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Introduction SOCIOLOGY to Sociology
Previously on Introduction to Sociology.
The Conflict model of Karl Marx:
Unequal distribution of material wealth leads to social
struggle -conflict between classes- and provides
motivation for historical development and change
Social conflict is especially pervasive in capitalism
because capitalism turns everything into a commodity,
i.e., everything acquires a monetary value
Critiques:
Inadequate conceptualization of class
Utopian
Four Classical
Perspectives on Society:
3. FUNCTIONALISM
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SOCIOLOGICAL
EXEMPLARY
GUIDING UNIT OF
MODEL
THEORIST
IMAGE
ANALYSIS
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1) RATIONAL-CHOICE
ADAM SMITH
CLOCK INDIVIDUAL
2) CONFLICT THEORY
KARL MARX
FIGHT
CLASS
3) FUNCTIONALISM
E. DURKHEIM
BODY
SOCIETY
4) SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONISM
G. H. MEAD
CHAT
THE DYAD
SOCIOLOGICAL
EXEMPLARY
GUIDING UNIT OF
MODEL
THEORIST
IMAGE
ANALYSIS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3) FUNCTIONALISM
E. DURKHEIM
BODY
SOCIETY
Functionalism
The analysis of structural and cultural phenomena in terms
of the functions they perform in a social system.
Macrosociological perspective.
The development of functionalism was based on the model
of the organic system found in the biological sciences.
Society is conceived of as a system of interrelated parts in
which no part can be understood in isolation from the
whole.
Society as an organism, with needs of its own and a drive
to survive
A change in any part is seen as leading to a certain degree
of imbalance, which in turn results in changes in other
parts of the system and to some extent to a reorganization
of the system as a whole.
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Think of an airport as an example of the
interrelatedness expressed within the functionalism
framework.
Airport Components:
Pilots
Maintenance crews
Air traffic controllers
Baggage handlers
Ticketing and reservation personnel
What could cause an imbalance of the
airport system?
Inclement weather
Malfunctioning radar control system
High volume of passengers during the
holidays
Strike of some employees
Three Elements of Functionalism
The general interrelatedness, or
interdependence, of the systems parts
The existence of a normal state of
affairs, or state of equilibrium, comparable
to the normal or healthy state of an
organism
The way that all the parts of the system
reorganize to bring things back to normal
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Using the airport example, how will
equilibrium be restored?
Personnel will work harder
Overtime will be set up
Additional staff will be hired
Additional flights will be scheduled (in case
of bad weather)
In analyzing how social systems maintain
and restore equilibrium, functionalists tend
to use shared values or generally
accepted standards of desirability as a
central concept.
Value consensus means that individuals
will be morally committed to their society.
Functionalism vs. Conflict Theory
Functionalism emphasizes the unity of
society and what its members share
Conflict theorists stress the divisions within a
society and the struggles that arise out of
peoples pursuits of their different material
interests.
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The Division of Labor in Society:
A Study of the Organization of Advanced
Societies.
Durkheim [1893] 1947
Throughout his career, Durkheims work revolved
around one fundamental question: what is the basis
for integration and solidarity in human societies?
The Division of Labor is about the shifting basis of
social solidarity as societies evolve from an
undifferentiated and simple profile to a complex and
differentiated one.
This question gets at the basic problem of how
patterns of social organization are created,
maintained, and changed.
It is fair to say, therefore, that Durkheims analysis of
social solidarity contains a more general theory of
social organization.
Research Questions:
Why is the division of labor universal across
societies?
Given that the division of labor increases as
society progresses, should we attempt to
resist this trend or embrace it?
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Research Hypothesis:
The division of labor serves to create
social solidarity
...the economic services that it can render
are insignificant compared with the moral
effect that it produces, and its true function is
to create between two or more people a
feeling of solidarity.
Thus, the research question becomes:
What is the degree to which different ways
of dividing labor serve to integrate society?
...above all we must determine the degree to which the solidarity it
produces contributes generally to the integration of society. Only
then shall we learn to what extent it is necessary, whether it is an
essential factor in social cohesion, or whether, on the contrary, it is
only an ancillary and secondary condition for it. To answer this
question we must therefore compare the social bond to others, in
order to measure what share in the total effect must be attributed to
it. To do this it is indispensable to begin by classifying the different
species of solidarity.
Methodological obstacle:
Unfortunately, social solidarity cannot be
examined directly.
...social solidarity is a wholly moral
phenomenon which by itself is not amenable to
exact observation and especially not to
measurement.
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Operationalizing the research question
Since solidarity cannot be measured directly, what is
required is a good indirect measure.
Durkheims approach is to look at law, since laws
capture social rules.
Punishment, argues Durkheim, is a social reaction
to crime. It serves not simply the obvious functions
of retribution for the criminal and general deterrence
of crime; it also fulfills the generally unrecognized
but critical function of maintaining the intensity of
collective sentiments, or shared values, in a society
(in this case, the objection to criminal activity).
Operationalizing the research question
Operationalizing the research question
"Thus our method is clearly traced out for us. Since
law reproduces the main forms of social solidarity,
we have only to classify the different types of laws in
order to be able to investigate which types of social
solidarity correspond to them.
That is, if we can identify how a given type of law
relates to a type of solidarity, then we can use the
types of laws we find in any society to describe the
solidarity of that society.
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The argument is sketched as follows:
Durkheim says that the best way to classify laws is
based on the types of punishment that follow from the
law. He thus identifies two types of laws:
(1) Repressive law, where an injury/fine is imposed on the
perpetrator.
(2) Restitutory law, that restores things to the way they
were before the crime was committed
Today: Punitive vs. Compensatory damages
The heart of Durkheims argument is that societies will all
have a different mix of type (1) laws and type (2)
laws. The specific mix evident in any society will tell us a
lot about the type of solidarity that operates in that
society.
Crime and Punishment
The kinds of offenses that give rise to repressive law
assault transcendent values
when we demand the repression of crime it is not because we are
seeking a personal vengeance, but rather vengeance for which something
sacred we vaguely feel is more or less outside and above us."
Thus, repressive laws are the expression of the
most essential social similarities.
Given that punitive crime is a function of an assault
on the collective consciousness, we can gage the
degree of solidarity - the strength of the collective
consciousness - by seeing what proportion of the
overall judicial system is characterized by repressive
laws.
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Restitutory laws, on the other hand, are not
(usually) part of the collective common
consciousness. Instead, they apply to very specific
areas (corporate law, accounting law, housing law,
contract law, etc.).
A violation of such a law does not elicit the
emotional need for expiation that a criminal offense
does.
Since restitutory laws do not affect everyone, the
solidarity that restitutory laws relate to cannot rest
on a uniform similarity across everyone in the group.
Durkheims analysis of law reveals two
kinds of social solidarity:
1.
2.
MECHANICAL SOLIDARITY
ORGANIC SOLIDARITY
MECHANICAL SOLIDARITY
Based on a strong collective conscience
regulating the thought and actions of
individuals located within structural units that
are all alike
Laws are repressive and sanctions are
punitive.
The reason for such repressiveness is that
deviation from the dictates of the collective
conscience is viewed as a crime against all
members of the society (and the gods).
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MECHANICAL SOLIDARITY (continued)
links the individual to society directly- a collective type of
solidarity.
"a more or less organized society composed of beliefs and
sentiments common to all the members of the group."
can only be strong in cases where ideas common to all
people outweigh ideas common to individuals
"The solidarity that derives from similarities is at its maximum
when the collective consciousness completely envelops our
total consciousness, coinciding with it at every point. At that
moment our individuality is zero."
"In societies where this solidarity is highly developed, the
individual...does not belong to himself; he is literally a thing at
the disposal of society."
Mechanical solidarity rests on similarity. If
other social facts (such as the division of
labor) generate difference among members
of the society, then mechanical solidarity will
decrease and the common collective
consciousness will decrease as well.
New kinds of social differentiation create new
kinds of social solidarity
Historical growth, then, leads to a decrease in
mechanical solidarity.
This change is reflected in legal codes that become
less punitive and more restitutive, specifying
nonpunitive ways to redress violations and to
reintegrate violators back into the network of
interdependencies that typify organic societies.
In such societies individual freedom is great, and the
secular and highly abstract collective conscience
becomes dominated by values stressing respect for
the personal dignity of the individual.
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ORGANIC SOLIDARITY
Characterized by restitutory laws.
Assumes that people are different from each other.
Solidarity is achieved not due to sameness but due
to complementary difference
Societies characterized by organic solidarity are
typified by large populations, distributed in
specialized roles in many diverse structural units.
Organic societies reveal high degrees of
interdependence among individuals and corporate
units, with exchange, legal contracts, and norms
regulating these interrelations.
mechanical solidarity
organic solidarity
pre-modern
modern
division of labour - low
division of labour - high
individualism - low
individualism - high
collective solidarity high
collective solidarity - low
more religion and ritual
more secular
cohesion through sameness
cohesion through integrated
difference
(Gemeinschaft Tnnies)
(Gesellschaft Tnnies)
These two types of solidarity lie on a continuum -- early
developing societies are mechanical and modern
industrial societies are organic.
I<----------------------------------------------->I
Mech.
Organic
The division of labor is understood to characterize
changes in social solidarity. (i.e., a progression from
mechanical to organic).
Acc. to Durkheim, as individuality goes up, the social
whole develops more and increases solidarity:
Separate jobs (& roles/functions) divide us BUT ALSO
bind us together, generate sense of solidarity (social
whole, social body)
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Solidarity is based on two mechanisms:
Integration of individuals into social groups,
i.e., the extent of social relations binding a
person/group to others
Regulation of individual actions by shared
norms, i.e., the moral demands placed on the
individual as member of a particular group
Solidarity
mechanical
organic
integration and
regulation
through
sameness
integration and
regulation
through
interdependency
of separate parts
Blocks to solidarity
Integration is too weak (can lead to egoism) OR too
strong
Regulation is too weak (can lead to anomie) OR too
strong
Egoism- where individuals are not properly
integrated into the social groups of which they
are members
Anomie where individual actions are not properly
regulated by shared norms (normlessness)
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More differentiation (division of labor) and
complexity leads to more anomie: loss of sense
of purpose and of connectedness to the whole;
absence of regulation, normlessness
Durkheim saw differentiation as potentially
causing social tension/inequalities BUT believed
the issue could be resolved if proper division of
labor developed leading, in turn, to proper
organic solidarity (compare with Marx)
Durkheim and modernity
Breakdown of:
old cohesion
old dependency
old community
old morality
Rise of:
new cohesions
new interdependencies
new communities
new moralities, eg
human rights
feminism
environmentalism
tolerant faiths
gay clergy?
anomie
Relational Structures and Forms of Suicide
Regulation
Low
High
High
Anomic
Altruistic
Integration
Low
Egoistic
Fatalistic
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Nice summary of the argument:
Social life is derived from a dual source, the similarity of individual
consciousnesses and the social division of labor. In the first case the
individual is socialized because, lacking any individuality of his own, he
is mixed up with his fellows in the same collective type. In the second
case [i.e. organic] it is because, whilst his physiognomy and his
activities are personal to him, distinguishing him from others, he
depends upon them to the very extent that he is distinguished from
them, and consequently upon the society that is the result of their
combining together.
The similarity of consciousnesses gives rise to legal rules which, under
the threat of repressive measures, impose upon everybody uniform
beliefs and practices. The more pronounced the similarity, the more
completely social life is mixed up with religious life, an the closer
economic institutions are to communism.
The division of labor gives rise to legal rules that determine the nature
and relationships of the function thus divided up, but the infringement of
the rules entails only measure of reparation lacking any expiatory
character.
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