Methods Theory Debate

• Relationship between sociology and social policy


  Social policies are actions by the government that aim to solve a problem or achieve a goal and have a direct impact on the welfare of its citizen. Some sociological research is purely interested in sociological problems, eg patterns of behaviour that require an explanation. The electorate want to see action to tackle problems that affect their lives, and this has raised a debate on how much influence sociology has on social problems and whether this is positive or negative.
• Positivists


  • Argue that sociology has great influence over policy as it provides the state with objective scientific information that can inform policies that benefit both the individual and society as a whole in order for society to progress supporting the enlightenment project
• Functionalists


  • Support a piecemeal engineering approach meaning tackling one social problem at a time. Functionalists believe in a value consensus and so believe the state acts in the interests of all citizens. For instance, educational policies such as compulsory education and national curriculum promote equal opportunity and social integration.
• Social democrats


  • Argue that sociology can and should shape government policy as they call for a major redistribution of wealth in order to create a socialist's society in the hopes for greater equality within capitalism
• Townsend's research on Poverty


  • Found that 28% of people live in absolute poverty whereby no blame could be placed on individuals but rather inadequate wages this research led to the minimum wage being introduced
• Marxists


  • Argue that only a communist revolution will liberate the proletariat and any policy which appears to help the WC is merely to give capitalism a caring face. The minimum wage appears to help WC to get a better standard of life, but really just keeps them passive because they are duped into thinking capitalism is taking care of them.
• Marxists and Radical feminists


  • Believe that the state and society is serving the interests of the most powerful and should therefore not have an influence on policy. They believe that social policies reflect the interests of the bourgeoise and therefore provide an ideological legitimation to mask the capitalist exploitation maintaining a labour force and means of preventing a revolution.
• New right


  • Would argue that sociology has had too much influence on policies, and this is a threat to society. For instance, Murray states the introduction of lone parent benefit is detrimental to society as single parent families are often female headed which leads to inadequate socialisation of male children and this causes crime which is dysfunctional for society. They argue that the state shouldn't intervene with people's lives but instead policies should promote self-reliance allow independency without relying on the state and this will in turn boost the economy.
• Relationship between sociology and social policy


  Many argue there is no relationship between sociology, and social policy as the two are completely unrelated. Sociological problems are any pattern of relationships that calls for an explanation whereas social problems are behaviour that causes public friction. Those focusing on sociological problems may lack relevance to policy and gone no way to shaping policy. However, a different viewpoint on the relationship is that policy influences sociology, with areas of sociology becoming popular due to changes in policy.
• Positivists


  • Believe in the enlightenment project and believe that we can use our academic knowledge to improve society. They believe that it's possible and desirable to apply the logic and methods of the natural sciences to the study of society, to solve social problems and achieve progress.
• Positivists


  • Believe that reality exists outside and independently of the human mind, so like the natural world, society is an objective factual reality. Sociology should take the natural science experimental method as the model for research because the investigator can test a hypothesis in a systematic and controlled way. Using quantitative methods such as official statistics gives maximum objectivity as no thoughts and values influence the research.
• Durkheim's study on suicide


  • He wanted to prove individual act has social cause and he used quantitative data from official statistics observing patterns in suicide rates. He found that protestants were more likely to commit suicide than Catholics which he concluded the cause was lack of integration of protestants.
• Douglas


  • Rejects the view that sociology is a science because unlike the subject matter of the natural sciences, humans have free will. To understand suicide, we have to uncover the meanings for those who make the choice, rejecting Durkheim view as statistics are socially constructed and not factual they are a result of the coroners labelling certain deaths.
• Interpretivists


  • Don't believe sociology can or should adopt the logic and methods of the natural sciences, because they are unsuited to the study of human beings. For interpretivists, sociology is about people's internal meanings, not external causes therefore cannot be a science because science only deals with laws of cause and effect and not meanings.
• Weber's verstehen


  • He argues that the purpose of sociology is to uncover these meanings and to do this we need to achieve verstehen whereby we put ourselves in the point of view of the individual. This can only truly be achieved by using qualitative methods, for instance, Griffin black like me study, he used participant observation and changed his complexion to fit in with the participants to experience what they were experiencing.
• Popper


  • Rejects the positivist view that science is based on verificationism which is the idea that we can prove a theory true by gathering evidence that supports it. According to him, what makes science unique is the opposite of verificationism but instead the principle of falsification whereby a statement is scientific if it is capable of being disproved by evidence.
• Labelling theory


  • Provides an argument that can be falsified. For example, they argue that labelling leads to SFP; however, if a person is negatively labelled but they reject the label it disproves the theory. Fuller found that black girls were negatively labelled and rejected it by succeeding anyways which disproves SFP.
• Traditional positivists


  • Believe that sociology should be value free. They believe that the study of society shouldn't be the matter of subjective values or personal opinions about what is best. Instead, should focus on uncovering the truth about how society works and uncovering the social facts governing its proper function.
• Postmodernists


  • View society as a social construction so there are no truth just meta-narratives with no privileged access to the truth. They take a relativist approach stating that if all perspectives involve values, then their findings are just a reflection of their values, not objective facts.
• Weber


  • Argues that sociology can't be completely value free but there are some elements that can be. He makes the distinction between our value judgement and facts, saying that we can't get one from the other. He argues that sociology needs to be value free when researchers are collecting data and must be objective and unbiased.
• Gamm


  • Argues that a value free sociology is impossible, and the very idea is sociological. He argues that sociologists react to political, economic, and social events to define what is worthy research. Consequently, it's just as important to look at what sociologists don't investigate as what they do as they aren't immune to ideological hegemony.
• Functionalism


  Structural consensus theory, which believes that individuals are passive in accepting society's shared norms and values. This agreement helps maintain value consensus.
• Functionalism


  Conflict theory such as Marxism and Feminism argue that the functionalist view is overly positive and fails to recognise that some social groups may suffer from oppression by some powerful groups.
• Durkheim (founding father of functionalism)


  • Concerned by rapid social change from traditional society with a simple social structure to a complex modern society
  • Rapid change undermines old norms without creating clear new ones, throwing people into a state of anomie meaning normlessness that threatens social cohesion
  • Sees society as a separate entity existing over and above its members and aimed to establish sociology as a scientific discipline using a positivist approach when finding out about consensus and integration within society
  • Used official stats to establish trends and patterns on reasons why people commit suicide across Europe, concluding that low level of integration and regulation have higher suicide rates
• Durkheim's findings on suicide


  Interpretivists argue official statistics are socially constructed and lacked validity as they give no meaning behind the reasons why these people decided to commit suicide or what influenced the verdict
• Organic analogy (Durkheim)


  Society works like an organ in the human body, all institutions work together to help it function
• Parsons' development of organic analogy


  • Looked at the functions of institutions
  • Found that the institutions are inter-related and interdependent for society's survival and these functions change over time
  • In modern society there is structural differentiation whereby as society becomes more complex, institutions become increasingly specialised in functions they perform
• Parsons' view of institutions


  March of progress sociologists argue that the state was more advanced and better able to perform these functions which helped society to improve
• Parsons' view of institutions


  Merton (internal critic of functionalism) recognises dysfunctions as well as functions such as blocked opportunities. He developed the strain theory, arguing there's a strain between the culturally accepted goal and legitimate means to achieve this.
• Value consensus (Parsons)


  Shared agreement about norms and values by members in society, which integrates individuals into the social system and directs them towards meeting the system needs
• Parsons' view of value consensus


  Deterministic as meritocracy is a myth, and the value of the RC is being shared while keeping the WC passive. This is evident as although everyone is judged through the same standards in the education system, the RC are at an advantage because of their economic and cultural capital.
• New Right


  Argue that functionalism is rose-tinted and lacks relevance in today's society. Whilst they share the same ideals such as nuclear family being ideal, and a shared national culture being needed.
• Murray (New Right)


  Family, SPF, welfare dependency, inadequate socialisation= dysfunctions in society. Solution- scarp welfare benefits for SPF, increase tax breaks for married couples- promotes self-reliance as it makes people stay together and take responsibility for children.
• Murray's views


  Feminist=patriarchal as it pushes women back into heterosexual nuclear family= SPF likely to be women so puts them at a disadvantage without welfare.
• Marxism


  Structural conflict theory, which believes that there is a capitalist society based on conflict between the bourgeoise and the proletariat where the bourgeoise exploits the proletariat for more profit. The ruling class reinforces capitalism through their control over the superstructures such as family, crime, education.
• Marxism


  Marxist feminists would say that they are genderblind as capitalism also impacts women and keeps them subordinated in a patriarchal society.
• Marx


  • Positivist and believed that society could be studied scientifically
  • Believed that it was possible to make predictions about the future in a scientific way, for instance, the decline in religion would lead to greater class consciousness and subsequent revolution as people realise the true extent of exploitation
  • In modern day there has been an increase in globalisation which capitalists are now able to maximise their profits even more as manufacturing has shifted to the developing world, leading to deindustrialisation in the west
• Marx's predictions


  Popper would argue that Marx is therefore unscientific as his prediction isn't falsifiable.
• Research methods


  • Practical
  • Ethical
  • Theoretical
• Engels


  Argues that capitalism is maintained by social institutions. For instance, the nuclear family performs key functions for capitalism such as sexual regulation and reproduction of the labour force.