Transcript Sociology in Our Times The Essentials 3/e

Sociology in Our Times
The Essentials, 4/e
Diana Kendall
Chapter 1
The Sociological Perspective
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Putting Social Life Into Perspective
The Importance of a Global Sociological
Imagination
The Origins of Sociological Thinking
The Development of Modern Sociology
Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives
Comparing Sociology With Other Social
Sciences
Why Study Sociology?
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Gain better understanding of ourselves and our
social world.
See how behavior is shaped by the groups to
which we belong.
Gain insight into society and the larger world
order.
Early Social Thinkers
Emphasized social order and stability:
 Auguste Comte
 Harriet Martineau
 Herbert Spencer
 Emile Durkheim
Early Social Thinkers
Emphasized conflict and social change:
 Karl Marx
 Max Weber
 Georg Simmel
Sociology in the U.S.
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The Chicago school - first department of
sociology in the U.S.
Robert Park - asserted that urbanization had a
disintegrating influence on social life.
Sociology in the U.S.
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George Herbert Mead - founded symbolic
Interactionist perspective.
Jane Adams - founded methodological
approach used by sociologists for years.
W.E.B. Du Bois - noted that dual heritage
creates conflict for people of color - double
consciousness.
Functionalist Perspective
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Assumes that society is a stable, orderly
system.
Talcott Parsons - all societies must meet social
needs in order to survive.
Robert Merton - distinguished between
manifest and latent functions of social
institutions.
Conflict Perspective
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Groups in society are engaged in a continuous
power struggle for control of scarce resources.
Max Weber recognized the importance of
economic conditions in producing inequality
and conflict in society.
C. Wright Mills - formed the concept of the
power elite.
Feminist Approach
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Directs attention to women’s experience and
the importance of gender as an element of
social structure.
Assumes that gender is socially created and
that change is essential for people to achieve
their human potential without limits based on
gender.
Symbolic Interactionist
Perspective
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Society is the sum of the interactions of
individuals and groups.
People communicate through the use of
symbols and symbolic gestures.
Thoughts and behavior are shaped by social
interactions with others.
Postmodern Perspectives
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Earlier theoretical perspectives are
unsuccessful in explaining social life in
contemporary societies.
Emerged after WWII and reflected belief that
some nations were entering a period of post
industrialization.
Challenges existing perspectives, but tends to
ignore central social problems.