Week 2
The Newer Perspectives in Sociology
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Although functionalism, conflict theory and action
perspective are still common positions within sociology,
many others have emerged over the past two decades
Sociology is often seen as containing a multiple perspective,
which means it takes on many perspectives for looking at
social life rather than just one
Society is changing, so too are some of the approaches
being adopted within it
Broadly, the newer approaches highlight different
perspectives, standpoints, cultures or voices
Since we cannot grasp the 'full truth' of society, we should
be more open about the newer perspectives we adopt
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This recognition of perspectives, points of view, different
cultures and standpoints has become more and more
important for contemporary sociology
Many of the new perspectives suggest that the major
perspective of the past has been that of white, Western,
Anglo-American and heterosexual men
In contrast, the newer perspectives generally see a range of
other voices that have been missed out of sociology in the
past
They help to enrich the openness of the discipline to the
range of ways of seeing society
Some of these newer sociologies thus speak of 'the death of
the meta-narrative' – a term coined by Lyotard - as a way of
rejecting any idea that there is one and only one, 'Big story
of sociology'
These new voices include women, racial and ethnic
minorities, colonised peoples throughout the world, gays
and lesbians, the elderly, disabled people and various other
marginalised or overlooked groups
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Taken together, a number of criticisms of classical sociology
can be briefly summarised as follows
a) that sociology has mainly been by men for men and about
men – and for men, read white and heterosexual and
usually privileged and relatively affluent
b) that areas of significance to other groups -racism,
patriarchy, homofobia, colonisation, disablement have often
been overlooked
c) often sociology has been sexist, racist, homophobic, etc
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The Case of a Feminist Sociology and a Feminist
Methodology
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Broadly, these place either women or gender at the center of
their specific analysis
The main purpose is to reduce or eliminate women's
subordination and oppression in societies across the world
The perspectives differ: some highlight post-colonial
perspectives, some focus on black studies
Other newer sociological perspectives are: multiculturalism,
post-colonialism, queer theory, Foucault's discourse theory,
disablement theory, post-modern social theory
As you see, sociology is a continuosly growing and
changing discipline of study that is always bringing new
challenges to its students
Sociology, therefore, has had to rethink some of its key
ideas to at least accommodate these changes
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'It has all been done. The extreme limit of ... possibilities has
been reached. It has destroyed itself. It has deconstructed
its entire universe. So all that are left are pieces. All that
remains to be done is play with the pieces. Playing with the
pieces – that is postmodern' (Baudrillard, 1984: 24)
In the 21th century, this modern world is an accelerating one
where there is an increased sensitivity to diversities and
differences
'Postmodernists argue for respecting the existence of a
plurality of perspectives, as against a notion that there is
one single truth from a privileged perspective; local,
contextual studies in place of grand narratives; an emphasis
on disorder, flux and openness, as opposed to order,
continuity and restraint' (Rob Stones, 1996: 22)
A Global Perspective in Sociology
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A global perspective is the study of the larger world and
each society's place in it
Thanks to global perspectives, we can now pay attention to
voices heard in all parts of the world – from various African
states to those found in Latin American countries
Globalisation is the increasing interconnectedness of
societies
Globalisation can be grasped through the imagery of
worldwide companies such as Coca Cola and Starbucks
These companies produce goods across many countries;
they market goods across many countries; and they present
their logos and images which travel the global ahead of
them
So globalisation has
a) shifted the borders of economic transactions
b) expanded communications into global networks
c) fostered a new, widespead 'global culture'
d) developed new forms of international governance
e) created a growing awareness of shared common world
problems
f) fostered a growing sense of risk – what the German
sociologist Ulrich Beck (1992) has called the world risk
society
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These risks are associated with the many new technologies
which generate new dangers to life and the planet itself
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These are humanly produced, may have massive
unforeseen consequences
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Risk, then, is associated with the globalising world
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The Lady is Dead by The Irrepressibles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_2AgaZJWro