Third Canadian Edition Kendall Murray Linden Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada

The Sociological Perspective Chapter One

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Focus Questions  Why is it important to use your sociological imagination when studying issues such as suicide?  What is the sociological imagination?  Why were early thinkers concerned with social order and stability?  Why were middle 20 th century authors concerned with change?  What are the assumptions behind the various perspectives?

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Suicide as an example of using sociology to try to understand suicides’ sources and effects in people’s lives

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Outline  Putting Social Life into Perspective  The Origins of Sociological Thinking  The Development of Modern Sociology  Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Putting Social Life into Perspective  Why Study Sociology?  The Sociological Imagination  The Importance of a Global Sociological Imagination

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Why Study Sociology?  Central concepts: –Society –Global interdependence –Commonsense knowledge  The discipline assists us in understanding ourselves and our social world  Our worlds are created for us by others as well as being created by us

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada The Globe Our Society US

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada

The Sociological Imagination  Author: C. Wright Mills  Defined as: “the ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society” p. 8  Two dimensions –Personal trouble (suicide as an example) –Public issue (suicide as an example)

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada The Global Element  Elements –High-income countries –Middle-income countries –Low-income countries  Central theme: we are not alone. All of us are deeply intertwined with the reality of all nations in the world. Consider the impact of the “Mad Cow” disease in the spring/summer of 2003  Special terms: race, ethnicity, class, sex and gender

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Origins of Sociological Thinking  Classic origins go back to Ionic beginnings –Aristotle and Plato, for example  The growth of the natural sciences in the 17 th -18 th centuries set the pace of how science can be applied to society  Vitality of the Enlightenment (Age of Reason) –Emphasis of critical thinking; some applied it to social issues –Persons such as Montesquieu, Rousseau, Turgot, and Mary Wollstonecraft reflected on social concerns of their times

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Revolution, Industrialization, and Urbanization Meaning of these terms:  Revolution: Change of political structures  Industrialization: Changes of means of production or how people make a living  Urbanization: Movement from the rural to the urban environments

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Development of Modern Sociology The Classics  Auguste Comte ( )  Origins of the term sociology  Statistics and dynamics  Natural science applied to society  Positivism  Stages of societal development

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Development of Modern Sociology The Classics  Harriet Martineau ( )  Elements: –Used Comte’s work –Studied religion, politics, childrearing, slavery, immigration in categories of race, class and gender –Sociology: “true science of human nature” –Call for equality of women

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Development of Modern Sociology The Classics  Herbert Spencer ( )  Elements –Society as evolving as organic species –Process of struggle –“Social Darwinism” –Only the fittest of persons (and societies) would survive

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Development of Modern Sociology The Classics  Emile Durkheim ( )  Elements –Created a methodology of studying society –Social facts –Anomie –Division of labour –First to publish a statistical study (on suicide)

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Development of Modern Sociology The Classics  Karl Marx ( )  Elements –Class conflict as the source of change –Bourgeoisie and proletariat –Means of production –Alienation –Revolution

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Development of Modern Sociology The Classics  Max Weber ( )  Elements –Economic systems as only one source of change –Famous “Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” –Value free sociology –Verstehen –Study of bureaucracies

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Development of Modern Sociology The Classics  George Simmel ( )  Elements –Society as a web of patterned interactions –Focus of sociology: social interaction in groups –Interaction conditioned by size: dyads, triads, etc –Formal sociology: accenting the universal, recurring social forms that underlie the varying content of social interaction –Contrast of form ( a geometry of social life) and content of social interaction in different contexts

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Development in North America  United States –First department at the University of Chicago in 1892 –Central scholars: Robert Park ( ); George H. Mead ( ): founder of symbolic interaction perspective –Jane Addams ( ): Well-known woman scholar: published, created “Hull House”, charter member of the American Sociological Society

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Development in North America  United States –W.E.B. Du Bois ( , African American) –Classic study of Philadelphia’s African American community  Canada –1925 at McGill University: model after the “Chicago School of Sociology” –1963 at University of Toronto: focus on the political and economic history of Canada –Foundation of the Canadian Review of Sociology in 1965

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Development in North America  Canada –The 1970s sees the “Canadianization” of sociology with foci such as regionalism, ethnic relationships, multiculturalism, social class, race, and gender –A classic of Canadian sociology was the Vertical Mosaic by John Porter (1965) –First major female sociologist: Patricia Marchak who published Ideological Perspectives on Canadian Society (1975)

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives  Functionalist  Conflict  Feminist  Symbolic Interactionist  Postmodernist

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Functionalist  Assumption: Society is a stable, orderly system  Basis of society: societal consensus of shared values, beliefs, and behavioural expectations  Society as parts to a whole with each part having a function  Society like a living organism

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Functionalist Talcott Parsons ( ) –All societies must make provisions for meeting social needs in order to survive –Division of Labour necessary for this survival –Instrumental and expressive roles necessary also for this survival R. K. Merton ( ) –Manifest and Latent Functions –Dysfunctions as well as functions –Famous “Anomie Theory” of Deviance

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Functionalist  Applying a Functionalist Perspective to the Study of Suicide  Durkheim’s lead with his famous empirical study of suicide  Key theory: suicide is to be seen as an effect of social rather than personal factors; that where there is no or little shared sense of community, suicide rates will be higher (Canadian example among some Aboriginal Communities)

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Conflict  Assumption: groups in society are engaged in a continuous power struggle for control of scarce resources  Key classical figures: Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel  The American C. W. Mills ( ) focused on power and resource inequalities with the goal of social reform  Key concept: the Power Elite

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Conflict  Applying a Functionalist Perspective to the Study of Suicide  Searching for social roots (like functionalism) of the problem  Of special note: Social Class and Race (see next slide)

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Two Special Roots or Factors of Suicide in Canada Race The marginalization of Aboriginal Peoples from the central controls of society leave them vulnerable Larger factors such as oppression and deprivation Few opportunities for a successful life Social Class Young people from low-income or working class background Few opportunities for a successful life Feel they are the most powerless

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Feminist  Assumption: that gender is necessary category to understand and to explain inequalities in homes, paid labour, politics, law, and culture  Many different “feminisms”  Some variations: the structure of society is male dominated; male dominated social interactions  Focus on patriarchy and a call for freedom from control and an egalitarian society

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Feminist  Applying a Feminist perspective to suicide  Research shows that men are more likely to commit suicide and succeed at it than women  However, women are more likely to attempt suicide than men. Why?  Because of continued gendered inequalities in the social system

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Symbolic Interactionist  Assumption: Society is a sum of the interactions of individuals and groups  Key terms: –macrolevel and microlevel analysis –Symbol –Importance of subjective interpretations of the social world –Looking glass self and generalized other (under the chapter on Socialization) –Impression management and dramaturgical analysis

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Symbolic Interactionist  Applying a Symbolic Interactionist perspective to suicide –How does the meaning of suicide differ in various cultures? –Among Aboriginal Communities, some youth define suicide in heroic terms –Al Quada terrorists consider suicide a heroic, religious act –Focus on interactions and group behaviours

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Postmodernist  Assumption: Existing theories of society have been unsuccessful in explaining social life that is a result of post-industrialization, consumerism, and global communication  Central terms –Information explosion –Rise of consumer society –Global village image –Post-industrial society

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Postmodernist  Applying Postmodern Perspectives to Suicide  Because of media, many false realities and pseudo-explanations in the absence of real knowledge about events or their causes  That the media, the internet, and cyberspace have “agency” and can act on their own  May explain the mass suicide of a destructive cult called “Heaven’s Gate”

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada