CLASS 2

SOCIETIES

Prof. dr. Jannick Demanet

Academic year: 2022-2023
CONTENTS

1) Changing patterns of society

2) Classical sociological accounts
 What is a society?
People who interact in a defined space and
share a certain social organizational structure and
culture
‘Society’ at various levels
Subgroups with subculture

p. 107
1. CHANGING PATTERNS OF SOCIETY
 1. CHANGING PATTERNS OF SOCIETY

Sociocultural evolution (Lenski’s)

1) Hunting and gathering societies
Social organization
Small, nomadic groups (25-40)
Rudimentary labor division
Egalitarian, little stratification
Prestige, charismatic leadership
Religion
p. 107 Forces of nature
 1. CHANGING PATTERNS OF SOCIETY

1) Hunting and gathering societies

Struggle for survival?
‘Original affluent societies’ (Sahlins)
The ‘zen’ road to affluence
Desire little, produce just enough
Work - leisure
Hesitant towards transition? Population
Population pressure

!!! Food sources Labour

 1. CHANGING PATTERNS OF SOCIETY

2) Horticultural and pastoral

Technology (10000-12000 BCE)
Horticulture
Hand tools, cultivation of plants
Pastoral
Domestication of animals
‘Worst mistake in human history’?
Malnutrition

p. 108-109
 1. CHANGING PATTERNS OF SOCIETY

2) Horticultural and pastoral

Social organization
Semi-sedentary/nomadic
Larger groups
Religion
God as benefactor
Material surplus
More specialized division of labor
First formal social hierarchy
Elite, government and military
p. 108
 1. CHANGING PATTERNS OF SOCIETY

3) Agrarian
Technology (+- 5000 BCE)
Animal drawn ploughs
Irrigation
Social organisation
Sedentary
Population size
Cities

p. 112-113
 1. CHANGING PATTERNS OF SOCIETY

3) Agrarian
Social differentiation
Labor division
Economy - Money
Dramatic social inequality
Elites <-> peasants/slaves
Religion and legitimation
Politics and administration

p. 112-113
 1. CHANGING PATTERNS OF SOCIETY

4) Industrial societies
Technology (1750)
Industrial revolution
Water/steam powered
Combustion engine and electricity

p. 113-114
 1. CHANGING PATTERNS OF SOCIETY

4) Industrial societies
Social organization
Unprecedented labor division
Social relationships
Kinship to instrumental
Social inequality
Prosperity for elite
But: levelling (!)

p. 113-114
 1. CHANGING PATTERNS OF SOCIETY

5) Post-industrial societies
Technology (ca. 1976)
Information society
From goods to information
From production to service
Agrarian: soil
Industrial: machines
Post-industrial: people, information

p. 115
 1. CHANGING PATTERNS OF SOCIETY

5) Post-industrial societies
Social organization
Work organization
Flexible: time, location, projects
Globalisation
Cultural shift to postmodernism
Plurality of perspectives
Postmaterialism
p. 115, !!! Ecology, quality of life
2. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL
ACCOUNTS
 2. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL
ACCOUNTS

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Theory for societal change
Dialectics (Hegel)
Thesis, antithesis, synthesis
Dialectic materialism (Marx)
Change through technology/economy
Social conflict

p. 117-121
 2. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL
ACCOUNTS

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Historical materialism
Superstructure
Infrastructure
False conscioussness

p. 117-121
 2. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL
ACCOUNTS
Class conflict in capitalism
Ownership means of production
Industrialists (‘capitalists’)
Working class (‘proletariat’)
Labour
Profound human need  praxis
Free, universal, creative, human activity
Commodification of labour
Raw good + labour power = value
Labour power = subsistence + surplus
Profit  exploitation
p. 117-121
 2. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL
ACCOUNTS

Why no revolt?
False consciousness
Alienation
From act of work
From products
From other workers
From themselves

p. 117-121
 2. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL
ACCOUNTS

Why eventually revolt?

Weak ties to industrialists
Competition among industrialists
Class conscioussness
Klasse-An-Sich  Klasse-Für-Sich
Realization & Organization

p. 117-121
 2. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL
ACCOUNTS

Max Weber (1864-1920)

I go to
Idealistic vs. Materialistic church
I go to because I
Beliefs, norms, values church
because I
hope to
meet new
I go to believe in customers
Forms of social action church
because we
God
I go to
always do church
Tradition oriented that on because I
Sunday love my
Value/belief oriented mummy
and I want
to be with
Affectual oriented her

Instrumental oriented
Ideal types
p. 121-122, !!!
 2. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL
ACCOUNTS

Social change
Pre-industrial societies
Traditional, emotional, value/belief
Industrial societies
Instrumental rational action
 Process of rationalisation of society
Efficiency in goal achievement

p. 122
 2. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL
ACCOUNTS

The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism

Predestination
Worldly prosperity
Rationality, discipline, hard work
Reinvestment of profit
From protestant to work ethic
Rationalisation or ‘disenchantment’
Wealth for own sake
p. 122-123
 2. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL
ACCOUNTS

Iron cage (stahlhartes Gehäuse)

Disenchantment
Efficiency & Control
Bureaucracies
Dehumanized
People as cases, numbers
 curbs creativity and freedom

p. 124
 2. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL
ACCOUNTS

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Social facts
Structures
Cultural norms, values, …
External, forceful, unaware
We feel society’s pull when we try to counter it
Functions of social facts
See functionalism

p. 121-122
 2. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL
ACCOUNTS

Societal regulation
Bodily vs. Cultural needs
Physical limitations for bodily needs
Societal limitations for cultural needs
Anomie
Rapid societal change
Inadequate regulation

p. 125, !!!
 2. CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL
ACCOUNTS

Societal change
 The division of labour
Social cohesion
Pre-industrial societies
Mechanical solidarity
Collective conscioussness
Solidarity from similarity
Industrial societies
Organic solidarity
Division of labour
Solidarity from interdependence
p. 125, !!!
SO…

Patterns of societies
Technological determinism
Surplus
Population growth, Division of labour, Social
inequality, Religion
Classical accounts
Marx: materialism, social conflict, revolution
Weber: idealism, rationality, iron cage
Durkheim: social facts, anomie, solidarity
CHAPTERS NOT TO BE STUDIED

What is ‘Chinese society’? (p. 110)

The contemporary shape of world societies (p. 130)