What are sociological paradigms?

Sociological paradigms are considered as the core theories that we apply in order to
understand how people interact within a society. In this video, we will discuss the three
major sociological paradigms: Social conflict, structural functionalism, and symbolic
interactionism.

First and foremost we have the theory of social conflict which was developed by Karl
Marx. This theory assumes that different groups in society struggle over scarce
resources such as power, money, or status. The first conflict theory by Karl Marx is
class-conflict. Think of it as society being made up of hierarchies, where the elite have
structural ways of exploiting people with less power. Take for example a capitalist
society where the bourgeoisie – the rich, upper class – were minority of the population.
While the lower class, the proletariats, take majority of the population. You might think
that the proletariats can take the upper hand in the situation, when in reality it’s actually
the bourgeoisie who have the power within the society. This is because the “boujees”
own factories and produce and sell products that the people need. The proletariats,
however, only have their labor to offer. They are dependent on the factory owners in
order for them to make a living. However, marx believed that once the working class
realizes the economic inequality in the situation, they would be able to develop “class
consciousness”. Through this, the working class may be able to unite and become
strong enough to overthrow the capitalist status quo. Other conflict theories focus on
different kinds of groups, such as race conflict and gender conflict. Overall, conflict
theory looks at how society defines sources of inequality and conflict.

In contrast to the social conflict theory, structural functionalism proposed by Emile

Durkheim, corresponds society as an “organism”, with different parts working together
to keep the organism alive. It sees the society as a complex system whose parts "work
together" to promote "stability" and "social order". These different "parts" of society are
considered as social structures which refer to as a relatively stable patterns of social
behavior wherein each structures fulfills certain social functions. And these social
functions come in two types, namely the manifest and latent functions. "Manifest
function" refers to the obvious or intended result of a particular structure while "Latent
function" refers to the outcome of a particular structure that occurs unintentionally. For
example are schools. Schools fulfill the function of educating children or students - filling
the minds of each student with different kinds of knowledge - which is their manifest
function. But aside from that, schools can also help students in socializing. Additionally,
schools help them to be responsible and be hard workers through things such as
assigning task for them to do, group works and many more. That's their latent function.
However, despite each social function, "Social Dysfunction" also occurs. Social
Dysfunction is any social pattern that disrupts the smooth operation of the society. For
instance, technology improves the lives of people but new machines can put people out
of their function or work. Thus social dysfunction occurs. This is what makes it quite
contrasting to the social conflict theory. Since Structural Functionalism sees the society
as fundamentally functional and stable, it can be really bad at dealing with change in
which apparently, social conflict theory shines.

Symbolic interactionism was introduced to American sociology by George Herbert Mead

in the 1920s. It was based in Max Weber's assertion wherein he declared that
individuals' actions depend on their interpretation of the meaning of everything that
surround and revolve around them. As a micro-level theory, symbolic interactionism
focuses on the relationships among individuals within a society. On Symbolic Interaction
theory, people are scrutinized on their tendency to give subjective meanings towards
different things, events, and behaviors based on what they believe and not just on what
is objectively true. Moreover, individuals create symbols that give meaning to the world
in their perspective. Such meanings could be developed and carried by constant social
interactions. Thus, how people interact with each other depends on how they interpret
factors such as language, actions, and statuses. For example, one might interpret a
handshake as either a friendly greeting or cool farewell, depending on context (the
symbolism of a handshake varies). Sometimes symbols change; long hair in males
once symbolized rebellion, but now does not.