, ethnic relations, social stratification, social mobility, an bureaucracy

  Social organization
• Studies human nature and personality as the product of group life

  social psychology
• concerned with the change in culture and social relations and the attendant disruption that may occur

  social change and disorganization
• analyzes the population number, composition, change, and quality as they influence and are influenced by the social, economic, and political orders

  Population studies
• Studies in this area deals with the human behavior of a given population in relation to its environment

  human ecology
• includes theory building and testing the applicability of the principles of group life

  sociological theory and methods
• make use of the findings of pure sociological research

  Applied sociology
• Theory- is a general statement about how some part of the world fit together and how they work
• Stress that symbol make social life possible

  Symbolic interactionism
• things to which we attach meaning

  symbols
• Kayan Lahwi tribe are known for wearing neck rings
• Has a central idea that society is a whole unit made up of interrelated parts that work together

  Structural-Functional analysis
• Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer viewed society as a kind of living organism
• Emile Durkheim saw society as composed of many parts, with its own function
• society is in normal state if its parts fulfill their functions
• society is in pathological state if its parts don't fulfill their funtions
• Robert Merton dismissed the idea of organic analogy in functionalism
• Functions refer to the beneficial consequences of people's action that help keep a group in equilibrium
• Dysfunctions are consequences that undermine system's equilibrium
• Manifest function- intended to help some part of the system
• Latent functions- unintended consequences that help a system adjust