Ethan Kupferberg Soc 101 Class 5 9 10 19 Organic Solidarity Social cohesion based upon the mutual dependence that individuals in more advanced society have on each other Common among industrial societies as the division of labor and specialization increases Though individuals preform different tasks and often have different values and interests the order and very survival of society depends on their reliance and mutual dependence on each other to perform their specific task In modern industrial societies individuals no longer preform the same tasks have the same interests nor necessary share the same perspective on life This does not cause a society to fail or disintegrate Organic solidarity is formed In conclusion human behavior cannot be understood simply in individualistic terms we must always examine the social forces that affect people s lives Max Weber 1864 1920 Weber was a key proponent of interpretive sociology What drives modernity and capitalism is the purpose and meaning that individual attach to their own actions not economic forces as espoused by Marx Modernity Secularity and Rationalism By rationalization Weber argued that the development of modern bureaucratic organizations influenced a similar kind of thinking at the individual level individual cos benefit calculation about education career choices elder care etc Values in Sociology Research Value free sociology as a pure science Researchers must drive to avoid allowing subjective beliefs and judgements about social problems to affect their research Researchers should strive for objectively total neutrality toward all aspects of their research Replication repetition of a study can help avoid personal bias Also the use of language in forming research categories or concepts for example homeless persons versus vagabonds or shiftless and lazy types The purpose of sociology Is sociology study intended to simply advance understanding of human behavior A scienfic purpose Or is it to reveal harmful social arrangement for the purpose of improvement A social betterment purpose Verstehen A concept developed by Max Weber Acknowledge the human role of social research that researchers need to recognize their ability to understand the meaning of social structures processes and behavior for everyday life To be homeless To be the first US born daughter of immigrant parents That is verstehen acknowledges the importance of subjective meanings that exist behind social facts Issue of Gender and Race in Early American Sociology Robert Park 1864 1944 Focused on the sociological design of cities including the influence of race and class Research in the department of Sociology at the University of Chicago known as the Chicago school Robert park and male colleagues The Chicago School perspective Saw the poor areas of Chicago as a sociological laboratory for scientific study Sociology was to remain a purely scientific discipline The best institutional home for the creation of scientific knowledge was the university Jane Adams 1860 1935 Addams studied the lifestyles and social problems of European immigrants living in the ghettos of Chicago She did not work in a university setting Instead she conducted research from Hull house settlement house in downtown Chicago Hull house perspective Addams believed sociology was both a scientific endeavor and a tool for advocacy Woman of Hull house felt their work was superior that men were concerned with safe abstract ideas and that woman were in the storefront of change and challenge Adams tried to bridge the gap between knowledge of the world as we experience it and the world we come to know through social theories An applied sociology approach calls for practical solutions that can be achieved The gender split became realized in early 1900s in two disciplines Sociology scientific male dominated Social work applied female dominated WEB DuBois 1868 1963 His work addressed racial divisiveness in us society Largely disregarded by mainstream sociologists until a Dubois renaissance in the late 1900 His book the Philadelphia Negro showed that poverty among African Americans in the united states was primarily the result of prejudice and discrimination He noted that African Americans of his time had to live two worlds a white and balck one Theoretical Perspective in Contemporary Sociology A Theory is a general statement about how some parts of the world fit together and how they work it is an explanation of how two or more facts are related to one another Symbolic Interactionism soft reality micro Focus is on how people themselves define reality how they make sense of the world how they experience and define what people are doing Assumption is that social structures are created through interactions among people so that patterns and standards of behavior emerge I e social reality is a construction by people Focus on meanings assigned to actions and symbols and meanings are learned and modified Inquiries into factors that influence how we interpret what we say and do and patterns that rise to same interpretation for many Suggest individuals exist in analogy to across in a play dramaturgy a sub theory of interactionism Key sociologists George Herbert Mead and Herbed Bulmer Criticisms No systematic frameworks for prediction or persistence evolving of meaning Protentional for subjectively in analysis greater Goffman s dramaturgical approach Understanding social interaction through an analogy of theatre and performance Social life Stage in which people interact and preform Humans are both actors and audience members Parts they play are roles in everyday life mother teacher factory worker Roles consist of two types front stage and backstage Characterized by difference in behavior formal and informal II Functionalism also known as Structural Functionalism Focus on order and stability in society and assumes society is a complex system whose parts work together to promote