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In this document I summarized the mandatory texts of sociological perspectives that you will need for the (oral) exam as extra information - especially for the contemporary authors!
The texts is summarized in 1, max 3 pages (in case it is a long and important text)
Structuralism
Durkheim - What is a Social Fact?
Social fact: used to designate almost all the phenomena that occur within society- however little social interest
of some generality they present
Eg when I perform my duties as a brother/husband and carry out commitments I fulfil obligations which are
defined in laws and customs, and which are external to myself and my actions
Monetary system to pay debts, … all function independently of the use I make of them
outside consciousness of the individual
you’re not forced to use the legal currency, but it is impossible to do otherwise
Most of our ideas and tendencies are not dev by ourselves, but come to us from outside, they can only penetrate
us by imposing themselves upon is
Social constraints do not necessarily exclude the individual personality
We are the victims of an illusion which leads us to believe we have ourselves produced what has been imposed
upon us externally
What constitutes social facts are the beliefs, tendencies and practices of the group taken collectively
A phenomenon can only be collective if it is common to all the members of society (=if it is general) BUT if it is
general it is because it is collective but it is very far from being collective because it is general
We accept and adopt beliefs and practices which are ready fashioned by previous generations we accept and
adopt them because they are invested with a special authority that our education has taught us to recognize and
respect
A social fact is identifiable through the power of external coercion which it exerts or is capable of exerting upon
individuals
if a mode of behavior existing outside the consciousness of individuals becomes general, it can only do so
by exerting pressure upon them
= a social fact is any way of acting, whether fixed or not, capable of exerting over the individual an external
constraint
= which is general over the whole of a given society whilst having an existence of its own, independent of its
individual manifestations
Pong- Family Structure, School Context, and Eighth-Grade Math and Reading
Achievement
More and more students from single-parent families and stepfamilies does that affect their achievement? Yes,
negatively
Socioeconomic and edu disadvantages may then be transmitted from generation to generation in a cycle that is
difficult to break transmission of inequality
Less likely to have financial support of their parent, low degree of involvement, weak parental authority in
single-parent families
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, Stepparents have weaker legal obligations to minor stepchildren who are less likely to receive inheritance from
them
Lower levels of parental school involvement that families with 2 biological parents
Lower socio-eco status families live in low socioeco status neighborhoods where schools are poorly financed +
have fewer physical resources for learnings produce students with low school achievement
Result of research:
- Kids from two-parents scored 4 points higher in both math and reading test than single-parents smaller diff for
stepfamilies but still higher
- More socioeconomic status advantages (edu level + income)
- Participate more in the school
- Living in a single-parent family/stepfamily is about one fourth as damaging to the child’s math achievement as a
drop in one level of a parent’s schooling or failure to discuss school matters frequently with the child
- White and Asian students outperformed black and Hispanic students in both subjects
- Girls do better than boys academically expect in math and science
- School’s socioeconomic status mediates the contextual influence of single-parent families and stepfamilies on
school achievement
- This implies that the positive effect of parents knowing other parents is most important in schools where there
are greater concentrations of students from single-parent families and stepfamilies
- attending a school with a high concentration of students from single-parents families and stepfamilies is, on
average, more detrimental to a student's eighth-grade achievement than is his or her living in a single-parent
family or stepfamily
- Parents who are engaged in continuing conversations with other parents exchange ideas about parenting
practices and strategies, thereby enhancing their own part
Ritzer- Parson’s structural functionalism
“action” systems AGIL scheme= complex of activities directed towards meeting a need or needs of the system
4 functional imperatives that are necessary for all systems to survive a system must perform these four functions:
- Adaptation: system must cope with external situation exigencies (adapt to its
environment and adapt the environment to its needs)
o Behavioral organism is the action system that handles the adaptation
function by adjusting to and transforming the external world
- Goal attainment: system must define and achieve its primary goals
o Personality system: defining system goals and mobilizing resources to
attain them
- Integration: regulate the interrelationship of its component parts
o Social system: controlling its component parts
- Latency: system must furnish, maintain and renew both the motivation of individuals and the cultural patterns
that create and sustain the motivation
o Cultural system: providing actors with the norms and values that motivate them for action
Action system: system of levels of social analysis – interrelationships but also hierarchical levels
o lowest level, the physical and organic environment, involves the non-symbolic aspects of the human
body, its anatomy and physiology.
o The highest level, ultimate realty - is not referring to the supernatural so much as to the universal
tendency for societies to address symbolically the uncertainties, concerns, and tragedies of human
existence that challenge the meaningfulness of social organization”
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, Assumptions:
1Systems have the property of order and interdependence of parts.
2 Systems tend toward self-maintaining order, or equilibrium.
3 The system may be static or involved in an ordered process of change.
4 The nature of one part of the system has an impact on the form that the other parts can take.
5 Systems maintain boundaries with their environments.
6 Allocation and integration are two fundamental, processes necessary for a given state of equilibrium of a system.
7 Systems tend toward self-maintenance involving the maintenance of boundaries and of the relationships of parts
to the whole, control of environmental variations, and control of tendencies to change the system from within.
Lots of attention towards change and evolution of societies
Social systems: micro level with interaction between ego and alter ego
= plurality of individual actors interacting with each other in a situation which has at least a physical or environmental aspect,
actors who are motivated in terms of a tendency to the “optimization of gratification” and whose relation to their situations,
including each other, is defined and mediated in terms of a system of culturally structured and shared symbols
Used status-role as the basic unit of the system structural component of the social system
o Status: structural position within the social system
o Role: what the actor does in such a position
person: bundle of statues and roles
1 social systems must be structured so that they operate compatibly with other systems.
2 to survive, the social system must have the requisite support from other systems.
3 the system must meet a significant proportion of the needs of its actors.
4 the system must elicit adequate participation from its members.
5 it must have at least a minimum of control over potentially disruptive behavior.
6 if conflict becomes sufficiently disruptive, it must be controlled.
7 a social system requires a language in order to survive.
Key importance in this integration: processes of internalization and socialization (norms and values of a system are
transferred to the actors within the system)
o If internalized becomes part of the actor’s consciences: when they pursue their own interest they
will in fact serve the interest of the system as a whole
o Actors: passive in the socialization process
Social control but system should accept some deviance and should provide opportunities that allow different
personalities to express themselves without threatening the integrity of the system
4 sub-systems in society in terms of the functions they perform:
- Economy: performs the function for soc of adapting to the environment through labour, production and
allocation eco adapt to soc needs: helps soc adapt to these external realities
- Polity: function of goal attainment by pursuing societal objectives + mobilizing actors and resources to that end
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