The Basic Perspectives (9/2)
Chicago Sociology
Conflict theory: Marx
Functional theory: Durkheim
Conflict and functional theory as
feedback systems
Sociological Approaches
Human behavior is socially determined insofar
as it is socially shaped.
The Chicago School showed that different
neighborhoods had very different rates of crime,
addiction, juvenile delinquency, illegitimacy,
academic failure, etc.
– This demonstrated that some kind of lawful process
was operating which can be understood scientifically.
– You do not usually need to know which persons will
engage in an act in order to understand and predict
rates.
– Something about some neighborhoods led to higher
rates of pathology there.
Implications of different rates
The different rates highlighted the basic insight of
sociology, that human behavior is socially
shaped.
The high rates were not the result of biology,
because even when all the people died or when
the whole composition of the area changed, the
rates remained the same.
Chicago theorists argued that they resulted from
the social structure
Explanations of different rates
1.
There were two main kinds of explanations of what
was the social structural problem.
Functionalist sociologists mainly explained the
rates in terms of the norms and values embedded
in churches, families, schools or gangs.
I.e. the people in different neighborhoods were being
socialized into different subcultures
Migration: various groups experienced similar disruption of
families and loss of traditions.
2.
Conflict theorists explained them in terms of class
and the different life chances built into the class
structure.
I.e. different rents and housing costs sort people by class,
and the different resources of different groups produce
different life chances and subcultures.
3.
The third perspective, the Interactionist
perspective, is a hybrid that mainly operates at the
individual level.
Chicago theorists argued that the
rates resulted from the structure
This demonstrated some kind of lawful
process which can be understood
scientifically.
People may be "choosing" to engage in
those actions, but it is a constrained
choice.
Something about some neighborhoods led
to higher rates of pathology there.
Chicago theorists also argued that socially
produced problems could be socially
changed by changing the conditions.
The major sources of crime and
delinquency in Chicago
Neighborhoods had high rates when:
– 1) They were poor
– 2) ethnically or racially fractionalized
– 3) mobile with few stable families and
institutions.
But these could be understood either sub
culturally (Functional) or as class and
group conflict and competition (Conflict
Theory).
Functional/Conflict
Perspectives
Functionalism and conflict theory are two different ways
of explaining how the structure fits together.
Functionalists see social institutions as connected like
organs in a body.
Def: * (p.23) An approach that focuses on how social parts
contribute to society as a system.
Image: façade of the Alamo
Examples: Emile Durkheim (Parsons, Smelser)
Conflict theorists see different groups as having different
interests.
Def. *(p.26) focuses on conflict in society.
Image: the back of the façade
Example: Karl Marx (Joe Feagin, Massey, Reskin, M. Burawoy –
last 4 pres. of ASA)
Functional and Conflict models differ about
what is the main force producing social problems
Functional: The breakdown of families and
morals produce crime, AIDs, etc.
Weakening
of families
and morals
Educational failure
Gangs, drugs, crime.
Poverty
Conflict: Poverty produces crime: brutal
conditions are brutalizing
crime AIDs, etc.
Educational failure
Poverty
Weakening of families
Gangs, drugs, crime.
The systemic reasons for stressing
norms and/or resources
But the stress on families or on poverty results
from different theories about which forces are
most important, dynamically.
There is a disagreement between different
sociologists about what forces are most
important in driving change in the long run.
Functionalists stress norms and values as
control systems.
Conflict theorists stress resources and power as
systems of accumulation.
Thermostats as Control Systems
A thermostat is a control system that is designed to
maintain a relatively constant temperature.
When the temperature goes up, the furnace is turned off,
bringing the temperature back down.
– And when the temperature falls, the furnace goes on.
– Thus a low temperature causes a rise; a high one, a fall.
Low temperature
+
Furnace activity
Systems theory and cybernetics explored many such
control systems.
An organism needs many such systems to maintain
temperature, blood sugar, electrolyte balance, arousal,
etc.
A system with negative feedbacks
acts like a marble in a bowl
A thermostat will mean that any rise in the
temperature will trigger a process that will cause
the temperature to tend to fall.
Therefore it resists change.
A norm works that way;
So does a role, such as a job, that is designed to
make sure some set of tasks get done.
Functionalist sociology found many social
structures that act this way.
A Systemic model of Functions
Society is a control system.
Norms, socialized in families are the controls.
– E.g. Durkheim’s theory of crime and punishment.
– Norms are what keep social life livable.
– Punishment re-establishes norms when they weaken.
+
CRIME
PUNISHMENT
-
Crime is “functional” in the sense that enforcement is
one of the main ways the rules are defined.
Functions, controls
and norms
The idea that social structure rests on a number
of control systems has played a major role in
20th c. sociology.
Often, this is connected with the notion that the
roles and connections to primary groups such as
families and churches establish norms, which
are then enforced by the law and other
institutions.
This is called the functionalist perspective.
It usually explains situations such as those in
187, as the breakdown or weakening of those
control systems.
A Systemic model of conflict:
the vicious cycle
A very different set of systems is stressed by Conflict
theorists, who see society as like a game of Monopoly
Resources aid in getting access to more resources, and so
the rich get richer.
+
PROPERTIES
RENTS
+
Many other resources accumulate, like properties:
E.g. education, health care, skills, contacts, family, drugfree, crime-free, gang-free environments, etc.
Producing privileged and disprivileged groups.
The vicious cycle and a
reverse thermostat
Imagine what the temperature would be like if the
thermostat was designed to turn the furnace on when the
temperature went up and to turn it off when it went down.
The temperature would fluctuate wildly; the room would
become unlivable; effects of history would persist.
+
FURNACE
TEMPERATURE
ACTIVITY
+
The problem is that there are many processes that behave
in this way.
For example, the accumulation of property and privilege.
Resources gives better access to further resources.
A System with positive feedbacks
behaves like a marble on a hill
A classic example of a conflict theory system is a
game of Monopoly.
Your property determines your income; and your
income determines your property.
And so no matter how nice people are or how equal
in ability or resources at the beginning, as some
players gain a slight lead, they get to acquire and
improve properties, getting more ahead.
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer until the
game destroys itself.
Vicious Cycle Feedbacks and
Native Americans
There were about 30million Native Americans on
North America when the Europeans arrived.
There were about 300,000 in 1900
By the 19th century, “the only good Indian is a
dead Indian” and both formal policy and
individual actions accomplished that.
But Europeans did not get off the boats and start
shooting.
Loss of land, poverty, marginalization, broken
families, alcoholism, smallpox, tribal wars, social
breakdown all reinforced racism which
reinforced these conditions.
Functionalism in sociology
e.g. E. Durkheim (1858-1916) * **
Durkheim is discussed in most chapters of
Sociology, Micro, Macro and Mega
Functionalism appears in all chapters
Functionalism believes that the society is
an organic system
– The main forms of modern functionalism
stress norms as the social thermostat.
– Fundamental concepts: function, social
integration; norms; normative integration.
Conflict theory in sociology: Karl
Marx** (1818-83)
Marx’ economic model of profit, interest and rent
said that there is a tendency for the labor
market, the capital market, etc. to operate like a
game of Monopoly.
And his theory of alienation says that the
accumulation of power, status, education, skills,
health services, etc. often acts the same way.
Many people believe that unless social policy
intervenes to assure a “New Deal,” and “Fair
Deal,” etc. markets will behave like Monopoly.
For next time
Class time: 1000-09 - 9:30
– 1000-13 – 12:30
Questions:
1. Social Dynamics.
What are the long term effects of actions and changes?
The effects of changes in a complex, interdependent system are
not always obvious.
2.
The interconnection of social problems.
Does your social problem appear in 187?
How is it connected to the other problems pictured?
3. Equal opportunity.
Do students in E. L.A. and in 90210 have equal opportunity ?
If not, what would it take to make opportunities equal?