The Sociological Perspective The basic insight of sociology is that human behavior is shaped by the groups to which people belong and by the social interaction that takes place within those groups. We are who we are and we behave the way we do because we happen to live in a particular society at a […]
Georg Simmel (1858-1918) Among the great early sociologists, Simmel was the most interested in identifying universal patterns in human behavior. Whereas Marx and Weber wanted to understand what made a particular society operate, Simmel concentrated on developing what is almost a mathematics of society: a collection of statements about human relationships and social behavior that
Elite Theory Although the major elements of conflict theory were set out by Marx and Weber, a number of other theorists developed comparable ideas that have also had a significant impact on modern analysts. The most important are the elite theorists (namely Pareto, Mosca, and Michels), Thorstein Veblen, and Joseph Schumpeter. The most prominent elite
Max Weber and Conflict Theory Max Weber was born into a prominent bourgeois German family. His father was an important member of the National Liberal Party, with a seat in the Reichstag (Parliament); his mother came from a wealthy but also intensely religious and cultured background. There was considerable tension in his parents’ marriage. As
Karl Marx and Conflict Theory Conflict theory in sociology is the creation of Karl Marx. Indeed, Marxism and conflict theory are sometimes discussed as though the two were synonymous. There can also be no better example than Marxism of the close connection between a theorist’s ideas and the events of the “real world”; for it
What is Neofunctionalism? Neofunctionalism is a recent theoretical development that emerged in the mid-1980s, both in the United States and in Germany. In 1984, the American Sociological Association devoted two sessions to a conference on neofunctionalism at its annual meeting, where most of the papers presented were reappraisals and reconsiderations of the empirical implications of
Impact of Globalization on Agriculture:
Unsustainable agricultural practices are increasing like the excessive use of fertilizers.
It is the big MNCs and private players who are actually getting benefitted from agriculture in the modern globalized world and not the actual tiller of the land or the farmer.
Chicago school has been contributing to the development of the sociology field for years. The principal focus of specialists has lied in thorough research of cultural and population diversity making the city a kind of search laboratory. It should be noted that the area of urban sociology was developed and widened due to the number
Sanskritisation This concept or term was coined by M.N. Srinivas (a famous Indian Sociologist). Sanskrutization can be defined as the process by which a ‘low’ caste or tribe or other group takes over the customs, ritual, beliefs, ideology and style of life of a high and, in particular, a ‘twice-born (dwija) caste’. Impact of sanskritisation
Meaning •What is socialisation? Socialisation is an important process for the functioning and continuation of society. Different societies have different ways and methods to train their new born members so that they are able to develop their own personalities. This training of and building the personality of the child is called socialisation. •Socialisation is a
Early humans would have obtained food in a number of ways, such as gathering, hunting, scavenging, and fishing. The gathering would involve collecting plant foods such as seeds, nuts, berries, fruits, and tubers.
Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975) is a profound and transformative work that interrogates the evolution of punishment and the mechanisms of power in modern societies. Foucault, a French philosopher and historian, explores the transition from public spectacles of punishment in pre-modern times to the more insidious and pervasive systems
The modern nation-state, with a centralized structure and elaborate bureaucracy, is a relatively recent human innovation (Bottomore 1979) having been in existence for only about 6,000 years (Berberoglu 1990). Prior to the rise of the state, authority was determined by kinship relations or religious rituals with no specific group charged with decision-making responsibility (Bottomore 1979).
Authority implies legitimacy or legitimate use of power. According to Weber, there are three systems of legitimation, each with its corresponding norms, which justify the power to command. It is these systems of legitimation which are designated as the followingtypes of authority. (i) Traditional authority This system of legitimation flows from traditional action. In other
Social Action: Action is ‘social’ insofar as its subjective meaning takes account of the behavior of others and is thereby oriented in its course.
Systems of Land Ownership The system of land ownership regulates the relationship of the people to the land, specifically the power of disposition over land and the right to use the land. As it is practically impossible, on the one hand, to increase the amount of land while, on the other hand, it is the
Introduction to Herbert Marcuse Herbert Marcuse was a German philosopher closely associated with the Frankfurt school (Radical intellectuals) Marcuse was more of a Marxist wing of the school. First published in 1964, the book was one of the most important works of that time and was recognized as a significant critical diagnosis of the present
Introduction Talcott Parsons (1902-1979) was a prominent American Sociologist of twentieth century. He served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1921 to 1973. Parsons made a rapid academic progress. He was made chairman of the Harvard Sociology department in 1944; in 1946, he set up and chaired the innovative department of Social relations; in
The Introduction (The Archaeology of Knowledge) In France, a country that awards its intellectuals the status other countries give to their rockstars, Michel Foucault (1926–1984) was part of a glittering generation of thinkers. One of the great intellectual heroes of twentieth century, Foucault was a man whose passion and reason were at the service of
Tribe is generally used for a “socially cohesive unit, associated with a territory, the members of which regard themselves as politically autonomous
System Analysis in Political Science Systems analysis was influenced by the Austrian Canadian biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy and the American sociologist Talcott Parsons. So, it is a variant of structural functionalism used in political science. It is a broad theory about how the various parts and levels of a political system interact with each other. The central or the
In origin and development of Sociology, two factors played important role. 1) Intellectual Forces (contributions of thinkers; 2) Social Forces (Social conditions prevalent in society).
The social institution is a system of beliefs, norms, values, positions and activities that develop around a basic societal need or generally, institutions are patterns of norms that define behaviour in social relationships. Institutions are the pre-defined patterns of conduct established by habitualised human actions.
Community is a term we apply to a pioneer settlement, e.g., a village, a city, a tribe or a nation. Whenever the members of any group (small or large) live together in such a way that they share the basic conditions of common life, we call that group a community.
WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY: Sociology is concerned with human society and human social activities. Auguste Comte, a French thinker, is known as the ‘Father of Sociology’
