1. Sociology
SIXTEENTH EDITION
Chapter 4
Society

2. Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
4.1 Describe how technological development has shaped the history of human societies. 4.2 Analyze the importance of class conflict to the historical development of human societies. 4.3 Demonstrate the importance of ideas to the development of human societies.

3. Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
4.4 Contrast the social bonds typical of traditional and modern societies. 4.5 Summarize the contributions of Lenski, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim to our understanding of social change.

4. The Power of Society
Does everyone have the same opportunity to use new computer technology such as the Internet?

5. Classic Visions of Society
Karl Marx
Society is defined by type of social conflict.
Max Weber
Society is defined by ideas/modes of thinking.
Emile Durkheim
Society is defined by type of solidarity.

6. Gerhard Lenski: What Is…?
Sociocultural evolution
Changes occur as a society gains new technology

7. Gerhard Lenski: Society and Technology (1 of 2)
Societies have varying patterns of technological complexity.
Societies simple in technology tend to resemble one another.
More technologically complex societies reveal striking cultural diversity.
Technology shapes other cultural patterns.
Simple technology can only support small numbers of people who live simple lives.
High-tech societies are capable of sustaining large numbers of people who are engaged in a diverse division of labor.
Technology influences the pace of societal change.
The greater technology a society has, the faster cultural change will take place.

8. Gerhard Lenski: Society and Technology (1 of 2)
Does advancing technology make society better?
In some ways, perhaps. However, many films and TV shows—as far back as Frankenstein (left) in and as recently as the 2013 film Iron Man 3 (right)—have expressed the concern that new technology not only solves old problems but also creates new ones.
All the sociological theorists discussed in this chapter shared this ambivalent view of the modern world.

9. Limits of Technology
More complex technology has made life better but it is no quick fix for social problems.
Technology creates new problems.
More personal freedom; less sense of community
Nuclear weaponry and threat of nuclear war
Threats to the physical environment

10. Lenski's Five Types Of Societies
Hunting and gathering
The use of simple tools to hunt and gather
Horticultural and pastoral
Horticulture–Use of hand tools to raise crops
Pastoralism–The domestication of animals
Postindustrialism
Information made using computer technology
Agriculture
Large-scale cultivation using plows harnessed to animals or more powerful energy sources
Industrialism
The production of goods using advanced sources of energy to drive large machinery

11. Summing Up (1 of 2) Sociocultural Evolution Type of Society
Historical Period
Productive Technology
Population Size
Settlement Pattern
Social Organization
Examples
Hunting and
Gathering
Societies
Only type of society until about 12,000
years ago; still common several centuries ago; the few examples remaining today are threatened
with extinction
Primitive weapons
25–40 people
Nomadic
Family-centered;
specialization limited to age and sex; little
social inequality
Pygmies of Central
Africa, Bushmen
of southwestern
Africa, Aborigines
of Australia, Semai
of Malaysia, Kaska
Indians of Canada
Horticultural
and Pastoral
From about
12,000 years ago,
with decreasing
numbers after about 3000 b.c.e.
Horticultural societies
use hand tools
for cultivating plants;
pastoral societies
are based on the
domestication of
animals.
Settlements of several
hundred people,
connected through
trading ties to form
societies of several
thousand people
Horticulturalists form
small permanent
settlements; pastoralists
are nomadic.
religious system
begins to develop;
moderate specialization;
increased
Middle Eastern
societies about
5000 b.c.e., various
societies today in
New Guinea and
other Pacific islands,
Yąnomamö today in
South America
Agrarian
5,000 years ago,
with large but
decreasing
numbers today
Animal-drawn plow
Millions of people
Cities become common, but they generally contain only a small proportion of
the population.
Family loses significance as distinct
religious, political,
and economic systems
emerge; extensive
specialization;
increased social
inequality
Egypt during
construction of the
Great Pyramids,
medieval Europe,
numerous predominantly
agrarian societies
of the world
today

12. Summing Up (2 of 2) Sociocultural Evolution Type of Society
Historical Period
Productive Technology
Population Size
Settlement Pattern
Social Organization
Examples
Industrial
Societies
From about 1750 to
the present
Advanced sources
of energy; mechanized
production
Millions of people
Cities contain most
of the population.
Distinct religious,
political, economic,
educational, and
family systems;
highly specialized;
marked social
inequality persists,
lessening somewhat
over time
Most societies today
in Europe, North
America, Australia,
and Japan, which
generate most of
the world’s industrial
Postindustrial
Emerging in recent
decades
Computers
that support an
information-based
economy
Population remains
concentrated in
cities but begins to
decentralize.
Similar to industrial
societies, with information
processing
and other service
work gradually
replacing industrial
Industrial societies
are now entering the
postindustrial stage.

13. Gerhard Lenski: What Is…?
Social conflict
Struggle between segments of society over valued resources

14. Karl Marx: Society and Conflict
Societal segments
Capitalists: People who own and operate factories and other businesses; pursuit of profits
Proletariat: People who sell their productive labor for wages

15. Karl Marx: Society and Production (1 of 2)
Social institutions
Seen as spheres of social life or societal subsystems organized to meet needs
Infrastructure: Society's economic system
Superstructure: Other social institutions-family, religion, political
Economic production involves both technology (industry, in the case of capitalism) and social relationships (forcapitalism, the relationship between the capitalists, who own the factories and businesses, and the workers).
On this infrastructure, or foundation, rests society's superstructure, including its major social institutions as well as core cultural values and ideas. Marx maintained that every part of a society supports the economic system.

16. Karl Marx: Society and Production (2 of 2)
Karl Marx's Model of Society
This diagram illustrates Marx's materialist view that the system of economic production shapes the entire society.
Economic production involves both technology (industry, in the case of capitalism) and social relationships (forcapitalism, the relationship between the capitalists, who own the factories and businesses, and the workers).
On this infrastructure, or foundation, rests society's superstructure, including its major social institutions as well as core cultural values and ideas. Marx maintained that every part of a society supports the economic system.

17. Karl Marx: Conflict and History
History of all existing society is the history of class conflict.
Conflict between entire classes over the distribution of a society's wealth and power
Evolutionary and revolutionary change

18. Karl Marx: Capitalism and Class Conflict
Involves conflict between entire classes over the distribution of a society's wealth and power
Suggests that workers must replace false consciousness with class consciousness
Rejects false consciousness
Explains social problems as short-comings of individuals, not flaws of society
Class consciousness
Group's recognition of themselves as a class unified in opposition to capitalists & capitalism itself
False consciousness
Explanation of social problems as short-comings of individuals, not flaws of society

19. Marx: Capitalism and Alienation
Experience of isolation and misery resulting from powerlessness
Marx posits that capitalists view workers as nothing more than a source of labor.
As people develop technology to gain power, capitalist economy gains control over people.
This creates worker alienation.

20. Capitalism and Alienation (1 of 2)
Capitalism alienates workers in four specific ways.
From the act of working
Workers have no say in production; work is tedious and repetitive.
From the products of work
Workers have no ownership in the product that is sold for profit.
From other workers
Work is competitive rather than cooperative.
From human potential
Workers deny, not fulfill themselves in their work.

21. Capitalism and Alienation (2 of 2)
Marx: Revolution
The only way out of capitalism is to remake society.
Socialism is a system of production that could provide for the social needs of all.

22. Marx: Revolution Marx believed
The working majority would realize they held the key to a better future.
The change would be revolutionary and perhaps even violent.
A socialist society would end class conflict.

23. Max Weber: Rationalization of Society
Idealism
Ideal type
Historical change from tradition to rationality as the main type of human thought.
Why are some societies more eager than others to adopt new technology?
Societal rationalization based on willingness to adopt latest technology

24. Max Weber: Tradition and Rationality
Weber focused on way people think about world
Modern societies = rationality as main type of human thought
Technology = strong indicator of degree of rationalization
To the outside observer, the trading floor of a stock exchange may look like craziness. But in such activity Weber saw the essence of modern rationality.
Societal rationalization based on willingness to adopt latest technology

25. Max Weber: Great World Thesis
Protestantism and Capitalism
Key to the birth of industrial capitalism lay in Protestant Reformation.
Industrial capitalism is the major outcome of Calvinism.
Calvinist predestination
Worldly prosperity is a sign of God's grace.
Poverty is a sign of God's rejection.

26. Global Map 4–1 High Technology in Global Perspective
Countries with traditional cultures cannot afford, choose to ignore, or even intentionally resist new technology that nations with highly rationalized ways of life quickly embrace. Personal computers, central to today's high technology, are commonplace in high-income countries such as the United States.
In low-income nations, by contrast, they are unknown to most people.
Source: United Nations (2010) and International Telecommunication Union (2012).

27. Weber's Rational Social Organization
Seven characteristics of organization
Distinctive social institutions
Large-scale organization
Specialized tasks
Personal discipline
Awareness of time
Technical competence
Impersonality

28. Emile Durkheim: What Is…?
Society
More than individuals
Society has a life of its own, beyond our personal experiences.
Social facts
Any patterns rooted in society rather than the experience of individuals

29. Weber: Rationality, Bureaucracy, and Science
Growth of large, rational organizations is one of the defining traits of modern societies.
Capitalism, bureaucracy, and science are expressions of rationality.
Alienation caused by countless bureaucratic rules and regulations.
Max Weber agreed with Karl Marx that modern society is alienating to the individual, but they identified different causes of this problem.
For Marx, economic inequality is the reason; for Weber, the problem is isolating and dehumanizing bureaucracy.
George Tooker's painting Landscape with Figures echoes Weber's sentiments.
George Tooker, Landscape with Figures, 1963, egg tempera on gesso panel, 26 × 30 in. Private collection.
Reproduction courtesy D. C. Moore Gallery, New York.

30. Emile Durkheim: Society and Function
Society exists beyond ourselves
Objective reality”
Beyond our own subjective perceptions of the world
Examples
Norms, values, religious beliefs, and rituals

31. Emile Durkheim: Society as System (1 of 2)
Society has power to guide our thoughts and actions.
Social facts help the operation of society as a whole.
Society fulfills the need for societal regulation.
Modern day society increases anomie.

32. Emile Durkheim: Society as System (2 of 2)
The history of rock-and-roll contains many tragic stories of this kind, including (from left) Janis Joplin's and Jimi Hendrix's deaths by drug overdose (both 1970), Kurt Cobain's suicide (1994), the drugs-induced death of Michael Jackson (2009), and the death of Amy Winehouse by alcohol poisoning (2011).
Durkheim's observation that people with weak social bonds are prone to self- destructive behavior stands as stark evidence of the power of society to shape individual lives.
When rock-and-roll singers become famous, they are wrenched out of familiar life patterns and existing relationships, sometimes with deadly results.

33. Emile Durkheim: Division of Labor (1 of 2)
Mechanical solidarity
Social bonds based on common sentiment and shared moral values that are common among members of preindustrial societies
Organic solidarity
Social bonds based on specialization and interdependence that are strong within industrial societies
The key to change in a society is an expanding division of labor, or specialized economic activity.

34. Emile Durkheim: Division of Labor (2 of 2)
In traditional societies, people dress the same and everyone does much the same work. These societies are held together by strong moral beliefs.
Modern societies, illustrated by urban areas in this country, are held together by a system of production in which people perform specialized work and rely on one another for all the things they cannot do for themselves.

35. Four Visions of Society: What Holds Societies Together?
Gerhard Lenski: A shared culture
Karl Marx: Elites force an 'uneasy peace’
Max Weber: Rational thought, large-scale organizations
Emile Durkheim: Specialized division of labor
How do we understand something as complex as human society?
Each of the thinkers profiled in this chapter offers insights about the meaning and importance of modern society.
Each has a somewhat different view and provides a partial answer to a very complex issue.

36. Four Visions of Society: How Have Societies Changed?
Gerhard Lenski: Changing technology
Karl Marx: Social conflict
Max Weber: From traditional to rational thought
Emile Durkheim: From mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity

37. Are Societies Improving? (1 of 2)
Gerhard Lenski: Modern technology offers expanded human choice, but leaves us with new sets of dangers.
Karl Marx: Social conflict would only end once production of goods and services were taken out of the hands of the capitalists and placed into the hands of all people.

38. Are Societies Improving? (2 of 2)
Max Weber: Saw socialism as a greater evil than capitalism, as large, alienating
Bureaucracies gain more control over people
Emile Durkheim: Was optimistic about modernity and possibility of more freedom for individuals, but concerned about the dangers of anomic feelings.