Реферат: Basic perspectives and schools of developing sociology in the XX century
The first problem is that of names. GeorgeHomans’s famous work, “Social Behaviour as Exchange ” led sociologists to refer to it as exchange theory. Anyway, the researcher never liked this term, preferring instead “social behaviour ism ”. He wanted to emphasize the behaviourist aspect of his work. That is, he wants the theory to explain whether observable behaviours increase or decrease based on actors’ rewards and costs. So his interest is the individual who enters into exchange relationships, in which social rewards and costs determine individual choices.
G. Homans interprets social behaviouras an exchange of activity, tangible or intangible, and more or less rewarding or costly, between at least two people. According to his point of view, actors are profit seekers who want to maximize their wealth while interacting with others with minimum efforts. It follows from it that social exchange is based on a rational principle: a rewarded action tends to repeat, and the higher is the reward, the more possible is the action. G. Homans developed several propositions on success, stimuli, value, satiation and aggression that explain how social exchange works at the individual level. By doing it the researcher tried to bring sociology nearer to economy by estimating behaviours in the context of a number of economic categories such as cost, profit, reward etc.
On the other hand, P. Blau does offer an exchange theory . His interest is in how exchange as a form of social activity gives rise to different forms of association and different organizational forms. He supplements the exchange concepts to understand a more complex social process of institutionalization. Therefore, he attaches great importance on the abstract concepts such as value, conscience, ideas, and impression, strains and social norms that bind the society together. It is through P. Blau’s works that account of the emergence of large-scale organizations and institutions governed by cultural norms and values.
According to P. Blau, rewards that are exchanged can be either intrinsic (love, affection, respect) or extrinsic (money, physical labor); the parties cannot always reward each other equally; when there is inequality in the exchange, a difference of power will emerge within an association. The theorist is concerned with what holds large-scale social units together and what tears them apart. Therefore, he takes pains in discussing groups, organization, collectivities, societies, norms and values. That’s why P. Blau’s exchange theory is usually regarded as macro-theoretical perspective.
Sociometry. The word sociometry comes from Latin “socius” (social ) and “metrum” (measure ). As the roots imply, sociometry is a way of measuring a degree of interpersonal relationships between people. The term was coined by the psychiatrist Jacob Levi Moreno (1892-1974). A student of S. Freud, J. Moreno migrated from Rumania to the USA and in New York conducted the first long-range sociometric study (1932-1938). As part of this study, J. Moreno used sociometric techniques to assign residents to various cottages. He found that assignments on the basis of sociometry substantially reduced the number of runaways from the facility.
Sociometry is based on the fact that people make choices in interpersonal relationships. Whenever people gather, they make choices – where to sit or stand; choices about who is perceived as friendly and who is not, who is central to the group, who is rejected, who is isolated. So measurement of relationships can be useful not only in assessment of behaviour within a group, but also for interventions to bring about positive change. For a labour group, sociometry can be a powerful tool for reducing a conflict and improving communications because it allows the group to see itself objectively and analyze its own dynamics. It can also be applied to identify informal leaders, social rankings and isolated individuals as it shows the patterns of how individuals associate with each other when acting as a group toward a specified end or goal.
Among sociometric tools of frequent use are various tests, sociomatrix and sociograms. When members of a group are asked to choose others in the group, everyone in the group makes a choice and describes why he does so. From these choices a description (a drawing, like a map) called a sociogram emerges. The data for the sociogram may also be displayed as a table or matrix of each person’s choices.
There are other important trends and perspectives in sociology of the XX century developed by theorists of all continents.
Phenomenology is another approach to sociological theory that has been gaining popularity. The approach is based on the ideas of Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), a German philosopher, who insisted that the phenomena we encounter in sensory perceptions are the ultimate source of all knowledge. His perspective was brought to the United States by sociologist Alfred Schutz (1899-1959) and developed further by Harold Garfinkel (b. 1917). Another important development in phenomenological thinking can be found in works by Thomas Luckmann (b. 1927) and Peter Berger (b. 1929), whose landmark book, The Social Construction of Reality (1966), has been widely influential, especially among contemporary feminists. P. Berger is perhaps best known for his view that sociology is a form of consciousness. Central to his work is the relationship between the society and the individual. In his book, The Social Construction of Reality P. Berger develops a sociological theory “society as objective reality and as subjective reality”. His analysis of the society as subjective reality studies how reality has produced and keeps producing individuals. He writes about how new humans concepts or inventions become a part of our reality (a process he calls reification ). His conception of social structure resolving around the importance of language “the most important sign system of human society,” is similar to G. Hegel’s conception of Geist .
Among other current sociological theories one can note postmodernism, globalization theory by I. Wallenstein, European industrial sociology, feminism, ecological movement, communicative theory by N. Lumann etc. Jürgen Habermas (b. 1929), a leading German sociologist, Anthony Giddens (b. 1938), a leading British sociologist, and American sociologist Randall Collins (b. 1913) are all noted for having constructed theories which synthesize ideas drawn from several theoretical traditions.
Postmodernism is a perspective developed on the French intellectual scene, that has had considerable influence on American sociologists in recent years. Contrasted by modernism, whose authors attempted to come to new terms with old ideas in attempt to find the “deep structure” of the human experience, postmodernism is identifiable by authors who were highly skepticalof any “deep structure,” regarding all structures as subjective and ideologically tainted.
Feminism , though not a unified theory, is among the most influential of current theoretical perspectives. Focusing their analyses on gender inequalities and on the institution of patriarchy, feminists have sought to understand the society from the standpoint of women. Feminists have criticized all three of the traditionally dominant theoretical perspectives – functionalism, symbolic interactionism and conflict theory – as biased toward male points of view. However, the feminist movement has also had its limitations. Most feminists have been white middle-class women, and feminist literature from the early days of the movement (1965-1985) often neglected the concerns of working-class women and women of colour. In recent years, however, some feminists have begun to analyze the ways that race, class, and gender inequalities intersect. For instance, Patricia Hill Collins in her book, Black Feminist Thought (1990), argues that the common experiences of African American women have given them a unique perspective on social theory. Feminists come in a variety of theoretical stripes. Early feminists divided themselves up into liberal, radical, or socialist camps, depending on their political points of view. Today, many feminist sociologists continue to draw heavily on the conflict theory tradition, while many others have been influenced by symbolic interactionism. A few even call themselves functionalists or rational choice theorists.
So modern sociology can be viewed not as an integral mono-science but as a broad scientific movement aimed at studying various social problems faced by industrialized countries. Sociology is in a theoretical ferment, as sociologists seek new ways to understand the formidable complexity of the social world. So the student’s point is not to memorize all these names, but to be aware of the multiple points of view and theoretical differences among contemporary sociologists.
BASIC CONCEPTS
AGIL – Adaptation, Goal attainment, Integration, Latency (by T. Parsons).
Anarchism – a political belief that the society should have no government, laws, police, or other authority, but should be a free association of all its members.
Behaviourism – a movement which sees human behaviour as something which can be moulded by punishment and reward.
Chicago school of sociology – refers to a group of sociologists at the University of Chicago who made the first major attempt to study the urban environment by combined efforts of theory and ethnographic fieldwork in Chicago. They pioneered research on urban studies, poverty, the family, the workplace, immigrants, ethnic and race relations, developed important research methods using mapping and survey techniques. In 1920-30s, urban sociology was almost synonymous with the work of the Chicago school. The major researchers in this school included William Thomas, Florian Znaniecki, Robert Park, Louis Wirth, Ernest Burgess, Everett Hughes, and Robert McKenzie.
Discrimination – unfair treatment of a person or group on the basis of prejudice.
Elite – a selected group of people whose personal abilities, specialized training or other attributes place them at the top of any field.
Elitism – a belief or attitude that elite are the people whose views on a matter are to be taken most seriously, or who are alone fit to govern.
Feminism – a doctrine that advocates social equality of the sexes; political, social, and cultural movement dedicated to promoting equal rights for women in all aspects of life.
Gemeinschaft (by F. Toennis) – a group formed around an essential will of an actor who sees himself as a means to serve the goals of the social group; community.
Gesellschaft (by F. Toennis) – a group formed around the arbitrary will of an actor who sees a social group as a means to further his individual goals, so it is purposive and future-oriented; society.
Goal attainment – the need to define primary goals and enlist individuals to strive to attain these goals.
Hawthorne experiments – studies at Western Electric’s Hawthorne plant outside Chicago (1924-1936), which were intended to bring about a greater understanding of the effects of working conditions, wages and other social factors on worker productivity.
Ideal type (by M. Weber) – a type formed of characteristics and elements of the given phenomena but it is not meant to correspond to all of the characteristics of a particular case.
Integration – the coordination of the society or group as a cohesive whole.
Latency – maintaining the motivation of individuals to perform their roles according to social expectations.
Marxist sociology – materialistic interpretation of history influenced by G. Hegel’s claim that reality (and history) should be viewed dialectically, through a clash of opposing forces.