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Summary Classic sociology approaches
- Instelling
- Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RuG)
Summary of classic sociology approaches, the literature of week 38.
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Literature week 38. Chapter 1. Classic sociological approaches.Sociology is the science that studies and describes how we live together. Sociology only emerged at
a time when our way of living together became problematic. Issues become visible or attract
attention only when they cause problems. In sociology the problem is living together. Classic
sociology focuses on what goes on between people to explain behavior. This ‘between’ is also
referred to as social interaction or the communication between and acting together of people, which
by the way, includes how people feel towards each other, and their feelings towards their collective
action. Individual behavior is part of a collective pattern, of the result of interactions with others and
of the culture in which that behavior is embedded. Paradoxical as it may seem, to sociologists even
the individual itself and the importance that contemporary Western society places on individual
freedom, authenticity and self-determination are collective phenomena, since they are culturally
determined. Individualization is the result of how we live together and how we organize society.
‘Together’ does not automatically imply harmony. A society emerges because connections are
established. We never see most of the connections, either because they were already there when we
were born or because they lead an unconscious or pre-reflexive existence. Connections influence our
emotions, our reasoning, our way of thinking and acting to such an extent that they can provide a
society with a more or less recognizable identity.
How we trade and the manner in which we make trade agreements is determined to a high degree at
the supra-national level rather than at the national level. Society has become a patchwork, making
sociologists sometimes look like anthropologists in their own countries. Many things are still
remained on the national level. Social interactions in most European countries are still shaped by the
state. We have become hubs in a network in which each new connection, but also each disappearing
contact shapes the social sphere. Our society does not consist exclusively of people but also of things
or objects that are part of our lives and influence our social interactions -> integration of non-humans
or semi-subjects. It is not these objects themselves that are the subject of sociology, just as people as
such are no subject for the sociologist. The focus is always on the interactions between people and
between objects and people.
Contemporary sociology is the science that studies and describes how we live together. Its focus is on
the interactions between people and between people and objects. Society, as the object of study of
sociology, is shaped by people and things that establish connections. These connections can be local,
regional, national, continental or global and can be both real and virtual in nature. The nature,
intensity and scale of these connections eventually determine the way in which we live together.
Contemporary sociology aims to provide insight into this complex design of living together.
A different perspective on the way in which people (and things) are connected leads to different
ways in which to observe, interpret and describe this living together. There are a lot of different
sociological interpretations.
Social dimension: individual versus collective
The social dimension is founded on the classic difference in sociological views of the relationship
between the individual and society. A significant number of sociologists assume that super-individual
or collective patterns – which can be of a historical and/or unconscious nature – determine our social
behaviour. The first interpretation: society is shaped by uncontrollable historical laws or universal
social structures that determine both individual actions and group actions. The second
interpretation: individuals determine their own fate to a large degree and play an active role, which
can to a certain extent define the society in which they live.
Political dimension: preservation versus transformation
Research results can also be used to propose solutions, for instance through advice on policy. If such
proposals meet with approval and the proposed solutions are implemented, they assume a political
aspect. Sociology then not only studies the design of society, but its research results can also be used
, to shape society. In the broader sense of the word, ‘politics’ means exactly that: shaping the ‘living-
together’. A society has many different ‘designers’ who ‘engage in politics’ in some form or other. A
large group of sociologists simply deny or ignore their relationship with politics. They sometimes do
this on purpose, for fear it may influence the objectivity and impartiality of the research.
The view on individual or collective patterns on the one hand and the relationship between sociology
and politics on the other hand enter into a remarkable relationship. It is no coincidence that the
sociological notion that the individual is the basis of is very often aligned with liberal or neoliberal
thinking.
The sociological point of view of scientists, and their perspective on society, will be different
depending on the school they associate themselves with.
Critical social theory
Marxism
Karl Marx (1818-1883), one of the classic sociologists who pointed out the problems caused by the
Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century. Marx’s research focus was on labour relationships in
modern society. The inequality between the owners of the means of production (factory owners) and
those who owned nothing and could only sell their labour was the key issue in Marx’s analysis of
society. -> Das Kapital (book).
Base and superstructure: In Marx’s theory the distinction between base and superstructure is
crucial. With ‘base’ he refers to the economic/production relationships that form the basis of society.
It is this base that to a large extent defines the superstructure, in particular the juridical, political and
cultural design of society. In today’s terms this means that our preference in social contacts (our
interactions), depends heavily on our capital (and that of our parents). Social behavior and social
relationships are to a large extent determined by our economic position.
Prosperity, or lack of it, determines to which social class we belong. Marx distinguished between the
working classes (those who own nothing) and the bourgeoisie (those who own the means of
production). As the latter class can invest money (M) in production means and work time, the
unpropertied workers can acquire an income through the production of goods (G). By having workers
produce more goods in their working hours than they need themselves to survive, the owner of the
production means can sell these goods for more money (M+) then he originally invested. This is what
Marx called the production of surplus value. It is this chain that constitutes capitalism: M→G→M+.
Capitalism therefore is an economic relationship in which more money is created by investing money
and using the surplus in work time that is not needed by the worker to provide for his own survival.
It is the historically acquired (or inherited) material possessions that shape our social interactions ->
historical materialism. Marxism assumes that individual behavior is determined by historical
patterns. Both the relationships that exist within society and the attempts to change them hardly
depend on individual actions. On the contrary, society is based on collective relationships of
production and can only be changed by a collective struggle, which for Marx was the emancipation of
the working class. In classical Marxism, critical social theory therefore is aimed at social change.
Critical social theory sees the relationship between scientifically established facts on the one hand
and values or fundamental (political) choices on the other hand as dialectic. There is a reciprocal
interaction between the two. So, on the one hand, values and views determine the research agenda
while on the other hand scientific results may influence these values and views.
In the Frankfurt School shared philosophers and sociologists Marx’s critical view of how society was
shaped and through their insights and research they aimed to change this in a positive way. One
important difference with classical Marxism is that all these descendants were more occupied with
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