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Midterm Guide: Sociology 169: Modern Social Theory

Please bring two #2 pencils and a thin, green scantron to the exam (50 questions each side)

Exam 1: Thursday, 11/1; Review: Tuesday, 10/30

Be familiar with the following kinds of theories and theoretical approaches & their assumptions:

Scientific vs. non-scientific definitions of social theory

Functionalist vs. conflict theory

Materialist vs. idealist theory

Be familiar with the following concepts and ideas and the theorist they are associated with:

Talcott Parsons

Societies as complex, interdependent systems that tend toward equilibrium; structural functionalism

How Parson’s theory relates to utilitarianism, radical behaviorism, and idealism

The AGIL scheme

The cultural system: the latent function

The social system: the integrative function

The personality system: goal attainment

The behavioral system; the adaptation function

2 ways conformity is achieved

Socialization and the internalization of norms and values

Structural constraints on individuals; Roles and statuses

Social evolution: functional differentiation & integration; adaptive upgrading

Why do institutions persist or decline?

5 Pattern variables; be familiar with them and be able to apply them

Parson’s analysis of traditional sex roles in the family; trends in women’s roles; tensions in feminine roles

Emile Durkheim

Mechanical vs. organic solidarity & its relationship to the division of labor & law

What holds society together; the social function of law

Max Weber

Idealist theory; Substantive rationality vs. Formal (or instrumental) rationality; reasons the latter is spreading; 3 types of conflict; relative autonomy of the state

Karl Marx

dialectical materialist theory of history & how it relates to Hegel’s theory

mode of production; classes; class conflict; 2 views of the state

class consciousness; class in itself; class for itself; false consciousness

capitalism; proletariat; bourgeoisie; fundamental contradiction w/in capitalism & its resolution

C.Wright Mills

Criticisms of pluralist theory; comparisons to Marx & Weber

Power elite and its characteristics

Shared interests between political, economic, and military elite

Reasons for the social cohesion and interchageability of elites

Middle levels of power vs. the masses

Military metaphysics & permanent war economy

Reasons for ‘military ascendancy’

Is the power elite morally responsible for their decisions?

Wallerstein/World Systems Theory

Criticisms of modernization (or convergence) theory

3 types of world systems

3 developments that led to the modern world system

Core/semi-periphery/periphery

Relationship to dependency theory; Mechanisms that lead to under-development

Frantz Fanon/Post-colonial theory

Post-colonial theory; colonial & neo-colonial domination

The cultural & psychological impacts of colonization; internalized oppression

Violence & the decolonization process: how does Fanon’s argument differ in terms of Ghandi’s argument?

Stuart Hall

national culture (main characteristics) and how it is a structure of cultural power

globalization; the 3 effects that globalization can have on local/national cultures

Uma Narayan

‘3rd world feminist’ (narrow & broad definitions); the links between identity & knowledge; her views on culture & cultural change; how 3rd world feminists and anti-feminists relate to Western ideas and their own national cultures; her response to the argument that 3rd world feminists are ‘outsiders’ and influenced by Western ideas

Base-superstructure model (or ‘vulgar Marxism’ or ‘economic determinism’) & Western (Hegelian) Marxist critiques of it

Antonio Gramsci & class formation theory

Main assumptions of Hegelian or Western Marxists

Hegemony and how it is maintained (consent & coercion)

hegemonic vs. counter-hegemonic ideas

War of maneuver vs. war of position

Organic intellectuals (traditional, technicians, and working class); their influence on class consciousness

Class formation and what shapes it

Michael Omi & Howard Winant’s Racial Formation Theory

Race; Racialization; race-making as “othering”

Race as a ‘master category’; Relationships between race, class, and other forms of inequality

Racial formation and what has shaped it; how racial formation theory relates to Gramsci’s theory of class formation

Racial orders and how they are maintained and resisted; how this has changed over time

Racial projects (definition); racist & non-racist racial projects (definition & examples)

Horkheimer and Adorno

Constraints on the development of class consciousness

Technocratic rationality and its effects on our consciousness (Weberian influences on this)

Critiques of positivistic science; role of critical theory

Criticisms of Enlightenment’s view of science and technology

Culture industries; Criticisms of popular culture and its effects on our consciousness

Herman and Chomsky

Who controls the content of the mainstream news and how?

What filters shape the mainstream news?