Summary Sociological Perspectives VUB- Ugent

SOCIAL PERSEPCTIVES
Demanet 2022




Elisa Breyne

, SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES


Table of Contents
Introduction- Sociological perspectives...........................................................................................................................2
Class 2: Formal sociology...............................................................................................................................................12
Class 4: The sociology of social action...........................................................................................................................21
Class 5: Symbolic interactionism...................................................................................................................................28
Nobert Elias – Figurational Sociology............................................................................................................................35
Giddens- structuration theory.......................................................................................................................................43
Foucault’s ongoing process...........................................................................................................................................49
I-Who is Michel Foucault...........................................................................................................................................49
A-The man behind the theory...................................................................................................................................49
Bauman – Liquid modernity..........................................................................................................................................55



Oral exam (2/3)
1) Abstract

Situate within the four classical perspectives

Argue

Micro/macro, Structure/culture, Criteria

2) Theory question/Reader question

Reader: application test: what’s the methodological perspective or the theoritcal perspective?

3) Contemporary perspectives

Discuss how AUTHOR tries to transcend the structure-agency dilemma. Do you think he succeeds in bridging the
two?




1

,Introduction- Sociological perspectives
Not about theories but perspectiveslenses that sociologists can use to look at social reality

In between a methodological (=define what we will look at) and theoretical

We focus both on classic and contemporary sociological perspectives



A) Focus on:

• Broad visions/directions in sociology
No specific theories/themes
Analytical distinction (=we’ll look at the angles)
 Not always consciously applied (not that the sociologists wakes up and says: “today i’ll be
functionalist it’s based on the kind of questions you want to answer)
 Sometimes mixed in sociological literature it’s not that clear cut as shown in class

Just like any lense: it will distort your reality



B) Distinction

• Substantive perspectives What is studied
o Structuralism, Formal sociology, Sociology of social action, Symbolic interactionism
• Methodological perspectives How do you study
o Positivism, Functionalism, Interpretative sociology
o Functionalism we can also put the conflict perspective (they are each other’s opposite)
o Methodological and substantive perspective are intermixed
Substantive + methodological: Paradigm



C) Substantive perspective

1- Micro- macro distinction
• Interaction between agents (what people do, without looking at the collectivity)
• Collectivities: when we look at thing that are shared in a collectivity
o !!!! NOT only society
o DON’T have to be only people- can be also countries



2- Culture-structure distinction

You see buildings and from there you can imagine a little their relation (people in a building know the people in the
same building compared to people from another building e.g technicum in Ghent)

• Meaning once we are interested in how people give meaning of things = cultural perspective
o How people see reality themselves (culture: meaning- making)
o Need to join every perspective of everyone for sociologists (otherwise: individual psychology)
• Position (no meaning) structure
o e.g where you sit


2

, Examples:

Durkheim: social facts structural properties of society structure and
macro

Sociology of social action (Weber) also interested in the collectivity but
more in what people think (protest ethic and capitalism the way
protestants think enables capitalism)

attitudes shared to the people belonging to the same group

Formal sociology position that people take and how that affects the interactions that people have (eg interaction
with someone that is dependent upon you or if you have an interaction without someone of power)

Dealing with day-to-day interaction

Symbolic interactionism: how do people interact and how do this change how people think

How do they look at themselves in a day-to-day interaction and how that creates a meaning

Ethno-methodology: HOW we say it



D)Three criteria

• Voluntarism Structure vs agency
o Voluntaristic: author gives from freedom to the units
o Not: focus on what determines people

!! not about ideology but on what we have to focus on

• Reductionism Sum & parts
o Reductionism: if people when they come together and form a group don’t form something extra
o Anti-reductionism: when all the members of the group go home, there is something left
 Eg Durkheim we have made law systems and it’s difficult to change it even if we leave

• Nominalism Perception
o Nominalism: when people don’t perceive something, it cannot affect them (eg you walk home in the
dark in a forest and there is a wolf looking at you: you’ll only be afraid of the wolf if you notice it)
o Anti-nominalism: you investigate of things that people are not aware of (studies of gender composition)




D) Historical setting

Fluctuation of popularity for sociologists based on the time we’re in
3