Final Lecture
Theories of Postmodern Society:
Sociobiology
Structuralism and Poststructuralism
Structuration Theory
The McDonaldization of Society
The Postmodern Condition
A Few Words About Sociobiology
• Definition: the study of the biological bases of
human behaviour, by virtue of our biological
nature and our evolutionary history, is common
to all societies
• A “grand theory” of human society as being
based on universal biological and evolutionary
tendencies
• Sociobiologists explain social organization in
terms of biology rather than culture
• Like functionalism, may promote inequality and
maintenance of status quo
Intellectual Roots of Sociobiology
• Biological and zoological sciences
• Darwinian principles of natural selection
and “survival of the fittest”
• Very popular theory in 1970’s-1990’s
• Has evolved into current evolutionary
psychology (i.e. P. Rushton, D. Kimura)
• Even Talcott Parsons’ later work was
moving into this area.
E.O. Wilson
• a zoologist who applied findings from insect and
animal studies to humans
• “Sociobiology: the New Synthesis” (1975)
• Human race a product of evolution
• Information passed on genetically
• Our genes interact with our environment and this
forms the basis for social behaviour, social
structure, and society
• Natural selection and evolution – the most adaptive
genes are passed on
Robin Fox and Philippe Rushton
• Ronin Fox says cultural differences across
societies are “symbolic disguises”
• Underneath, all human cultures basically the
same (i.e. social status, incest taboos)
• Difference between human and animal is
that we have a “gene” for culture
• Culture adaptive for humans
• “selfish gene” - to compete for resources, to
reproduce – is passed on
• But altruism? – Rushton says develops out
of “group need for mutual defense”
Postmodernism
• Postmodern theorizing has tendency toward
relativism and anti-rationalism
• Some postmodern thought anti-sociological
(originated with Neitzsche’s ideas)
• postmodernism rejects idea of scientific
explanation of society and idea of using
common principles to describe societies
• We have left the modern (capitalist) era and
have shifted to “post-capitalist” era
Postmodern Influence on Sociology
• Postmodernism great impact on sociology
• Renewed effort to show there are general
trends in human action/behaviour that exist
across both individual and collective levels
• Some sociological theories attempt to
incorporate the new ideas:
– Causality of language and discourse on action
– Emphasis on role of power
– Less emphasis on traditional scientific method
Structuralism and Poststructuralism
• Structuralism: to discover underlying
(universal?) structures exist in language that
guide thought and action
• “all about words”
• developed out of anthropology and sociology
• Also incorporates psychological principles of
Jean Piaget
• Foucault modified structuralism to develop a
more limited “poststructuralism”
Claude Levi-Strauss (1908- )
• French sociologist, philosopher and
anthropologist
• First academic position was as professor
of sociology in Sao Paolo Brazil
• Led anthropological expedition into remote
area of Brazil
• Then, New School for Social Research,
New York (where Alfred Schutz was)
• 1949, returned to France and published
“Elementary Structures of Kinship” – very
influential work
Elementary Structures of Kinship
• Uses analysis of myth to identify underlying common themes
(or structures) of myth passed on from one generation to next
• Levi-Strauss thought there are constant patterns in the
organization of human thought revealed through myths
• Myth, as language, consists of both "langue" (timeless or
ahistorical) and "parole“ (time-specific) elements.
• Third characteristic is structural - “mythemes” (single events)
• Mythemes describe events in terms of binary opposites
– Black/white, nature/nurture, etc.
– Binary opposites common to all cultural myths
• Levi-Strauss asks why do we do this, and why are the
categories we create the same across cultures?
• They are universal, according to Levi-Strauss…
• Criticisms: this idea denies possibility of change
• Also, is everything seen that way?
Michel Foucault (1926-1984)
and Poststructuralism
• French psychologist and philosopher
• Degrees in philosophy, psychology,
pyschopathology
• Brilliant intellectual but somewhat unstable
• In his personal life, became obsessed with sex and
sado-masochism
• Wanted to live life to the fullest – “limit experiences”
• Spent the final years of his life in U.S. at Berkeley
and as part of San Francisco gay community – died
of AIDS at 57.
Main Ideas
• Influenced by work of existentialist
philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre
• Rejects idea of universal thought
structures
• But retains focus on importance of
language to structure our thinking
• Also, processes other than language
• Power a central theme of his theories
• In a sense, is Neitzsche’s intellectual heir
Foucault’s Archeology and Genealogy
• His method was a type of historiography that he called
archeology and genealogy:
• Archaeology shows that “systems of thought and
knowledge (epistemes or discursive formations, in
Foucault's terminology) are governed by rules, beyond
those of grammar and logic, that operate beneath the
consciousness of individual subjects and define a
system of conceptual possibilities that determines the
boundaries of thought in a given domain and period…”
• Genealogy (like Neitzsche’s “Genealogy of Morals”)
looks at the origins of systems of social thought to show
that any system is “the result of contingent turns of
history, not the outcome of rationally inevitable trends”
•
From http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/foucault/ retrieved Apr. 2, 2006
Madness and Civilization: A History of
Insanity in the Age of Reason (1965)
• A form of “discourse analysis”
• Links knowledge and power
• Knowledge used to generate power which is then
used for control
• Scientific knowledge generates more power and
control than other knowledge
• Medical knowledge gives power and is used as
moral control of the insane
• Mental hospitals become institutions for control
and surveillance – deprive the insane of their
freedom, and send a warning to the rest of society
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of
the Prison (1977)
• Theme: again, knowledge = power
• Technology is generated by knowledge to further
power
• Birth of the prison (the “Carceral”) in modern society
represents a shift in how power used
• In past, power used to control “the body”, now used
to control the “mind and soul”
• Modern “disciplinary power” involves hierarchical
observation, normalizing judgment, and the
examination
• Bentham’s Panopticon represents total surveillance
– now extends to all aspects of society
History of Sexuality (1976 -1984)
• 3 volume work linking power and control of
sexuality – The Will to Knowledge, The
use of Pleasure, The Care of the Self
• Had planned at least five volumes
• Sex has been shifted from public to private
realm and subject of specialized discourse
• Specialized “scientific” knowledge about it
is used as power to control sexuality
(thereby enables control over the body,
reproduction, etc.)
Summary of Foucault’s Ideas
• In past, use of power much more obvious
• With the creation of specialized knowledges,
technologies, and discourses, the power
used to control much less obvious
• We are now controlled not just in body, but
in mind and will also
Anthony Giddens
and Structuration Theory
• British theorist, sociology professor at Cambridge
• Focus of early work was reinterpretation of Marx,
Durkheim, and Weber
• “Capitalism and Modern Social Theory” (1971)
• Now focus on identifying generalized social and
cultural explanations
• “The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory
of Structuration” (1984)
• Main intellectual influences: Karl Marx, Alfred
Schutz, Erving Goffman
Structuration Theory
• links micro and macro levels through the
concepts of “structure” and “agency”
• Giddens says: “The basic domain of the
social sciences, according to the theory of
structuration, is neither the experience of the
individual actor, not the existence of any form
of societal totality, but social practices
ordered across time and space” (1984)
Structure and Agency as Duality
• Says makes no sense to look at individual actors or
at social structures
• Need to see structure and agency as a duality
• Individuals re-create, through their social actions,
the norms and institutions which in turn, constrain
their action
• Can modify and change actions and structure
• Social life is formed and reformed through everyday
activity and social structures exist only as long as
actions are reproduced across time and space
Social Reproduction
• Social system = reproduced social practices
• Key factors in social reproduction:
– Mutual knowledge
– Autonomy
– Routinization
• “Continuity of social reproduction involves
the continual ‘regrooving’ of established
attitudes and cognitive outlooks” (Giddens,
1984)
George Ritzer and the
McDonaldization of Society
• From The McDonaldization of Society (1996)
• Increasing bureaucratization and rationalization of
the workplace
• Based on Max Weber’s “formal rationality”
• McDonald’s is an “irresistible” model
• Four dimensions of model:
– 1. efficiency (through training, rules, regulations)
– 2. quantification or calculability (substitute quantity for
quality)
– 3. predictability (everything standardized)
– 4. control through substitution of technology for people)
• Postmodern: the McDonaldization of human
experience?
Jean-Francois Lyotard: The
Postmodern Condition
• Jean-François Lyotard (1925-1998) was a French
philosopher and intellectual
• The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge
(1979) commisioned by Quebec gov’t.
• His thesis: "that the status of knowledge is altered
as societies enter what is known as the
postindustrial age and cultures enter what is known
as the postmodern age" (1984:3)
• was the first to identify and describe a shift in
knowledge and its underpinnings (metanarratives)
and the effects it has on postmodern science and
education
What is the Postmodern Condition?
• concern with how knowledge (esp. in science) is
legitimated
• In past, legitimation through “grand narratives”
– 1. a sociopolitical (knowledge as freedom) narrative
– 2. a philosophical narrative (academic search for truth)
• Was legitimated through consensus
• Now, with new technology, esp. computerization,
legitimation occurs through “perfomativity” (the value of
the knowledge itself in enhancing efficiency or
productivity)
• In modern society knowledge has become not an endin-itself but a means to gain power and control
• Postmodern knowledge will be based on mini narratives
• The aim of knowledge will be to generate new ideas