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Sociological Perspective

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Jan 2018

Sociological Perspectives
• Sociology: the study of how membership of social groups from families through schools and
workplaces, influences people’s behaviour
• The Enlightenment period: first attempt to challenge traditional beliefs through reason and
science. Europe’s cultural upheavals.
- Sir Isaac Newton - questioning the prevailing world view that’re based on facts
- French Revolution — political challenge (monarchs are overthrown by republican)
- Industrial Revolution — economic disruption (mechanisation of production)

• Auguste Comte - Positivist


- consensus approach = order is created and maintained by cooperation
- 1830 — stages explaining order that society passes
- Theological (religious beliefs), Metaphysical (transition: upheaval and disorder —>
science challenging beliefs), Positive (science and reason replaced religion)

• Karl Marx - Marxist


- conflict approach — economic relationship
- time periods for social development
- primitive communism, ancient society, feudal (pre indust), capitalist (indust)
- Capitalism: an economic system based on the pursuit of private profit.
- defining the relationship between employer and employee — domination of bourgeoisie
- Class inequality is linked to Stratification (ranks of class based on wealth, power,
influence)
- Order: through force (threat of imprisonment and death) and persuasion (religious teachings)
- Ev: the occupy movement: international socio-political movement against social and
economic inequality and lack of "real democracy" around the world. 1st Occupy: Occupy Wall
Street in New York City's Zuccotti Park, 17 September 2011
- Critics: too focus only on economic conflict, ‘deterministic’, focus on social force and neglect
that ppl can choose how to act (see humans as passive, external factors)

• Max Weber - Weberian


- conflict approach. social change—modernisation
- social change: major shift in the political, economic or cultural order // everyday changes on
political, cultural and economic relationships
- driven not only by economic forces, but other factors: political struggles, belief system,
demographic changes, development in science, forms of government
- 1905 — process of modernisation
- industrialisation, urbanisation, rationalisation (behaviour and social organisations based
on bureaucratic scientific principles)
- modernisation in Europe in fuelled by ideas principles of Calvinist religion
- 1922 — social action theory: social change results from the individuals or group acting
purposefully
- Change can be brought by the behaviour Charismatic leaders. = strong personality that
influence others (Jesus for christianity, Mohammad for Islam)
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- Ev: Modernisation in Europe
Brought by the ideas and principles of Calvinist Religion (protestant)
- Weber criticise marx: other factors like politics, and belief system also contributes to social
change, not only economic.
- founder of social action theory – believed that we need to develop an empathetic
understanding to uncover the personal meanings and motives individuals give to their own
actions, and this is crucial to understand social change
- However, he also believed that we could make generalisations about types of motive people
had and that these general motivations were influenced by the wider society —> is half way
between structure and action theory, rather than a pure ‘social action’ theorist

• Emile Durkheim - Functionalist


- follow comte’s consensus approach
- to study society: relationship between institutions (patterns of shared behaviour that persist
overtime, like workplace, family)
- Moral Entities: something to which people fell they belong to and which they owe allegiance
—> what holds the mass of individuals together as society. cohesiveness.
- Value Consensus: common agreement about the things that people think are important
—> order is shaped through shared interest and values that connects people
—> shared belief, they all think its important = solidarity
- 1895 — societies did not just exist, people had to develop social solidarity (a belief that
they belong into a larger group):
1) Mechanical solidarity: bound together by who they are (family, kinship) —> industrial
and traditional society (based on long standing customs habits and tradition)
2) Organic solidarity: bound by what they do — integrating through the feeling that they
have something in common (shared belief, etc) —> pre industrial
• shift from mechanical based to organic based solidarity of a society is a major social
change
- 1895 — proves that human behaviour can be scientifically studied. produce objective
knowledge = Durkheim’s Study of Suicide 1897
look at official statistics on suicide rates in different societies and social group.
concludes that suicide has social causes (caused by “external” society) not
just biological and psychological causes (individual causes).
critics: unreliable data. lack validity. generalisation is no good. (by interprets)
- Critics: disregard conflicts in some society. lack of adequate theory of Power in society
(marx and weber believe that order is imposed by powerful group to shape ideology)

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Debate on Sociology as a Science
Defining Science
• Popper (1934): science involves identifying problem, collecting information and offering
explanation
• methodology — a way of producing knowledge
• scientific knowledge: FOTEP + RV

- Factual - Reliable (accurate by replicating)
- Objective - Valid (measures what it describes to
- Evidence based measure)

- Predictive - certain it will happen in future
• Non scientific: opinion, guesswork, untested assumptions, faith

POSITIVIST: Sociology is a Science


• Studying human behaviour should be systematic. based on the idea that its possible and
desirable to study the social world in broadly the same way that natural scientist study the
natural world.
• Popper’s (1934) Hypothetico-Deductive Method
1. Hypothesis / research question
2. Testing and answering: (must be systematic)
3. Data Collection
4. Data Analysis
5. Conclusion — through Falsification
- theories should be disproven or shown to be false through testing against evidence
• Merton (1942): scientific ethos to produce scientific knowledge
- rules governing the general conditions that research must satisfy to attain and maintain
scientific status. knowledge should be:
1) Universal: evaluated through objective, universally agreed criteria. no personal value
- falsification: framing theories in a way they can be disproved
2) Communal: public knowledge, freely shared
3) Disinterested: no personal stake, financial, etc. no bias
- researcher bias: presence of behaviour of the researcher introduces uncontrolled
variable in the research, making it unreliable or invalid
4) Sceptical: criticised
- science is true because it hasn't been disproved. unlike faith that cant be disproved.
• Objective knowledge is the purpose — sociologist must be objective: Value Freedom
- researcher dont participate but only observe
- Quantitative form — expressed in numerical or statistical form
- looking at trends, patterns, correlation and causation. may involve generalisation.
• Behaviour is governed by forces that the individual social actor is powerless to resist (as termed
with ‘law’ ‘cause’)
• Ev: Durkheim’s Suicide Study

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Jan 2018

from Chapter 4: Positivism


Basic Principles of Positivism
• Society is made up of structures that exist independently of individuals
• Institution represent behaviour at a macro level of society
• Social structure is real, objective forces, people can't stop this forces from acting on them
• Social structure acts as a force that bears individuals down and pushes them to behave in a
certain ways and to shape their behavioural choices
• Durkheim (1895): Structural force is Collective Conscience (society’s collective will), which
shapes individual beliefs and behavioural choices

Methodology of Positivism
• Goal: explain, not describe, social phenomena
• To discover the “General Rules” or “Structural Force” that causes behaviour to happen
• Scientist must be personally objective
- shouldn’t participate in the behaviour being studied
- “Standing Apart” from behaviour
- shouldn’t depend on subjective interpretation of researcher
• Must be able to quantify and measure behaviour
- favours quantitative method because allow data collection to be Objective and Reliable (can
be replicated or easily repeated with same result)

• Technique to study this “invisible forces”: • How to produce Knowledge:
- Systematic observation - Observing social behaviour
- Rigorous testing - Developing and testing hypotheses
- Quantitative measurements that create - Analysing and evaluating Evidences

reliable knowledge
• The process explains observations and predict future behaviours

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INTERPRETIVISM: Sociology cannot be a science
• different people need different situation to understand, or interpret the social world differently
• sociologist can only describe reality from the viewpoint of those creating and defining it
• Harris (2005a): difference w/ positivist
- people are different with inanimate object bc of their Consciousness — awareness of
themselves and the world they live in
- people have the ability to think, reflect, and act, not just react
- hence a subtle and flexible approach
- social behaviour is described through the meanings and interpretation that the ppl give to the
behaviour
• Explain behaviour thru how people understand the behaviour in which they are involved in
• Human ability to empathise: take role of each other — researcher must experience the world in
the way that those researched experience ==> vital sight into why they behave so
• Sociology cant predict the behaviour of conscious human
- behaviour is determined by context — change depend on the understanding of themselves
about situation they're in
• Qualitative data: tells experience and feelings
- less reliable = impossible to replicate
- greater validity = reveal much ore about how and why people behave
• Berg (1999): methodology = Emergent Research Design
- dont start with hypothesis and end with confirmation or rejection
- Lindauer (2005): goal free. explore whatever they or the object of study feel is important and
interesting ==> flexible, weak, bends to take in new ideas and development throughout
1. Planning: identify issue
2. Data Collection and Data Analysis: feedback loop
- Schultz: data analysis happens throughout the collection, not after
- analysis can be used for further collection and hence further analysis
3. Evaluation: non-judgemental. readers make their own conclusion.
- Firestone (1987): objective of research is to help reader understand and see

from Chapter 4: Interpretivism


Basic Principles of Interpretivism
• Social reality is socially constructed: formed through interaction of people with consciousness
and ability to choose how to behave, not just react
• People are unpredictable —> don't always react the same way, as it is constructed thorough
meanings
• Society is to be experience and understood, from within
• The choice people make and the choice other people make for them enables the construction
and reconstruction of social reality in daily basis
• Behavioural choices are context bound = are influenced by cultural contexts that shapes
behaviour —> the interpretation a situation restrict out behavioural choices
• Order and stability = because people are aware of behavioural consequences (how others see
and treat us)

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Methodology of Interpretivism
• Different people interpret their world differently, hence to understand, researcher must be in their
view point, interpreting the same way
• Goal: describe social behaviour in terms of meanings and interpretations of subject
• Laing (2007): objective of research is “Recovery of Subjective Meaning” which is to “tell their
story” so behavioural choices can be understood and described
• Involves close study of people’s behaviour to gain good understanding of the context —> hence
why Participant observation
- Humpries (1970): Participation is desirable because researcher gets a deeper insight into
behaviour
• Validity is much more important than reliability

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Postmodernism // Realism
• a critical world view based on the idea that people construct stories (narratives) for them to
makes sense of the world
• how people view ‘big stories’ — not true or flase, but it can be revealed by research
• Usher & Edwards (1994): postmo is a different way of seeing and working, not a fixed ideas
• Metanarratives — the big stories that society constructs to explain something about the nature of
the worlds (religion, nationalism, political philosophies)

- Pre industrial society — religion
- Industrial society — science

- Postmodern society — Lyotard (1979): incredulity towards metanarratives
—> people stop regarding those as believable or sustainable
• Science is a metanarrative struggling to establish hegemony over other metas
• Sociological research is presenting different versions of truth
- making subjective judgements
• Concept of Truth: inherently subjective because they're based on power relationship
—> those with power define the criteria against which status of knowledge is
measured effectively decide whats true
• Critics on positivist and interpretivist:
- Polyani (1958): observation is theory dependant = to understand what we see we must
already know what it is. ==> questions positivist objectivity
- Knowledge about the social world is active created by people going about their daily lives
- knowledge isn't something waiting to be discovered (positivist)
- Its impossible to study people in a small group without changing their behaviour in some way
- research will change behaviour (interpretivist)
- Consider scientific ethos (belom velar nih)

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Use of Sociological Knowledge


• Sociology: call free — not influenced by the values, prejudices of the researcher = Value Neutral
• Value Neutral = not possible to act without values, but, researcher recognize and well aware of
the points that could be intruded by their values hence finding ways to adjust research strategy
to minimise the disrupt
• Choices in doing research
- Topic: what and who to study can be influenced by personal values, influenced on personal
views on danger and difficulty of the research
- Funding considerations: some researches are asked and funded by certain institution
- Project Camelot: research funded by US government and military in 1960s designer to
influence internal politics and development in Chile. —> questioned by Solovey its
ethical and validity of the researcher
- Method of research: shows if the researcher is positivist or interpretivist, their views in
viewing what considered to be most valid and reliable
• Closer 1977: choice is always value relevant (influenced by values) hence value neutrality
involves the researches acknowledging their values. they need to clearly state the value-relevant
assumption in their works so these can be questions, challenged and changed by other
sociologist


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Social Order and Change


Consensus Structuralism: Functionalism
• Society is through a social system that consist of parts that are dependent to each other and
hence it needs to function in harmony to form a more complex system. — Human body analogy
• Solidarity and cohesiveness of people = sense of belonging and similar belief, values and
behaviour —> work together towards a common goal
- societal goal became their best interest = conform willingly
- if it fails (not willing to conform) = agents of control (police, courts, legal system)
• Parson (1937): 4 functional sub system
- each subsystem perform a different but related functions
- relationship between subsystem: for one institution to exist and function, it needs other
institution to function properly
1. Cultural - for social integration
—gives something to be shared hence something in common
— develop and foster common values & norms (building block of integration)
2. Economic - for physical survival
— organise ppl to produce things for survival (food, shelter)
3. Political - for order
— governing and controlling ppl to ensure values are applied and maintained
4. Family - for socialisation
— ensuring children are raised into a fully functioning member of society
• Parsons (1959a): 4 functional prerequisites — factors that allow a society to maintain social
order (problems that society must solve if it is to survive)
1. Goal Maintenance: providing goals to achieve
2. Adaptation: cooperative environment to achieve institutional goal
3. Integration: sense of belonging to the institution
4. Latency: managing conflicts and deviancy through rules and punishment

Social Change - Functionalism


• Parson (1927): structural differentiation = Society consist of connected subsystems, a change in
one causes a change in others
• Merton (1938): Social Strains — tensions and pressures build up in society when the need of
one institution cant be met by other institution
- 18th Century, UK: rapid development of scientific ideas creating industrialisation and
mechanisation —> Employers needed literate and numerate workers —> family couldn’t
supply a literate and numerate individuals
- late 19th: tension release: through Government intervention (political subsystem) and
developing a new cultural institution = Education
- involves the loss of function of an institution (family) and the gain of a new institution

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Conflict Structuralism: Marxist, Feminist
• stability is caused by powerful group imposing order on powerless group

Marxism
• Work is the most important activity in any society
- nothing can exist without people first having a way to survive
• Order and stability is maintained through the institutions making up the base and superstructure,
which are controlled by those owning the economic base
• Base and Superstructure: shows relationship b/w institutions (economic, political, ideological)
- base = economic (capitalist workplace)
- foundation where society is built
- includes: Means of Production (tools, machines) + Relations of Production (relationship
organised hierarchically b/w owners, managers, workers)
- means of production (FOP) are owned by one class and the majority owns nothing hence
forced to sell their ability to work in order to survive
- organised hierarchically —> further up, more power (owner, manager, labor)
- Forces Of Production: how labor power is organised to produce wealth by harnessing it
into various forms of technology
- superstructure = political and ideological
- bourgeoisie aren't only economically, but also politically powerful
- Order & Stability ==> maintained at a system level through ideological and political
superstructure
- these superstructures are owned and controlled by ruling class, they got their power from
owning the economic base
- government, agencies of social control (police, courts)
- religion, media, education
• Althusser (1917): ruling class controls RSA + ISA
• Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) or ways of forcing people to conform by force
- hard policing: police and armed forces as agents of social control
- soft policing: social workers and welfare agencies ‘policing’ behaviour
• Ideological State Apparatus (ISA)
- own and controls institutions instilling values and ideas that fits the capitalist system
(education) —> benefit ruling class
• Socialisation is an affective control — ideological manipulation in which it convince people that
the ruling class interest is the interest of all and its impossible to change
• People are locked = exploitation in workplace + locked by ideas supporting status quo (spread
by superstructure)

Social Change - Marxism


• Social change came through conflict and clash between contradicting interest
- main source of conflict: existence of different classes
• Capitalism = competitive economic system = competition —> conflict
• Conflict happens in all level of society: Micro/Everyday (demand high wage) and Macro/Large
(leads to wider political and economic change)
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Feminism
• contemporary society is patriarchal to some degree
- interest of men are always considered more important than those of women
• Order and control are based on male power. expressed in 2 ways:
1. interpersonal power: physical violence and ways where women are exploited in family
2. cultural power: male dominated society is structured to press and exploit women
—> male domination in highest lvl of economic, political, cultural
• Liberal feminism: control through sexual discrimination
• Marxist feminism: class inequality leading to female oppression
- competitive capitalist = men are encouraged to exploit weakness of women (out of work when
pregnant)
• Radical feminism: patriarchy is the source of oppression
- men domination = public (workplace) and private (home) spheres

Social Change - Feminism



• Liberal Feminism
- through legal system
- Ev: UK’s Sex Discrimination Act (1975 updated in 2003) and Equal Pay Act (1970):
illegalising/prohibiting discrimination in workplace

• Marxist Feminism
- development of patriarchal ideas are the product of cultural differences in the way men and
female is raised
- capitalist economic system encourage and reward sexist attitude
- social change / solving this = erasing capitalist system

• Radical Feminism
- men: Gender Enemy bc they always exploit women
- Change/Solve through: overthrowing ruling class men + establishing matriarchal
- replacing patriarchal with equality and mutual respect

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Action Approach aka Interactionism
• Order and Control are created from ‘bottom up’ — individuals into society
• Society is created and re created through people’s daly interaction
- individual and collective behaviour constantly reproduce of social order
• Order and Stability is created = people act like Society is a “mental” (unreal) force that limits and
controls people’s behaviour, although it only exist mentally not physically
- society is not a thing acting on behaviour
• Garfinkel (1967): demonstrates how social order is a fragile belief

Social Change - Action Theory


• Social reality is fluid and malleable as people negotiate reality
- because meanings are open to change
• Change in micro scale: changing attitudes (i.e: to gender)
• Globalisation: wide cultural change (british enjoying indian cuisine)
• Change in macro scale: role of cultural institution
- Weber (1905): religion leads to change —> Calvinism helped promote a strong and lasting
social transformation in the form of capitalism
- Robinson (1987): 6 condition that makes religion a force of social change
1. Revolutionary class shares a religious worldview
2. Theology (religious teachings) are opposing the current belief and practice of social
order
3. Clergy closely associated with revolutionary class
4. Revolutionary class share a single religion
5. A difference between ruling class’ religion and revolutionary class’ religion
6. channels of legal political dissent is blocked or unavailable

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CHAPTER 2: SOCIALISATION AND THE CREATION OF SOCIAL IDENTITY

STRUCTURALIST - Macrosociology
• Society or “structure” acts as a force shaping individual behaviour and thoughts (external forces
driving individual internal behaviour)
• social action is the product of a powerful force that individual has no freedom to oppose (passive
individuals)
• Social structure establish roles to pick up, that are associated with certain values and beliefs
about how something should be (expectations) —> people are actors playing part in the society
• Marxism: structural force in modern industrial society = capitalist relations of productions
- it acts as an invisible mechanism that controls the way in which society operates
• Functionalism: society’s structure is in the form of institutional arrangement that has
established patterns of behaviour, hence ensuring individuals to behave accordingly and smooth
running society is a achieved

INTERACTIONISM - Microsociology
• involves Phenomenology, Ethnomethodology, Symbolic Interactionism
• Based on Weber (1922): Social Action Concept
• Behaviour becomes Action when people act according to how the ppl we interact with act and
would react (behave based on how they behave) —> social action involves a knowledge of how
our behaviour might affect the people its directed to
• People are able to make choices about how to act (Active individuals)
• Phenomenology: social world consist of phenomena where the meaning of it is negotiated and
interpreted through interaction
- Wilson (2002): We experience the world with and through others
- Social context can determine (interpret) and change (negotiate) the meaning of something
——> meaning of behaviour can change depends on context
- Interpretation of a meaning is based on shared definition of a situation, which may also be the
product of negotiation
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• Symbolic Interactionism: people impose subjective meanings on objects, events, and
behaviours
- Society is constructed by social interaction where meanings are imposed, then interpreted
- Society is a complex, symbolic world where the meaning of our actions, our choices,
languages, are open to interpretation
- The meaning of a physical object or symbolic system (language) can be changed depending
on the social context in which it appears
- Schutz (1962): subjective meanings give rise to an apparently objective social world
(add researches from internet)
• Ethnomethodology: every social interaction is based on the meaning imposed to it
- meanings people give to a situation should be understood to understand their behaviour in
that particular situation.
- Garfinkel (1967): Breaching Experiment
- purposely upset people’s definition (meaning) of a situation to show how they ‘Construct
Reality’
- reseracher is sent to a restaurant to purposely mistake a customer for waiters. the
customer reaction includes amusement, confusion and anger
- conclusion: sociey is not a “thing” or “force” that acts on behaviour since it has no objective
reality beyond social interaction
• Schutz: society has a subjective reality = reality is experienced through interaction. Society is a
label that is given to rules and responsibilities arising from our interaction/relationship.
• Labelling Theory: the definitions (meanings) people impose on situations or on other people
can have real consequences (even if those definitions are not based in reality)
- people in power generally have more ability to impose their definitions on situations than the
powerless
- applied in Education and Crime&Deviances
• Erving Goffman’s Dramaturgical Approach:
- Human social behaviour is seen as scripted, with humans as role-taking actors
• Critics on Structuralist:
- Wrong (1961): structuralist has an “Over-socialised Conception of Man”: rejects the idea that
human behaviour is governed entirely by the effect of socialisations. People have a degree of
freedom from the influences of their social environment (society)

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STRUCTURATION
• A theory by Anthony Giddens which argues that structure and action are equally significant
• People have the ability to choose how to behave, but behavioural choices are influenced,
limited, and enhanced by the framework of rules and responsibilities created by social structure
• People develop relationships —> interaction and relationship involves interpreting meanings and
taking into account how others behave and react —> the rules governing their behaviours are
formalised (became a definite way of behaving) —> became routine ways of behaving in an
interaction (became practices) —> range and varieties of these practices a sense of structure is
developed —> rules becoming involved in this structure
• Individual rules are externalised, creating structure which may seem to separate from our
individual behaviour
• Some rules can be negotiated (friendship), and some are non-negotiable (imposed on
individuals by powerful groups)
(add researches)

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LEARNING PROCESS AND SOCIALISATION


• Socialisation: process through which people learn the various forms of behaviour consistent with
membership of particular culture.
- the process of how we are taught the behavioural rules we need to become both a member of
a particular society/culture and competent social actor.

The ‘I’ and ‘Me’ — Nurture


• George Herbert Mead (1934): how people behave is conditioned (depend) by the social context
in which behaviour occurs
• Self Awareness is Learnt (the ability to see ourselves as other see us, and to react accordingly)
- to do so, it needs to develop a concept of Self (awareness of who we are)
—> sets human apart from animals
- ‘Self’ = I: opinion of ourselves as a whole —> unsocialised self
Me: awareness of how others expect us to behave in a situation = Social self
—> developed through socialisation
—> we choose how we react = Whats socially acceptable (who we are,
where we are, who we’re with)

The presentation of self


• Goffman (1059): who we believe ourselves to be and identity is constructed socially through how
we present ourselves to others
- ppl are actors —> may speak their own lines (personal identity)
—> may follow lines written for them (external influence that tells how
to behave in certain situation and role)
- We adopt impression of someone, and behave to maintain and manage that impression ==>
act in ways we think they’d like

• Barnhart (1994): interaction is a performance shaped by the audience and environment, and
constructed or done to provide impressions to others. in which those impression will show how
the actor wants to be seen.

• Cooley (1909): looking-glass self


- social encounters are like horror reflecting ourself as other see us
- how others behave towards us —> see an image of someone they think we are
—> how other see ourself as a person
- involves the social action theory (perspective focusing on individuals and how interactions
create and re create a sense of identity)
1. interpretation: identities has different meaning historically and cross-culturally
2. negotiation: identities are open to discussion. it can be negotiated and changed.

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Evidence against Genetics 1 - Feral children
• Genie, 13 years old californian girl founded in 1970
• isolated in a small room and had not been spoken to by her parent since infancy.
• malnourished, abuses, unloved, no companionship
• Pines (1997): when she was found = cant stand, cant speak, only whimper
after brought back to human society, she couldn't easily pick up
normal behaviour
• raised with no contact = fail to show social and physical development that is expected in a
conventionally raised child
• if human behaviour is Instinctive / capability that we’re born with, Genie should’ve develop
normally

Evidence against Genetics 2 - culture


• Podder and Bergvall (2004): culture isn't something we’re born with, its taught
• socialisation is important bc different cultures develop different ways of doing things
• if behaviour is governed by instinct, hence different cultures in different society wouldn't exist
• if behaviour is instinctive, cultures will be the same regardless time or place
• Billikopf (1999): Russia, peeling banana for a lady = romantic interest
• Wojtczak (2009): Victorian Britian lives in a culture where women’s purpose is to marry and
reproduce —> different than today’s british society where women may work

• Fallon’s (2006): brain structure of psychopathic killers are NOT always different with ppl who
dont engage in violent behaviour. whats different is the social environment they're raised in.

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Genetics — Nature
- behaviour is guided by instincts thats based on biological imperatives
- commands cant be ignored
- people are born with abilities of ‘human nature’
- instincts: fixed human traits — things we born knowing
- culture play little or no role in the development of instincts
- people are born with capabilities that is realised during environmental experience
- Nature gives hints on how to behave. we can choose to ignore or follow this.
- Self Awareness is instinctive human attribute

• Wilson (1979): Biological principles we’re born with creates biological basis for our behaviour
- human behaviour isn't genetically determined, but strongly influenced by Biological
Programming
- the natural traits we’re born with predisposed/make us feel inclined to behave accordingly
hence leading to different cultural roles:
——> women is passive and caring hence suited for child rearing. men is
aggressive hence best suit to providing role which is paid work.

• Parson (1959): family roles are organised based on biological principles


- expressive role: women & Instrumental role: men
• Social engineering: cultural manipulation in which people behave or fulfil roles in opposition to
biological principle or traits
- people can choose to ignore those principles and not fulfil those roles, it will lead to social
problems
- how these social behaviour has been selected and reproduced over centuries shows how its
a successful evolutionary adaptation that is functioning

Evidence to Nature - neuropsychological
• Bruce and Young (1986): relationship between brain damage of soldiers and face recognition
problems
• Cauffman (2005): juvenile brain functioning play a part in antisocial behaviour
• Wortley (2011): crime offenders are proven to be a brain reaction to punishments or to denial of
something desired
- genes are responsible or certain behaviour

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Agencies of Socialisation
• Cooley: primary socialisation is a process happening face-to-face intimate association and
cooperation
- critical to the development of human fundamental behaviour
- infants need other ppl to develop as a human and member of culture

• Berger & Luckmann: secondary socialisation is characterised with a sense of detachment from
the ones teaching socialisation
- formality and anonimity. no personal contact or intimacy with those socialising
- Parsons: purpose of it is to liberate individual from dependancy to their primary attachments
(family group)
- developing instrumental relationship: based on what they can do to us and we can do for
them

Social Control
• socialisation brings stability, order, and predictability of peoples behaviour
• Pfohl (1998): socialisation is a form of social control. deviancy = noise, and social control
transform the noise to a music of comformity
• human behaviour is a long life process of rule learning thats underpinned by sanctions
- Positive sanctions (rewards): pleasant things we do to make people behave in routine,
predictable, accordingly ways. —> smiling, praising, gifts, merits
- Negative sanctions (punishments): negative things done to make people change or reverse
their behaviour. stop deviancy. —> exclusion from peer group, ridiculed, prison

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Primary Socialisation
Family
• changing roles: husband/wife - parent - step parent and baby-child-teen-adult-parent
• relationship based on love, responsibility and duty
• Mead: Significant others shapes our basic values and our moral values—> ppl who’s important
to us and their opinion matters
• basic norms: addressing family members, table manners, definitions of acceptable behaviour
• sanctions are mainly informal —> facial expression, verbal approval/reinforcement, physical
rewards
• Functionalist —> one way process from adults to children, but not an unquestioning acceptance
• Hartley (1959): Imitation of children is important (copying behaviour) because they’re actively
involved in negotiating their socialisation (not obeying)

Peers
• groups made up of similar age
• primary because ppl with similar age would influence behaviour thru interaction
• secondary because they are used as reference group
- Hughes (2002): models we use for evaluate and shaping our attitude, feelings, action
- like fashion, general behavioural trend in certain age groups = age appropriate behaviour
• informal social sanctions

Secondary socialisation
Education
• curriculums
- formal curriculum: specific subject and knowledge student explicitly taught
- Jackson (1686): hidden curriculum = things student learn from the experience of attending
school like how to deal w/ new ppl, obedience, punctuality, respect authorities
• school is a place to limit individual desires —> think abt needs of others

• Parsons: why school is significant


1. detach from primary attachment and introduces instrumental relationship
2. allows to internalise society’s value and norms a step higher than in family = adopting wider
social values thru interaction. let them integrate gradually to adulthood
• as student they’re locked into expected behaviours and how they should behave towards
different ppl with different roles (to peer, teacher,staff)

• Marxist: Bowles and Gintis (2002): correspondence between school norms and workplace
- school prepares them to be functioning works and socialising them into the workplace
values => sanctions, norms like punctuation and hard-work

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Jan 2018
Mass Media
• relationship with it is Impersonal: unlikely to meet those who's socialising
• it has a long direct, long-term effect on behaviour
• Potter 2003: short term effects include: imitation (copying), desensitisation (lowering emotional
reaction from constant repeated things), learning (new ideas)
• influence of television includes
- Consumerism: active and ever increasing pursuit if goods and services that define
lifestyle and identities in contemporary capitalists society
- Fear: heavy exposure to negative violent — over estimation and paranoia towards such
things
- Agenda Setting: Philo et al: media determines how something will be debated. sub-text
that shapes the meaning of particular subject (muslim=terrorist)
• Habituation: the more people are exposed to certain images, and ideas the more likely it is
that they will incorporate them into their personal value system

• Chandler 1995: television’s Indirect longterm effect is small, gradual but cumulative and
significant
• media is influential in supporting and marginalising certain values. promoting certain values
while devaluing others.
• Durkheim: boundary making function of media
- it publicises acceptable and acceptable forms of behaviour to reinforce perceptions of
expected behaviours
- they may preserve particular ways of behaving thru campaigns
- it also employs range of sanctions to reinforce its messages: praise, unflattering pose,
critical articles, public ridicule

Religion
• important moral values, the strong beliefs about how people should behave are influenced by
religious values
- Ten Commandments in Christians are reflected in legal systems around the world
• many world religions are also accused of promoting patriarchy through general organisation and
gender values that encorange
• religious values is a very powerful force for those who believe
• Design for Living — provides help and guidance to live a life in accord with God
• can also become a source of conflicts: between religion and within it
• religious values are portrayed through styles and res, indicating religiosity and think identity
• positive sanctions:
- belief in reincarnation for hinduism
- notions of sin
- excommunication — exclusion from the church


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SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY AND REALITY


What is ‘Society’
• having something common with others within it and consider to be different with those outside
• Space of society:
1. Physical Space: geographical physical border
2. Mental Space: shared beliefs
- Space is a mental construction
• Anderson (1983): “imagined communities’ — things that exist only in mind

Society is Mentally Constructed = Reality is Socially Constructed


• our perception of what is real is created through variety of historical and cultural processes
rather than something that is fixed or natural occurring
• Mental construction of Society is done through:
1. geographic borders or physical boundaries
2. a government system
3. common and shared culture (language, customs, traditions)
4. sense of belonging and identification — “our” that differ with “them”
• Culture: a distinctive way of life that is taught and learnt through socialisation
• Dahl (2000): culture is a collectively held set of attributes involving:
1. Material Culture = physical object that reflect cultural knowledge (non material culture)
2. Non material Culture = knowledge and beliefs. meaning ppl give to material object.
• Merton (1975): object has 2 functions
1. Manifest function: purpose why they exist
2. Latent function: hidden or obscured function = as status symbol
• Cultural interaction: people interact with common meanings to create a structure of predictable
behaviour —> Culture is constructed from Roles, Values, and Norms

Roles: building block of culture because


- demand social interaction— role insist people to cooperate and have awareness of each
other and it locks people into range of relationship that has articular routines and
responsibility
- has name or label — role identifies people with a label that carry a particular expectation of
their behaviour
Values: general behavioural guidelines in which roles are governed
- it is based on the beliefs about how people should behave
- its a general structuring agency that provides a broad guidance for behaviour of roles
Belief: fundamental. deep-rooted ideas that shape our values and may also shaped by values
- include ideas, opinions judgements and attitudes
- doesn't matter if its not true, what makes an idea a belief is because people believe that its
true

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Ideologies:
- Joseph (1990): constructed around fundamental belief with the purpose of explaining
something (the meaning of life, the nature of family organisation, superiority or inferiority of
certain group)
- Blake (2004): ‘ideological’ belief involves partial or biased account.
- all ideologies involve propaganda — always seek to convince other
- Henderson (1981): pattern of idea that claims to explain and legitimise social structure and
culture
- Marxism/Critical Theory: ideologies have manipulative element —> Frankfurt School
- capitalist controlled media directly attempts to induce audience by constructing and
presenting a version of reality favourable to the ruling class
- Adorno and Horkheimer (1944): ruling class ideology is transmitted through culture
industry that creates popular cultures which are consumes uncritically and passively by
the masses
- controlling the culture industry = controlling mental production or how people see and
think about the world

Concept of Power
• Dugan: capacity ot bring about change
• Lukes: making others believe that nothing has to be changed
• Weber: 2 types of power
1. coercive: forced to obey under threat of punishment
2. consensual (authority): obey because they think its right to do so
- charismatic: because of trust
- traditional — custom and practices. because thats what's always been done
- rational/legal: except commands because their position owns the right to demand
compliance
• decision making:
- ability to make decisions
- to prevent decisions
- and to do nothing or remove decision making agenda (keeping things as it is)
• Giddens: power related to social construction od reality — the ability of individuals to make their
own concerns and interest count. those with pewee can impose their definition of reality to
others where with this, they could bring order and stablity
• Foucault: power in modern society is opaque and difficult to see
- people are unaware of being controlled and unaware of the power they have over them
- in the past: based on raw coercive power
- in modern society: increasing exercised in subtle mode ways
- knowledge about the social would are both aspects of belief system that controls about
behaviour by influencing how people think about the world


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Jan 2018
Social Construction of Identity
Class Identity (Marxist)
• Not only built around the idea of that they are, but also what they are not
• Lower class
- fixed around manual work and manufacturing industry
- urban and close know community where working class lived
- similar occupation and social outlook
- cultural beliefs are continually reinforced through experience
- Emergence of ‘New Working Class’ — Crompton (2003)
- caused by the decline in manufacturing works and increase in services
- causing new identity: privatised and home centred, work was a mean to an end
- Devine (1992): there’s still a strong sense of differentiation bw working class and middle class

• Middle class
- professionals — high educational achievement with personal autonomy (freedom of action)
and decision making
- managers — running companies. have power and control over others
- intellectuals — reflect academic identity dealing with knowledge
- consultants — selling knowledge, information and skills
- routine service workers — low band of middle class. but a non manual worker.

• Upper class
- landed aristocracy — source of power from bustoric ownership and political monarchy
connection
- business elite — immense income and wealth based on ownership of global company
• Ev: Davies et al (2008): world’s richest 1% own 40% of the global wealth. 60% of the 1% live in
japan and US.

Blurring of Class Identity (Post Modernist)


• Peele (2004): recent global economic changes caused a blurring traditional class identities.
- can be seen through the changes in taste and consumption
- convergence of working and middle class taste makes defining class identity difficult
- boundaries between the 2 class has changed but not disappear completely

• Prandy and Lambert (2005): theres a gradual shift from people looking at themselves as working
class to middle class
• Savage (2007): although people still use this catagory, its meaning has changed. working class
identity has become varies.
• —> identity is becoming fluid. its based on someone’s ability to choose who they are and who
they want to be

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• Criticism: Brookes: the idea is pushing ‘coherent and stable’ middle class identity too far. middle
class can still be distinguished through:
1. ambivalent class position but still not working class: below the upper class and aspiring to
be them, but above the working class and wanting to be separated by them
2. disgusted subject: Lawler 2005: expression of disgust towards working class and claims
“ownership of taste”
3. social capital: connected to networks of people that have ‘value’. they are in best position to
integrate into significant social networks that reinforce their sense of identity and difference
- Putnam (2000): norms of reciprocity — what people willing to do for each other
- Catts and Ogza (2005): social glue — sense of belonging
- Bordieu (1986): cultural capital

Gender Identities
• sex: physical characteristics ; gender: social characteristics given to each sex
• Lips (1993): difference between identities don't occur from biological differences, but it is learnt
and relative as they differ historically and cross culturally
• Connell (1087): we are not born as women or men. we become men and women through social
construction of gender identities
- dominant gender identities:
1. hegemonic masculinity: traditional masculinity are based on physical and mental
characteristics —> body type, physical strengths, men as leaders, providers, calm
2. emphasised femininity: accommodating interest and needs of men. match and complement
men hegemonic masculinity. passive, emotional. defined by male needs and desire
(kitchen’06)
• Male
- Schauer (2004): alternative masculinity
1. Subordinate: who are unwilling or unable to perform hegemonic masculinity
2. Subversive: who changes and undermines hegemonic masculinity
3. Complicit: newly feminised masculinity aka “new man”. see women as equal. because
according to conell, when has become more powerful.
4. Marginalised: who feel like they have been pushed to the margin of family life (long term
unemployment. Wilmott and Griffin (1996): usually develop in unemployed working class
because they fail to fulfil the belief of “good family man”)

• Crisis of Masculinity
- Benyon (2002): contemporary society experience this because:
1. longterm unemployment
2. loss of traditional male employment in secondary
3. lower educational achievement than girls
4. rise of female friendly service industries
- margianlised masculinity occur bc they no longer control the economic resources in which
masculinity is bases
- crisis of masculinity result in exaggerated masculinity as men try to reassert traditional male
identity:
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1. retributive: emasculated peers. binge drinking, fighting, womanising. rigidly patriarchal,
aggressive, reject equality, wants to reclaim masculinity.
2. hyper-masculinity: authoritarian, autocratic, impersonal, violent.

• Female
1. contingent: framed and shaped by male beliefs
- normalised: play as s secondary role to men. struggle to secure male approval.
- sexualised: fashioned thru male eyes. as sexual objects.
2. assertive identities: changing position of women in society break them free from traditional
ideas
- froyum (2005): resist male power without actually throwing to overthrow such power. it
includes:
- girl power: coping with masculinity. sex as fun.
- modernised femininities: new cultural and economic power in family. desire for
personal freedom and expression.
- ageing femininities: the right of elder women to be sexual, active and fashionable.
3. autonomous: competition between male and female. see for a ‘new gender regime’
- evans (2006): new gender regime that frees woman from traditional constraint
- women are: highly educated, successful, professional middle class, career focused
- non committal heterosexual relationship

Ethnic Identities
- ethnicity is a combination of religion, family structures, beliefs, values, norms.
- key factor: conscious of belonging into the group
- references: country of birth, traditions and customs, shared histories, religious beliefs
- ethnic identities are negoriable: meaning can change because of contact with other culture
(external) or clash of ideas within members (internal)
- require constant maintenance through collective activities, and symbolic cultural objects
- Winston (2005): ethnic identities develop when they see themselves as ‘distinctive’ with others
because of there ‘shared cultural background and history’
- Wimmer (2008): how an ethnic identity is imposed. Some ethnic group partly or wholly construct
their sense of self opposing others.
• sense of difference —> positive (sense of belonging) or defensive (racism and discrimination)
• cultural stereotypes
• minority vs majority in terms of “otherness”

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Modernist on Identity
Functionalism
• Fisher (1997): culture is shared behaviour that systematises the way people do thing hence
avoiding infusing and allowing cooperation to happen and allows people to achieve something
that cant be achieved alone
• Mazrui (1996): 7 functions of culture
1. communication: language
2. perception: shapes how ppl see the world
3. identity: influence how ppl see themselves and see others
4. value system: cultural institutions are socialises values for influencing behaviour
5. motivation: have sanctions that promote and discourage behaviour
6. stratification: ranking individual through existing categories (age, gender, etc) for an
incentive system
7. production and consumption: need use and value

• Adams and Marshall (1996): 5 functions of identity


1. provide structured context for social actions (role/expectation) that guides behaviour
2. generate sense of individual purpose by setting personal goals
3. create a measure for self control. allow ppl to select and process information and decisions
according to their role.
4. ensure commitment that is consistent with personal belief and values
5. goal setting function for future orientations

Marxism
• functions of identity:
- enhance the sense of self
- social cohesion for the dominant social class
- lower the social status of other competing class
• High Culture: some cultural products are superior than others
- pre industrial societies: clear status distinction between ruling and lower class as status are
fixed by inheritance and law
- nowdays: social mobility can occur because of mass education and growth of higher paid jobs
—> an identity crisis for the elite groups (cant maintain superiority)
- Cultural attribute (taste) cant be brought or lear, hence it is a way to maintain the superiority
- Hobsbawn and Ranger (1992): globalised society makes it difficult to maintain status
distinction based on how people speak, live or dress, hence the difference is through the
consumption of cultural products and ideas
- Cooney (1994): elite are determining what happens in society and hence they identify their
culture as “the best” and defining others as “worthless, mass-produces and artificial (low
culture)’
- This is used to:
• assert their cultural identity “us” and not “them”
• establish cultural hegemony —> they decide what is considered to be ‘high’
• create “taste barrier” between itself and the masses

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• Low Culture or Popular or Mass Culture
- defined by ruling class as: shallow, disposable, worthless and manufactures
- its mass produces and inauthentic (no emotional investment or interest in making it)
- passive consumption and does not need an understanding
- commercialised and made for mass appeal to make money hence inclusive and profitable
- It is a way of distracting working class from the real causes of their problems in the capitalist
society —> false sense of happiness, togetherness and well-being

• Neo Marxism: Patterns of Consumption


- consume to express cultural identity and represent background presentation
- choices of consumption are used to enhance people’s general perception of their own and
other people’s identity
- Jansen et al (2000): conspicuous consumption —> consume to impress others who and
what you are
- Brusdal and Lavik (2005): consumption in modern society is about creating meaning and
purpose in their lives and no longer only to satisfy their needs
- Aldridge (2003): 2 dimension of consumption
1. Satisfaction of need: buy for practical purpose
2. Symbolic meaning: exchange message

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Postmodernism
• changing ideas on identity
• center identities are clear and fixed with narrow choices available on how those identities are
defined and it is rigidly enforced.
• social change of global economic, cultural influences have open and expose societies and
individuals to new and different experiences and ideas —> fragmented/decentralised identity
- monolithic identities (idea that there is a correct way to be a certain identity) can be no longer
sustained
- people develop the freedom to invent and adapt to identities that fits their personal tastes and
styles —> always unique in its shape and form
- people are still socialised but it doesn't shape their identity but rather, identity choices is
added as people is socialised
- people are open and accepting of different experiences

• Phillips (2003): consumption pattern is changing, people but things more for what they mean
than what they do. consumption is based on their identity and based on what they wish to project
or communicate to others

• Rampton (2002): identity construction in postmodern society involves assembling and piecing
together from many changing options —> free to browse and pick according to personal taste
- people are ‘identity consumer’ that ‘shop for identities’
• identities are easily combined to form Hybrid Identities
- Hybrid or mixing of ethnic identities: gradual alterations to an established identity.
- new influences and re establishing old identities in the face of new challenges.
- incorporation and modification to an existing sense of identity of style
1. Conventional hybridisation: mixing distinctive styles to produce new and unique
identities. take place in margins of identity and combines features of diverse identity
rather than a complete change.
2. Contemporary hybridisation: constant maintenance, change and development of ethnic
identities by: immigration (physical meeting, and/or cultural globalisation (exposure to
varieties of identities)

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