- •4. What factors influence the rate of change experienced by a society?
- •5.Discuss the pros and cons of considering the economy as part of the infrastructure of sociocultural systems
- •6 Who are the power elite? What is the source of their power?
- •7.What social forces have made the masses (and even the middle level) powerless?
- •8.Population, Urbanization, & Environoment
- •9. Government & Politics
- •10. Role of religion in society
- •11) Role of education in society
- •12) The role of family in socialization
- •13) The problem of stratification in Sociology
- •14) Hawthorne experiment
- •16) Scope of the subject of sociology and comparison with other social sciences.
- •17) Sociology and common sense.
- •18) Sociology as Science
- •19) Positivism and its critique
- •20) Research Methods and Analysis
- •21) Techniques of data collection
- •22) Variables, sampling, hypothesis, reliability and validity.
- •23) Sociological Thinkers
- •24) Karl Marx - Historical materialism, mode of production, alienation, class struggle.
- •25) Emile Durkheim- Division of labour, social fact, suicide, religion and society
- •26) Robert k. Merton- Latent and manifest functions, conformity and deviance, reference groups
- •27) Mead - Self and identity
- •28) Stratification and Mobility
- •29. Dimensions – Social stratification of class, status groups, gender, ethnicity and race
- •31. Social organization of work in different types of society- slave society, feudal society, industrial /capitalist society
- •32. Labour and society
- •34 Power elite, bureaucracy, pressure groups, and political parties
- •35 Protest, agitation, social movements, collective action, revolution
- •36 Religion and Society
- •37. Sociological theories of religion
- •38 Types of religious practices: animism, monism, pluralism, sects, cults
- •39. Religion in modern society: religion and science, secularization, religious revivalism, fundamentalism
- •40. The object and the subject of Sociology
- •41. The main categories (terms) of Sociology
- •42. Specializations of Sociology
- •43. The main techniques (methods) of Sociology
- •1 Please explain how Durkheim’s study of suicide and d. Snow’s study of homelessness reflected both a sociological and a scientific approach to their topics
- •2 What is the difference between micro-sociology and macro-sociology
- •3.Why does this course focus exclusively on macro-sociology
- •4. What is a paradigm?
- •5.Of what use is social theory?
- •6. How is this different than earlier industrial societies?
- •7. How does the capitalist world-system maintain political stability?
- •8. Describe the social condition Durkheim calls "anomie.
- •10) What is the role of religion in society?
- •11) What are manifest and latent functions? What is a dysfunction?
- •12) What is Durkheim's anomie theory of deviance?
- •13) Conflict Theory
- •14) Social Classes
- •15 Social mobility
- •16) Race and Ethnicity
- •17) Minority Groups
- •18 Money, economy and social relevance
- •19 The role of mass media in our life
- •20 Censorship and freedom of speech
- •21 Environmental health
- •23) How has television affected social and political discourse in modern society?
- •24) In what sense is technological change "ecological" in nature?
- •25) In what ways has our production system become hostile to the environment?
- •26) Why did America go into Iraq?
- •27) Why did nato help to drive out Muamar Kaddafi in Libya?
- •28) Please explain the significance of the Hawthorne experiment to the development of applied Sociology.
- •29 Is it possible to replicate Hawthorne experiment in nowadays (you can try and remember the case from the text “Replication as a research tool
- •30 How to avoid the Hawthorne Effect?
- •31. How do sociologists use scientific method?
- •32. How can researchers develop a sample of homeless persons in order to study the issue of homelessness?
- •33. Why does the conclusion of a sociological study invariably point the way to new research?
- •36, Why is it valuable for sociologists to have a code of professional ethics?
- •38. Please explain and describe the difficulties that you can encounter in defining a problem when you are conducting a sociological research
- •39. Please explain how sociologists define operational definitions in their sociological project
- •40. Please explain and give reasons why sociologists review special literature on their social problem
- •41. Please explain and define how sociologists give variables in their sociological research
- •42. Explain how sociologists use definite method(s) for gathering data
- •6) Social ideas of Herbert Spencer
- •8) The problems of social interaction and reality in sociology
- •10) The meaning of ascribed and achieved status. Master status.
- •11) Conflict view to the social institutions
- •12) The problems of social structure and modern society
- •13) The problem of anomie in sociology
- •14) Interactionist view to the social institutions
- •15)Functionalist view to the social institutions.
- •16) How has the socialization process changed in the 20th century? How have these changes affected childhood?
- •17) Patriarchy and sexual division of labour
- •18) Agents of social change
- •19) Education and social change
- •20) Science, technology and social change
- •21) Society, community, association, institution
- •22) Social Groups - primary, secondary and reference groups.
- •23) Social structure, social system, social action
- •24) Status and role
- •25) Norms and values-conformity and deviance.
- •26) Social stratification: forms and functions
- •27) Types of society: tribal, agrarian, industrial and post-industrial
- •28) Marriage : types and norms, marriage as contract, and as a sacrament.
- •29. Family : types, functions and changes.
- •30 Kinships : terms and usages, rules of residence, descent, inheritance.
- •31. What is the difference between micro-sociology and macro-sociology?
- •32 Why does this course focus exclusively on macro-sociology?
- •33 What is a paradigm in Sociology?
- •34 Of what use is social theory?
- •35 What is positivism?
- •36, What was Comte’s favored (principal) method of inquiry?
- •37, The role of social institutions in a modern society.
- •38. The problem of suicide in sociology.
- •39. Society as a category of Sociology.
- •40. Durkheim’s Study of Suicide.
- •41. Comte believed all human life had passed through the same 3 distinct historical stages – theology, … , … .Please complete the sentence and explain what Comte meant.
- •42. Sociologists often conduct research using the scientific method. Please, explain how they do it. Give definite example from your hand-outs.
- •43 Max Weber suggested that the best way to understand human behavior is by a direct ″sympathetic understanding″. Please, explain what Weber meant.
- •44 It is sometimes charged by nonsociologists that sociology is a science of the obvious. Please, give your own opinion about this problem.
- •45 There is a traditional commonsense explanation (statement) that more young people than old people commit suicide. How to prove or reject this statement using the method of natural science.
- •49 Please, examine sociological and psychological approaches to the issue of gambling.
- •50 Please, explain why Herbert Spencer did not feel compelled to correct or improve society.
- •52 Durkheim insisted that the growing division of labor found in industrial societies led to what he called anomie. Please, explain what Durkheim meant and what sociologists call anomie.
- •II Durkheim's Theory on Anomie
Типовые задания:
What is the role of the elite in sociocultural stability and change?
The foundation of Harris's theory of cultural materialism (CM) is that a society's mode of production (technology and work patterns, especially in regard to food) and mode of reproduction (population level and growth) in interaction with the natural environment has profound effects on sociocultural stability and change. Societies are systems, Harris asserts, and widespread social practices and beliefs must be compatible with the infrastructures of society (the modes of production and reproduction and their interaction with the environment). The infrastructure represents the ways in which a society regulates both the type and amount of resources needed to sustain a society. I believe Marvin Harris to be the most outstanding social scientist of his generation. Like the founders of the discipline (and unlike most social scientists of the day) he relates his analysis to the larger social system. His theory of cultural materialism is a ecological-evolutionary social theory very much influenced by T. Robert Malthus.
What are the differences and similarities between social and biological evolution? What are the roots of the two perspectives?
Evolution refers to changes that take place slowly over time. These changes can occur biologically, as plants and animal adapt to life in a changing ecosystem, or socially, as peoples and societies grow, developing language and systems of government. The evolution of plants and animals is also known as biological evolution, while the evolution of human social systems is referred to as social evolution. Each has distinct characteristics.
Biological Evolution Basics
Biological evolution occurs when the characteristics or properties of an organism change. These changes cannot be witnessed in a single organism directly, but instead occur through the blood lines and ancestry of the organism over time. Biological evolution occurs genetically, as mutations occasionally occur within an organism's DNA. On occasion, a mutation is a positive outcome for an organism, as it can enhance its ability to survive. These mutations are passed down through generations, causing a change in the genetic makeup, and thus the biological evolution of the species.
Social Evolution Basics
Social evolution takes place in human society throughout history. It occurs though cultural and societal changes, in the development of communities, education, agriculture, government, military and other societal structures. It can be witnessed in changes in trade and commerce, money, languages, faith and entertainment. Changes occur when society as a whole accepts and chooses a new or different way of life. Unlike biological evolution, which cannot be witnessed in individuals, social evolution can be seen within an individual, and passes between individuals who are unrelated. Social evolution also has the ability to transcend space and time through the transmission of ideas to future generations.
Rate of Change
Both biological and social evolution occur at a slow rate over time. However, social change has the potential to happen much more rapidly when compared to biological evolution. Major world events can dramatically alter a society at an advanced pace. In biological evolution, changes occur very slowly over each generation. The rate of change is also dependent on the life and reproduction cycles of the organism.
Purpose and Choice
Purpose and choice are other areas where biological and social evolutions differ. Biological evolution happens at random, and while it does serve a purpose, individual organisms cannot choose how they evolve. They cannot choose their genetic makeup. However, under social evolution, societies choose to evolve to serve a larger goal or purpose. It is the choice of individuals in a society to choose or adopt a socio-cultural characteristic.
What is a "class system"?
Class System
The class system is universal phenomenon denoting a category or group of persons having a definite status in society which permanently determines their relation to other groups. The social classes are de facto groups (not legally or religiously defined and sanctioned) they are relatively open not closed. Their basis is indisputably economic but they are more than economic groups. They are characteristic groups of the industrial societies which have developed since 17th century. The relative importance and definition of membership in a particular class differs greatly over time and between societies, particularly in societies that have a legal differentiation of groups of people by birth or occupation. In the well-known example of socioeconomic class, many scholars view societies as stratifying into a hierarchical system based on occupation,economic status, wealth, or income.
4. What factors influence the rate of change experienced by a society?
Lenski's theory begins from the insights of T. Robert Malthus. From Malthus Lenski borrows the observation that human societies are part of the world of nature. Human societies are subject to natural law. Sociocultural systems can only be fully understood as being responsive to the interactions of populations to their environments. Like Malthus's theory, at the base of Lenski's perspective lies the relationship between population and production. Like many life forms humans have a reproductive capacity that substantially exceeds the necessary subsistence resources in the environment. Thus, Lenski concludes, human populations tend to grow until they come up against the limits of food production, and then they are checked. The checks, of course, consist of both the positive and preventive checks that Malthus first explored in 1798. The capacity for population growth, Lenski asserts, has been a “profoundly destabilizing force throughout human history and may well be the ultimate source of most social and cultural change.” Lenski posits that the relationships among population, production, and environment drive the evolution of sociocultural systems. Lenski's ecological-evolutionary theory successfully integrates and synthesizes a variety of theoretical perspectives. His macro social theory is arguably the most comprehensive perspective in sociology today.
5.Discuss the pros and cons of considering the economy as part of the infrastructure of sociocultural systems
I do not find the perspectives examined in this course to be incompatible; rather, I believe they are each illuminating different aspects of a single sociocultural system, each leaving the remainder in the background. But to embrace each perspective in full, without priority or weighting, is to adopt an eclectic perspective, and this, I believe, has been disastrous for sociology. While such a strategy has led to some remarkable insights within the social sciences it has not led to a holistic, coherent world view that is shared by the vast majority of practitioners within the field and consequently has hindered the advancement of the social sciences. As evolution does for biology, such a shared world view offers a beginning framework for organizing a field, informing the researcher what to look for, what needs further testing, clarification, or refinement, and what should be rejected and finally abandoned. A shared, coherent world view offers a systematic analytical strategy that practitioners and students alike can use to guide and prioritize research and to order and interpret new findings and data. Such a world-view also offers identity to its practitioners as well as providing an empirically based alternative explanation to those offered by religion, ideology, or folk wisdom.
6 Who are the power elite? What is the source of their power?
Facts like these, which have been duplicated in countless other studies, suggest to many observers that power in the United States is concentrated in the hands of a single power elite. Scores of versions of this idea exist, probably one for each person who holds it, but they all interpret government and politics very differently than pluralists. Instead of seeing hundreds of competing groups hammering out policy, the elite model perceives a pyramid of power. At the top, a tiny elite makes all of the most important decisions for everyone below. A relatively small middle level consists of the types of individuals one normally thinks of when discussing American government: senators, representatives, mayors, governors, judges, lobbyists, and party leaders. The masses occupy the bottom. They are the average men and women in the country who are powerless to hold the top level accountable.
The power elite theory, in short, claims that a single elite, not a multiplicity of competing groups, decides the life-and-death issues for the nation as a whole, leaving relatively minor matters for the middle level and almost nothing for the common person. It thus paints a dark picture. Whereas pluralists are somewhat content with what they believe is a fair, if admittedly imperfect, system, the power elite school decries the grossly unequal and unjust distribution of power it finds everywhere.
Even though these individuals constitute a close-knit group, they are not part of a conspiracy that secretly manipulates events in their own selfish interest. For the most part, the elite respects civil liberties, follows established constitutional principles, and operates openly and peacefully. It is not a dictatorship; it does not rely on terror, a secret police, or midnight arrests to get its way. It does not have to, as we will see.
Nor is its membership closed, although many members have enjoyed a head start in life by virtue of their being born into prominent families. Nevertheless, those who work hard, enjoy good luck, and demonstrate a willingness to adopt elite values do find it possible to work into higher circles from below.
If the elite does not derive its power from repression or inheritance, from where does its strength come? Basically it comes from control of the highest positions in the political and business hierarchy and from shared values and beliefs.