SOCI 70 Study Guide - Winter 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Social Fact, Émile Durkheim, Socioeconomic Status
SOCI 70
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Lecture 1
I. Introduction
• all three classical theorists try to understand changes brought about by the Industrial
Revolutio ad the oept of oderity
• Sociology uses a scientific method to approach the social world (inspired by scientific
method studying the natural world)
• Know major theoretical tools each contributed and their view of modernity
- Classical Theory
i. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
1. Social Facts
• Durkheim aimed to define the domain of sociology (what is sociology/what is
the main topic being studied? Sociology (to Durkheim): the scientific study of
social facts
• Sui genesis: has a distinct reality in its own right, more than the sum of its
parts
- ex: 3 lines alone vs 3 lines put together (a triangle); a relationship is
more than the sum of its parts (2 strangers standing next to each other
vs. 2 people in a relationship)
• Social fact: what individuals give birth to by gathering together; 3
characteristics of social facts
1. external to the idividual; a’t e disovered through itrospetio
2. coercive: pushes back on you/feels uncomfortable when you deviate
from it/resist it; enforced by sanctions (i.e. ridicule, laughter)
3. objective: facts that have the same reality as biological facts, can be
proven
- ex: divorce rates (have to resort to social facts, not an individual)
2. Organic Solidarity
• Mechanical solidarity: feelings of community because of resemblance
- functionally equivalent units (no matter how many times you separate
it, it has the same composition)
- we have this community when our similarities vastly outnumber our
differences
• Organic solidarity: feelings of community because of interdependence
- characterizes modern society (interdependent units)
- division of labor; each depends on society more as labor becomes
more differentiated
- differences are greater than similarities
ii. Karl Marx (1818-1883)
- believes social scientists should not be separate from study, wants to change
inequality
- agrees with Durkheim that modernity brings division of labor but says its unnatural
and forced by capitalis; i ouis, people a do a variety of thigs ad do’t
have to be restricted to one thing, sees working as an expression of humanity then
- romanticism, wanted greater humanity
- difference with other theorists: see communism as the past, Marx sees it as the
future
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Lecture 2
1. Historical Materialism
• Thought that ideas are driven by history (normally thought history is driven by
ideas aka improvements push history forward)
- structure ase – how society is organized DETERMINES culture
superstruture – ideas, values, beliefs, which reinforces structure
- society moves forward because of structure (aka class conflict, not
ideological progression)
- because we live in a capitalist society we believe in inequality and
religion, which work to reinforce structure
• inequality has always existed, only in a different form today
(bourgeoisie/proletariat)
• iroi eause Mar’s o elief sste he does’t eed to iite a
revolution because communism is where we are inevitably headed
2. Alienation
• modern society is an inhuman rat race, characterized by dehumanization (we
expect the worst of each other)
• capitalism contributes to rampant alienation in our society, we are alienated
from what it means to be human
• We feel alienation from
1. product
2. act of production
3. other people
4. species-being
ii. Max Weber (1864-1920)
1. Verstehen epatheti uderstadig of hua ehaior
• understanding how individuals interpret the world around them
2. Rationalization
• Calvinists believed in predestination, and that people have sigs here the
were going to go in the afterlife
- sign of the damned – doubt
- sign of the elect – confidence, worldly success
• This caused them to throw themselves into their work to resolve their position
of anxiety
- Tried to accumulate wealth through legitimate means (hard work,
investment)
- orked hard to ahiee their allig to oie theseles the
were a sign of the elect
• In modern times:
- a society that is highly rational (science), deserted by God
- Rational society we live in can be binding, inefficient, alienating
- capitalism is an unintended product of a belief system that has nothing
to do with economy
- Calvinists are the example of capitalists without God
Orientation
Framework
Approach
Marx
Normative
Mono-causal
Historical materialism
- grand social forces
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
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