Assignment 1 Sociology

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MAJORSOCIOLOGICALTHEORISTS.ppt
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Major Sociological Theorists

  • Functional Theorists (Classical or Early Theorists and Contemporary Theorists)
  • August Comte
  • Emile Durkheim
  • Herbert Spencer
  • Max Weber
  • Robert Merton

August Comte

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

  • Social Darwinism

Max Weber (1864-1920)

  • Taught at U. of Berlin
  • Married Marianne Schnitger; co-author
  • His most famous work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; Soc. of Religion.
  • Anti-positivist (humanistic soc.)
  • “Verstehen”
  • Suffered from depression

Robert Merton (1910-2003)

  • Taught at Harvard, Tulane U, Columbia U.
  • Coined term, “self-fulfilling prophecy”
  • Manifest v. Latent functions
  • Unlike classical functionalists,

said dysfunctions not good

  • Theories of deviance widely

used in criminology

(structure strain theory)

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)

  • Was an English writer and philosopher, renowned a controversial journalist, political economist, abolitionist, and feminist.

Martineau and Comte

Martineau and Comte

  • August Comte laid the foundations for what became the field of Sociology with a rambling six-volume work.
  • Martineau undertook a translation that was published in two volumes in 1853 as "The Positive Philosophy of August Comte (freely translated and condensed by Harriet Martineau)."
  • Comte himself recommended these volumes to his students instead of his own.
  • Some writers regard Martineau herself as "the first woman sociologist". Her introduction of Comte to the English-speaking world and the elements of sociological perspective that may be found in her original writings argue for her recognition as a kindred spirit if not a significant contributor.

Martineau and Darwin

Martineau and Darwin

  • Charles Darwin met with Martineau and remarked that "she was very agreeable, and managed to talk on a most wonderful number of subjects, considering her gender.”
  • He added, “But, I was astonished to find how ugly she is" and "she is overwhelmed with her own projects, her own thoughts and abilities.
  • Martineau described Darwin as "simple, childlike, painstaking, but effective.”
  • After a later meeting when he was struggling with his own writing and she was starting another work, he expressed astonishment at the ease with which she wrote such fluent prose, and "never has occasion to correct a single word she writes," though she was "not a complete Amazon and knows the feeling of exhaustion from thinking too much."

Conflict Theorists

  • Karl Marx
  • C.W. Mills
  • Jane Adams
  • W.E.B. DuBois

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Karl Marx

  • Conflict theory
  • Wrote The Communist Manifesto (1848)
  • Bourgeosie v. Proletariat
  • Struggle for resources, power
  • Revolt of the Proletariat

C.W. Mills (1916-1962)

  • Taught at Columbia U., lived in West Nyack, NY
  • Mills is best remembered for studying the structure of power; The Power Elite (1951) and…
  • The Sociological Imagination (1959)

which describes a mindset for doing

sociology that stresses being able

to connect individual experiences

and societal relationships while

being unbiased.

Jane Addams (1860-1935)

Jane Addams

  • Founder of the U.S. Settlement House Movement and the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
  • Her father was Senator John Addams

from Illinois.

  • Graduated from the Rockford

Female Seminary (now Rockford

College) in IL.

  • Traveled throughout Europe

(London slums) which influenced

her world view.

Jane Addams

  • In 1889 she and Ellen Gates Starr co-founded the first Settlement House, Hull House in the slums of Chicago.
  • Hull House served over 2,000 people weekly.
  • It included a night school for adults which set the stage for continuing education classes offered by community colleges today, kindergarten, clubs for older children, a public kitchen, an art gallery, a coffeehouse, a gym, a girls club, a swimming pool, a music school, a drama group, a library, and labor-related divisions.

Jane Addams

  • Hull House also served as a women's sociological institution. http://www.hullhouse.org/
  • Addams was a friend to the early members of the Chicago School of Sociology, influencing their thought through her work in applied sociology (and social work).
  • She worked with George Herbert Mead on social reform issues including promoting Women’s Rights, ending child-labor, mediating during the 1910 Garment Workers’ Strike, and initiating a juvenile justice system in America.
  • Charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). 
  • The Jane Addams Peace Association

New Juvenile Justice System

  • Addams argued for a separate legal system for juveniles that would guide and teach them the proper way to behave rather than just locking them away in jails.
  • Some supported the idea for the sake of the children, while others feared the growing number of immigrant street youth in Chicago in the late 19th century. In spite of the fears, Illinois became the first state to establish a separate court system for juveniles in 1899.

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)
(William Edward Burghardt Du Bois)

  • Was a Civil and Women’s Rights Activist, Leader, Pan-Africanist, Sociologist, Educator, Historian, Writer, Editor, Poet, Scholar.
  • First African-American to obtain

a Ph.D. from Harvard U.

  • Founder of the NAACP.
  • Established Soc. Dept. at

Atlanta U.

  • He became a citizen of Ghana

in 1963 at the age of 95 and

died one day before MLK’s

“I Have A Dream” speech.

Du Bois’ Criminology

  • Devoted to the analysis of the black criminal population (1899).

Criminological Theory Achievements

  • He is the first criminologist to combine historical fact with social change, and used the combination to postulate his theories.
  • For example, he credited the crime increase after the Civil War to “increased complexity of life,” competition for jobs in

industry, the mass exodus

from the farmland, and

immigration to the cities.

W.E.B. Du Bois

  • His biographer, wrote, "In the course of his long, turbulent career, W. E. B. Du Bois attempted virtually every possible solution to the problem of racism – scholarship, integration, cultural and economic separatism, politics, communism, third world solidarity."

Symbolic Interactionists

  • We learn behavior by interacting with others through the use of symbols
  • Charles Horton Cooley
  • George Herbert Mead
  • Erving Goffman

Charles Horton Cooley
(1864-1929)

  • Looking Glass Self

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)

  • Significant and Generalized Others
  • Role Taking

Erving Goffman (1922-1982)

  • Ph.D., University of Chicago
  • Developed Dramaturgical perspective, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959).
  • We must act differently

in different settings.

Dramaturgical Perspective

  • Theatrical metaphor
  • Front Stage v. Back Stage Behavior
  • We act one way in front of others and another way with no one present.
  • Examples?

Dating

Dramaturgical Perspective

  • The goal of this presentation of self is acceptance from the audience through manipulation.