Conflict Theory is based on the idea that conflict exists in all large societies due to class division
and is the motor of major socio historical change
Conflict theory is based off the 4 C’s.
Conflict- exists in all large societies.
Class: has existed in every society
Contestation: functions can be contested by asking “what group does the function best serve”
Change: society either will or should be changed
Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) believe that:
Society is hierarchy and each group’s position in the hierarchy is determined by the group’s role
in production of wealth.
Symbolic Interactionism
George Herbert Mead: examined socialization, the development of the self, and the social roles
in the context of human interaction.
Herbert Blumer: coined the term symbolic interactionism.
The symbolic interactionism approach looks at the meaning of the daily social interactions
Ervin Goffman : coined the term total institution
Feminist theory
Mary Wollstonecraft is one of the western Europe’s firsty feminist analyst
Harriet Martineau is one
Dorothy Smith: developed standpoint theory out of her own discrimination in the academic
community
Standpoint theory challenge’s objective analysis
Postmodern Theory
Michel Foucault:
Discourses are distinct ways of speaking about some element of reality
Totalitarian describes a set of beliefs or ideas that dominate all others
Totalitarian discourse refers to any universal claim about how
Sociology By Audience
1. Professional Sociology
2. Critical Sociology
3. Policy Sociology
4. Public Sociology