Sociology BY Ebrahim Bin Najam Lecture No. 1 What is Sociology? Hello, everyone, this is the first lecture on sociology and by the end of this lecture, you will have a general idea of what sociology is. We are all taught maths, English and science subjects from primary school but what we are not taught beforehand is sociology. This subject can be defined as the “The organized study of the development, organization and functioning as well as classification of societies, alongwith the relationships that exist within them.” This tells us that sociology is the study of societies. Sociological Perspectives There are three major perspectives in sociology . These perspectives actually represent the viewpoints of sociologists on societies and their functioning. Within every perspective there are different schools of thought and within every school are theories. So coming back to perspectives, the three main perspectivres are: Functionalism Perspective 2. Conflict perspective 3. Symbolic interactionism Functionalism basically focuses on the interdependence of all functions and their contribution in keeping societies functioning. All their theories are marked by this notion. Famous sociologists from this perspective include Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, and Robert Merton. These sociologists look for consensus in society. 1. Emile Durkheim fathered the theory of solidarity in a society, his works such as “Suicide” and “The elementary forms of religious life” also show his deep enthusiasm and command in viewing the world in a perspective neither philosophical nor psychological. According to Durkheim in all societies solidarity and consensus exist, these forms of cohesion are natural to the society and the forms of solidarity are two: 1. 2. Mechanical Solidarity: This form of solidarity exists due to the homogeneity of activities in a society. It was inherent in simpler , more primordial societies where all men shard similar activities i.e hunting and building and the women did the child bearing and cooking. It is the similarity of activities between members of the same sex that gave birth to this form of solidarity Organic Solidarity: This form of solidarity is present in modern-day society where people specialise in different activities e.g engineer, architect, businessman etc. No doubt activities are not similar but even this difference gives rise to a bond because the people realize their interdependence on each other as each member is needed to do his/her job so that other members can benefit and vice versa. Conflict Theory This perspective in sociology is all about defiance and change with the traditional “bourgeoisie” system. It emphasises upon the class difference that leads to the domination in society of the lower class( Proletariat) by the upper class( Bourgeoisie). Karl Marx one of the classical leaders of Conflict theory, and the father of Marxism, spearheaded this belief by giving it an economic dimension. He emphasised that the proletariat did all the wok and in return were given the bare minimal, they only had their labour to sell, whereas, the bourgeoisie bought the capital and absorbed most of the profits themselves. The false class consciousness and sense of complacency that the bourgeoisie instilled in the proletariat dispelled any threat of revolution as the proletariat were made to think that bourgeoisie were doing everything for welfare of proletariat. However one thing Marx made clear about was that the revolution, that will cause the downfall of the bourgeoisie and the levelling of classes, will be inevitable. He gave this reason that slowly the gap between the two classes will grow larger and will cause the proletariat to realise their position and revolt, the masses shall hence overpower the elite. Symbolic Interactionism This perspective focuses on the meaning of symbols and events and the way individuals perceive them and attach certain values to them, this is a micro scale perspective and focuses on the importance of the actions and symbols. George Herbert Mead and Max Weber are important sociologists belonging to this perspective. Such sociologists focus on qualitative data, which is the responses of people about how they feel about things. Well, these are the main perspectives of sociology that you must know. For now we will be studying just these and hopefully in the next lectures I will explain to you the outlook of these perspectives on almost every aspect of society. FAQs Q:1 Breifly describe the Marxist perspective. Ans: Marxism, is a movement that was started by Karl Marx, this movement centres around the economic relations that determine classes and hence the superstructure of the society. According to Marx there were three periods in the human history. These periods he referred to as “epochs”. The first epoch saw the birth of primitive communism where no man was the slave of another and each was independent, the second Epoch was that of slave society where a slave class existed and on the other hand a slave-ruling class. The slaves were given no property and were only made to do work where as the ruling class enjoyed the fruits of their hardwork. The third Epoch was that of Feudal Societies where several classes like King, Nobles, Knights existed but the serfs had to do the slave work. Finally came the epoch of social revolution where the proletariat will be so much deprive that they will finally gain class consciousness. This will cause them to overthrow the Bourgeoisie who are now powerless against their labour. Marxist perspective thereby revolves around hoe Bourgeoisie control all the structures that uphold society and use them for spreading false consciousness in the minds of proletariat.
