1. SOCI 100: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
CHAPTER 4: SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SOCIAL INTERACTION
Fall 2012
Instructor: Deniz Yükseker

2. Levels of socIologIcal analysIs
Macrosociology
Analysis of social life that focuses on structures, institutions, groups and the interactions between them.
Microsociology
Analysis of social life that focuses on social interactions; i.e., what people do when they are in the presence of others

3. MacrosocIology Social structure Culture Social class Social status
Roles
Groups
Social institutions
How do the functionalist and conflict perspectives use these concepts?

4. MACROSOCIOLOGY
Social structure: the framework of society that surrounds us; this framework gives direction to and sets limits on our behavior and attitudes
Culture: includes a group’s language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and material objects
Social class: people who belong to similar level and types of income, occupation and education

5. MACROSOCIOLOGY
Social status: the position that someone occupies in a social group
Status set
Ascribed status: a position that a person inherits at birth, or receives involuntarily later in life
Achieved status: positions that are earned or accomplished through some effort or action by an individual
Master status

6. macrosocIology
Roles: the behaviors, obligations and privileges attached to a status
Social group: people who have something in common and who believe that what they have in common is significant
Social institutions: the organized, usual or standard ways by which society meets its basic needs

7. MACROSOCIOLOGY
Social institutions: Family, religion, education, economy, medicine, politics, law, science, military, mass media How do the functionalist and conflict perspectives approach social institutions?

8. MACROSOCIOLOGY
Functionalist theory: societies establish institutions, i.e., customary ways, to solve their basic needs. What are basic needs? 1- reproduction 2- socializing new members 3- Producing and distributing goods and services 4- preserving order 5- providing a sense of purpose Social institutions help solve these basic needs.

9. MACROSOCIOLOGY Examples (from Figure 4.2 on page 98 in the book)
Social institution
Basic needs of society
Groups or organizations
statuses
values
norms
family
Regulate reproduction, socialize and protect children
Relatives, kinship groups
Daughter, son, father, mother, etc.
Sexual fidelity, providing for the family, respecting parents
Don’t cheat on your spouse
religion
Meaning of life
Congregation of a church, mosque, synagogue, etc., religious denominations
Priest, imam, rabbi, etc.
Holy texts such as the Bible and the Quran should be honored
Do your worshipping, do not sin
military
Protection from enemies, law enforcement
Army, navy, air force, gendarmerie
Soldier, officer, NCO, etc.
becoming a martyr for your country is an honorable thing
Follow orders, be ready to sacrifice yourself for your fellow soldiers and your country

10. MACROSOCIOLOGY Conflict perspective:
Social institutions do not always work for the common good.
Often, powerful groups control social institutions, and use these institutions to maintain their power and prestige

11. MACROSOCIOLOGY
Examples: Family may be an institution that reproduces patriarchy, in addition to raising children. Military may be used to oppress dissenters in a society, rather than merely protecting the country against enemies Religion may teach people not to question authority, in addition to providing meaning in life.

12. macrosocIology
What holds a society together, even though societies are full of inequalities (social class) and even though powerful groups control institutions?

13. macrosocIology Durkheim’s classical answer:
Mechanical solidarity (social integration)
Organic solidarity (division of labor)
Ferdinand Tönnies’s classical answer
Gemeinschaft (intimate communities)
Gesellschaft (impersonal relations)

14. MICROSOCIOLOGY
Symbolic interactionists and other microsociological perspectives focus on face- to-face interactions in everyday life.
Examples:
Stereotypes
Personal space (intimate distance, personal distance, social distance, public distance)
Eye contact
Smiling
Body language

15. MICROSOCIOLOGY
What does the following news story about an arrest during last summer’s London Olympic games tell us about face-to-face interaction?

16. Parkinson's disease sufferer held by police at Olympic cycling road race 'because he would not smile'
The Daily Mail newspaper, 9 August 2012
arrested-police-smiling-cycling-road-race.html
A father with Parkinson’s disease was arrested as he watched the Olympic cycling road race because he ‘failed to smile or look like he was enjoying himself’.
Mark Worsfold, a martial arts trainer and former soldier, claims that he was thrown to the floor and handcuffed just as cyclists passed by.
His worried wife Nicola only found out he was being held after she reported him missing when he did not turn up for their daughter’s ninth birthday party.
Parkinson's disease sufferer Mark Worsfold was held by police as he watched the cycling because he 'failed to smile’. Police said Mr Worsfold, who was held for over five hours, was arrested because of ‘his manner, his state of dress and his proximity to the course’.
But Mr Worsfold, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2010, said that one of the symptoms of the disease is muscle rigidity, which can cause his face to become expressionless and mask-like.
The police officers who made the arrest have apologised to him.

17. MICROSOCIOLOGY
Dramaturgy: the presentation of self in society Erving Goffman ( ): a leading American symbolic interactionist sociologist Dramaturgy Back stages and front stages Impression management

18. MICROSOCIOLOGY
To keep face Sign-vehicles (appearance, social setting and manners) Teamwork Face-saving behavior

19. MICROSOCIOLOGY
Role performance Role conflict Role strain

20. mICROSOCIOLOGY
Ethnomethodology: introduced by Harold Garfinkel, another symbolic interactionist the study of how people use commonsense understandings to make sense of life Background assumptions: taken-for-granted, common understanding of how the world operates and how people ought to act in it

21. MICROSOCIOLOGY
The social construction of reality The Thomas theorem: “If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” People’s definitions of reality, their subjective interpretations of situations, have social consequences.