SOCI 100 MIDTERM
Definition of sociology. Units of study.
● Definitions of sociology:
○ Sociology is the systematic study of human societies with an emphasis on modern
industrialised systems. (Anthony Giddens et al. 2018)
○ Sociology is the study of social facts. Social facts are ways of acting and thinking
with the peculiar characteristic of exercising a coercive influence on individual
consciousness. (Emile Durkheim 1895)
● 3 units of study & corresponding levels of analysis:
1. Society as a whole (macro-)
2. Social groups (meso-)
3. Individuals as members of society (micro-)
How is sociology different from the natural sciences?
● Sociology is a type of social science and is complex and interpretive
● What we understand by sociology and what it is (goal and methods) depends on
philosophical assumptions and this has a lot of practical consequences (e.g. positivism,
strong constructivism)
Basic ideas from sociology’s founders: Comte, Durkheim, Weber and Marx.
Founder Key Ideas
Auguste ● Invented the world “sociology”
Comte ● The scientific method can be applied to the study of human behaviour
and society (sociology can produce knowledge of society based on
scientific evidence)
● Sociology as the scientific study should model itself after physics
● Should contribute to the welfare of humanity by using science to
predict and control behaviour
● Ideas about social planning were predicted on an understanding that
society and social order are not natural/preordained by a divine power
but constructed by individuals
Emile ● Positivism → view that social phenomena should only be studied using
Durkheim methods of the natural sciences
● Proposes a method → for sociology to have a scientific basis
sociologists must develop methodological principles to guide research
● Organic solidarity → the social cohesion that results from the various
parts of a society functioning as an integrated whole (society as an
organism that can be explained by its parts)
● Societies exert social constraint through social facts → the conditioning
influence on our behaviour of the groups and societies of which we are
members)
● Analysis of social change is based on the development of the division
of labour
○ Gradually replaced religion as the basis of social cohesion
○ Provides organic solidarity to modern societies
○ As DOL expands, people become more dependent on one
, another
Max Weber ● Takes into account both material constraints and the meaning given to
them
● Rationalisation → the organisation of social, economic, and cultural life
according to principles of efficiency on the basis of technical
knowledge (process by which modes of precise calculation and
organisation increasingly come to dominate the world)
● Importance of symbols and ideas on social change
● Bureaucracy → type of organisation marked by a clear hierarchy of
authority and the existence of written rules of procedure and staffed by
full-time, salaried officials
○ Saw bureaucracy as inevitable
○ Large organisations can run efficiently
○ Problems for effective democratic participation (involves rules
of experts who make decisions w/o consulting those lives
affected by these decisions)
Karl Marx ● Positivism
● Materialistic conception of history → material/economic factors have a
prime role in determining historical change (or all other social
phenomena)
● Social change is affected by the development of capitalism
○ Capitalism is an economic system based on the private
ownership of wealth, which is invested and reinvested in order
to produce profit
● Society is characterised by ongoing conflict due to capitalism
○ Capitalism is a class system in which conflict is inevitable
because it is in the interests of the ruling class to exploit the
working class and in the interest of workers to seek to
overcome that exploitation
The main questions in sociological theory: social order, social structure and human agency,
social preservation and social change, material and non-material causes, objective and
subjective knowledge.
Social Order
How do we explain social cohesion?
How do we internalise social order?
Social Structure & Human Agency
What is the connection between social structures and individuals and groups?
Human agency created social networks, which in turn make social and cultural structures
possible. The latter reach a “life of their own” and tend to reproduce themselves, but can
also be changed.
Social Preservation & Social Change
Do societies tend to remain the same?
When does social change occur?
Societies tend to remain integrated but can be changed.
Definition of sociology. Units of study.
● Definitions of sociology:
○ Sociology is the systematic study of human societies with an emphasis on modern
industrialised systems. (Anthony Giddens et al. 2018)
○ Sociology is the study of social facts. Social facts are ways of acting and thinking
with the peculiar characteristic of exercising a coercive influence on individual
consciousness. (Emile Durkheim 1895)
● 3 units of study & corresponding levels of analysis:
1. Society as a whole (macro-)
2. Social groups (meso-)
3. Individuals as members of society (micro-)
How is sociology different from the natural sciences?
● Sociology is a type of social science and is complex and interpretive
● What we understand by sociology and what it is (goal and methods) depends on
philosophical assumptions and this has a lot of practical consequences (e.g. positivism,
strong constructivism)
Basic ideas from sociology’s founders: Comte, Durkheim, Weber and Marx.
Founder Key Ideas
Auguste ● Invented the world “sociology”
Comte ● The scientific method can be applied to the study of human behaviour
and society (sociology can produce knowledge of society based on
scientific evidence)
● Sociology as the scientific study should model itself after physics
● Should contribute to the welfare of humanity by using science to
predict and control behaviour
● Ideas about social planning were predicted on an understanding that
society and social order are not natural/preordained by a divine power
but constructed by individuals
Emile ● Positivism → view that social phenomena should only be studied using
Durkheim methods of the natural sciences
● Proposes a method → for sociology to have a scientific basis
sociologists must develop methodological principles to guide research
● Organic solidarity → the social cohesion that results from the various
parts of a society functioning as an integrated whole (society as an
organism that can be explained by its parts)
● Societies exert social constraint through social facts → the conditioning
influence on our behaviour of the groups and societies of which we are
members)
● Analysis of social change is based on the development of the division
of labour
○ Gradually replaced religion as the basis of social cohesion
○ Provides organic solidarity to modern societies
○ As DOL expands, people become more dependent on one
, another
Max Weber ● Takes into account both material constraints and the meaning given to
them
● Rationalisation → the organisation of social, economic, and cultural life
according to principles of efficiency on the basis of technical
knowledge (process by which modes of precise calculation and
organisation increasingly come to dominate the world)
● Importance of symbols and ideas on social change
● Bureaucracy → type of organisation marked by a clear hierarchy of
authority and the existence of written rules of procedure and staffed by
full-time, salaried officials
○ Saw bureaucracy as inevitable
○ Large organisations can run efficiently
○ Problems for effective democratic participation (involves rules
of experts who make decisions w/o consulting those lives
affected by these decisions)
Karl Marx ● Positivism
● Materialistic conception of history → material/economic factors have a
prime role in determining historical change (or all other social
phenomena)
● Social change is affected by the development of capitalism
○ Capitalism is an economic system based on the private
ownership of wealth, which is invested and reinvested in order
to produce profit
● Society is characterised by ongoing conflict due to capitalism
○ Capitalism is a class system in which conflict is inevitable
because it is in the interests of the ruling class to exploit the
working class and in the interest of workers to seek to
overcome that exploitation
The main questions in sociological theory: social order, social structure and human agency,
social preservation and social change, material and non-material causes, objective and
subjective knowledge.
Social Order
How do we explain social cohesion?
How do we internalise social order?
Social Structure & Human Agency
What is the connection between social structures and individuals and groups?
Human agency created social networks, which in turn make social and cultural structures
possible. The latter reach a “life of their own” and tend to reproduce themselves, but can
also be changed.
Social Preservation & Social Change
Do societies tend to remain the same?
When does social change occur?
Societies tend to remain integrated but can be changed.
