TyroCity: Sociology BA LLB

Erving Goffman: Symbolic interactionism

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

Theory One: Basic Requirements for Social Interactions

Goffman argued that a normal person required to have four basic skills to have a normal interaction in society. These four rules are :

One. Situational Propriety
Goffman argued that for a normal interaction to take place a person should have knowledge on how to act and react spontaneously in different social situations. They must know how to perform appropriate action. For example Mr. J was dancing in a club and laughing but suddenly his not very close friend came to him and told him ‘you know J my uncle pass away 10 minutes ago due to heart attack’. After this if Mr .J reacts by saying ‘that is so bad’ and if he keeps on dancing then this is his absence of ‘situational propriety’. Due to it his relationship with his friend could be permanently damaged.

Two. Involvement
While in interaction the people involved in it must show that they are fully involved in the interaction. If they project that they are not fully involved in the interaction then this could prevent a development of a good social relationship. For example while in conversation if a person constantly uses mobile phone and constantly cuts short the talk then such behavior project the lack of involvement. For example.

Mrs. A: Hi W, how are you ? Do know I got a job in World Bank

Mrs. C : Really ? Please wait I need to pick up this call (she talks in mobile for 5 minutes then she looks at Mrs. A and says) which bank ?

Mrs. A: Its world bank.

Mrs. C: So your husband got job in world bank?

Mr. A: No its me.

Mrs. C : You should start working to. By the way do you know where to find a cab. Oh look there is a cab. I need to go. Bye and please make sure that you look for a job. I can help you in that.

In the above conversation Mr.s C failed to show her full involvement in the social interaction and as result will not develop a good relationship with Mrs. A in the future.

Three. Civil inattention

Sometimes during social interaction there are situations in which we need to act in such way that it looks like as if we didn’t see/hear/touch what we saw/heard/touched. For example in a party a guest accidently drops a wine glass and breaks it. In such situation a host will act as if he didn’t see it or if he sees it then he will act as if it didn’t matter to him. This action of not paying attention to the event so that social relationship is maintained is called ‘civil-inattention’. Civil inattention is also used while interacting with strangers. For example when strangers comes and talk to Mrs. L then she will give full attention to him and give him her phone number, email, home address and ask him to take care and so on. What she will do is to politely listen to the stranger and pay as little attention to him as possible.

Four. Accessible

To have a good social relationship the people involved in the interaction must be accessible. That means they must not be difficult to contact. If they become difficult to contact and get involved in conversation then there is very little possibility for the development of a good social relationship.

Five: Felicity Condition

‘Felicity Condition’ is a verbal or bodily gestures or both that makes other people feel that they are not having a conversation with ‘strangers’ but with a person they can trust and rely on. For example if a Mr. X. comes to Mr. Y. and tells him that ‘I couldn’t get admission in HHH college because I was ten minutes late’. Hearing this if Mr. Y. replies that ‘We know each other for only two days but you seem to be a hardworking person. I will get you in HHH college. Don’t worry about how I am going to do this. My father owns this college’. This gesture of Mr. Y will help to build a good relationship with Mr. X.

Theory Two: Dramaturgy

For Erving Goffman (1922–1982), the metaphor of life as theater is rich in meaning. He sees all human interaction as, in some ways, very much like a drama on stage. The brilliant insight that makes Goffman’s book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) so significant is that this process, which he believes lies concealed deepwithin every interaction, is familiar to all of us in the form of the theater. In a play, actors try to convey to an audience a particular impression of the world around them. Through the use of scripted dialogue, gestures, props, costumes, and so on, actors create a new reality for the audience to consider. It is Goffman’s claim that if we understand how a contemporary American actor can convey an impression of a vampire in a horror movie then we can also understand how a businessman / banker / policeman / teacher / students tries to act like a professional operating with a combination of expert knowledge and goodwill. If we can understand how two paid actors convince us that they are madly in love in Romeoand Juliet, we can understand how flight attendants manage and use their emotions for commercial gain.

The role

The role is the particular image that a single actor wants to convey. It is the sense of self, that the individual wants to project to the world. For example, to effectively sell car, one must adopt the role of the dedicated and knowledgeable professional who knows a lot about car and who is trustworthy to sell people these expensive commodities (car). Being perceived as a “professional” is an ideal way to provide car agents with the credibility they so desperately need. The aspiring car agent must understand that his ‘role’ as a car agent involves not only selling car but also to maintain a ‘reliable’ character so that people not only like and trust him but also ‘recommend’ others to buy from him.

Script

Theater as we know it relies on scripts. Goffman claims that scripts are imnportant to interpersonal interaction but are more so in formal interaction (office for example) . Most interpersonal communication is reasonably improvisational—we make it up as we go along. In everyday life, however, some elements of conversation are pretty well scripted. If a person asks a us how we are, we are most likely to answer “Fine, and what about you?” rather than a sincere ,well-thought-out description of what he or she is really thinking or feeling at the moment. This is a script based (preplanned) conversation that we are so used to employing that it feels automatic. Thus, scripts can allow us a great deal of convenience.

Business houses often make use of increasingly formalized scripts, which can provide distinct advantages to all parties. Often, store managers write scripts that are passed down to the store keeper who must actually go about making sales. One extreme example of this is provided by the Disney company, which, as Kraft (1994) discovered in her research, gives staffers (or “Cast Members,” in their words) a set of rigidly prescribed scripts:

These scripts offer verbatim responses Disney Store executives would like to hear used by Cast Members. . . . Frequently, a Cast Member becomes dependent on the scripts and mindlessly repeats the same message to every guest he or she encounters. The greeting traditionally offered at the front of the store is an example of how closely the scripts are followed.When a Cast Member was trained in 1991, he or she received a handout [which included the statement] “When you are greeting, the exact script is ‘Hi! Welcome to the Disney Store!’There are to be no variations of this script used . . . ever.”

In this case, a script is used to control and limit employee autonomy. The management has a particular role that it wants employees to adopt: friendly, cheerful, and helpful, but somewhat aloof, like a cartoon character. Disney corporate officials have concluded that the best way to ensure that employees actually adopt this role is to force it on them. It should also be noted that the scripts sometimes have advantages for the clerks. Kraft noted that Cast Members frequently become reliant on the scripts, using them as convenient crutches. Similarly, many telephone solicitors use obviously scripted messages when they call people; reading scripts is a simple process that requires little training or thought and thus makes the solicitor’s job much easier. Script use in direct sales is in no way limited to controlling employees or providing a convenience in place of more sophisticated kinds of training. Frequently, scripts are used to control customers, to compel them to buy a given product.

Stage

common in many social interactions is the division between front and back stages. The front stage is what confronts the audience—what they see. The back stage, by contrast, is a place where all the support activities necessary

for maintaining the performance on the main stage will go on. In theater, the back stage is where actors who are not involved in the scene going on at the moment mill about; where props that will be used at other times are stored; and where the counterbalances, lights, and so on that make the scenery convincing to the audience are hidden. Goffman (1959) points out that the crucial element that allows the back stage to be useful for these purposes is that “the back region will be the place where the performer can reliably expect that no member of the audience will intrude”. Thus, most back regions are clearly divided from the public fronts so that only team members have access.

Goffman claims that houses are divided along these front stage/backstage lines as well: guests are frequently confined to living and dining rooms and rarely invited to see bedrooms or bathrooms or kitchen. Similarly, many houses have front doors that are used primarily for more formal situations; family members often use back or side doors for day-to-day admission.

Backstage regions have two major purposes, both related to the maintenance of the proper persona or atmosphere on the front stage. They must serve as a storing ground for physical items that cannot be on the front stage, and they must also provide employees a place to regroup, a place where they take care of their emotional needs. The physical requirements of backstage may not be particularly surprising. Most retail shops, for instance, try not to clutter the stage with too much stuff. A storeroom, then, is crucial. Shoe stores offer perhaps the best example of this; most of them leave one pair of each style of shoe on display, but because they need several pairs of each size of shoe in each style to satisfy customers, they have a need for a well-organized back stage, where piles of shoe boxes can sit without being observed.

Back regions are also helpful for storing things not sold by the business but that are vital to the maintenance of the proper atmosphere on stage. Retail stores are almost uniformly clean; this means that vacuum cleaners, mops, glass cleaners, and so on must be kept where they can be accessed regularly, but because cleanliness usually mandates a lack of visible cleaning supplies, the equipment must be hidden from public scrutiny.

Self

Before directly reviewing Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis of social interaction, we must briefly consider his rather unique conception of selfhood because it is crucial to his method of analysis. Goffman does not believe in a “self” in the traditional sense; he does not think that we can discuss people’s selves abstracted from their social situations. He writes, “This self itself does not derive from its possessor, but from the whole scene of his action . . . this self is a product of a scene that comes off, and not a cause of it”. Goffman is arguing here that the self is something that arises in the very process of performance.

Goffman argued that the self is a product of human interaction which means that only during social interaction with others can the self be created.

Because self can only be created during human interaction hence there is always a possibility that during social interaction the type of self Mr. X wants to project may not be fully able to express itself. For example Mr. X wants to project himself as very intelligent by quoting a text from Max Weber’s book but Mr. Y is not letting him speak. In this situation the ‘self’ of Mt. X is disrupted.

Impression management:

Every individual wants to project to others a type of ‘self’ or identity which is acceptable in the eyes of the other. For example Mr. X wants to present himself as intelligent in the eyes of Mr. Y.
Mr. X wants to present himself as intelligent because MR. Y is his boss. If Mr. X can present himself as intelligent then he will get a job promotion.
The process in which an actor presents the ‘self’ in such a way that the ‘others’ might do(give job promotion) as they want they to do is in Goffman’s word ‘Impression management’.
If a married man acts as a bachelor to win friendship with a beautiful girl then this is also impression management. If a shop keeper speaks politely to his customers so as to sell his goods then this is also impression management. Social actors wants to prevent any unintended gestures or conversations that may offend their audience. This is called impression management.

Many people are involved in different ways to maintain impression management:

Fostering high in-group loyalty
Not getting too involved or attached with audience
Changing audience often so as not to mistakenly reveal one’s own weaknesses.
Maintain facial, bodily and verbal gesture to sympathize with the audience.
How to perform in emergencies.
The degree of alertness that is required for each authors.
Preventing oneself from being too emotional so as not to let audience have access to personal secrets.

Front stage

Front stage is a social interaction that is fixed . For example for a student the school is a front stage where he interacts with his teacher, friends etc.
Setting: Within the ‘Front stage’ the ‘Setting’ is a place where the performer/actor must be present. For example for a student a classroom is a setting where he acts. For a taxi driver it is a cab. For a priest it is a temple.
Appearance: Those equipment’s and items that tell us about the social-actor-performers’ social status and role. For example a school dress helps us to know that the actor we are dealing with are school children/students. Doctors’ white robe indicates that the personal I am dealing with his a medical doctor or a person with long hair and a beard helps me recognize that the person I am dealing with is someone who enjoys music.
Manner: The actions that a social actor performance which makes the audience guess/assume the social role he her she may play is known as manner. For example if a person wearing a doctors’ robe starts talking that HIV-AIDS spreads through overdrinking of coca-cola then such manner helps us to identify that he is not a doctor but a imposter. Or if a man with a long hair, long beard, dirty pants and torn jackets is seen in seminar halls where major physicists of the world are present then we would judge him to be a scientists from his manner rather than from his appearance.

Hiding of facts

The process of ‘Hiding’ in front stage performance/social acting:

Hide what gives them pleasure. When a boy B while talking with his girlfriend may hide the fact that he enjoys life when he is in conversation with other beautiful girls
Concealment of errors committed during social acting/ performance. Boy B might mistakenly keep staring at a beautiful girl in front of him while talking with his teacher. He may try to hide this fact by looking at other places when he comes to realize that his teacher is aware of his error.
Reveal the end product but hide the process. A person may have made the report for his boss working for 17 hours a day but he will try to hide this fact so that his boss might think that he is a intelligent person who could do his task easily
Concealment of ‘dirty-work’ involved in making the end product. A person may hide the things that may have involved physically dirty or morally unacceptable acts. For example when a boy D brought a gift for his girlfriend with the money from which he was supposed to buy medicine for his father then he will hide this face.
Performance that compromised other standards. A Prime Minister of a country might hide the fact that he was once working in a company that was involved in cheating people by selling them fake products.
Hide ‘insults, deals and compromises that the social actor made to perform that act. A good new police chief may have got the current position by telling the Home Minister that he would not arrest criminals affiliated with his political party. He would like to hide this fact.

The social actors have a vested interest in hiding such information.

Closer to audience

The Social Actor wants to interact in such a way that their interaction should be thought as important and sincere. Even saying hello/good morning or Namaste to a normal friend the performer wants to give a impression that they have complete good will towards the audience. If this performance fail then then even the normal good morning will carry no emotional weight was it once did. In this sense in every interaction the social actor wants to project themselves in such a way that their audience feel that the social actor is indeed a well-wisher.

Mystification

To create some type of awe in audience the social actor tries her/his best to reduce as much social interaction as possible. This is because the frequency of interaction could involve serious question answer where the mysterious environment the actor created may be demystified. For example a boss may try to show that he is a very rational and unemotional person. By projecting himself as such the office runs efficiently because the staffs fear the boss. However if the boss becomes to close with the subordinates then the subordinates may find out that the boss is not as unemotional as they think he is. This process of demystification will cause discipline problem in the office. In that sense the mystification is in the interest of the social actor and to protect the mystification the social actor will reduce social interaction process.

Team

A team involves several social actors who have a common interest but who sees other team members as audience. This is a very tough situation because in this the mystification of social actors are risked.

Role Distance

Goffman argued that every social actors are involved in a ‘role’ in society. For example a doctor’s role is to identify illness are cure it. Goffman however identified that people who are not comfortable with their ‘role’ in society often exhibited their distaste for the ‘role’ they were involved in. For example a toilet clear may perform his work in a very uninterested manner to show to his audience that he is superior to his work. This is ‘role distance’. It is usually the people who are not happy with their work that show role distance. On the other hand a person who is happy with his work will not show the role distance. For example a CEO of DM BANK will not hide the fact that he is a CEO. Even in conversations in which he is not required to present himself as a CEO he somehow finds a way to tell his audience that he is a CEO of a bank(Low role distance). However if the same bank is in news for default or tax evasion then this very CEO will do his best to hide his work in the bank or show his extreme displeasure in his work(high role distance).

Stigma

What a person should /ought to be is ‘virtual social identity’. What a personal actually is defined by Goffman as ‘actual social identity’. The person having the difference between ‘virtual social identity’ and ‘actual social identity’ are labeled as ‘stigma’ or ‘stigmatized’ by Goffman.

Discredited stigma: In this situation a person who is different from the ‘virtual social identity’ is clearly seen by the audience. For example a Asian person in a predominantly white neighborhood. A person without a leg in a party where the rest have both legs. The social actor with discredited stigma is aware that they are different than the audience. This difference causes a tension in their interaction hence their challenge is to reduce the tension.

Discreditable stigma: In this situation a person who is different from the ‘virtual social identity’ is not perceived or known by the audience. The difference is hidden. For example a person who is homosexual is not identified as such by the audience unless he/she expresses the orientation of his sexuality. Or a Hindu in a Muslim majority country or a Christian in a Hindu majority city or a Jew in a Christian majority town. In all these cases the audience are not aware that the social actor is different from ‘virtual social identity’. In this discreditable stigma the person’s challenge is to hide the information that shows that she/he/actor is different from the audience so as to maintain a healthy social interaction.

Frame Analysis

Goffman published a book Frame Analysis in 1974. The core argument of this book is that through social dialogues and interactions people create a certain rules which he called as ‘frame’. This ‘frame’ according to him were created by people but after being established then these very ‘frames’ start to influence people’s action. For example people created the ‘frame’ in which younger people do Namaste to elder ones. However this frame has dominated people’s life so much that whenever a young person forgets to do Namaste to his elders then he is tagged as rude. This is because according to the frame the process of Namaste is an action that shows respect.

Sometimes an action can have a conflict between different frames. For example when a westerner without knowledge of other religion invites a Hindu guest and offers her a beef stake then from that Hindu’s frame this is an act of insulting a Hindu but from the frame of that westerner it is a gesture of hospitality he showed to an Asian guest.

Goffman believed that to understand society it was important to understand how frames were created and how it was reshaped and resisted.

Nature of Sociology

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

Sociology, as a branch of knowledge, has its own unique characteristics. It is different from other science in certain respects. An analysis of its internal logical characteristics helps one to understand what kind of science it is. The following are the main characteristics of sociology as enlisted by Robert Bierstedt in his book, " The social order". An always of its internal logical characteristics helps one to understand what kind of science it is.

Sociology is an Independent Science.
Sociology is a Social Science and not a physical Science.
Sociology is a categorical and not a Normative Discipline.
Sociology is relatively and Abstract Science and not a concrete Science.
Sociology is pure science and not an Applied Science.
Sociology is a General Science not a special Science.
Sociology is a Generalizing and not a particularizing or Individualizing science.
Sociology is Both a Rational and Empirical Science.

Sociology is an independent science:

Sociology has now emerged into an independent science. It is not treated and studied as a branch of any other science like philosophy or political philosophy or history. As an independent science it has its own field of study, boundary and method.

Sociology is a social science and not a physical science.

Sociology belongs to the family of social sciences and not to the family of physical sciences. As a social science, it concentrates its attention on man, his social behaviour, social activities and social life. As a member of the family of social science it is intimately related to other social sciences like history, political sciences, economics, psychology, anthropology etc. The fact that sociology deals with the social universe distinguishes it from astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, mathematics and other physical sciences.

Sociology is a categorical and not a normative discipline:

Sociology 'confines itself to statements about what is, not what should be or ought to be'. As a science, sociology is necessarily silent about questions of value. It does not make any kind of value-judgements. Its approach is neither moral nor immoral but amoral. It is ethically neutral. It cannot decide the directions in which sociology ought to go. It makes no recommendations on matters of social policy or legislation or programme. But it does not mean that sociological knowledge is useless and serves no purpose. It only means that sociology as a discipline cannot deal with problems of good and evil, right and wrong, and moral or immoral.

Sociology is a Pure Science and not an Applied Science:

A distinction is often made between Pure Sciences and applied sciences. The main aim of pure sciences is the acquisition of knowledge and it is not bothered whether the acquired knowledge is useful or can be put to use. On the other hand, the aim of applied science is to apply the acquired knowledge into life and to put to use. Each pure science may have its own applied field. For example, Physics is a pure science and engineering is its applied fields. Similarly the pure sciences such as economics, political science, history, etc., have their applied fields like business, politics, and journalism respectively. Sociology as a pure science has its applied fields such as administration, diplomacy, social work etc. Each pure science may have more than one application.

Sociology is a pure science, because the immediate aim of sociology is the acquisition of knowledge about human society, not the utilization of knowledge. Sociologists never determine questions of public policy and do not recommend legislators what laws should be passed or repealed. But the knowledge acquired by a sociologist is of great help to the administrator, the legislator, the diplomat, the teacher, the foreman, the supervisor, the social worker and the citizen. But sociologists themselves do not apply the knowledge to life and use, as a matter of their duty and profession.

Sociology is relatively an abstract science and not a concrete science:

This does not mean sociology is an art and not a science. Nor does it mean, it is unnecessarily complicated and unduly difficult. It only means that sociology is not interested in concrete manifestations of human events. It is more concerned with the form of human events and their patterns. For example, sociology is not concerned with particular wars and evolutions but with war and revolutions in general, as social phenomena, as types of social conflict. Similarly, sociology does confine itself to the study of this society or that particular society or social organization, or marriage, or religion, or group and so on. It is in this simple sense that sociology is an abstract not a concrete science.

Sociology is a Generalizing and not a particularizing or Individualizing science:

Sociology tried to find out the general laws or principles about human interaction and association, about the nature, form, content and structure of human groups and societies. It does not study each and every event that takes place in a society. It is not possible also. It tries to make generalizations on the basis of the study of some selected events. For example, a sociologist makes generalizations about the nature of secondary groups. He may conclude that secondary groups are comparatively bigger in size, less stable, not necessarily spatially limited, more specialized, and so on. This, he does, not by examining all the secondary groups but by observing and studying a few.

Sociology is a General Science and not a special social science:

The area of inquiry of sociology is general and not specialized. It is concerned with human interaction and human life in general. Other social sciences like political science, history, economics, etc., also study man and human interaction, but not all about human interaction. They concentrate their attention on certain aspects of human interaction and activities and specialize themselves in those fields. Accordingly, economics specializes itself in the study of economic activities, political science concentrates on political activities and so on. Sociology, of course, does not investigate economic, religious, political, legal, moral or any other special kind of phenomenon in relation to human life and activities as such. It only studies human activities in a general way. This does not, however, mean that sociology is the basic science nor does it imply sociology is the general social science. Anthropology and social psychology often claim themselves to be general social sciences.

Finally, Sociology is both a Rational and an Empirical Science.

There are two broad ways of approach to scientific knowledge. One, known as empiricism, is, the approach that emphasizes experience and the facts that result from observation and experimentation. The other, known as rationalism, stresses reason and the theories that result from logical inference.

The empiricist collects facts; the rationalist co-ordinates and arranges them. Theories and facts are required in the construction of knowledge. In sociological inquiry both are significant. A theory unsubstantiated by hard, solid facts is nothing more than an opinion. Facts, by themselves, in their isolated character, are meaningless and useless. As Immanuel Kant said, " Theories without facts are empty and facts without theories are blind". All modern sciences, therefore, avail themselves of both empirical and rational resources. Sociology is not an exception.

it is clear from the above that sociology is an independent, a social, a categorical, a pure, an abstract, a generalizing, both a rational and an empirical and a general social science.

Scope of Sociology

What is the Scope of Sociology? What is the Subject matter that is Studies? There are two main Schools of thought among the Sociologist on this issue.

Specialist or Formalistic and 2) Synthetic

The Specialist or Formalistic School

This school of thought is led by the German sociologist George Simmel. The other main advocates of this school are Vierkandt, Max Weber, Von Wiese and Tonnies.

Simmel and others are of the opinion that sociology is pure and independent science. As a pure science it has a limited scope. Sociology should confine itself to the study of certain aspects of human relationship only. Further, it should study only the forms of social relationships but not their human relationship only. But not their contents. Social relationship such as competition, sub-ordination, division of labor etc, are expressed in different fields of social life such as economic, political, religious, moral, artistic, etc. Sociology should disentangle the from of social relationship and study them in abstraction, Sociology as specific social science describers, classifies and analyses the form of social relationships.

Vierkandt says that sociology concern itself with the ultimate form of mental or psychic relationship which links men to one another in society. He maintains that in dealing with culture, sociology should not concern itself with the actual contents of cultural evolution but it should confine itself to only the discovery of the fundamental forces of change and persistence. It should refrain itself form making an historical study of concrete societies.

Max Weber opines that the aim of sociology is to interpret or understand social behavior. But social behavior does not cover the whole field of human relations; He further says that sociology should make an analysis and classification of types of social relationships.

Small insisted that sociology has only a limited field. Von Wiese and Tonnies expressed more or less the same opinion.

Criticism

The views of the Formalistic school are widely criticized.

The formalistic school has unreasonably narrowed the fields of sociology. Sociology should study not only the general forms of social relationships but also their concrete contents.
The distinction between the forms of social relations and their contents is not workable. Social forms can not be abstracted form the content al all, since social forms keep on changing when the contents change.
Sociology is not the only science that studies the forms of social relationships. Other sciences also do that. The study of international law, for example, includes social relations like conflict, war, opposition, contract etc. Political science, Economics also study social relationships.

Synthetic School

The synthetic school of though conceives of sociology as a synthesis of the social sciences. It wants to make sociology a general social science and not a pure or special science.

The main argument of this school is that all parts of social life are intimately inter-related.

The views of Emile Durkheim: one of the stalwarts of this school of thought, sys that sociology has three main divisions or fields inquiry.

Social Morphology: social morphology studies the territorial basis of the life of people and also the problems of population such as volume and density, local distribution etc
Social physiology: social physiology has different branches such as sociology of religion, of morals, of law, of economic life and of language etc.
General Sociology: general sociology can be regarded as the philosophical part of sociology. It deals with the general character of the social facts. its function is the formulation of general social laws.

Morris Ginsberg

Ginsberg, another advocate of the synthetic school, says that the main task of sociology can be categorized into four branches:

Social Morphology: Social Morphology deals with the quantity and quality of population. It studies the social structure, social groups and institutions.
Social Control: Social Control studies-formal as well as informal-means of social control such as custom, tradition, morals, religion, convention and also law court legislation, etc. It deals with the regulating agencies of society
Social Process: Social Process tries to make a study of different modes of interaction such as cooperation, competition, conflict, accommodation, assimilation, isolation, integration, differentiation, development, arrest and decay.
Social Pathology: Social Pathology studies social mal-adjustment and disturbances. It also includes studies on various social problems like poverty, beggary, unemployment, over-population, prostitution, crime etc.

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.

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.

Modernization

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

‘…modernization involves change in the basic values of society. In particular it means the gradual acceptance by groups within the society of universalistic and achievement-based norms, the emergence of loyalties and identifications of individuals and groups with the nation-state, and the spread of the assumption that citizens have equal rights against the state and equal obligations to the state.’

-Samuel P. Huntington

Features of modernization

Dominance of Rational culture
Use of science and reasoning in lifestyle work and education
From traditional to democratic nation state
Highest loyalty to the nation state than to religion, tribe, ethnic group or political organization.
Goal achievement based culture
State laws are more powerful and dominant than religious and tribal laws.
Use of meritocracy in recruitment (education or employment).
From family based management of organization to professional based management.
Use of science and technology in economic, political and cultural sectors of society:

Economic sector: Use of technology in agriculture.
Politics: Use of electronic voting system during elections or use of mass media for election campaign
Cultural sector: The use of internet to study Vedas, Quran or Torah or Bible etc.

Dominance of this life and this world attitude.

Modernization in Nepal

Modernization of the state
- From absolute monarchy to military dictatorship
- Military dictatorship to Panchayat dictatorship
- Panchayat dictatorship to democratic state
Modernization of education
- Religious and tribal education to formal education
- From propaganda based state led Panchyat education to facts based education
- From facts based to more reasoning and critical thinking based education.
Modernization of culture
- From belief in caste system to the belief in the equality of everyone
- From belief in male superiority to the belief that men and women are equal.
- Mono-cultural tendency to multicultural
Modernization of economy
- From agricultural to trade, service and industry based economy
- From use of traditional equipment to the use of modern technologies.
Modernization of infrastructure
- Traditional roads to roads that are planned by engineers and sociologists.
- Traditional transportation system (horse, elephants) to modern motors, planes etc.
- Traditional source of light to electricity and solar based electricity.
Modernization of Law
- Law based on religion to law based on human rights and democratic principals.
Modernization of health
- From use of shamans to the use of doctors
- Hospital services in village level

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.

Wild Peter

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

The first really famous feral child was Wild Peter, “a naked, brownish, black-haired creature” captured near Helpensen in Hanover in 1724, when he was about 12. He climbed trees with ease, lived off plants and seemed incapable of speech. He refused bread, preferring to strip the bark from green twigs and suck on the sap; but he eventually learnt to eat fruit and vegetables. He was presented at court in Hanover to George I, and taken to England, where he was studied by leading men of letters. He spent 68 years in society, but never learnt to say anything except “Peter” and “King George”, although his hearing and sense of smell were said to be “particularly acute”.

Kamala and Amala

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

The story of two young girls, Kamala and Amala, is one of the most famous cases of feral children. Kamala was 8 years old and Amala was said to be 1 ½ when they were found in 1920. Both girls had spent most of their lives abandoned and alone. The two were found in Midnapore, India in a wolves’ den. Despite being found together, those who investigated the case believe that the two were not sisters but were simply abandoned around the same time or taken by wolves. The girls were found after stories spread throughout the village of two “ghostly spirit figures” that were often seen with the wolves that lived in the Bengal jungle. The local villagers were scared of the said spirits and called in a Reverend, Joseph Singh, to get to the bottom of it all. To see what was really going on, Singh hid in a tree above the cave and waited. When he saw the wolves exit the cave he waited and then saw two hunched over figures peek their heads out of the cave. He wrote down what he saw, describing them as “hideous looking with foot and body like a human being.” He said that the girls ran on all fours and had no real traits of being human.

Singh eventually captured the girls, though he had no experience in rehabilitating them. The girls slept curled together, growled, tore off their clothing, ate nothing but raw meat, howled, and were physically deformed. The tendons and joints in their arms and legs shortened, making it impossible to walk upright. The two also had no interest in interacting with humans. Some say that their senses were impeccable, especially when it came to hearing and seeing, but even their sense of smell was sharp. Amala eventually died due to a sickness, which then caused Kamala to go into a long-stage of mourning. Singh thought she would die but she did not and he started a rehabilitation program to help heal her- she eventually learned to walk upright and say a few words. She died of kidney failure in 1929.

Victor of Aveyron

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

Victor ‘the Wild Boy of Aveyron’ is another name on the list that you may sound familiar. Some say that he could be the first documented cause of autism, but he is definitely a well known case of a child that was left alone in the wild. At the end of the 18th century, several people saw Victor wandering in the Saint Sernin sur Rance woods, which is located in southern France. Victor was captured a first time and somehow escaped. It wasn’t until January 8, 1800 that he was caught again after coming out of the woods on his own, though he was spotted several times in 1798 and 1799. At this time he was said to be about 12 years old. His body was covered in scars and he was unable to speak a word. He was taken back to town where he was generally accepted, though once the news spread, many came forward wanting to examine him.

A biology professor, Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre, decided to examine Victor, taking off his clothes and putting him outside in the snow. Victor began to run around in the snow, showing no ill-effects of the cold temperature on his bare skin. It is said that he lived in the wild for about 7 years, so it is no surprise that his body was able to take such extreme weather. Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard then took over and decided to try to teach the boy, though he soon became frustrated at his lack of progress. Though he was probably born with the ability to talk and hear, he never did so properly after being left in the wild. He was eventually taken to the Paris Institution des Sourds-Muets where he lived with Mme Guérin and died at the age of 40.

Meaning of Sociology

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

Sociology is the youngest of the social science. Its major concern is society, and hence to is popularly known as the “Science of Society”.

Etymological, the term sociological is the combination of two words. One Latine words- ‘Societus’ and other Greek words-logos’, in which ‘Societus’ means society and logos’ means study or Science. In this way etymological meaning of Sociology is the Study of the Society or Science of the Society.

Definition

Different Scholars have defined Sociology in different ways. Though the content of definition is the same, definitions very from person to person.

“Sociology is a science of Society.” –L.F Ward
“Sociology is about Social relationship, the net of relationship, we call Society”-MacIver and Page
“Sociology is the Study of human interaction and interrelation, their conditions and consequence”-M.Ginsberg
“Sociology is the scientific study of the structure of social life”-Young and Mack

Sociology is the study of human behavior in groups.
Sociology is the study of social action.
Sociology is the study of social groups or social system
Sociology is the study of forms of social relationship.

Sociologist tries to find out the evolution of society while studying Society. Similarly, to find out and discover nature and interdependence of Social structure, development of social institution, their functions, customs, value of mobilizing of social relation, human made groups and history of community, family, caste, government, economic, group, religious group etc and phenomena of social change are the functions of sociologists.

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

Bello of Nigeria

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

Bello, sometimes referred to as the Nigerian Chimp Boy by the media, was found in 1996. No one is exactly sure of his age but many estimated that he was about 2 years old when he was discovered. He was found in the Nigerian forest and is both physically and mentally disabled, possibly the explanation for his abandonment at six months of age (a very common practice within the Fulani tribe). At such a young age, Bello of course could not fend for himself but somehow chimpanzees that lived within the forest took him in and raised him. He took on many chimpanzee behaviors, walking like them and displaying many of their animalistic behaviors.

When he was found in the Falgore forest, no one really mentioned the discovery. It wasn’t until about 2002 when popular news media found out and quickly learned that he was living in Tudun Maliki Torrey, a home for displaced children in Kano, South Africa. It was reported that he often disturbed other children within the home, throwing objects as well as jumping and leaping around at night. Six years later he was much calmer, though he still continued to display behaviors of a chimpanzee. Bello never did learn to speak despite the constant human interaction he had within the home, and in 2005 he died of undetermined causes.