SOC 110 - Essay - 1000-1500 words (Urgency!!Need help!!)

Day #6 of 20:

Soc 110: Introduction to Sociology

June 5th, 2018

UIBE SUMMER SCHOOL

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Three Major Points So Far 1. Sociologists seek complex answers to

what many would consider simple questions. (like the problem with poverty & pregnancy

2. Sociologists question what we consider to be ”norms” and ”values”

3. Sociologists are interested in how personal issues become public problems

Chances of Completing College by Father’s Occupation, Updated 2009 Data

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STUDENTS

AVERAGE Top 10%

Father’s Occupation

All Occupations 20% 70%

Professional 48% 84%

Manager 36% 81%

Clerical/Sales 18% 65%

Skilled Blue Collar 15% 60%

Unskilled Blue Collar 12% 46%

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Social Facts

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Social Facts

ÜSocial facts are things such as institutions, norms, and values which exist external to the individual and constrain the individual.

Ü---Emile Durkheim, the first sociology professor in the world.

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The Structure and Agency Debate • Structure refers to the complex and interconnected set of social forces (such as the law and norms) and institutions such as the family, and other elements of life beyond the individual control that work together to shape the thought, behavior, experiences, choices, and overall life courses of people.

• Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independent of structure and to make their own free choices

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A Major Sociological Problem

ÜRelationship between social structure and agency

ÜRelationship between freedom, control, and the question of free will.

Social Structure and Agency

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The Sociological Perspective • Sociologists want to believe in freedom,

free will, and people’s exercise of choices, but, when we collect data to understand the world, everything we know goes against the idea of free will and freedom of choice.

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Sociology began with a very simple idea

• The question of time

18th century France, Germany, and England

nThe Industrial Revolution nThe reorganization of how

we work and live nThe move from a Family

Economy to Family Wage Economy

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Fundamental Problem

n Non-producing owners n Non-owning producers n ??? n Those who produce are not

owners n Those who own are not

producers 38

The task of sociology emerged with the marketization of time

The power of labor and capital

• Except for the very very few privileged, labor is absolutely central to human existence because it provides us with money to live, but it also provides

• The distribution of control • The exercise of such control

• Birth of sociology in 19th century

The Key Sociological Perspectives on Industrialization

• Karl Marx, Germany, 1818-1883 • Emile Durkheim, France, 1858-1917 • Max Weber, German, 1864-1920

Three major sociological theories

nThe Social Conflict Theory (Marx) nThe Structural Functionalist Theory

(Durkheim) nSymbolic Interaction Theory (Weber)

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Three major sociological theories

nThe Social Conflict Theory (Marx): argues that that tensions and conflicts arise when resources, status, and power are unevenly distributed between groups in society and that these conflicts become the engine for social change.

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• The Structural Functionalist Theory (Durkheim): Argues that each part of society contributes to the stability of the whole society; each component plays a necessary part, but none can function alone. The different parts of society are primarily composed of social institutions, each of which is designed to fill different needs, and each of which has particular consequences for the form and shape of society. The parts all depend on each other.

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n Symbolic Interactionist Theory (Weber): argues that the meaning we derive from and attribute to the world around us is a social construction produced by everyday social interaction; it focuses on how we use and interpret things as symbols to communicate with each other, how we create and maintain a self that we present to the world and a sense of self within us, and how we create and maintain the reality that we believe to be true.

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