The connection of Conflict and
Functional Theory
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One of the main reasons Weber has been
important is that many sociologists felt that he
provided ways of integrating functional and
conflict theory.
Today we shall
Look at his religious analysis of Protestantism,
which has often been interpreted functionally.
Anticipate Feagin by looking at racism some
more.
Look at a feedback representation of some of
the dynamics.
The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism
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Became the focus of the functionalist
interpretation of Weber.
seen as “outflanking Marx”
by showing the essential role of religious values
in generating capitalism.
and therefore implying that the interpretation of
basic norms and values is the basis of any
adequate analysis of social structures.
The popular (vulgar) Protestant
Ethic thesis:
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Protestantism arose prior to capitalism.
It motivated people to accumulate capital
more effectively than Catholicism
by the search for signs of salvation,
to ally salvation anxiety resulting from the
idea that “There is nothing whatever you
can do about it.”
Somewhat more sophisticated
(and accurate)
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Though those arguments appear in
Weber they are combined with others.
One set is in his book-length essay on
“The Protestant Sects”
Sect structures exert more controls.
Predestination can justify poverty.
And class membership in the sects was
capitalist
Weber’s Religious sociology
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But his 5,000 pp., multi-volume study of world
religions actual stressed the role of “innerworldly asceticism on the general process
rationalization.
Extension of corporate, bureaucratic structures
into law, the economy, etc. always runs into
powerful resistance of kinship and tradition.
Religious structures can play a powerful role in
breaking down that resistance.
But only if they close off two main ways that
religion can fail to change the world:
Two aspects of all religious ethics
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A mystic tries to be the container of a sacred
feeling; the ascetic tries to systematically carry
out God’s instructions. Mysticism can
accommodate to the world.
A worldly (or inner-worldly) religion is concerned
with action in worldly structures (family, jobs,
politics). An other-worldly religion call people to
abandon those structures for God.
Inner-worldly asceticism is most effective at
breaking down premodern elements of kinship
and law.
Weber’s typology of World Religions
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The different world religions had different
amounts of inner-worldly asceticism.
Christianity had more; Protestantism had
most.
InnerOtherworldly
worldly
Ascetic
Chistianity
Mystic
China
India
Limitations of Weber’s Interpretive
sociology
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Culture always reinforces and is reinforced
by social structure in many ways.
Weber’s actual studies recognized this.
The amount of causal impact is hard to
judge,
and it may be more useful to integrate
functional and conflict theory in terms of
feedbacks.
Feedbacks: the 21st c. sociology
(according to Knapp)
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“What goes around comes around.”
As the effects of any change proliferate,
logically, they must have one of three
consequences:
1) they ultimately reinforce the original
change: positive feedback.
2) they ultimately undermine the original
change: negative feedback.
3) they have inconsistent effects.
Positive feedbacks (review)
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Positive feedbacks generate an amplifying, selfreinforcing dynamic.
Because they are self-reinforcing, they create
alienated dynamics that tend to “take on a life of
their own.”
Such systems are often unstable or chaotic.
Structures of inequality, such as the
marginalization of Native Americans or the game
of Monopoly, illustrate such dynamics.
Negative feedbacks (control
systems)
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Negative feedback results when a change
produces consequences that reduce the original
change.
Such systems are often called “homeostatic”
For example, in the body, and increase in
temperature, blood sugar, arousal, etc. triggers
processes that tend to restore the original level.
The classic example: a
thermostat
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A thermostat operates to cut off the
furnace when the temperature rises.
Thus a rise in temperature triggers a
process that causes a fall in the
temperature,
and a fall in the temperature triggers a
process that causes a rise.
+
temperature
-
Cut off of
furnace
A sociological example: norms
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Durkheim argued that norms are
maintained by the response to their
violation.
Negative sanctions (punishment) of
those who violate norms, reinforces the
norms for everyone else.
A representation of Negative
feedback:
Norm
+
violation
--
Negative
sanctions
Social systems as control
systems
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Talcott Parsons argued that all social
behavior is guided by norms and values.
Thus the social system is a self-maintaining
control system.
He called this analysis of social structures as
performing functions guided by norms
“structural functionalism”
It was dominant in US sociology from 1945 to
1965.
Problems of the analysis of
feedback systems
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Where there are no feedbacks, it is possible
to estimate the causal influence of one
variable on another by seeing how closely
they are associated.
Feedbacks require a different and more
difficult analysis.
There are many forms of systems theory, and
many of them are not empirical.
Parsons analysis was usually not empirical.
Advantages
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Nevertheless, many of the most important
dynamic processes in sociology involve
feedbacks.
In general, conflict theories are based on
positive feedback systems
Functionalists stress negative feedback
systems.
Empirical analysis of such systems is one of
the main tasks of 21st c sociology.
An example: An American
Dilemma (1944)
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Gunnar Myrdal had developed various
economic feedback models in the 1930’s.
His massive and influential analysis of US
race relations, An American Dilemma,
was based on the concept of “cumulative
causation” or positive feedbacks.
He developed the analysis in the 1950’s and
60’s to deal with Third World development,
And in 1978 he received the Nobel Prize.
1st Positive feedback: the vicious
cycle of minority deprivation
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He argued that low income, low wealth, poor
health, low educational attainment, high
unemployment, family disorganization, high
crime rate, and political marginalization were
mutually reinforcing.
The advantages of an advantaged group
cumulate, and the disadvantages of a
disadvantaged group cumulate.
2nd Positive feedback: racism
and minority deprivation
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Myrdal also argued that the poverty,
unemployment, crime or other disadvantages
of a disadvantaged group tend to generate or
reinforce stereotyping, prejudice, segregation
and political marginalization by the majority
group.
And conversely, they are reinforced by them
Minority deprivation leads to racism.
Racism leads to minority deprivation
A Representation of these
positive feedbacks
Consequences of Positive
feedbacks
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Myrdal argued that the cumulative
consequences of these feedbacks was a
cascade that appeared “natural”
but that was socially produced, highly
unstable,
and amenable to social policy in the long
run.
Negative feedback in An
American Dilemma
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Myrdal argued that the main control
system was the value system he called
“the American Creed.”
It calls for all persons and groups to
have equal opportunity, equal treatment
by the law, and equal life chances.
The operation of cumulative causation
violates the American Creed, generating
pressure for reforms.
“Positive” and “negative”
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Warning: the evaluation of the
consequences of a feedback is different
from the nature of the feedback.
The consequences of positive feedbacks
are often negative.
The consequences of negative feedbacks
are often positive.
Joe Feagin
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We will pursue these ideas in terms of
Feagin’s talk
Come to the talk (CEER 7:00 PM 2/18)
And come and chat with him 2/19 in the
sociology conference room.