Ethan Kupferberg Soc 101 Class 4 9/5/19Gesellschaft: formal, impersonal, distant ties between strangers and institutions that characterized city life (transactional)New arrivals to cities underwent a process of adjustment from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft and in the course of doing so experience and or are subjected to social pathologies (crime, deviance, alienation)Georg Simmel (1858-1918)Rural versus city life:In rural settings, individuals live with a small circle of socialization (family, group, village)Small groups allowed individuals only a narrow field for the development of unique qualities andindividualized sense of self = identityIn an urban setting, individuals grow in numbers and groups become multipleA group's direct, inner unity loosens, and the rigidity of the original boundaries separating “us” from “others” is softened through mutual relations and connections.This implicates much greater possibility of individual freedom and flexibility, with the common culture and form of association greatly weakened.The metropolis or city becomes the location where individualization is the greatest and where individuality and individual freedom is most expanded. The availability of numerous options and activities is liberating, invigorating.But large cities also affect the personalities of its inhabitants – individuals become jaded, uncaring, and their senses dulled from over-simulation. (blasé attitude)Karl Marx and Class ConflictA central premise for Marx’s conception of society - That human history is the story of constant struggle among differently advantaged groupsfor the ownership and control of scarce material resources - To be truly human is to have full control of what's around you in nature and the world materialistMarx’s focus is on human agency:- That society is shaped and determined by the decision we make - What makes humans unique is the ability to produce our own means of subsistence in self-reflective activity.- Only humans have the capability to take responsibility for what we produce.- Only humans have the ability to determine creatively the means by which we use our labor to interact with the natural world- To labor (to engage nature and produce something) is the manifestation of a person’s power to be a living conscious thing.Class Structure of Capitalism Inequality exist when one group of individuals takes possession or ownership of the resources and menas necessary to produce things. (private property)Classes exist when a group of individuals have in common a specific relationship to productive forces.Capitalist societies characterized by the bourgeoisie (property owners) and the proletariat (workers compelled to sell their labor power for wages)Labor power becomes the property of some- this is the essence of class explorationFor example, Slave societies: slave owner has exclusive and total ownership of the slave labor powerCapitalist societies: employer has ownership of employee labor power during the hours of employment When Marx was writing, the industrial revolution was in full swing and wage labor was dominant.He was convinced that the conditions of wage labor for workers under this system were determined- ie. they couldn’t choose to be elsewhere. The system of wage, hours required to work, etc. all made the type of work necessary.What is the problem with wage labor (ie. bourgeoisie has ownership of mans of production and the proletariat (workers compelled to sell this labor power for wages)Alienation Marx argues that there are three forms of Alienation workers experience1. The estrangement from work/labor and product work is alienating because someone else controls all aspects of labor which leads to man’s labor becoming soothing outside of him, an object.Objectification: What is human and meaningful is turned into an object a - means to something (a wage) other than an end in itself (satisfaction) Thus, the work of our hands becomes only a means through which we gain physical subsistence. Which leads to the second form of alienation 2. The estrangement from self. The freedom to produce what one wants and when is denied,hence man is alienated from his true self.3. The estrangement from other Labors is substitutable, so workers compete with one another over subsistenceMarx’s solution: class struggle to undo the ownership of the means of production in the hands of one class only.Emile Durkheim and Social Integration As we discussed in the overview of his book =, Suicide Durkheim’s main focus is social integration: the degree to which people feel a part of social groups.Society is an “external” realitySociety exists beyond the individual, the psychological Society is not simply the aggregate or collection of people and their individual psychological makeupsSociety completes us: to be cut-off leads to self-destructionDurkheim’s primary interest was what happens as societies began to modernize, when they began to industrialize, and labor becomes increasingly specialized.Durkheim further theorized that social integration – the ways in which individuals are connected and attached to one another within a society – exists in two different forms, or solidarities.Mechanical Solidarity-Social cohesion based upon the likeness and similarities among the individuals in a society and largely dependent on common rituals and routines - Common among small and/or isolated- More cooperation, than competition, among members - Social links are based on custom, obligation and emotion.- Members share same values and beliefs - The notion of individualism and individual freedom is undeveloped- People are virtually alike in their