KCSS EXAM REVISION
Week 1
Positivism (Comte): an approach to the study of society that relies specifically on scientific
evidence to reveal a true nature of how society operates. ‘Positive facts’ are those derived by
reason and logic from sensory experience. Tied to the idea that reality exists outside and
independently of the mind and there for it can be studied objectively and as a real thing.
Globalization: refers to how trade and technology have made the world into a more connected
and interdependent place. Shrinking of the world.
Glocalization: producing a product or service that is developed and distributed globally, but it
also adjusted to accommodate the user/consumer in a local market. The simultaneous occurrence
of both universalizing and particularizing in contemporary society. The Starbucks matcha latte,
or the green tea KitKat draws from Asian cultures.
Sociological imagination (Mills): Way to combine the complexity of everyday life with larger
historical and structural processes. Individuals as a part of a network of other people who
influence one another. Intersection of the personal, historical and social/History and biology.
(Agency vs Structure). Awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society.
Aims to find out at which point a personal trouble becomes a social issue.
The three main perspectives:
1. Functionalism (Durkheim): Macro. Society as an organism/machine whose parts are
interconnected & working together. Every part of society has a function. (Even things
like crime). Distinction between manifest and latent functions.
2. Class conflict (Marx): Macro. Society as an arena of conflict due to various inequalities.
A focus on class struggle and capitalism. There is a belief that all inequalities rise from
capitalism. Looking at power dynamics and analyzing the ways in which struggles over
power drive societal change.
3. Symbolic interactionism (Mead, Weber): Micro. Society as a collection of microlevel
interactions between people. Action depends on the meaning we give to things. We gave
meaning to things based on social interaction & different people assign different
meanings to things. The meaning of something can change. Gives the individual the same
importance as the society as a whole.
Dramaturgical analysis (Goffman): understands social interaction as if it were a play performed
on stage for an audience. People perform roles to each other. The point of social interaction is to
maintain a successful interaction that is in line with expectations/roles. Impression management.
Front stage – What people you are interacting with sees
Back stage – What people you are interacting with don’t see
, Week 2
The three founding fathers of sociology
1. Karl Marx
Father of the conflict perspective
Mainly the conflict between bourgeoisie and proletariat
Focused on social inequality
Critique of capitalism
2. Emile Durkheim
Father of the functionalism perspective
Focused on division of labor.
Focused on social facts rather than individuals.
Distinguished between mechanical solidarity (Gemeinschaft, solidarity from
collective consciousness) and organic solidarity (Gesellschaft, solidarity from
interdependence)
3. Max Weber
Symbolic interactionism
Rationalization – change in the way we think. explaining or justifying behavior
with logical reasons. Includes, calculability, methodical behavior and reflexivity.
(unlike positivism, doesn’t require experience. If it can be explained through
logic, it is rational)
Traces capitalism to protestant ethic – proof of election is made by accumulation
of wealth. The wealthier you are, the more certain you are that you have been
blessed by God. Wealth became an endless aspiration and people started to think
of ways to increase it by increasing efficiency. Which led to rationalization.
Transformed a communal traditional society into an individualistic capitalist
society, with a focus on economic success.
Rise of bureaucracies
Disenchantment with the world, being trapped in an iron cage
Proletariat: the collective term for working class people, wage earners. Proletariat don’t have any
control over the Means of production (material you need in order to labor and produce good) so
they have nothing else to trade besides their labor.
Modernity according to the Frankfurt school (Adorno and Horkheimer)
Critical theory: provides a specific interpretation of Marxist philosophy with regards to some of
its central economic and political notions like commodification, reification, fetishization and
critique of mass culture. The critical theorist is aware that the way in which s/he sees the world is
conditioned by political and ideological structures of the society. Critical theory is therefore,
self-reflexive and studies the ways in which knowledge is socially conditioned and recognises
the power structures inherent in that conditioning.
- Critique of the Culture Industry – Modern media is designed to keep us distracted from
understanding ourselves and changing the political reality.
- Critique of capitalism – it doesn’t sell us things we need. It creates needs. It also creates
the notion that we can buy anything we need buy associating material products with the
Week 1
Positivism (Comte): an approach to the study of society that relies specifically on scientific
evidence to reveal a true nature of how society operates. ‘Positive facts’ are those derived by
reason and logic from sensory experience. Tied to the idea that reality exists outside and
independently of the mind and there for it can be studied objectively and as a real thing.
Globalization: refers to how trade and technology have made the world into a more connected
and interdependent place. Shrinking of the world.
Glocalization: producing a product or service that is developed and distributed globally, but it
also adjusted to accommodate the user/consumer in a local market. The simultaneous occurrence
of both universalizing and particularizing in contemporary society. The Starbucks matcha latte,
or the green tea KitKat draws from Asian cultures.
Sociological imagination (Mills): Way to combine the complexity of everyday life with larger
historical and structural processes. Individuals as a part of a network of other people who
influence one another. Intersection of the personal, historical and social/History and biology.
(Agency vs Structure). Awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society.
Aims to find out at which point a personal trouble becomes a social issue.
The three main perspectives:
1. Functionalism (Durkheim): Macro. Society as an organism/machine whose parts are
interconnected & working together. Every part of society has a function. (Even things
like crime). Distinction between manifest and latent functions.
2. Class conflict (Marx): Macro. Society as an arena of conflict due to various inequalities.
A focus on class struggle and capitalism. There is a belief that all inequalities rise from
capitalism. Looking at power dynamics and analyzing the ways in which struggles over
power drive societal change.
3. Symbolic interactionism (Mead, Weber): Micro. Society as a collection of microlevel
interactions between people. Action depends on the meaning we give to things. We gave
meaning to things based on social interaction & different people assign different
meanings to things. The meaning of something can change. Gives the individual the same
importance as the society as a whole.
Dramaturgical analysis (Goffman): understands social interaction as if it were a play performed
on stage for an audience. People perform roles to each other. The point of social interaction is to
maintain a successful interaction that is in line with expectations/roles. Impression management.
Front stage – What people you are interacting with sees
Back stage – What people you are interacting with don’t see
, Week 2
The three founding fathers of sociology
1. Karl Marx
Father of the conflict perspective
Mainly the conflict between bourgeoisie and proletariat
Focused on social inequality
Critique of capitalism
2. Emile Durkheim
Father of the functionalism perspective
Focused on division of labor.
Focused on social facts rather than individuals.
Distinguished between mechanical solidarity (Gemeinschaft, solidarity from
collective consciousness) and organic solidarity (Gesellschaft, solidarity from
interdependence)
3. Max Weber
Symbolic interactionism
Rationalization – change in the way we think. explaining or justifying behavior
with logical reasons. Includes, calculability, methodical behavior and reflexivity.
(unlike positivism, doesn’t require experience. If it can be explained through
logic, it is rational)
Traces capitalism to protestant ethic – proof of election is made by accumulation
of wealth. The wealthier you are, the more certain you are that you have been
blessed by God. Wealth became an endless aspiration and people started to think
of ways to increase it by increasing efficiency. Which led to rationalization.
Transformed a communal traditional society into an individualistic capitalist
society, with a focus on economic success.
Rise of bureaucracies
Disenchantment with the world, being trapped in an iron cage
Proletariat: the collective term for working class people, wage earners. Proletariat don’t have any
control over the Means of production (material you need in order to labor and produce good) so
they have nothing else to trade besides their labor.
Modernity according to the Frankfurt school (Adorno and Horkheimer)
Critical theory: provides a specific interpretation of Marxist philosophy with regards to some of
its central economic and political notions like commodification, reification, fetishization and
critique of mass culture. The critical theorist is aware that the way in which s/he sees the world is
conditioned by political and ideological structures of the society. Critical theory is therefore,
self-reflexive and studies the ways in which knowledge is socially conditioned and recognises
the power structures inherent in that conditioning.
- Critique of the Culture Industry – Modern media is designed to keep us distracted from
understanding ourselves and changing the political reality.
- Critique of capitalism – it doesn’t sell us things we need. It creates needs. It also creates
the notion that we can buy anything we need buy associating material products with the
