sociology theory and methods

• positivist key features


  - sociology can and should model its methods based on the natural sciences because society can be studied objectively. it is important for researchers to be detached from the subjects they are studying.

  - Society exerts an influence over its members and shaped their behaviour as a result. We can use the laws of cause and effect to explain patterns and trends that can be found in society.

  - use quantitative data to understand society and so prefer experiments, questionnaires, structured interviews and the analysis of official statistics

  - aim to make results representative because they can be generalised to the rest of the population

  - there are social facts that are external to us but which have control over us e.g family (can be investigated empirically)
• inductive reasoning/verificationism


  - observe what is happening within society to notice patterns; create a hypothesis then a theory based on your observations and hypothesis.

  - favoured by positivists because they believe that there are social facts and patterns that are there to be discovered as there is in science

  - sociologists are able to create general laws about how society works which can be used to predict future events and guide social policy
• deductive reasoning


  - create a theory about society and from this create a hypothesis that can be tested then conduct your observations to test your hypothesis and look at whether the evidence confirms your theory
• grounded theory - Glaser and Strauss


  - building up and modifying our hypotheses during the course of the research based on the facts that we learn and discover through our research e.g unstructured interviews allows the interviewee to say what's important
• interpretivists key features


  -reject that sociology is like natural sciences

  - it is important for researchers to work closely with individuals and gain a truly subjective understanding of their personal meaning (verstehen{weber} - we should put ourselves in the place of the actor to produce richer, in depth data in higher validity)

  - prefer qualitative data as this often allows people to fully express their opinions and avoids imposing the researcher's thoughts.

  - likely to use unstructured interviews, participant observations and the analysis of personal documents

  - opt for sampling techniques thats are less representative samples such as opportunity or snowball sampling.

  - social reality is socially constructed
• Phenomenologists and Ethnomethodologists


  - anti structural view

  - reject the idea that our behaviour is caused by anything; society cannot determine our actions because it is not a real thing that can be objectively observed

  - social reality is the shared meanings or knowledge of the members of society.

  - they do not believe there is a cause behind the social actors behaviour so cause and effect is irrelevant
• durkheim suicide study


  - quantitative data from official statistics

  - observed patterns in suicide rates and concluded that the patterns could not be the product of the motives of individuals but were social facts so they must be caused by other social facts forces acting upon members of society to determine their behaviour

  - levels of integration and regulation
• popper - falsification


  the fallacy of induction

  - having observed a large no. of swans we can generalise that all swans are white

  - however, no matter how many white swans we observe

  , we cannot prove that they are all white

  - a single observation of a black swan destroys the theory

  - we cannot prove a theory is true by using observations to testify it

  - deductive reasoning helps with falsification (proving something wrong)
• popper - open and closed societies

  - open societies are open to criticism so that the flaws in a theory can be really exposed and better the ones developed = growth of science

  - closed societies are dominated by an official belief system that claims to be the absolute truth = prevents growth as they conflict the falsifiable nature of scientific knowledge.
• kuhn


  - a paradigm provides a basic framework of assumptions within which members of that community work

  - without a shared set of norms in a subject, it cannot be a science

  - sociology does not have school of thought as there are always opposing theories

  - Normal science - scientists engage in puzzle solving. The paradigm defines the questions and the answers. Scientists are then left to fill in the detail or work out the nearest solution
• postmodernist arguments against kuhn

  - paradigm sounds like a meta narrative (a dominant view of what reality is like)

  - it silences minority views and falsely claims to have special access to the truth

  - scientific approach claims a monopoly of the truth excluding other points of view

  - science does not always lead to the progress believed and so is inappropriate to adopt as a model
• realism


  - studying structures and mechanisms is what social and natural worlds have in common and so disagree with both positivists and interpretivists

  - interpretivists are wrong in assuming that sociology cannot be scientific as science can study unobservable phenomena

  - positivists agree wrong to assume that science is only concerned with observable phenomena as science often assumes the existence of unobservable phenomena
• keat and urry


  Sociology is an open system (not all aspects can be controlled) but that doesn't make it totally unscientific.

  - closed system is where the researcher can control and measure all relevant variables while an open system is where the researcher cannot control all variables e.g. meteorology
• feminists and structured interviews/questionnaires

  - masculine and positivistic reflecting the exploitative nature in patriarchal society

  - some feminists argue that there is a superior feminist approach that aims for equality and collaboration rather than control by the researcher

  - Oakley conducted interviews with women about becoming mothers and spent hours to become friends with them so they were more likely to show an interest in the research (Paswon says that this is just the interpretivist approach)

  - Graham says that questionnaires and unstructured interviews give a distorted view of womens experience and conceal the unequal power in relationships
• marxism and statistics


  - marxists reject the positivist claim that official statistics are objective facts but that they serve the interests of capitalism

  - statistics created by the state are the ideological state apparatus and conceals reality to maintain the capitalists class in power

  - politically sensitive data revealing the exploitative nature of capitalism may not be published
• feminists and statistics


  - reject the use on quantitative survey methods nd regard it as a patriarchal model of research

  - official statistics are created by the state which feminists regard as maintaining patriarchal oppression

  - conceals/legitimates gender inequality
• values


  ideas or beliefs about general principle or goals; they tell society's members what is good or important and what to aim for; underline the norms of conduct
• viewpoints on values


  positivists - it is possible and desirable to keep values out of research (value freedom)

  Interpretivists -it is impossible to keep personal values out of research but we should try not to impose our own views where possible

  Some argue that it is desirable to use their values to improve society through their work (value-committed)
• early positivists


  - sociologys job is to uncover the truth about how society works, uncovering the laws that govern its proper functioning - enlightment/modernist view

  -scientific sociology would reveal the correct society so it would be able to stay objective with scientific certainty to describe how things ought to be

  - value freedom

  - karl marx used methods of historical analysis /materialism to reveal the line of development of human society (involves an evolution from class based society to classless communist society)

  - marx views are similar to durkheim and comte in that he sees science as helping to deliver the good society
• modern positivists


  - avoid value commitments because they want sociology to appear scientific (facts not values, remain morally neutral + academic discipline) and the changing social position of sociology

  - Gouldner cristicsed sociology and called sociologists spiritless technicians as they had became problems takers, solving other people's problems and making a gentleman's agreement not to rock the boat by criticising their paymasters
• max weber (interactionist)


  - believed that values and scientific facts are very different and that one cannot create the other

  - he argues that values are still important in sociological research and that they play essential roles in understanding society

  - values are important for sociological research processes; guide to research, interpretation of data, the sociologist as a citizen (should take moral responsibility for the harm their research does)

  - values should not be involved in data collection and hypothesis testing
• committed sociology


  - different sociological perspectives view society is different ways

  - this will influence the topics that they investigate and the way in which they choose to research it

  - mydral, becker, gouldner
• Relativism and Postmodernism


  relativism - different groups, cultures and individuals will each have their own individual view of society as they each have their own values; there is no independent way of judging whether any view is truer than others (what you believe is as true as what anyone else believes)

  - postmodernists take a relativist view and reject the idea that one account is superior to another, any perspective that claims to be the truth is a meta-narrative

  - however, with this logic postmodernism isnt true either (it is self-debating)
• mydral


  argues that sociology should not only spell out their values, they should also openly take sides
• becker


  values are always present in sociology

  - instead of seeing them from the perspective of the overdogs, sociologists should adopt a compassionate stance and take the side of the underdogs (less is known about these groups and their stories need to be told to redress balance)

  - goffman - by emphasising with a mental patient we can show the hidden rationing of behaviour that the psychiatrist thinks of as irrational
• Gouldner


  - criticises becker for taking a romantic and sentimental approach

  -adopts the marxist perspective

  - sociologists should take the side off those who are fighting back - the political radicals struggling to change society and should not be confined to the view of the underdog

  - should be committed to ending the oppression by unmasking ways the powerful maintain their position

  - often the body finding the research controls the direction of the research
• functionalism - Parsons


  - organic analogy - society is like a biological organism

  - social order is achieved through the existence of shared culture and norms

  2 mechanisms that ensures a value consensus:

  - socialisation and social control (rewards and punishment)

  A(adaptation - social system meets its members material needs through economic subsystems) G (goal attainment - society needs to set goals and allocate resources to achieve them) I (integration - different parts of the system must be integrated together to pursue shared goals) L ( latency - maintaining society over time by socialising individuals into roles required by society)

  - the model explains how society has basic needs for it to run smoothly and how it works.

  - manifest functions - intended outcomes e.g. hopi indian rain dance

  - latent functions - hidden outcome promotes solidarity in times of hardship

  - distinction helps to reveal hidden connections between social phenomena
• internal critiques of functionalism

  - mertons internal critique

  - indispensability (parson assumes everything in society is indispensable but merton argues that there are functional alternatives

  - functional unity (parsons assumes that all parts of society are tightly integrated but complex modern societies have many parts with functional autonomy)

  - universal functionalism (assumes everything in society performs a positive function but some things may be functional for some and dysfunctional for others
• External critiques of functionalism


  - functionalism is teleological (family exists to socialise children) but does not explain its cause

  - doesnt explain conflict or change as society is not harmonious, it is a conservative ideology that legitimates the privileged position of powerful groups who would have most to lose.

  - wrong/action perspectives argue that functionalists views are over socialised and deterministic as individuals create society by their interactions and are not puppets

  - functionalism is a meta narrative and assumes society is stable but increasing fragmentation means it cannot be
• Marxism - Marx part 1

  - society is based on conflict of interests, especially economic

  - it is possible to understand society scientifically and it can lead to a better society

  - 'scientific socialism', marxism is a continuation of the enlightenment project

  - capitalism would increase human misery before giving way to the classless communist society and then people will be free to fulfill their potential

  - historical materialism - humans are beings with material needs and must work to meet them by using the forces of production. Used to be human labour but tools were developed to assist production. Led to division of labour and 2 classes. Humans cooperate and have social relations of production. Forces+relations=mode of production which forms the economic base of society

  -class society and exploitation - primitive communism changed to a class exploiting labourers to control society's surplus product. 3 class societies: ancient (slaves legally tied tp their owners), feudal (exploitation of serfs) and capitalist (exploitation of free wage labourers)
• marxism - marx part 2

  - capitalism = 3 features: proletariat are legally free and separated from the means of production and only get the cost of subsistence, ownership of means of production becomes concentrated in fewer hands, production becomes focused on larger units and technological advances resulting in deskilled workforce

  - class consciousness - capitalism causes its own destruction by lowering proletariat wages and bringing them together in large numbers. They can develop s consciousness and become a class for itself

  - ideology - dominant ideas in society are the ideas of the economically dominant class who control the production of ideas and are spread through institutions

  - alienation - the loss of control/separation over means of production. Division of labour= unskilled labourers mindlessly repeating a meaningless task

  - the state, revolution and communism - the state exists to protect the interests of the class of owners whole control it 'armed body of men'. They use the state as a weapon to protect their assets, suppress opposition and prevent a revolution
• criticisms of Marxism


  - Marx has simplistic, one-dimensional view of equality. weber argues that's status and power differences are also important

  - 2 class model is simplistic. weber subdivides the proletariat into skilled and unskilled and the bourgeoisie into petty and white colour

  - class polarisation has not occured. the m/c has grown and not been swallowed up while the w/c has shrunk in western societies.

  - base superstructure model believes that economic factors are the sole cause of everything in society but fails to recognise that humans have free will and can bring change through actions
• Humanistic marxism


  - Gramsci argues that he proletariat must develop its own counter hegemony to win the leadership of society.

  - Rejects economic determinism as mass unemployment and falling wages may encourage revolution as ideas play a central role.

  - Ruling class maintain dominance through coercion (army,police) and consent (legitimising through ideas).

  - The ruling class are a minority and need to create a power bloc through alliances by making ideological compromises.

  - proletariat have a dual consciousness and need to produce their own body of class conscious workers to formulate an alternative vision
• Structural Marxism


  - See social structures as shaping history

  - Althusser rejects the economic determinism and humanism

  - contradictions in the base cause changes in the superstructure and brings about the downfall of capitalism

  - 3 structures: economic level - all activities that produce something to satisfy a need, political - containing all forms of organisation, ideological - ways that people see themselves and their world

  - marx believes this is a one way causality (economic base determines the superstructure) while Althusser believes there is relative autonomy with a two way causality

  - the state performs political and indispensable ideological functions to ensure the reproduction of capitalism - RSA and ISA

  - free will is an illusion, everything about us is the product of underlying social structures

  - craib - society is a puppet theatre and we are the puppets, unseen structures are the hidden puppet master determining our thoughts and actions

  - Althusser argues that we are not free agents - the belief that we possess free will is false consciousness produced by ISA

  - society socialises individuals to slot into pre existing roles that will meet societies' needs

  - socialism will come about because of capitalism resulting from over-determinism (contradictions in the 3 structures resulting in the collapse of the system as a whole
• evaluation of Gramsci


  over emphasising the role of ideas and under emphasising the role of both state coercion and economic factors

  
  

  other marxists argue the role of ideas and consciousness at the basis for resisting domination and changing society. Willis describes the w/c lads he studied as partially seeing through school ideology and recognising meritocracy is a myth
• evaluation of Althusser


  - claims to oppose humanism and determinism but is sharser on humanism. He just replaces economic determinism with a more complex structural determinism where everything is determined by the 3 structures and their interrelationships

  - for humanistic marxists, this scientific approach discourages political activism because it stresses the role of structural factors that individuals can do little to affect. Thompson criticises Althusser for ignoring the fact that it is the active struggles of the w/c that can change society

  - Accuses Althusser of elitism (the belief that the communist party knows what is best for the workers and they blindly follow)

  - Althusser believed he was developing a scientific analysis of society to help bring progress but his ideas have been a major influence on theories such as postmodernism that reject the idea that scientific knowledge can be sued to improve society
• Feminism


  - women suffer the injustices in society because of gender

  - women are vulnerable because of childbirth and men exploit this

  - mainstream sociology is seen as malestream

  - types:

  - radical - men seize power in relation to financial rewards and social privileges, the family is the main instrument of oppression

  - marxist - women are oppressed because of their exclusion from the labour market. Womens unpaid child rearing role contributes to the perpetuation of capitalism by providing the next generation of workers

  - liberal - gender differences are not innate, result of socialisation, changes can take place through legalisation

  - black - most feminism has ignored the racism black women experience, they have a unique experience.
• black feminism


  - feminism does not account for the unique experiences of black women

  - brewer argues that black women are triply disadvantaged in terms of class, gender and race

  - Townsend and Davidson - health services are not geared to meet the needs of ethnic minorities as they are ethnocentric e.g. dont recognise self harm among asian women

  - feminist sociologists tend to have ignored the specific problems/discrimination experienced by racialised groups living in britain
• critiques of feminist theory

  - postmodernists/ butler argue that feminism is a metanarrative that is inadequate to explain the experiences between men and women

  - postmodern feminists would argue that early feminists failed to acknowledge the range of experiences of women. there are many forms of being a woman and a narrow dualist perception of gender is limiting to both men and women

  - marxists argue that the oppression of capitalism is more important than the oppression of patriarchy

  - functionalists argue that women and men naturally have different but equal roles to play in society, parsons instrumental and expressive roles, the gender division of labour is based on the practicalities of childbearing and mens physical strength

  - ignore the domestic labour of men and the increasing economic and educational achievement of women (dated views)

  - all criticise each other which weakens the overall message

  - NR - equality is not always a good thing, working mothers have to juggle home and children and are doing more than just a housewife.
• liberal feminism


  - gender is socially constructed learned through socialisation

  - girls and boys are taught how to behave differently through early experiences in home, school and media

  - discriminatory legislation has prevented women from achieving their potential in society

  - reformist position arguing that social change is possible by mean of equal opportunities and legal reforms