TyroCity: Sociology Notes

Westernization

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

‘Cultural homogenization, Americanization, westernization, the global village even modernity itself are all variants of myth-a cultural narrative to use the terms of this study-whereby the West imagines its own being and becoming and that of the rest of the world.’ - BOOK Suitably Modern: Making Middle-class Culture in a New Consumer Society

By Mark Liechty

Historically Western civilization is European civilization. In the modern era, Western civilization is Euroamerican or North Atlantic civilization. Europe, America and the North Atlantic can be found on a map; the West cannot. The name “the West” has also given rise to the concept of Westernization and has promoted a misleading conflation of westernization and modernization: it is easier to conceive of Japan “Westernizing” than “Euroamericanizing”. European-American civilization is however, universally referred to as Western civilization and that term despite its serious disabilities will be used here…In the earlier phases of change, Westernization thus promotes modernization. In the later phases modernization promotes de-Westernization and the resurgence of indigenous culture…’-Samuel Phillips Huntington (BOOK: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order)

Features or characteristics of Westernization

Anglicization
- Prominence and dominance of English language
- Though the term is westernization but the linguistice dominance is that of English
- Language of study, entertainment
Rationalization
- Westernization is based on rationalization
- Modernization and westernization are both based on rationalization.
Individualism
- Individuals are given more importance than the family or group.
Weakening of religious values
- Westernization means weakening of religious values
- Dominance of scientific and rational.
Weakening of family ties
- The westernization means people have less attachment with their family
Nuclear family
Flexibility in marriage
- Seriousness of marriage will be in decline.
Relaxation in sexuality
- Sex is no longer viewed as evil, impure or dangerous.
- Sexual relationship outside marriage is seen as natural
Prominence of western education
- Westernization means use of western education in non western societies.
Dominance of western perspective of the world
- History and philosophy of the west gets prioritized
Dominance of western art and culture
Deification of the west

Westernization in Nepal

Westernization in Nepal began before 1950s but it was only after 1950 that when Nepal was finally opened to foreign tourists that westernization began in Nepal with more force.
The western tourists who came to Nepal began westernization in their own small way.
In 1970s Nepal and India’s Goa became the center outside California for Hippie youths of America who were spiritual, rebellious, anti-government, and anti-war.
- Kathmandu was popular for marijuana and hashish which was not illegal till then.
- Hippies came in large number in Kathmandu and settled in Jhose which till this date is called freak street.
- Hippie did not directly bring westernization but they showed Nepali youths that western culture was different.
- Youths were attracted to them.
The culture of sending the children of upper and middle class to westernized schools in India (Darjeeling, Kalingpong, Dehra Dun) also started after 1950s.
In 1990 Nepal overthrew autocracy and accepted the multiparty democracy.
The multi-party democratic system uplifted all the restrictions on foreign literatures, and medias.
The foreign medias and influx of large number of foreigners to Nepal started westernization in Nepal among youths.
The upper and middle class began to send their children to expensive westernized private school within Nepal.
The post 2000 Nepal saw the explosion of internet and internet related subculture (facebook, chat etc).

Hinduism

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Arjun Guneratne – 2002 wrote in her book Many Tongues, One People: The Making of Tharu Identity in Nepal:

‘The terms sanskritization, Hinduization, and Nepalization, when used in the Nepali context, are virtually interchangeable. They all describe much the same process, predicated on the adoption of the symbols of Hinduism, although Nepalization includes as well the use of a common language as the basis of integration. The concepts of sanskritization and Hinduization describe the process by which low-caste or tribal groups raise their status within, or become absorbed into, the social system of a dominant Hindu polity. When used in the Nepali context they all refer to the fact that the fostering of a common national identity based on Hindu symbols has been a preoccupation of the country’s elites since the political unification of Nepal in the eighteenth century. ’

Features of Hindization

Non Hindu (Buddhist and other non Hindus) leaving their traditional cultural practices and adopting the Hindu cultural practices.

Oxana Malaya

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

In 1991, Oxana Malaya, who lives in Ukraine, was found and considered to be a feral child. At the time she was found, she was only 8 years old and is said to have lived amongst dogs since she was 3 years old. She was kept in a kennel in the backyard of her home. Because of this she picked up common behaviors that dogs exhibit: barking, growling, and even protecting the pack, so to speak. She even walked on four legs as a dog does and sniffed out her food before she ate it. When authorities came to rescue Oxana, the other dogs growled and attempted to attack them while Oxana barked and growled as well. Because of her lack of human interaction, Oxana had no vocabulary except the words “yes” and “no.”

She was of course put through intensive therapy to attempt to help her to learn necessary social and verbal skills. She was able to learn how to speak, though therapists say she has deep issues with attempting to communicate and express herself emotionally. Today she lives at the Baraboy Clinic in Odessa and spends a lot of her time tending to the cows at the hospital’s farm, though she has expressed that she really feels best when she is around dogs.

Sociology and other Social Sciences and Its Relation

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Relationship of Sociology with other Social Science

1. With Political Science

Sociology studies with social relationship, political science studies political relationship. e.g.; relationship between government & opposition in parliament.
Sociology studies social structure e.g.; family, community, society and its interrelationship and political science studies political structures, such as state, political parties, constitute, political Ideology , ruler etc.
Sociology studies social rules, norms & values. Political science studies political rules like rules relating to formation of government, election. Vote, protest , political events and its influence

2. With History

Sociology studies social relationship at present.
History studies social relationship in the past.
Sociology studies social facts.
History studies historical facts.
Historical Sociology studies impact of historical facts in social relationship.
History is informative & descriptive in nature and it keeps record / human experience, link between future & present.
History is the past sociology and sociology is the present history.

3. With Economics

Sociology studies social relationship. Economics studies economic relationship and activities.
Economy says people are wealth gather & wealth disposer.
Sociology studies impact of economic structure in social relationship eg; study of relationship between rich & poor, industrialist and labor.
Economic studies scarce means and unlimited end of society.
Economics studies conversion of resources into goods or serves for social use. That means it studies production & distribution relationship of society.

4. With Psychology

Sociology studies social behavior.
Psychology studies human or behavior.
Psychology studies the way in which personality and behavior are influenced by the social context e.g.; Impact of religious behaviors in human psychology. Peoples love for non-violence being guided by Buddhism.

5. Relation between Sociology & Law

Sociology of Law looks at law and legal system as a part of society and also as social institutions related to other institutions and changing with them .It regards law as one means of Social Control.

Sociology studies society.
Law function (operates) in society.
Sociology studies relationship between crime and society (criminals).
Law controls crime and punishes retribution criminals.
Law provides compensation (restitution) to the victim.
Sociology studies social institutions such as marriage.
Law governs social institutions such as marriage registration.
Sociology studies relationship of society or an individual with property.

Law governs relationship of society with property eg; ownership or right upon property.

Rochom Pn’gieng

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

On January 23, 2007, a Cambodian woman (‘the Cambodian Jungle Girl’) came out of a jungle located in the Ratanakiri province of Cambodi after spending more than 19 years living in the jungle. A family in a close by village announced that the Cambodian woman was their daughter and that her name was Rochom Pn’gieng, a girl who had gone missing in 1979. When she was found she was naked and terrified. She was discovered after food from a lunchbox went missing and a man went on a hunt to find out who had taken it. The man gathered friends and found the woman in the jungle, captured her, and called police.

Coincidentally, it turned out that the head policeman was her father- he recognized a prominent scar on her back. At 8 years old, Rochom Pn’gien and her sister got lost in the jungle while herding buffalo (the sister has never been found). After she was discovered many worked with her to try to get her to adjust back to a normal lifestyle. When found she could say the words: stomachache, mother, and father. Her psychologist noted that she seemed to be speaking other words, but that they were unrecognizable. When she was hungry or thirsty she would simply point to her mouth. She also crawled more often than walk and refused to wear clothing. Despite being captured and treated, she has often tried (and sometimes succeeded) to escape back to the jungle.

Ralph Dahrendorf & Karl Marx: conflict theory

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

What is Conflict Theory?

Conflict theory generally surrounds the idea that most struggles in society happen because of conflicts between different social classes or groups
Each group struggles to attain more resources and because resources are scarce, they must struggle with other groups
Groups try to protect their own interests, therefore blocking the progress of other groups
From conflict comes social change

Ralf Dahrendorf’s (1929-present) Conflict Theory

Society is always in tension between :

consensus and coercion
function and conflict

The central questioned of all social thought

How do societies stay togather? Two well established positions:

The Utopians (Functional Theory)
- Represented by the Functional Theory
The Rationalists (Conflict Theory)
- Represented by Conflict Theory

Conflict between the two positions is old.

Hobbes vs. Rousseau
Kant vs. Hegel

Utopians are represented by the Functional theory of society
Rationalists are represented by the Conflict theory of society
The two positions are mutually exclusive in most fields and people, but not is sociology.
Good Sociology uses one in A, another in B and both in C. but does not exclude any.
Every Society is at every point subject to the processes of change. Change is everywhere.
Conflict is everywhere
Every Element in a society contributes to its disintegration and change
Every Society is based on coercion of some members by others.
In society there is division of labor but in a division of labor, not every occupation based status is equal.

Dahrendorf’s key concepts : the authority conflict

Different people have different occupation
The different occupation have different status
People’s status increases or decreases according to the link it has with authority.
In society there are many organizations.
Each organization contains two groups
- super-ordinates (order-givers) with authority
- sub-ordinates (order-takers) without authority
In authority relations there is a fundamental conflict between:
- those who have power
- and those who do not have power

Dahrendorf’s key concepts Conflict of interest

The conflict is fundamentally based on two type of interest
- Those With Authority: Their INTEREST is to maintain status quo
- Those Without Authority: Their INTEREST is to change status quo

Dahrendorf’s key concepts : difference between power and authority

Power is essentially tied to the personality of individuals
Authority is always associated with social positions or roles
Dahrendorf was most interested in studying authority
When someone has authority in one setting, that authority does not extend to other social arenas: a boss holds legitimate authority at work but outside of the work setting they cannot legitimately tell people what to do.
Dahrendorf is only concerned in his presentation with authority

Dahrendorf’s key concepts: The Three Types groups

Quasi groups
Groups that are not well organized because they have latent or natural interest but are well conscious of their group interest.

Interest groups
When the latent interest becomes manifest interest then the group becomes conscious about their group interest. Due to this they are organized and can put pressure on the rival groups.

Conflict group
When interest group evolved into an organized group to overthrow the rival group then it is a conflict group.

Dahrendorf’s key argument

Higher the group interest consciousness among quasi groups the more possibility of intergroup conflict between super ordinate and subordinate groups.
More there is a link between organizational authority and the distribution of rewards the more possibility for conflict.
If the movement of subordinate group to higher position is made more difficult the more there is conflict.
If the economic, political or social goals of the organizations are less met then more there is conflict.
More intense the conflict the more possibility of change.

Karl Marx
Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a socialist theoretician and activist, a major figure in the history of economic , sociological and philosophical thought, and a great social prophet.

“There must be something rotten in the very core of a social system which increases in wealth without diminishing its misery, and increases in crime even more than its numbers.” -Marx, K. (1859). Population, crime and pauperism.Collected Works, (16).

The main argument of Karl Marx can be summarized as follows:

The purpose of philosophy is to reconstruct the world and not to explain the origin of the universe.
That the force which shapes the course of history are primarily economic.
That society is divided into two classes: owners and workers.
That there is always a class conflict going on between the two classes.
That the workers are exploited by the owners who misappropriate the surplus value, which is the result of the workers’ labour.
That this exploitation can be put an end to by nationalisation of the instruments of production i.e. abolition of private property.
That this exploitation is leading to greater and greater impoverishment of the workers.
That this growing impoverishment of the workers is resulting in a revolutionary spirit among the workers and the conversion of the class conflict into a class struggle.
That as the workers outnumber the owners, the workers are bound to capture the State and establish their rule, which he called the dictatorship of the proletariat.
These factors are irresistible and therefore socialism is inevitable.

Detailed Study of Karl Marx

Fundamental Concepts (derived from Marx):

1. The “Mode of Production”: Basic system of production ? Impacts all other social relations

“Mode of production” describes the economic base of politics.
Societies are assumed to have developed through a series of “modes” of production.
Marx was particularly interested in explaining the transition from the feudal mode of production to Capitalism and, eventually to Socialism.

2. The “Relations of Production”:

On top of the economic base of society, or mode of production, Marxists assume that there is a political and social superstructure, or “relations of production” which is deeply influenced by the mode of production.
The “social superstructure” is society’s laws, politics, culture and ideology
Determined by mode of production (?) Contentious issue:
Relations of production were actually determined by political struggle between different groups in society over the control of the mode of production.
- E.g. For example, despite the fact that feudalism was based on aristocratic control over land and agricultural labour, this did not simply determine that there would always be a feudal set of relations of production. Rather, capitalists, emerging industrial entrepreneurs, were able, through political struggle to alter the relations of production in way that eventually led to the emergence of a dominant capitalist mode of production.
- Best way to say it . . . : Marx and history – the dominant group in the dominant mode of production . . . But people make their own history, just . . . .
Marx also argued that societies could simultaneously have multiple modes of production and in particular that during times of transition, such as from feudalism to capitalism, that competing modes of production could coexist for quite some time; thus, Marxists argue for the importance of examining the Social Formation.

3. The importance of history: Specific historical & geographical settings have different modes/relations of production

Each society may have a different balance, or mix, of modes of production and thus the actual social formation of the society must be closely examined before we make assumptions about the relations of production in that society.
The reason studying the historical social formation of a society is so important to Marxists is that underling all modes and relations of production is a basic set of social classes.
- Class, and class analysis is the single most important concept in socialist analysis.
- Where liberalism focuses on individuals as the basic unit of analysis, socialist political economy lumps individuals into broad social groupings and attempts to understand those groups, or classes, as the basic unit of analysis.

4. Class:

Each mode of production organizes individuals into classes:
- Those who own and control the means of production; and
- Those who sell their labour

Key points:
Classes are social collections of individuals that have shared interests in the distribution of benefits emerging from the mode of production.

5. They often share a similar ideology and values

E.g. in the capitalist mode of production: Capitalists (the bourgeoisie – in traditional Marxist terminology) have a shared set of interests in promoting liberal political economy, a liberal ideology that supports their ability to generate profits and a legal system that ensures their continued private ownership of the means of production. Workers (the proletariat) have an interest in collectively advancing their own claims to a greater share of the profits emerging from production – whether that be through the collective seizure of capitalist private property, progressive/redistributive tax laws or through unionization and collective bargaining to increase wages.
These opposed interests are the basis of the “class struggle”

Class Struggle

While Marx argued that modes of production play a role in determining the superstructure of politics (what laws there will be, or, what the state will do), ultimately all Marxists agree that the real driving force in this process, is class struggle and indeed Marxists see “politics” as a struggle between productive classes for the control of production.
- This “Drives” history
Since several modes of production may exist simultaneously, often political struggles in each society are very complex. Different factions struggle for political dominance; however, the basic divergence in interests produced by the process of production creates a tension which plays a determining role in political struggles.

Marxist Economics:

The starting point for all Socialist analyses is Karl Marx’s Capital which offers an alternative “Marxist economics” of capitalism to that provided by liberal economics. Marx developed a number of important points in his analyses of capitalism. Firstly, much like the classical political economists, (Smith and Ricardo) . . . .

1. Labor the basis of all value

Total direct & indirect labor in production determines “true price” of product. Marx argued that the value or “true price” of any good, over the long run was determined by how much labour went into producing that good.

[What is indirect and direct labour?] The total direct and indirect labour used to produce a good determines the value of a good.

Secondly, much like the classical political economists, Marx argued that profits were the engine of growth in capitalist economies, but he argued that profits were based on surplus value.

2. Profits based on “surplus value” Occurred when capitalists kept the difference between how much the labor cost them in producing a good, and how much they could sell that good for

Even though capitalists and workers need each other in the process of production, Marx argued that because workers had no choice but to sell their labour (or otherwise starve) while capitalists could choose not to invest their savings (without facing the prospect of immediate starvation) that capitalists had a kind of advantage over workers to artificially reduce their wages.

= This artificial reduction of wages created surplus value.

Furthermore since the extraction of this surplus value is the basis of profit, and since profit is the engine of growth in capitalism,
- Capitalism always exploitative Workers had to be exploited or the system would not work.

3. Increases in profit only achieved by increasing extraction of surplus value Marx argued that the employment of capital (or investment) itself produced no surplus value. Over the long term, the only way that investors could make profits was by employing people. The only way profit levels could be increased was by increasing the extraction of surplus value from workers. This could be done either by increasing:

Relative surplus value (which would mean increasing the productivity of workers by forcing workers to work harder or more efficiently), Or by increasing the:
Absolute surplus value (by forcing workers to work longer hours for less money).

Marx argued that once created,

4. Capitalism was dynamic – would spread. Efficiency in organizing production and extracting surplus value made it superior

It is important to understand this – Marx and those influenced by Marx assumed that capitalism was extremely efficient – it was much better than any mode of production that had come before; however, unlike liberals, they were deeply concerned about the levels of inequality that capitalism produced. Capitalism based on fundamental “tensions”:

Once Marx developed this understanding of how Capitalism “worked” he went on to argue that the inherent logic of Capitalism created basic tensions that would lead to crises and even, eventually a complete collapse of the system. Marx argued that the economic competition between capitalists, at the core of the system, created three main problems:

1. Economic concentration: Competitive markets produced “concentration”

E.g. monopolies Eroded market efficiency assumed by neoclassical liberal economics

2. “Falling rate of profit” Competition forced firms to continually expand their investments in new technology and machinery to remain competitive. Because profits came only from exploiting workers, these investments on their own did not create higher rates of profit.

As the ratio of indirect labour (machinery) grew in relation to direct labour, there would be a steady decline in the rate of profit. The only way to reverse this trend was by increasing the exploitation of workers – making them work longer or harder, or for less money.

3. Growing exploitation of workers: Falling rate of profit required greater exploitation of workers Gradually, workers would earn less money with which they could buy goods. Falling rate of profit led to greater exploitation

Produced “crisis of under-consumption” = Recessions and unemployment

Marx thought that this trend towards under-consumption would ultimately undermine Capitalism – that capitalism would have to be replaced by some sort of socialism in which consumption was ensured, possibly by abandoning Capitalism’s competitive markets for direct state ownership of the means of production.

Bottom Line: Capitalism prone towards crises and collapse

Capitalism, although volatile, has proven to be extremely flexible and dynamic, and has somehow avoided the complete crises predicted by Marx.

Vanya Yudin

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

One of the more recent cases of a feral child is Vanya Yudin (referred to by news agencies as ‘the Russian Bird Boy’). It is said that when he was found by Russian caseworkers in 2008, he was 7 years old and unable to speak. He did nothing but chirp and flap his arms as if he had wings, and exhibited a lot of the behavior that you would expect from a bird. He was kept in a two-room apartment with bird cages filled with dozens of birds that were owned by his mother. Galina Volskaya, one of the social workers taking part in the case stated that even though the boy lived with his mother, she never spoke to him and she simply treated him like another one of her pets. When Volskaya attempted to talk to the boy, he didn’t speak, just chirped.

While he was never abused physically, the boy was still treated with similar methods to others on the list due to the lack of human interaction. He was put into an asylum where he received treatment to allow him to become more human-like. After, he was sent to a center for psychological care to further his journey to becoming more socially aware and accepted.

Genie

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

If you ever take a Psychology class or get into a conversation about feral children, Genie’s name will probably come up. For 13 years she was locked inside a room and strapped to her potty chair, other times she was bound in a sleeping bag and put inside a crib. Her father, the one behind the abuse, would hit her with a stick if she ever spoke and he would bark and growl at her to keep her quiet. He also forbade his other children and even his wife from speaking. Because of this, Genie had a very small vocabulary, consisting of about 20 words. The phrases she did know included “stop it” and “no more.” She was discovered in 1970 and today she is considered to be one of the worst cases of social isolation known. She was often thought to be autistic until doctors found out she was really 13 and was a victim of abuse.

She was taken to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles where she was treated for years. After some treatment, she was able to answer questions in one-word answers and she learned how to dress herself. However, she still held onto her learned behavior, including a “bunny walk” where she held her hands up in front of her as if they were paws. She also scratched and even clawed at things. Though she was moved around a lot, she found home with her therapist David Rigler for 4 years, who worked with her daily. He and his family taught Genie sign language as well as ways to express herself without speaking; drawing was a method. Genie then went to live with her mother, and then abusive foster parents, which then caused her to become mute again and afraid to speak. Today she is living somewhere in Southern California.

Sociology

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Introduction

Social Contract Theory and Organismic Theory

Cases of growth of Self and Social Heritage

Human and animal societies

Human & Animal Societies

Social control

Social Control

Social order

Social order: Meaning, definition, Nature and Problem

Social Deviance and Conformity

Social Deviance and Conformity

Social Stratification: Caste, Class, Ethnicity and Gender

Historical evolution of Nepali Nationhood (since the birth of Nepali Nation-state)

Sociological Theories

Alfred Schutz : Phenomenology

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Typification is the process in which the people make sense of the world. Typification is well explained in First Order and Human Action.

Making sense of the world.

First Order
First Order deals with how consciousness is developed in individuals.

Experience of different events. Experience have been defined by Schutz as “Knowledge at hand”.
Classification of experience (good action, bad action, efficient action, ineffective action).
Choosing relevant experience to achieve one’s goal. This process is called “SYSTEM OF RELEVANCE”.
Perception: Perception involves the use of previous knowledge and use of imagination to understand a situation. For example: If I see a something that looks like a book then I use my past experience of seeing books and then also imagine that what I am now seeing could be book. The imagination part involves guess work. When the guess is tested ( falsified or proven ) then perception takes place. Perception is:

Use of past experience
Use of imagination
Test of guess
Falsified or proving of the guess work we did in our mind.

5. Interpretation: The experience may be same but interpretation of the experience is different among different people. For example: Mr. X and Mrs. Y were both bitten by a dog. Mr. X. when he saw a dog near his house he interpreted it as a a danger and was afraid. Mrs. Y on the other hand when she saw a dog outside her house she thought that the dog that bit her in the past and the dog outside her house is different hence she gave food to the dog without being afraid. Experience may be the same (bitten by a dog ) but interpretation people make will be different.

6. The plan of future action is defined by Schutz as “Purpose at hand”.

Second Order
Understanding the process of ‘First Order’ during research.

Social Science and Phenomenology

‘Research Objects’ or people being studied for the research are themselves ‘interpreting’ and making sense’ of the world in their own way. Researcher must understand this.
The research becomes more complex because the process of ‘making sense’ among the research object is ongoing/continuous.
Researcher needs to understand the individual and social experience of ‘research objects’. This is again an ongoing process.
Schutz argues that researcher needs to also study the ‘meaning’ that actions have for the ‘research objects’.
Unlike other research the phenomenology guided research sees the world as not something ‘concrete, fixed and real’ but as something that has ‘always changing meanings and meaning with diversity’.
There is a danger that the researcher may use his own experience to understand the views of the ‘research objects’. This will not help the researcher to understand the world in a proper manner. To address this problem A. Schutz argues that the researcher needs to use ‘Bracketing’. Bracketing’ is a process in which the researcher suspend his knowledge. Not to forget that knowledge comes from experience.

Ideal Citizen (Also called well-informed citizen)

Ideal Citizens are those imaginary citizens who are well-informed about
- Politics
- Economics
- And above all their constitutional rights.
The Ideal Citizens studies the sources of their information and the information itself to be better informed so that they can fully participate in democratic process of their country.
Ideal Citizen’s power lies in her access to information.
Schutz compares this Ideal Citizen with other people. In this comparison he finds that normal human beings are in many ways like his Ideal Citizen because:

Every person seeks as much information as she can have access with.
For example a car mechanic will try to get as much information about car maintenance as possible.
Mechanic will get information from different source but he will only collect those information that are from the relevant and reliable source.
Mechanic like the Ideal Citizen will study the information in such a way that he will classify it into useful and useless category.
Among the useful category of information he will further extract the essential information.

Human Action
Human Action according to Schutz takes places by following the pattern given below:

1. Motives: a person thinks of achieving something (for example students wants to pass exam).
2. Project: This is called the rehearsal of action. In project the person mentally imagines of performing the future action. For example a boy friends imagines that when he meets his girlfriend then he will tell her a joke to impress her.
3. Project testing: When the boyfriends meets his girlfriend he tells her the joke but she instead of being impressed with the boy gives a tight slap to him. This is called falsified project. If she had smiled then it would have been called successful.
4. Repetition: If the project testing is successful then the person will repeat the same action and this repetition becomes what Schutz calls Common sense.

Confusion: Schutz argued that common sense has its own limitations because no two events are exactly the same. The success in one event does not guarantee the success in the similar other events. For example the joke that caused the girlfriend of Mr. X to slap him in 1999 does not guarantee that it will also cause every girl to react in the same way. Because of this the people who think deeply will not always trust their ‘experience’. This is confusion.

Meaning, characteristics and origin of stratification

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

ANTHONIO GIDDENS: ‘The existence of structured inequalities between groups in society in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards. While all societies involve some forms of stratification, only with the development of state based systems do wide differences in wealth and power arise. The most distinctive form of stratification in modern societies involves class divisions’.

‘The term stratification in sociology is usually applied to studies of structured social inequality that is studies of any systematic inequalities between groups of people which arise as the unintended consequence of social processes and relationships. When we ask why there is poverty why Black people or women in United States are disadvantaged vis-à-vis (respectively) Whites and men or what chances someone born into the working class has of achieving a middle class position we are posing questions about social stratification. ’ Oxford Dictionary of Sociology

Meaning of social stratification

Social stratification refers to existing social inequality in a society
This inequality is caused by the way wealth, power, and prestige are distributed
Social stratification exists in all societies

Types of social stratification

1. Open stratification system:

The type of stratification system in which merit and not inheritance (ascribed characteristics) determines social rank of a person.
For example Mrs A is the manager of a company and not Mr B because Mrs A is good in management (achieved status) and not because of her caste or gender.
In this type of stratification achieved status is given importance.

2. Closed stratification system

Stratification system in which inheritance (ascribed status) and not merit determines social rank
A wife is considered as inferior to her husband because of the ascribed status.

Characteristics of social stratification

1. Power: Capacity to impose your will on others, regardless of any resistance
2. Material wellbeing: Involves access to economic resources required to pay for necessities of life and other possessions and advantages
3. Prestige: Average evaluation of occupational activities and positions arranged in a hierarchy

Social order: Meaning, definition, Nature and Problem

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Richard Dawkins

Nature of Social Order
Social Order founded on one essential human social action called reciprocal altruism. Reciprocal altruism helps us to survive because by helping others our chances of helping others in increased.

Problem of Social Order
The problem with this explanation of social order is that it cannot explain how exploiters who take advantage of other people become successful while people who actually help others are exploited and are not successful.

Malinowski and need function perspective

Nature of Social Order
Social order is based on cultures that satisfy biological, psychological and social needs of the people

Problem of Social Order
This theory fails to explain that many cultures may act to satisfy needs of the dominant elites of the society but not the needs of the dominated group. For example the culture of sati may satisfy the psychological need of the male but not that of the woman who is being burned alive. His explanation of social order fails to see injustice being imposed through social order.

Sigmund Freud

Nature of Social Order
Freud argues that social order helps the animal or wild biological driven instinct of human beings called “the Id” to control this wild instinct through society given values and change “id” into “Ego”.

Problem of Social Order
Freud’s concept of social order helps to understand that wild instincts such as sexuality is controlled by social norms helps to build social order. This however does not explain how the social order is male dominated or how to build a social order that is more just and equal.

Max Weber

Nature of Social Order
Social order according to Weber is based on the governance of either of these three types of authority:

Traditional
Charismatic
Rational authority

He argued that social order of the future will be based on rationality.

Problem of Social Order

Max Weber argued that the future social order will be based on rational authority. Due to this the rationalize system of social order the human life will be controlled by reason rather than by emotions and values.

Durkheim

Nature of Social Order
In rural based society the social order is dominated based on mechanical solidarity in which people will have emotional attachment with each other. In urbanized context the social order will be based on organic solidarity that makes people feel disconnected from society or anomie.

Problem of Social Order
The organic solidarity based social order ke people feel unconnected to society as a result of which people suffer from anomie and commit anomie suicide. In mechanical solidarity the social order makes people more attached with society as result of which there is altruistic suicide in societies (an example is martyrdom).

Karl Marx

Nature of Social Order
The social order according to Karl Marx is founded on what Marx calls economic base or means of production. There are exploiter class who owns the means of production but does not work and there are exploited class who work but does not own the means of production. Marx argues that the class that owns the means of production controls the law and ideology (religion and education) hence builds social order to support the exploitative system.

Problem of Social Order
Social order is created by exploiter class. Marx argued that if the social order is not destroyed then the exploitation will continue. The social order can be destroyed by class-conflict. Class conflict means conflict between exploiter and exploited class to control the economic base or means of production.

Shulamith Firestone (January 7, 1945 – August 28, 2012)

Nature of Social Order and Problem of Social Order

Men and women are unequal because women are weaker during pregnancy.
Either pregnancy should be eliminated or alternative technologies should be used to genetically produce babies.
The current social order is male dominated or patriarchal hence it will never allow women to be equal to male.