Sociology 2144A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cultural Capital, Microsociology, Generation Gap

• School: Western University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: Sociology 2144A/B
• Professor: Gale Lynn Cassidy

Document Summary

Agency refers to the individual"s ability to act and make independent choices. Those theorists who favor agency are associated on a micro-level. Initiative and action individuals take to rule lives. The degree to which people can enhance their lives. Structure refers to aspects of the social landscape that appear to limit or influence the choices made by individuals. Larger social forces control how life is lived. Moral values are passed down through school. Underlying theoretical perspectives are other assumptions about the social world and very important to consider when thinking about the theories in the sociology of education. Ontology how we understand the nature of reality. Epistemology the techniques by which we study the social world. Two techniques: positivism the belief that the social world should be studied in a similar manner to the scientific world. Advocate for the use of statistics, surveys, and experiments. Interpretivism understand society as fundamentally different from the topics of the natural sciences.