Sociology
Foundations of Sociology + Social Anthropology
- both study social behaviour and the way social institutions a ect our lives
1. Social anthropology: The study of human societies and cultures with an
interest in patterns of human behaviour
- Methodology: observation, conversation (learning about a culture)
- History: colonial power needed to understand + control indigenous (outwards)
2. Sociology: The scienti c study of human social interaction and the social forces
that shape human behaviour
- Methodology: qualitative - measured urban areas using surveys and interviews
- History: industrialisation and rapid change (inwards)
Scienti c:
- logical arguments e.g. evidence,
interpretations
- Objective, no moral judgment
- Provide explanations of social reality, must
have reasons to support claims
Sociological thinking
- Social competence: (natural) ability to negotiate your social environment
(relationships, customs)
- Sociological imagination: (trained) mindset used to view personal struggles as
result of a societal problem e.g. unemployment in SA isn’t individual problems,
not individual but part of society. Individual backgrounds also a ect di erent
social groups and rights e.g. apartheid, racism, classism
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,Sociological Perspectives
1. Seeing general in particular
- understand social behaviour in a broader context
- Identifying general patterns
2. Seeing strange in familiar
- questioning what’s taken for granted e.g. social norms like segregation
Role of sociology
- Improvement of society
- Unveils issues e.g. oppression, exploitation, racism
Origins
1. Great philosophers looking at something bigger than society (deeper reality) ideal
society and con icting ideas.
2. Age of enlightenment (movement that discovered human reason as knowledge),
questioned religion. Social contract to peacefully coexist, democracy born when
rulers broke this. “I think, therefore I am” individual human rights. Critical thought,
investigating and scienti c arguments and facts.
3. Conditions needed social change: e.g. French Revolution: Unequal society -
criticism from age of enlightenment rejected monarchy and taxing. Overthrew
existing structures.
e.g. Industrial Revolution: Improved production and employment caused
urbanisation and poverty. New class structures = strati cation (owners and
employee labor relations), con ict caused new laws.
The Theoretical Foundations of Sociology
Theories
- Built by underlying concepts - not physical things, explain our experiences and isolates
certain ideas e.g. class. Concepts are a tool to divide up the world, not universal, must
be tested against evidence
- Social theory doesn’t necessarily provide evidence, sociological theory does
- sociologists doing studies can’t be external as they’re part of society
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, Major perspectives in Sociology
- Durkheim: Sociology should be modelled after natural sciences. Social facts concept
believes that this phenomena had an external coercive force on people.
Suicide work for French gov statistically discovered di erent rates of suicide for di erent
groups of people and this was due to social cohesion (bonds and ties keeping a group
together).
Types of suicide: Egotistic and Anomic (detaching from social bonds), Fatalistic, Ultralistic.
Anomie: lack of emotion when breaking societal norms, morals cause isolation from society.
Collective conscience: sum of all individual consciences
Dichotomy caused by religion of what is sacred and profane.
- Weber: Opposite - scienti c principles can’t be applied to human complexities.
Didn’t believe materialist and idealist frameworks could be used to explain society
(opposing Marx and Comte).
Sociology was identifying generalised social uniformities emerging from historical events.
No laws of history and society (not monothetic). Verstehen; tool to analyse how individuals
make sense of their world, not societal. He says individual acts have meaning and intention,
not higher force.
Subjectivity - how each person experiences events.
Formal rationality, bureaucracy shows collective rational action.
Government, laws and technology contributed to formation of capitalism, religion also
contributed (being humble and hard working).
- Marx: Studied powerful and workers divided, showing theorists usually only represent
elite. Con ict between 2 groups - based o historical materialism and who owned means
of production.
Interested in how Capitalism led to dominance and that its built on exploitation of labourers,
says it also led to economic collapses. Socialism and communism (classless society) were
solutions. Activist
Proto-sociologists (before)
- Khaldun: founded human association, social group cohesion
- Comte: articulated natural science rules making sociology formal and objective.
Povitism - laid out clear rules on relating theory to empirical data collection. Away
from philosophy towards evidence. 3 stages = Theological (releasing mind from
norms), Philosophical (speculating), Scienti c (evidence for ndings)
Development and challenges to classical social theory
- Sociology of knowledge: Looking at how knowledge emerges
- Anti-positivist: theories in uenced by time and place. All the historical thinkers were in a
time of modernisation - industrial revolutions etc.
- Double consciousness: looking at yourself through someone else’s eyes
Postmodern and post-structuralism
- Post modernism emerged out of WW2 as a response to high-tech and transformation
- Modernism represented the world using overarching grand narratives and theories
- Post modernism emerged from 3 claims: Progress didn’t exist, “High-culture” isn’t
superior to “low culture” (still not true today) and no longer possible to separate real and
copies and natural and arti cial.
- Black scholarship: white dominated sociology and education. Eurocentrism (isolated for
not ‘ tting in’ to European norms). Biko and black conscious movement gave
psychological and cultural liberation
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, Decolonial theory
- All institutions need to be decolonised (not only university)
- Knowledge and history is obscured
- Not only natural recourses need to be reclaimed
- Mignolo (man): Geographical location and the body politic: how an individual feels
represented by themselves, how they’re expected to be
- Epistemic reconstruction - ideal way to decolonise going forward
Basic research concepts and processes
Systematic observation:
1. Objective processes (doesn’t matter who’s eye looks through a telescope)
- Using instruments and measurements to distinguish facts
- Historically beginning with astronomy and the start of natural sciences
2. Classical criteria for the systematic observation (still contested for sociology)
- Validity: meeting its claims
- Reliability: consistent research results
Research:
Research methodology: made of categories of research design
- Quantitate methodology e.g. experiments, surveys
- Qualitative methodology e.g. case studies
- Mixed methods
Processes in social research
1. Formulating a topic/research problem: nding topic of interest, reading literature,
formulating question, identifying the nature of evidence (quantitative etc)
2. Develop methodology and research design: Research proposal made of intro, research
questions, literature review, research designs/methods, ethics section
3. Fieldwork, data collection, analysis and writing: Discipline speci c or problem speci c
eldwork and data collection.
4. Dissemination of research results: Writing and publishing your research, Hon/Masters,
conferences, books etc.
Relationship between theory and research
Sociology as a science:
Social research vs sociological research:
Povitism: theory that claims there ought to be one scienti c method used for all disciplines
Historical perspectives of sociology represent ways to approach research:
- Povitism / scienti c sociology = quantitative research
- Interpretivism / social constructionist knowledge claims = qualitative research
(Sociology has methodologies and is more factual by research)
Theoretical traditions in society
2 dominant historical social and sociological traditions:
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