TyroCity: Sociology BA LLB

The Syrian Gazelle Boy

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

Jean-Claude Auger, an anthropologist from the Basque country, was traveling alone across the Spanish Sahara (Rio de Oro) in 1960 when he met some Nemadi nomads, who told him about a wild child a day’s journey away. The next day, he followed the nomads’ directions. On the horizon he saw a naked child “galloping in gigantic bounds among a long cavalcade of white gazelles”. The boy walked on all fours, but occasionally assumed an upright gait, suggesting to Auger that he was abandoned or lost at about seven or eight months, having already learnt to stand. He habitually twitched his muscles, scalp, nose and ears, much like the rest of the herd, in response to the slightest noise. He would eat desert roots with his teeth, pucking his nostrils like the gazelles. He appeared to be herbivorous apart from the occasional agama lizard or worm when plant life was lacking. His teeth edges were level like those of a herbivorous animal. In 1966 an unsuccessful attempt was made to catch the boy in a net suspended from a helicopter; unlike most of the feral children of whom we have records, the gazelle boy was never removed from his wild companions.

Introduction to Cases of growth of Self and Social Heritage

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

A feral child is a human child who has lived away from human contact from a very young age, and has little or no experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language. Feral children are confined by humans (often parents), brought up by animals, or live in the wild in isolation. There have been over one hundred reported cases of feral children, and this is a selection of ten of them.

Urbanization

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

‘Urbanization concerns the movement of population from agricultural to industrial work and from rural to urban places of residence. People are attracted to the city by visions of a better life or they feel compelled to leave rural places because they are disadvantaged there’.
– By Rajendra Kumar Sharma

‘Urbanization refers to the process of growth in the proportion of population living in urban areas. Historically, the concept of urbanization has been related to specialization, industrialization and consequent economic development. Although the form of this relationship has remained contested, there is a general consensus among scholars that a fundamental characteristic of urbanization is the structural shift in employment from agriculture to non-agriculture pursuits.’
– Dr. Pitamber Sharma

Features of urbanization

Growth in non agriculture based population
Growth in city based population
Weakening of traditional cultures
Higher economic class based consciousness compared to rural areas
Higher politically conscious population
A center of conflict between tradition and modernity(in most rural places there is a dominance of traditionalists)
Westernization, Modernization and urbanization are interconnected and mostly urban areas starts westernization. Then move towards modernization and later de westernizes itself.

Urbanization in Nepal

Urban Population: The urban population (population residing in 58 municipalities) constitutes 17 % (4,523,820) of the total population. Based on the recorded urban population, Kathmandu Metropolitan City is the most crowded city with the population of 24.3 percent (Population–1,003,285) of the total urban population. Dhulikhel Municipality has the least proportion (0.31%) of the total urban population. Population Density in Kathmandu Metropolitan City has found about 20,289 per square km

Total Population by urban-rural residence and urban population as a percent of rural population. Nepal, 1952/54 – 2001

	1952/54	1961	1971	1981	1991	2001	(2011)
Urban Population	238,275	336,222	461,938	956,721	1,695,719	3,227,879
Urban Population as Percent of Nepal Population	3.0	3.7	4.2	6.8	10.1	16.2	17%

Urban life & experience

Emotional-psychological responses

You take for granted encounters with strangers
You become tolerant of difference
You accept impersonal forms of social coordination (e.g. walk-signals, laws, regulations)
You accept a wide range of specialized authorities (police, doctors, EMS, bouncers, librarians, etc.)
Your extended family probably takes a back seat to a wide range of non-family social ties
You think of yourself in terms of “what you do” which means a specialized job or profession

Physical-biological impacts

You live longer than hunter-gatherers and early farmers
You are protected from wild animals, many bugs, and some (but not all!) natural hazards & therefore
Your food supplies are more secure, leading to less malnutrition but also a struggle against obesity
Your health suffers in “special” urban ways
- Noise pollution can affect your tension levels, sleep patterns, concentration, etc.
- Air pollution affects your eyes, lungs & brain
- Urban jobs can cause you to physically atrophy
- Urban routines (colonization of night for leisure) can affect your sleep cycles
- Your reproductive choices are greatly multiplied, which leads to better health over many generations
You internalize particular ways of moving (e.g. driving a car, a bike, a motorcycle, walking a certain way …)

Your impact on the city

Environmental degradation
Pollution in “ordinary ways” such as
- Human wastes
- Solid waste
- Driving
- maintaining a lawn
- Using mass transit or driving
- Pollution in “deviant ways”
- Graffiti & vandalism

Emile Durkheim:

In urban areas there is organic solidarity
There is Anomie (normlessness)

Georg Simmel:

Apathy, privacy

Louis Wirth

In urban areas there is
Aloof
Selfishness and self centeredness
Social segregation by class
Lack of social support except for impersonal (and less adequate) forms of support
Vulnerable to neurosis, chemical abuse, and other forms of deviance

Dilemmas

In either case, the city raises difficult moral and ethical issues
- What can be done?
- How much can be done?
- What is the best means of addressing “urban pathologies”?
- What are urban pathologies and what are lifestyle choices?
- Homelessness
- Drug addiction
- Prostitution
- Homosexuality

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.

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”.

Detail Theories of Thomas Hobes

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

Believed that life in the state of nature is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”.
His most famous work is Leviathan.
Believed that humans are inherently bad because everyone is self-interested.
Hobbs felt it was best to submit to the will of a Sovereign without question.
Man entered into government for Safety.
The main role of government is to protect its citizens.
Rights and liberty always come after safety and protection.
Never overthrow the government because doing so creates anarchy and then there is no safety.

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.

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 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.

Gender based inequality

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

Gender according to sexual orientation

Heterosexual: attracted to individuals of the opposite sex (straight)
Homosexual: attracted to individuals of the same sex (gay, lesbian)
Bisexual: attracted to both sexes
Queer: attracted to the same or both sexes and/or transgendered individuals
Asexual: not experiencing sexual attractions

Types of gender identity

Maleness/Masculine
Femaleness/Feminine
Two-Spirited- an Aboriginal term for an individual who possesses both male and female spirits, and is thus neither male nor female
Transgendered- a person who challenges strict gender norms (may be transsexual, biologically Intersexed, etc.)
Third Gender- individuals who are categorized as neither male nor female (by their own will or social consensus); term also used in societies who recognize more than two genders
Androgyny- a term that refers to a combination of masculine and feminine characteristics

How were women seen in typical society?

Women as Male’s private property (Father’s property in case of Kanyadan)
No one agreed that forced sex in marriage was sex.
- Sexual relation in marriage was to satisfy husband.
- Women was to be enjoyed.
- Her enjoyment was secondary or accidental only.
Woman’s GOD GIVEN PLACE was – in the kitchen
Women who worked outside their home were
- Embarrassment for their husband and father and brother
- Women who earned more than then husband or boyfriend were embarrassing them.
Unmarried mothers were considered as immoral
Boys who flirted with many girls were considered as naughty and natural but girls who did the same were considered as a slut
University
- Educated women goes to university to find educated men

Gender stereotype

Masculine	Feminine
Active	Passive
presence	absence
independent	dependent
organized	scattered
rational	emotional
logical	illogical
intellectual	intuitive/imaginative

Important gender term during the research

Androcentricity
Male-centered research, or approaching the topic from a male-only perspective

Overgeneralizing
Using data collected from one sex and applying the findings to both sexes

Gender insensitivity
The failure to consider the impact of gender at all in the subject matter in question

Double standards
The same standards should be applied to both sexes in order to not distort findings

Interference
This occurs when a subject under study reacts to the sex of the researcher rather than the subject matter under study

Gender

OXFORD DICTIONARY OF SOCIOLOGY: ‘According to Ann Oakley who introduced the term to sociology, sex refer to the biological division into male and female, gender to the parallel and socially unequal division into femininity and masculinity. Gender draws attention therefore to the socially constructed aspects of differences between women and men.

Anthony Giddens: ‘Social expectations about behavior regarded as appropriate for the members of each sex. Gender does not refer to the physical attributes in terms of which men and women differ, but to socially formed traits of masculinity and femininity. The study of gender relations has become one of the most important areas of sociology in recent years, although for a long time they received little attention’

Social Construction of Gender

Nancy Chodorow

Both boys and girls are attached to
Revised Freud’s theory of psycho-sexual development: emphasized “pre-Oedipal” period (birth to about 3)
Attachment & identification, not sexual attraction
Both M & F begin “as if” female: develop “feminine” sense of self in experiencing world with & through mother
Females: develop by continuity — sustaining identification with mother
Males: develop by discontinuity — separating from mother and creating new identity
- Misogyny: “masculinity” created via repression / expulsion of “feminine”

Janet Sayers (critique of Nanacy Chodorow)

The theory ignores the need of women to be detached and autonomous.

Women have aggressiveness. This needs to brought out not repressed.

Gender stratification theory

Functionalist approach

Anthropologist George Murdock saw that women should concentrate on domestic and family responsibilities. And men should work outside.

This argument of his was based on his work that involved the cross-cultural studies of more than 200 societies.

He considered the gender based division of labour as the most logical organization arrangement in society.

Talcott Parson:

Talcott Parson studied industrial society.

Women’s role is to socialize children through emotional or expressive roles: caring for others, forgiving etc

Men’s role is to socialize children through rational role like being aggressive, competitive.

Another role of women is to comfort men who are stressed in their work by providing them with emotional comfort.

John Bowlby

Every children needs mother or at least ‘mother substitute’.

This role cannot be performed by male.

Feminist perspective

Raewyn Connel’s theory of The gender hierarchy

Hegemonic masculinity	Social dominance not through violence but through culture. Hetrosexuality Marriage Authority Paid work Strength Physical toughness
Complicit Masculinity	People who are almost like the hegemonic males and enjoy benefit in society due to it.
Homosexual masculinity	Seen as opposite of real man. Rank at the bottom of gender hierarchy
Emphasized feminity	Old women-motherly characteristics Young women: Sexual receptivity Women like dress Someone to accompany the real men.
Resistant feminities	Hidden from history Who revolt against the system

Shulamith Firestone
‘We are no longer just animals. And the kingdom of nature does not reign absolute. … Thus the ‘natural’ is not necessarily a ‘human’ value. Humanity has begun to transcend Nature: we can no longer justify the maintenance of a discriminatory sex class system on grounds of its origins in nature.’

Elimination of Gender: Firestone did not want to eliminate men, although she didn’t like them much. She believed the gender system oppressed men, too. What she wanted was radical equality. The only way to achieve this, she thought, was to eliminate gender entirely.

Elimination of pregnancy: How? At the core of gender — and inequality — was an accident of biology, she theorized. Women are the ones who are physiologically capable of carrying babies. All gender roles have their roots this simple fact. If you eliminate pregnancy and childbirth, you can eliminate gender. So, she argued, we need to devise ways to reproduce artificially. And until then, women ought to be celibate.

Commune taking care of the children.

Firestone didn’t confine her radicalism to her writing. In 1969, while she was living in New York and writing Dialectic of Sex, she co-founded a women’s organization calledRedstockings that published manifestos, ran consciousness-raising meetings, and organized activism on behalf of a number of feminist causes. Their values included leftist beliefs that we don’t today associate with feminism, like a commitment to socialist revolution. But they also believed deeply in, and campaigned for, the right to safe and legal abortions.

Gender issues Nepal

Literacy Rate: Overall literacy rate (for population aged 5 years and above) has increased from 54.1 percent in 2001 to 65.9 percent in 2011. Male literacy rate is 75.1% compared to female literacy rate of 57.4%. The highest literacy rate is reported in Kathmandu district (86.3 %) and lowest in Humla (47.8%).

Female ownership of fixed assets: Altogether, 19.71 percent of households reported the ownership of land or house or both in the name of female member of the household. In urban areas, 26.77 percent of the households show female-ownership of fixed assets while the percentage stands for 18.02 in rural areas.

Household Head: Female-headed households in the country has increased by about 11 point percent from 14.87% in 2001 to 25.73% in 2011.

Detail theory of John Locke

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

Wrote Two Treatises on Government.
The first treatise is concerned almost exclusively with refuting the argument of Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha, that political authority was derived from religious authority, also known by the description of the Divine Right of Kings.
The second treatise contains Locke’s own constructive view of the aims and justification for civil government.
Believed that people entered into society to protect their “life, liberty, and property”.
Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, admired Locke.
The government’s main job is to protect the citizen’s property.
If they government is not providing you with protection for your property you have the right to revolt.
Justified the American Revolution