Theoretical Thinking in Sociology

Four Theoretical Dilemmas in Sociology

Dilemma 1. Structure/Action

Difference between human action and social structure. Is human being completely free in his actions? Does he control everything in his life? Or are we controlled by social system? Creative and active human behaviour (Weber) or social influences on our actions (Durkheim).

Dilemma 2:Consensus and Conflict

• Consensus means social system survive with harmony and order. Most important definitive character of every society in willingness to survive this consensus. In the view of conflicts, society contains arguments, tensions and struggles.

• Whether society is pictured as harmonious, orderly or whether they should be seen as marked by conflict.

• Maybe conflict and consensus are interrelated.

Dilemma 3: Gender

Many founders of sociological theory did not mention women. Women as a group in society have their reality like minorities, ethnic groups etc. Feminist have been trying to change this approach by placing gender at the center of their analysis. Every subtitle in sociology can have a gender aspect. Sociology has often sexist, racist and homophobic. Gender provides a new sociological thinking.

Dilemma 4: What’s shaping the modern world

Based on analysis of modern social development. The question is processes of change are shaped by capitalist economic development or by other factors. How is modern world shaped? Economic or non economic factors like political belief and attitudes.

Later Theories

There is no one single theory that hold whole of sociology. Different theoretical standings provide us variety of ideas in sociological research. Robert Merton suggests that sociology should try to find ‘middle range theories’ rather than grand ones which explain specifically certain areas by empirical research. Past ideas seemed to be less relevant to the contemporary world.

Postmodernism• Marx and Weber’s opinions should be given up to be followed.• There is no grand narratives or metanarratives (broad theory such

as functionalism and Marxism) about the operation of society as a whole.

• There is no overcharging theory to identify any fundamental truth related to human society about human history anymore (Lyotard).

• The postmodern world is highly diverse and pluralistic. We are getting familiar with many ideas and values that have little connection with history.

• This era is the time of fexibility, diversity, differentiation in which mobility, communication, decentralisation and internationalisation are dominant (S. Hall et al. 1988). We cannot develop general theories about society like functionalism and conflict theory but we can only understand fragments of society and social development.

J. Boudrillard

• Media are very definitive and effective on postmodern society. The mass media have destroyed our relationship to our past and created a chaotic, empty world.

• Social life is influenced by signs and images rather than ecomony like Marx predicted in the past.

• In media era, meaning is created by the flow of images, as in TV programmes.

• There is no stable reality in postmodern world. By developing Saussure’s theory of structuralism, “meanings are created by connections between words rather than by external reality.’’

Michel Foucault

• He has taken our attention to shift our understanding between modern world and early ages. What Foucault did is making the things unfamiliar that are familiar with us by digging in the past with his methodology, archeology of knowledge.

• He studied on crime, the body, madness and sexuality and wrote about history of prisons, hospitals and schools. His materails are discursive events, spoken and written statements.

• His contribution to social thought is explaining about the relationship between power, ideology and discourse in relation to modern organisations. The role of discourse is central to his thinking about power and control in society. He showed us how discourse about the same thing changed in time. For example madness in modern world shaped by a medical discourse.

• Power works through discourse to shape popular attitudes towards things like crime, sexuality and madness. Discourse is associated to experts who have power and authority over others and it can limit the alternative ways of thinking.

• Since today’s institutions (taken for-granted concepts and beliefs) are familiar with us we do not tend to think and investigate about them.

Jurgen Habermas‘Democracy and Public Sphere’

• We still can develop overall theories.• Some of Marx’s ideas are still alive in terms of tendency of

producing economic depressions and crises. • We need to control economic processes which control us more than

we control them. • His theory of public sphere is essential for the framework of

democracy.• By abolishing the democratic procedures (parliaments and political

parties) that we have today we need to strengthen community agencies and other local groups.

• The modern media and communication can offer many possibilities to us to open dialogue and discussion rather than dominating their commercial interest.

• Feminists authors like N. Fraser because of not mentioning women’s participation into democracy and women’s citizenship criticize Habermas.

Ulrick BeckRisk Society

• In the era of the second modernity modern institutions are becoming global, everyday life is breaking free from the hold of tradition and custom. Old industrial society is replaced by risk society.

• Contrary to postmodernists, Beck sees this era, era of risk or uncertainty instead of chaos or lack of pattern. New era brings new risks different than previous era. Modern life is full of risks.

• The era in which we live contains activities or groups that work outside the formal mechanisms such as environmantal, consumer and human rights groups, “subpolitics”.

• Ordinary people can go into the risk managements in addition to politicans and scientists.

Manuel Castels The Network Economy

• The capitalist economy today depends on the connections made possible by global communications.

• Expansion of capitalism is not based on working class and manufacture of material but telecommunication and computers.

• We make our personal identity by interacting with others but not from the past. This fact affects family, male and female identities that have broken down in today’s society.

• Humankind sees machines and electronically based system of financial transactions are taking control of our world.

• Our regaining effective control of the global marketplace maybe possible with the efforts of international organizations and countries which have common interests in regulating international capitalism.

Anthony Giddens ‘Social Reflexivity’

• We have uncertainty-risk on the one hand but trust on the other. We have to trust people whom we don’t know. There is an abstract system that we are expected to trust. Trust and risk are closely bound up with one another.

• Living in information age means an increase social reflexivity. Social reflexivity is our thinking about the circumstances in which we live our lives.

• In today’s world traditional forms of trust dissolved. Trust is something that we had in traditional communities. (Trust what? If drinkable water is clean, if we are delivered healthy foods or if we can give our credit card number to any company to buy stg...)

• On the one hand countries are loosing their power of control on global economy but on the other they have a deal of power.

• We live in the `runaway world`. • The groups called subpolitics by Beck could be anti-abortion or pro-abortion groups.

A democratic society should evaluate and react each of these groups in an appropriate way.

• Unlike Habermas, democracy is not limited to the public place. There is a potential for the democracy of emotions like redefining men and women’s place in family. Sex equality is not restricted with right of vote but needs also revisions on personal and intimate life of both sexes.