The development

of sociological
theory II
SOCI1001A Introduction to Sociology
L03
 Outline of the lecture
2

 Sociology & Social Changes

 The Founders of sociology

 Karl
Marx
 Max Weber

 Major Theoretical Perspectives

 Conflict
perspective
 Symbolic interactionism perspective

 Question and Answer

 Founders of sociology:
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
3

 Karl Marx (1818 – 1883), born in Germany

but exiled to Britain due to his political
publication

 Major focus:
 Development of capitalism – “an economic
system based on profit-seeking and market
exchange” (Giddens & Sutton, 2021, p. 950)

 Class conflicts

 How society changes

 Capitalism and its main elements
 Private ownership of capital
 Monopolization of capital became possible

 Capital refers to “any asset, including money, machines or even factories,

that can be used or invested to make further assets” (Giddens & Sutton,
2021, p.17)
 The accumulation of wealth
 The rise of the capitalist class / bourgeoisie

 Wage-labour refers to “the pool of workers who do not own any means of
production themselves but must find employment provided by the owners of
capital” (Giddens & Sutton, 2021, p.17)
 Subject to the domination and exploitation by those who own the capital

 The emergence of the working class / proletariat

 Classconflict may arise due to the underlying unequal distribution of
economic resources and the associated relationship
 Marx contended that (Macionis, 2018):
 Society is primarily divided into two major parts:

 Base structure

 Superstructure

 The former serves to determine and shape the organization of the latter
while the latter serves to support and legitimate the former

 The dynamic of change derives from conflict and competition

 Social
system
Cultural
Super-structure system
Political
system

support determine
& &
legitimate shape

Base-structure Economic system

7
 Explanation of social changes (Giddens, & Sutton, 2021)
 Historical materialism / materialist conception of history
 Class conflict as a driving force for social changes
 Example: Communist Manifesto: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the
history of class struggles”

 Historical changes was propelled by antagonistic (competing and

incompatible) social relations and changes in mode of production

 Mode of production refers to “the constitutive characteristics of a society

based on the socio-economic system predominant within it”, such as
feudalism, capitalism or socialism (Giddens & Sutton, p. 964)
 How people collectively produce food, shelter & other material goods
 What kind of division of labour exists
 Conflict perspective
(衝突主義理論框架)
9

 Drawing inspiration from Marx, the conflict perspective argues that

society changes as a result of conflict and competition over power and
resources among different groups (Giddens, & Sutton, 2021)

 Socialdivisions may include different classes and status groups in

contemporary society

 Conflicts among groups with distinctive interests may drive social changes
 Relationships between dominant and subordinate groups

 How those relationships of control are established, maintained, and possibly

challenged
 Ideology and false consciousness
10

 Unlike structural functionalism which emphasis on consensus and social

solidarity, conflict approach sees society as an arena of inequality
that would generate conflict and change

 Conflict approach rejects the idea that social structure promotes the
operation of society as a whole, focusing instead on how social
structure may benefit some people while harming others

 Examples to think about:

 How may family and school contribute to maintain unequal distribution of
benefits in a society?
 Founders of sociology:
Max Weber (1864-1920)
11

 Max Weber (1864 – 1920), born in Germany,

whose work has wide ranging influences in
economics, law, philosophy, comparative history &
sociology

 How society should be studied

 Social action – “subjectively meaningful actions of
people that are oriented towards others” (Giddens &
Sutton, 2021, p. 18)

 Verstehen – understanding or insight (Schaefer,

2022, p.8)

 Ideal type – models created to help us make sense

of social phenomenon (Giddens & Sutton, 2021, p.
18)

 How society changes

 Development of capitalism
 Ideas and values versus economic interests
Image source: https://www.biography.com/scholar/max-weber
12

 To demonstrate this idea, Weber conducted a study called The

Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Macionis, 2018):
 i.Weber’s question: How and why industrial capitalism developed in the
first space?

 ii.
Weber claimed that the key to the birth of industrial capitalism lay in the
Protestant Reformation (宗教改革), and especially to the idea of Calvinism
(加爾文主義).
13

 iii.
Calvinists approached life in a highly disciplined and rational way. One
of Calvin’s most important ideas was predestination, the belief that an all-
knowing and all powerful God had predestined some people for salvation
and others for damnation.

 iv.
Calvinist came to see worldly success as a sign of God’s grace. Thus, they
applied rationality, discipline, and hard work to their tasks.

 v.Such activities by Calvinists—saving money, using wealth to create more

wealth, and adopting new technology—became the foundation of
capitalism.

 vi. By stressing the importance of ideas, Weber tried to counter Marx’s

strictly economic explanation of modern society (which was criticized for its
economic determinism).
14

 Modern society is closely associated with the gradual spread of rationality

principle to other spheres of social life

 Rationalization refers to “a long-term social process in which traditional

ideas and beliefs are replaced by methodical rules and procedures and
formal, means-to-ends thinking” (Giddens & Sutton, 2021, p. 18)

 Bureaucracy (官僚架構): the most efficient form of organization in modern

world (Giddens & Sutton, 2021, p. 18)
 Weber warned that bureaucracies treat a human being as a “number” or a “case”
rather than as a unique individual and was pessimistic about the future of modern
society

 The "iron cage" thus would likely trap individuals in systems based purely on
teleological efficiency, rational calculation and control, reducing human beings to
robots
 Symbolic interactionism perspective
(符號互動主義理論框架)
15

 Symbolic interactionism sees society as the product of the everyday

interactions of individuals (Macionis, 2018)
 Micro-level of analysis
 Focus on language and symbol etc

 For symbolic interactionists, society does not exist as something

external to people. They believed that society is the shared reality
that people construct as they interact.
 “Reality” is simply how we define our surroundings.

 Symbolic interactionism advocated “understanding” by grasping the

meaning of social action and interaction rather than in explaining
what forces external to people cause them to act the way they do.
 While many have credited George Herbert Mead
as laying the foundation of establishing symbolic
interactionism, it is also important to recognize the
inspiration of Weber’s thesis and emphases on the
meanings of social action in the context of
interaction (Giddens & Sutton, 2021)

 George Herbert Mead

 “social self” is formed through meanings
communicated and shard in the course of social
interaction rather than a biologically given entity

 Erving Goffman
 Presentation of self

 Dramaturgical analysis

Source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MandelaEffect/comments/ct8wvp/mirror_mirrormagic_mirror_snow_white_book/
https://kknews.cc/comic/za623yl.html
17

 Erving Goffman developed dramaturgy (戲劇理論) to analyze social

interaction (Macionis, 2018)

 i.Goffman suggested that social life is like a drama or a stage (舞台) play:
Birth leads us onto the stage of everyday life, and our socialization consists
of learning to perform on that stage.

 ii.We have ideas of how we want others to think of us, and we use our roles
in everyday life to communicate those ideas. Goffman called these efforts
to manage the impressions that others receive of us impression management
(印象管理).
 18

 Some important concepts:

 i. Front stages and back stages
 Front stages — where performances are given.
e.g. the classroom for a teacher.

 Back stages — where people rest from their

performances, discuss their presentations, and
plan future performances. e.g. the home for a
teacher.

A teacher has shrugged off the

hands of partner when seeing
Source:
a student
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Perspectives Functionalism Conflict Symbolic interactionism
Level of analysis Macro-level Macro-level Micro-level

Key terms Structure, Functions Inequality, power, Symbols, interaction,

conflict, exploitation meanings, definitions

What image of  Society is a system  Society is a system  Society is an ongoing

society does the of interrelated of social process.
approach have parts that is inequalities based
relatively stable. on class, gender,  People interact in
and race. countless settings using
 Each part works to symbolic
keep society  Society operates to communications.
operating in an benefit some
orderly way. categories of  The reality people
people and harm experience is variable
 Members others. and changing
generally agree
about what is  Social inequality
morally right and causes conflict that
morally wrong leads to social
change
 Perspectives Structural- Conflict Symbolic-
functionalism interactionism
What core  How is society held • How does society • How do people
questions does together? divide a experience
the approach population? society?
ask?  What are the major
parts of the society? • How do • How do people
advantaged shape the reality
 How are these parts people protect they experience?
linked? their privileges?
• How do behavior
 What does each • How do and meaning
part do to help disadvantaged change from
society work? people challenge person to person
the system and from one
seeking change? situation to
another?

20
 Perspectives Structural-functionalism Conflict Symbolic-
interactionism

Criticism By focusing on social Conflict approach ignores By focusing on what is

stability and unity, how shared values and unique in each social
structural-functionalism interdependence unify scene, this approach
ignores inequalities of members of a society risks overlooking the
social class, race, and widespread influence
gender, which cause of culture, as well as
tension and conflict. Its factors such as class,
focus on stability at the gender, and race
expense of conflict
makes this approach
somewhat conservative

21
Adapted from Macionis (2018, p. 47)
Reference

 Giddens, A., & Sutton, P. W. (2021). Sociology (9th ed.). Cambridge: Polity Press.

 Macionis, J. J. (2018). Sociology (Global 16th ed.). Harlow, England : Pearson.

 Schaefer, R. T. (2022). Sociology: A brief introduction (14th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.