SOC 1101 Lecture Notes - Highgate Cemetery, Social Inequality, Talcott Parsons
Document Summary
From the greek theorein, to see. a conceptual overview of the way something works. A set of logically interrelated statements that attempts to describe, explain, and (occasionally) predict social events (textbook) Social theorizing: the task of weaving isolated observations or facts into an understanding of human society and behaviour. An overall approach or viewpoint toward some subject (textbook); a basic image of society that guides thinking and research ( road map , paradigm) Each perspective interprets reality and explains data in a different way. Society as a system made up of interrelated parts, each of which performs one or more important social functions or meets vital social needs. Parts/ subsystems: social institutions, economy, family, education, religion, government, medicine, science, etc. Institutions provide the rules governing behaviours, and a set of common values that bind people together. It is assumed that society is a stable, functional, set of interrelated parts that work together for the benefit of society.
