SOCIOLOGY PART 1: (HASTA LA 211)

ARISTOTLE, POLITICS AND VIRTUE

• Social ethics and man’s place within society → Politi.
• “The end of politics is the best of ends; and the main concern of politics is to engender a certain
character in the citizens and to make them good and disposed to perform noble actions.”
• Noble actions → Actions that promote virtue.
• According to Aristotle, the best people should be involved in politics, because that provides virtue,
the virtuous person looks for the good of everybody.
• Aristotle highlighted virtue not only as individuals but for other people. Importance of virtue and the
importance of being virtuous to lead politics so that we can help improve the life of everybody.
• He points our purpose, which is to love, to be virtuous. We can practice this virtue only when we are
living with others in a society, so we are social beings.

ENLIGHTENMENT PERIOD
• Humanity no longer in need of a religious/Christian perspective to explain the nature of humanity,
society and their relationship with each other. As faith in science grew, faith in God dwindled.
• Enlightenment = Reason and scientific study.

1) WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?

• Sociology is the study of human social relationships and institutions, the study of the interaction
of people by scientific methods.
• Subject matter is diverse, ranging from crime to religion and environment, from divisions of race,
social stability, etc.
• It explains important matters in our personal lives, communities and the world. It investigates
social causes and consequences, poverty, discrimination, etc.
• It is the study of social life, social change, social causes and consequences of human behaviour.

SOCIOLOGY AS A STUDY
Sociologists investigate the structure of groups, organizations, societies and how people interact within
these groups.
• All human behaviour is social so the subject matter of sociology ranges from the intimate family
to the hostile mob; from divisions of race, gender etc. to the effect of media on each person.
• It is a scientific analysis of social phenomena which can be used to deal effectively with social
problems. (Samuel Koenig).
• Social forces mold a person.

HOW DOES OUR SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT SHAPE WHO WE ARE?

• Empathy comes with our culture, we are closely connected to people all the time.
• What affects people → Social class, government, ideas, education, politics, economy, information,
social media, fashion, cultures, war, friends, family, religion…
• Characteristics of a good citizen → Respectful, tolerant, problem solver, participating in politics.
 • Functional vs. dysfunctional society → When society is not functioning well, we have consequences;
when people are not working for the improvement of society, when people don’t understand their
purpose. We are in the world to love; the problem is when we don’t understand that purpose. There
exists a distortion of love.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE:
3 main factors influenced its development in the mid-19th Cent:
1) Social upheaval in Europe as a result of the Industrial Revolution and the political revolutions in
America and France.
2) Development of imperialism – as the Europeans conquered other nations, they came in contact with
different cultures and began to ask why cultures varied; and
3) Success of positivism: applying scientific method to social world and social problems.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
• Important because it provides a different way of looking at familiar worlds. Gives us new eyes and
hopefully new heart.
• This perspective stresses the broader social context of behaviour by looking at individual ́s social
location, employment, income, education, age, culture and by considering external influences which
are internalized yet become part of that person.
• We can see link between what people do and the social settings that shape their behaviour.

SOCIOLOGY: SOCIAL SCIENCE

• Science is the systematic methods used to obtain knowledge and the knowledge is obtained by
methods.
• Science can be divided into the Natural Sciences and the Social Sciences which attempt to objectively
study the social world.
• Scientists are guided by principles as they pursue their goals.

SOCIAL PROCESSES
• Love and affection
• Cooperation and competition
• Accommodation and assimilation
• Social conflict such as war
• Revolution
• Socialization
• Social control and deviance
• Social integration and social change
• Soci → society / ology → science

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE: → Also known as Sociological Paradigms.

• Sociologist use perspectives to make sense of the world. They provide a framework for understanding
conversations on many topics.
o Structural – Functional → macro level
o Symbolic Interactionism → micro level
 o Conflict Theory
o Feminist Paradigm

SOCIAL RESEARCH:
• More rational and empirical than philosophical and idealistic.
• Concepts are abstracted from concrete experience to represent a class of phenomena. Terms such as
social stratification, deviance represent concepts.
• A proposition seeks to reflect a relationship between different categories of data or concepts. “Lower
class youths are more likely to commit crimes than middle class youths. This proposition is debatable
and may prove to be false.
• Theories represent related propositions that explain social phenomena. More factual than philosophical.
Based on data.

SUBJECT MATTER OF SOCIOLOGY

• Sociological Analysis: an analysis of human society and culture with a sociological perspective. What
factors and forces underlying historical transformations of society?
• Study of primary units of social life: basic social acts and social relationships, people, personalities,
groups, communities, associations, organizations and populations

RESEARCH IN SOCIOLOGY:
• Purpose: To prove a theory.
• What are they trying to prove with the marshmallow? Is age a determinant?
• Example of types of things which can be done in research.
• Classic Modern

• C. WRIGHT MILLS: → Book = Sociological Imagination

o Connects individual experiences and societal relationships to find better mechanism to cope
with the problems we have, such as:
▪ History
▪ Biography
▪ Social structure
o Sociological Imagination → Put us in the shoes of somebody else in order to understand, as
sociologists we have to understand what the other person is going through: be empathetic. If
we are connected as a part of the body, we need to be empathetic with each other. We can’t
just judge, we need to use sociological imagination.
o What matters is where you are in society and how did you get there and why are you there.
If we add Christian thinking to it, we can understand why society is moving the way it is
moving. Looking beyond the individual.
o Second part of Mills’ argument → Private issues become public problems. Sociology is trying
to find answers to the public-private issues.
o Sociological Imagination is similar to Sociological Perspective → Important because it
provides a different way of looking at familiar worlds. Gives us new eyes and new hearts.
o Happiness is reached when we get to a place in society and find our role.
 o Social location → The group you identify with (race, religion, gender, historical location…).
You need to understand the social location to have an accurate sociological imagination.
▪ Certain group in which you identify yourself with, related to race, religion…
▪ To understand someone’s situation in life in those terms
▪ Social locations allow us to study and understand better society.
▪ The idea is to find solution and not falling to the trap of finding excuses bc of life
circumstances.
o Difference between sociological imagination and social location: In order to understand
sociological imagination, you need to understand social location.
o Mill’s idea of sociological imagination is very similar to Durkheim’s collective consciousness.

2) SOCIOLOGICAL PARADIGMS

a. Symbolic interactionist → Life is made up of symbols, material symbols and non-material

symbols. One of the most important symbols is language. They study society from a micro level.
b. Conflict theory → Macro point of view of society (although it sometimes can be seen done as a
micro analysis). Developed especially by Marx.
c. Structural functional → Study society from the macro point of view. Complex and made up of
different parts and each part has to be functioning well for society to be functioning well.

a) SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONIST → micro level

• The symbolic interactionist perspective of sociology views society as a product of everyday social
interactions of individuals.
• Symbolic interactionists also study how people use symbols to create meaning.
• Institutions considered agent of socialization = family, friends…
• Dysfunctional group within society is functioning as a group outside it.
• Symbol that can unite / break up:
o Language.
o Religion.
o Flag.

SYMBOLIC CONTINUED
• In the simple form, people act based on the symbolic meanings they find with a given situation. The
goals of our interactions are to create a shared meaning.
• Blumer’s 3 basic ideas: meaning (interpretations), language (symbols) and thought (interpretation of
symbols modified). They lead to conclusions about the creation of a person’s self and socialization
within a community.
• What meanings to we assign to our interactions?

b) CONFLICT THEORY → macro level

• Unlike the structural functional theory, conflict theory interprets society as a struggle for power
between groups engaging in conflict for limited resources.
• KARL MARX
 o Founder of the conflict theory → Everything is conflict. Every aspect of society is unfair
because the wealthiest are the most powerful. The solution for this is a revolution:
communism.
o It has to be considered that Marx’s idea of communism hasn’t worked because there is a lack
of freedom. It’s not a solution for society’s problems. The idea of society is to be free not only
to do things freely, but to think freely.
o During this time, the Industrial Revolution was developing which had tremendous inequalities
in society.

• Conflict theorists like Marx argue that there are two general categories of people in industrialized
societies:
o Capitalist classes.
o Working class.

c) STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONAL
• Compte, Durkheim and others
• Central idea: society can be compared to a human body; it is complex and made up of many
interrelated parts.
• Don’t forget St. Paul → idea of society as a body = but comparing body of Christianity with society
• Dysfunctional behavior
• FUNCTIONAL THEORY: see society as a peaceful unit.

Auguste Compte → Structural Functionalism

• Book: Sociological Imagination
• Connects individual experiences and societal relationships:
o History
o Biography
o Social Structure
• If we do this, we will find better mechanisms to cope with the problems we have.
• When a body functions well then society functions well, if each part works well.
• Society can be compared to a human body; it is complex…
o Father of sociology and positivism – applying the scientific approach to the social world
o Looking for matters happening in society from a positivist point of view, which means in a
scientific way
o His idea was to search for invariant laws of the natural and social world.
▪ Society is a complex and interconnected system where each part, if works correctly,
allows society to function correctly.
▪ Structures were not doing their job, so society became unfunctional.
▪ He said society has to be looked at as one body. If everything is working well society
functions well.
▪ 3 methods for discovering invariant laws:
– Observation.
– Experimentation.
– Comparison.
 o Global society has gone through 3 Stages:
▪ Theological stage reflects the very beginning of human beings & social groups people
viewed events as expressions of the will of the gods. (Greek). Events were explained
theologically.
▪ Metaphysical stage – problems have root in defects of humanity and in astrology.
▪ Scientific stage – world & events explained by scientific principles.

o Two specific problems for sociological Investigation.

▪ Social statistics refers to problems of order, stability-how and why do societies stick
together and endure (social structure and order).
– Language: to store thoughts and culture.
– Religion: guidance of behaviour and root of social order.
– Division of Labour: state cooperation creating interdependence among the
people in the society.
▪ Social dynamics refers to problems of social change-what makes societies change,
what shapes the nature and direction of changes (social change).

3) CULTURE:
• DEFINITION:
o Culture is a body of learned behavior taught through Socialization.
o Culture: beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to the members of a
particular group or society.
o It is the language, customs, values, norms, mores, rules, tools, technologies, products,
organizations, and institutions (family, education, religion, work, and health care)
o Sociologists define society as the people who interact in such a way as to share a common
culture.
o Material (tangible things) and non-material (values, morals, beliefs, institutions that shape
our thoughts, feelings, behaviors).
• Globalization of culture
o culture now is globalized through social media
o Cultural Imperialism → The practice of imposing one’s culture over another’s.
o Does the internet promote a global culture?
o Aspects in culture:
▪ History
▪ Religion
▪ Language
▪ Tangible material
▪ Non-material
▪ Social Groups
▪ Politics
o Importance of language:
▪ Allows us shared experiences to be passed from one generation to the next.
▪ Provides a social and shared past.
▪ Provides a social and shared future.
▪ Shared perspectives and understandings.
 ▪ Goal directed behavior. (school can be a goal driven language)
▪ Sapir Worf hypothesis: It is our very language that determines our consciousness.
o Globalization can be positive when it benefits societies, if globalization just benefits a few,
then it is not good.

o In all cultures, language is the primary vehicle of meaning and communication.

▪ Social norms: Particular to each culture
▪ Remember Society is a system of interrelationships that connects individuals.
▪ Societies are enduring over time and they require a shared identity which is what we
call Culture.
▪ Values: ideas held by individuals about what is desirable, proper, good & bad.
▪ Rules of conduct of appropriate behavior (eating with your hands).

• HOW DO THE PARADIGMS VIEW CULTURE?

o Structural Functional Theory:
▪ Culture functions as the structure in society that exists to meet human needs.
▪ Gives us direction, work together, lead us to happiness.
▪ Certain cultural universals exist all have behavioural norms that are unique.
o Conflict theory:
▪ cultural traits often benefit some more than others.
▪ Reflect interest of the most powerful.
▪ USA = capitalism so if you are not wealthy, you are a minority or underrepresented.
o Symbolic Interactions: we are a response to the reactions, images and symbols of others.

• ETHNOCENTRISM
o All people ethnic.
o To be concentrated on your own kind of people as a rule to judge others’ cultures. To not be
able to look beyond yourself. To think we cannot learn from people outside our culture.
o Ethnocentrism → When you think your culture is the best and you use your culture to judge
others.
o
• CULTURE AND KNOWLEDGE
o People learn culture, this is its essential feature. Culture Is a body of learned behaviour taught
through socialization.
o Important elements of cultural systems
▪ Systems of meaning, language primary
▪ Ways of organizing society: groups, states & corps
▪ Distinctive techniques of a group & their products
▪ If learning is important, then teaching too
o Our socialization process main aspect: understanding who we are and the ability of using that
language to acquire knowledge. Knowledge leads to truth. Knowledge is a threat to the state
bc the more ignorant you are, the easier you are to manipulate.
o Skepticism is important for knowledge. → right to question.
o The most defining and important aspect of language is the communication of knowledge.
o Knowledge leads to truth.
 o Epistemology: The theory of knowledge, from Greek:
▪ Epistem → Knowledge
▪ Logos → Logical discourse
o Epistemology studies the nature of knowledge, justification of that knowledge and rationality
of belief. 4 areas:
▪ Philosophical analysis of nature of knowledge
▪ Skepticism
▪ Sources of knowledge and justified belief
Criteria for knowledge: “conocer y saber”

• HABERMAS: Philosopher / sociologist (1929 Germany)

o In order to spread knowledge, we need a public sphere. The purpose of knowledge is to know
the truth and knowing who we are within society.
o Communicative rationality → Human rationality as a necessary outcome of successful
communication.
o The potential for certain kinds of reason is inherent in communication itself.
o What is needed are “mastered rules for reaching an understanding and conducting
argumentation, possessed by subjects who are capable of speech and action.”
o Goal is to transform this implicit know how into explicit know that. This conception of
reasoning does justice to knowledge within the public sphere.

• DURKHEIM
Durkheim studies: religion and suicide.
o Importance of religion
▪ He was looking at the functionality of religion as an institution, how it was contributing
to society.
▪ It did not allow the people or prevented the people of reacting in a negative way or
reacting to environment.
▪ There are
– functions & dysfunctions
– manifest & latent actions.
▪ unintended consequences

▪ Elementary forms of solidarity found in religion-

▪ Every religion has a distinction between the sacred and the profane.
– That distinction makes religion.
– The sacred is kept separated from the profane.
▪ Our relationship to religion keeps us together.
▪ Societies are groups that share a common symbol

o SUICIDE
▪ Works: suicide and family.
▪ Trying to understand why people commit suicide while others don’t. How groups keep
together.
 ▪ Why he was studying suicide: he wanted to understand why certain groups survive
better than other groups, that adapt better and have more social cohesion.
– egoistic suicide
– Anomic suicide
→ religion could give him the answers he was looking for.

▪ Egoistic Suicide
– social causes nonetheless/ rates between groups
– No goals outside self = meaninglessness
– Protestants self/ Jewish & Catholics found solutions & support in their
religions. More to the world than myself.
– Single people, feeling no meaning, are at risk.
– Marriage is a benefit to being single. Having children is a wonderful benefit.
Both give us something to live for. (part of a larger society)

– Thinking of yourself
– Religion is very individualistic
– You are alone solving your problems bc you think can and you don’t need God
– Married people and with people is less probable that they commit suicide bc
they have the support of the family, they are not on their own.

▪ Anomic Suicide – “Anomie” – alienation.

– Loss of limits of aspirations or behavior/ or too much regulation = frustration
– No support from society or group
– “Elementary Forms of Religious Life” best book regarding individual life and
social life
– Change of social status, either up or down. Objective truth, societal truth.
What is important in our world?

– When we feel alienated, when we don’t receive support from society or group
– Change of social status, either up or down. → economic situation
– Occur when an individual has no money or lots of money (Looking for
happiness by buying things and still not happy)
– Anamy is a situation of a crisis of identity.
Objective truth, societal truth. What is it important in our world?
People lose sight of what is important in life. In a sense, you lose your own
identity.
→ both suicides include alienation within yourself.
o Through research in suicide, Durkheim showed:
▪ individual’s depend on society thru integration & regulation. Not easy to determine.
▪ how does society provide this? Social solidarity, cohesion, meaning etc.
Mechanically=automatic.
▪ He was worried about modernity. Will those bonds that hold people together, those
that give life meaning, break down? He was not able to answer this. He was frustrated
by this. Will social solidarity hold people together in modern times?
 o analyzed how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in the modern era, when
things such as shared religious and ethnic background could no longer be assumed; to that
end he wrote much about the effect of laws, religion, education and similar forces on society
and social integration.
o Functional interdependence resulted in “ties” that bind society together. (Modern)

4) SOCIALIZATION PROCESS
o The lifelong process of learning. It is vital to the functioning of an individual, for society is
continuously changing and requiring constant adaptation.
o Socialization teaches that culture norms, internalize values and learn social roles.
o Are we shaped by our biology or are we shaped by our learning experiences
(nature/nurture)? Or are we influenced but in the truth, we are not governed by either;
we can make conscious choices?
▪ Nature / nurture? Connexion between our nurture and how are we as adults.
▪ Are we shaped by our nature or are we shaped by our learning experiences?
o People learn culture through the socialization process.
o Re-socialization: Erving Goffman → Regulation of all aspects of a person’s life under a
single authority.

• SOCIALIZATION – DURKHEIM
o Social integration: the dynamic and structured process by which every individual is
socialized. Part of a…
▪ Family
▪ Friends
▪ Church
▪ School
▪ Government
▪ Social regulation
o Ideal societies function in peace when laws support just social interaction-integration.
o Social Regulation → Controls within culture and society that regulate our desires for more
material goods and our moral behaviour. Laws second cultural regulations. Those agents
of socialization that have had most impact on our behaviour, keep us in check.
o Durkheim is looking at the groups of people who are at risk of suicide → What are the
aspects that keep us strong?

• AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION:
o Groups or social contexts in which significant processes of socialization occur. Primary and
secondary socialization:
▪ Family
▪ School
▪ Peer group
▪ Mass media
▪ Work
▪ Institutions
• SOCIALIZATION OF SELF
o Charles Cooley→ Looking Glass Self: sense of self develops from the interactions we have
with others. Contains three steps:
▪ We imagine how we look to others.
▪ We interpret other’s reactions to ourselves.
▪ We develop a self-concept (that is why it is called looking glass self).
o G.H. Mead → Development Self & The generalized others.
▪ He agreed with Cooley but added that play is essential for development:
imaginative play.
▪ This is taking the role of others. Significant others are the significant people in the
child’s life. significant people in a child’s life, those that are since the beginning
and pass a lot of time (parents or even the nanny)
▪ During the time that children play, they internalize the expectations of those
significant others. Children like to copy their parents or the people they are
around. When they grow up they want to be like them.
o Jean Piaget → States of Cognitive Development (20th century)
o Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis → Personality consists of three elements: ego, superego
and id.
o Nancy Chodorow
▪ Learning to feel male or female derives from infants attachment to the parents
from an early stage.
▪ Most important is the mother.
▪ Both develop a sense of self. Girls continue and boys break off and masculinity is
defined by the loss of attachment to mother.
▪ She says that women have an easier time making relationships than men do.
o Jean Piaget → Stages of Development
▪ Children actively construct their world as their bodies grow. Social interaction is
key to development and it’s done in 4 different stages:
• 0-2 years – Sensorimotor → Object permanence (world through their
senses).
• 2-7 years – Pre-operational → Imagination (Pretend play, use of symbols,
talk…)
• 7-11 – Concrete Operational → Reason
• 12+ years – Formal Operation → Abstract moral reasoning.

o Sigmund Freud → Id, ego & super ego

▪ The understanding of who we are and our ability to adapt within society is
developed within society, and among significant social influences.
▪ Our natural impulsive instincts are in constant conflict with our societal
constraints. Parts:
• Id → Seeks limitless pleasure.
• Superego → Seeks rational behaviour.
• Ego → Demands of society.

• SOCIALIZATION - ERVING GOFFMAN

 o Regulation of all aspects of person’s life under a single authority.
o Women in workforce
o Early childcare. Belsky: children who spend more time in childcare have more behavioural
problems in school?
o Does it matter? quality parenting is key.
o Gender learning? following scientific study.

• CULTURE AND SOCIETIES

o 6 Basic types of societies described by sociologists
▪ Hunting & gathering societies
▪ Pastoral Societies
▪ Horticultural societies
▪ Agricultural societies
▪ Feudal societies
▪ Industrial societies

• SOCIALIZATION AND LIFE COURSE

o The life course → People are affected by socialization their entire lifetime. From birth to
school to workplace to retirement and old age.
o Impression management → Erving Goffman
o Impact of isolation → We need each other to learn virtue and practice virtue for ultimate
end of making society better.

• WHAT HOLDS PEOPLE TOGETHER?

o Changes in social structure occur due to changes in culture, shifts in social classes, racial
and ethnic groups, globalization, etc.
o Social Cohesion → The degree to which members of society feel united by shared beliefs.
Durkheim’s mechanical and organic solidarity (collective consciousness).
o Ferdinand Tonies → Gemeinschaft (small society with sense of togetherness) was being
replaced by Gesellschaft (society dominated by impersonal relationships, self-interest).
o Fighting Anomie is important (Durkheim).

• Micro sociological Perspective

o Social interaction in everyday life.
o Symbolic Interactionist theory.
o Social groups and culture → Social groups require social structures, like families, religious
institutions and traditions, in order to exists and endure, but the absence of self/cultural
criticism contributes to the maintenance of the status quo.
→ Self/Cultural criticism allows us to constantly check our cultural values and beliefs
against the often anti-value culture outside.
o Total Institutions → Goffman: A place to get re-socialized which is a jail, prison. He also
calls the military a total institution, to become what he calls robots.

• Groups
o Important to understand the interactions process within groups.
 o Filled with people sharing same values, norms and expectations and a sense of belonging.
o Primary → Family.
o Secondary → Business association, gym…
o Coalitions → Group of people with a common goal.

• CROWD BEHAVIOUR
o “A gathering of people who share a purpose”
o Le Bon, founder of “crowd psychology”, believed that people, relieved of any personal
responsibility will behave in a more primal fashion.
o Contagion Theory: individual acts irrationally as they come under the hypnotic influence
of a crowd.
o Convergence Theory: crowd behavior reflects the preexisting values and beliefs and
behavioral disposition of the individuals who join a crowd.
o Emergent norm theory: norms emerge after people gather for collective behavior, and
that their behavior afterward is largely rational.
o Value-added theory: collective behavior results when several conditions exist, including
structural strain, generalized beliefs, precipitating factor, and lack of social control.

• COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR
o Spontaneous and unstructured behavior of a group of people in response to an event,
situation or problem.

5) INSTITUTIONS & IDENTITIES:

• “A pattern of expected actions of individuals or groups enforced by social sanctions (rewards &
punishments):
o Created by humans
▪ Person very much connected to institutions.
▪ Pattern that is reproduced, endures/lasting
– (widows still part of the institution of marriage)
▪ Rules that constrain & regulate
▪ Sanctions that enforce the pattern
▪ Purposes and meanings/sense of identity
– (Student at Univ. of Navarra)
• Institutions vs. Organizations: social institutions are often organizations. Capitalism is a type of econ.
Institution within which it organizes “multi-national” organizations. Etc. Government is a “mega-
institution”

• INSTITUTIONS
o Social institutions add stability to the structure, they keep structure functioning and society
peaceful.
→ E.g: schools, government,
o Socialization process:
▪ Creates certain patterns of beliefs
▪ Is influenced by values, language, affection etc.
 ▪ takes place in many different areas bc we are part of many different social groups and
institutions.
▪ Family is the first institution we enter when we are born
▪ When we study social groups, we need to look at the past, look at the family.

o W.R. Scott (2008): “Institutions are comprised of

1. regulative (rules & recipes),
elements that, together with associated activities &
2. normative resources, provide stability & meaning to social life.
3. cultural-cognitive (perceptions)
o Rules define the institution
o Some basic common social institutions:
▪ Family = most important one
▪ friends
▪ Religion
▪ Government
▪ School
▪ Workplace
▪ Sport’s team
▪ INTEGRATION & REGULATION from outside

• SOCIALIZATION AND INSTITUTIONS

o Invisible Institutions → We depend on them without knowing it: we don’t know they are
there.
o Market economy and the laws that regulate them and the labor laws are highly structure and
help society function.
o Government → Legislate laws for good of all.

• SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND INTERACTION

o Levels of Sociological Analysis → Macro and micro.
o Macro Social Structure → Patterned relationships that exist over time and between people.
It guides our behavior.
o 5 social revolutions by Lenski:
▪ Domestication: Hunting/Gathering
▪ Agricultural: Pastoral/Horticultural
▪ Industrial
▪ Post-Industrial
▪ Technological

6) EDUCATION & KNOWLEDGE

• “The more you know, the more difficult it is to hide information and manipulate you for business
marketing, health, medicine, fashion, politics and moral behavior”.
• Education is very important as a social institution. Purpose of education is veritas. Education
today can be taken into account as functional.
• People listen to those they trust:
 o Family and friends
o Professionals
o Research

• ROLE AND INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

• Three sociological Perspectives
o Limited Effects theory
o Class Dominant Theory
o Culturalist Theory

• INFORMATION AS A FORCE OF DEMOCRACY:

o Right to know within a democracy: (eg: information of the product that you going to buy)
o An aspect of Democracy if the right to know before voting
o The lack of info. is also information
o Information is the oxygen of democracy and affects our views on everything, especially:
▪ Education (knowledge):
• The right to know
• The right to choose
▪ Politics → Media
▪ Fashion → Marketing
▪ Health/Med → Pharmaceuticals
▪ Science → Facts
▪ Privacy → Data

• THE PUBLIC’S RIGHT TO KNOW

o Principles of Freedom of Information Legislation → Global Campaign for Free Expression,
Article 19. Endorsed by UN Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression.
o Obligation to disclose → Right to receive information and the right to access information.
o Promotes good government and allows choice. Protects public, promotes transparency,
safety and privacy.

• CONFLICT WITH RIGHT TO KNOW AND PRIVACY

o History has shown there is a conflict at times between the public’s right to know and personal
privacy.
o Delicate cases involving:
▪ HIV and contagious diseases.
▪ Buying guns and mental illness.
▪ Financial disclosures and health of CEO.
▪ Health disclosures and public office.

• STRATEGIES TO MANIPULATE
o 10 ways media manipulates population such as:
▪ The journalistic tendency to balance stories with two opposing views leads to a
tendency to build stories around a confrontation between protagonists and
antagonists.
 ▪ “The job of media is not to inform but misinform.”
▪ Divert public attention from important issues to a flood of distractions and non-
essential information.
▪ “it is a bitter irony of source journalism… that the most esteemed journalists are
precisely the most servile. For it is by making themselves useful to the powerful that
they gain access to the best sources”.
o The strategies to manipulate:
1. The strategy od distraction → Primary element of control.
2. Create problems and social unrest, then offer solutions.
3. The gradual strategy.
4. The strategy of deferring.
5. Go to the public as a little child.
6. Use the emotional side more than reflection.
7. Keep the public in ignorance and mediocrity.
8. Encourage public to be complacent to mediocrity.
9. Blame game strengthened → Victims.
10. Get to know individ → Better than they know themselves.
• Fake news → Society is telling us there is no right truth, then how do we know what news are
true.
• The easiest way to influence people is when they are ignorant, they don’t have criteria to know
the truth. That is why we should question everything → educate.
• Veritas: Knowledge, education.

7) BUREAUCRACY, ECONOMIES & IMPORTANCE OF WORK

• FORMAL ORGANIZATIONS
o Bureaucracies → A special purpose group designed and structured for maximum efficiency.
o Facilitate the management of large-scale operations.
o Some organizations govern other organizations to regulate and supervise.
o Jobs with roles and functions:
▪ Division of labour
▪ Hierarchy of authority
▪ Written rules
▪ Impersonality
▪ Employment based on technical qualifications
o Consequences of rationalization → Age of Enlightenment and age of dawn of positivism (Comte).
o Bureaucracy is the division of labour. Today → government offices, the bank, post office…
o The problem of bureaucracy is the impersonality that can lead to a sense of anomie, but efficiency
was important during the Industrial Revolution.

• MAX WEBER
o Bureaucracies = Efficiency.
o Caused by the rationalization of society.
o Too much efficiency leads to the de-humanization and alienation → Iron Cage.
 o Rationalization of society had to do with religion. Moving away from traditional ways of doing
things to more efficient and productive ways.
o What influence did religion have with this move? → He said it was the protestant revolution (not
reformation because there was nothing reformed).

8) DEVIANCE
• DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL
o Deviance → Any behaviour which does not conform to the established rules, cultural norms,
moral conduct established by society.
o Social Control → Means of regulating behaviour or people within society. Society offers
positive and negative (sanctions) for different behaviour.
o Wherever there is money, wherever there is an accumulation of power, there is a great
change there is going to be a deviant behaviour. The justice that should come from this
behaviour, the results, affect society.
o We can’t always trust the government to know if something is good.
o Five theories of deviance:
▪ Conflict → Those dividing what is deviant or not are the ones in power.
▪ Differential Association → Applies to many types of deviant behavior. “Tell me who
your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are”. People learn deviance by their
association with different groups.
▪ Anomie Theory of Deviance → If you can’t achieve something in a typical way, you
have this theory. Just an excuse to do bad behaviour.
▪ Control Theory → Walter Wreckles argues that there are both inner and outer
controls that work against deviant tendencies. These controls keep us from being
deviant, some want to act deviant but not all. Inner controls (our mind, conscience,
belief system) keep us from doing certain deviant behaviour such as stealing or getting
mad. The outer controls that keep us from being deviant are elements like laws and
police. It is symbolic interactionist, but it is also structural functional because it leads
to a functional human being.
▪ Labelling Theory → Similar to the Looking Glass Theory (people with low self-esteem
who depend on others). What others tell you/think of you can lead to deviant
behaviour or not. It is a symbolic interactionist theory because is one on one
interaction we have between people, the micro-level of looking at society.

• FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE ON DEVIANCE:

o Common part of human existence which offers positive (and negative) consequences for social
stability. Helps define the limits of proper social behaviour.
o Durkheim → Economic costs are great but positive functions of deviance greater and help
establish a strong society.
o Anomie → Society loses direction if control is ineffective.
o Breaking cultural rules (ej: going to church in bikini) → If you don’t follow them you can be
considered deviant.
▪ deviance varies according to cultural norms
▪ those controlling were deciding what was deviant or not.
▪ Consequences of deviance can be good for society
 → Durkheim: 4 points good for society
- Affirms society’s values
- Clarifies moral boundaries
- promotes social unity (society standing up against a deviant behaviour bc is wrong).
- Encourages social change
o Robert Merton (1967) Anomie Theory of Deviance → Uses anomie to explain why people accept
or reject the goals of society, the socially approved means of fulfilling their aspirations, or both.
Looked at the important goal of economic success.
o Attain it the “proper way”. 5 forms of attainment:
▪ Conformity (opposite of deviance-acceptance)
▪ Innovation
▪ Ritualism
▪ Retreatism
▪ Rebellion
o Every country has their own cultural norms and way of doing things that if you don’t follow them,
it can be deviant, meaning that deviant behaviour can be relative. Not all deviant behaviour is
written in stone, not all is based on “truth”. People become deviant as others define them that
way, relative.
o Certain consequences of deviance can be good for society.

• SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONIST PARADIGM ON DEVIANCE → 3 PARADIGMS

o Functionalists do not indicate how a given person comes to commit a deviant act or why crimes
do or do not occur.
o Emphasis on everyday behaviour.
o People learn how to behave properly or improperly.
o Edwin Sutherland’s Cultural Transmission → People learn criminal behaviour through
interactions with others. Violence, drugs, alcohol, gang association, riots.
o Differential Association → Influence of primary groups or significant others. Also, can apply to
behaviour such as smoking or cheating.

• SYMBOLIC INTERACTION AND CONFLICT

o It is the one and one interaction btw people, the micro level.
o Labelling Theory → Does not explain why people fall into deviant behaviour but why certain
people are viewed as deviants or delinquents.
o Deviant behaviour is behaviour that deviates from moral and legal path.
o Conflict: Marxist view (dentro de symbolic interaction) → It is the people with power that define
what is deviant and that reflects their own interest. He argues that there are inner and outer
controls that keep us from being deviant
▪ inner (mind, conscious, values, morality)
▪ outers controls (law, police)
o Agents of Social Control all controlled by elite, wealthy politicians and law enforcement officers.
o Most important symbol→ language

• THEORIES:
o Enemy theory
 o Differential association
o Control theory
o Labelling theory
o Conflict theory

• CRIMES AND TYPES OF CRIME

o White Collar: business, big offices, politicians
o Blue Collar: (robo clase media)
o Organized Crime
o Gun Control Debate
o Lobbying of NRA

9) POLITICS & FORMS OF POLITICAL STRUCTURE:

o Government have the power to influence, to legislate our lives and to keep us safe. → for a
peaceful society
o Politics → The social structure and methods used to manage and govern a state. The political
system depends on the nation-state.
o The political system depends on the nation- state.
▪ Nation
▪ State
▪ Types of government/authority
o Are the laws being made targeted to benefit a few or the majority? If it’s just a few, then it is not
democratic politics. Laws are set up supposedly to live in peace, for a general good. But
sometimes laws are not being respected. God’s law and government law is different. Societies
are different and religion can affect the cultures. It can affect the relationships with the
government.
o We can follow laws when they are good for everyone, but they don’t intrude in our private lives.
o Power → Ability to make your idea supreme over others. This is what government have. To make
your will someone else’s. There are different types.

• PLATO
o If you are a fool, you will be ruled by tyrants.
o Symptomatic of the decline will be people in pursuit of their passions and the emphasis on
equality rather than the necessary hierarchy of classes and virtues. He calls this degraded class of
people democratic, and the government they create a democracy.
o People take voting for granted. If you are disinterested, if you don’t care and are not following
the issue and concern about what the government is doing with the laws and your freedom; then
you will be ruled by tyrants that take into account your ignorance and laziness.
o Plato puts us where we are, in the middle of the public sphere saying we are citizens of
democracy, and we have rights and we should expect those right from who represents us.

• POLITICAL SYSTEM
o Refers to the social institutions that relies on a recognized set of procedures for implementing
and achieving the goals of a group. Like religion and family, the economic and political institutions
are “cultural universals”; they are found in every society.
 o In the U.S. and in many countries the government holds the ultimate responsibility for childcare,
education, health, welfare…
o Politicians are there because the people put them there, they should answer to the people. It is
part of democracy to demand.
o Competition is good as long as it is controlled.

• POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

o Power – Max Weber → The ability to exercise one’s will over others.
o Power can be property, finances, political positions, influence…
o Political/Constitutional force is the most basic power.
o Weber identifies three roots of power:
▪ Traditional Power → Such as royal families.
▪ Rational legal power → Bureaucratic authority. Democratic power.
▪ Weber’s Charisma → Attract people through personality.
– Charisma is what lead people; in that sense we decide more guided by our
emotions than thinking. → Kennedy, Obama, Bill Clinton.
– Hitler no (fascination).
• TOTALITARIANISM
o Leader of masses → caused by fascination.
o Not charismatic.
o Hitler vs. Stalin.

• BASIC PILLARS OF TOTALITARIANISM

o Key points: Big & Small Ideological Lies…. “ministry of truth”. Goal is total control of mind, spirit,
soul, money.
o How do you know things? Have you heard that Fascism is a phenomenon of the Right /
Conservatives? A right-wing phenomenon? But what is it? We have Mussolini & Hitler.
o Let’s look at the facts…
▪ Democracy (political freedom) is nonexistent.
▪ Little by little freedom to believe, learn & think different from what State orders is taken
away.
▪ All thinking is in line with State thinking.
▪ Nuremburg Laws- Jews became second class citizens.

• FASCISM
o Is being an authoritarian proof that one is a Fascist? No. the world has seen many authoritarians
over time. True Fascists do not allow any negative press about them, government or policies.
They control the press & social media.
o Is being a nationalist proof? No. Nationalism is not a phenomena of one group. It is found on both
sides of political aisle. What about Mandela, Che Guevara, F. Castro, Ghandi, DeGaulle. Churchill,
also anti colonialists too.
o Powerful systems of thought: Who is the philosopher of:
o Capitalism: Adam Smith
o Marxism: Karl Marx
o Fascism: Giovanni Gentile (Mussolini’s Minister of Education/1944-45)
 o He says fascism is the ideology of the centralized state. State controls economy (State run
capitalism) and regulates the private life and opinions or expressed thoughts of all the citizens.

• GIOVANNI GENTILE
o The State Community is like an organism, a living thing and each individual is like a cell.
o Do cells have rights, identity or any purpose other than to serve the organism? No. This in essence
is Fascism.
o Inventory of Fascism: All were men on the left.
o *Mussolini: a Marxist. He received congrats when he started first Fascist party from Lenin/fellow
revolutionary of the left.
o *Hitler: a national socialist who was head of N.S.G.worker’s party.
o Google Nazi 25 point platform.
o http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/25points.htm
o State control of banks, corporations, auto companies, insurance, and ideological control over
education etc.
o Use of weapons of the government (such as CIA, FBI, IRS) against political opponents.

• HANNAH ARENDT
o “The banality of evil”
o “The greatest defining attribute of humanity is its ability to think which is the silent dialogue
between me and myself”.
o “Acting without thinking” & “Thinking without acting”.
o How was Germany able to deny the Jews the status of Humans?
o “How not why? and “We not I” (in reference to Jewish people).

• ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF TOTALITARIANISM

o Anti-Semitism
o Imperialism
o Scientific racism - (the pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify
racism or racial superiority)and its role in colonialist imperialism.
o Colonialist imperialism transferred to political parties.
o Transformation of masses into classes & mobs. People were not seen as individuals but as
numbers in a group. No individual identity allowed.
o Role of propaganda, deceit to convince. (DRK Dem.Rep.Korea)
o Use of terror, violence and chaos to subjugate people.
o Dehumanization of each individual.

10) RATIONALIZATION:
• DATES
o Protestant Revolution → Luther (1517+)
o English Revolution → King Henry separates (1537)
o Calvin → Salvation through predestination (1536 – France and Switzerland)
o Industrial Revolution → (1760 – 1840). How did some countries move to industrialization before
others? Weber said it was due to the fact some adopted Protestantism before because Catholics
didn’t see money as our end.
 o French Revolution → (1789 – 1799)

• RATIONALIZATION OF SOCIETY
Concept created by Max Weber → Process by which modern society has become concerned with:
o Efficiency → Achieve maximum with minimum.
o Predictability → Ability to predict what will happen in future.
o Calculability → A concern with numerical data (statistics and data).
o Dehumanization → Employing technology as a mean to control human behavior.
o Practicality → Reducing traditional hold on society. Played role in creation of capitalization.

• 4 TYPES OF RATIONALITY:
o Practical Rationality → Systematically deciding the best way to achieve a desired end based
on what is practical.
o Theoretical Rationality → Involves understanding the world through abstract concepts.
o Substantive rationality → Involves deciding the best choice of a means to an end as guided
by all of one’s collective values.
o Formal rationality → Involves making choices based on universal rules, regulations and the
larger social structure of your society.

• RATIONALIZATION WITH WEBER

o Max Weber and Verstehen → Why do people do things differently in different social groups?
Weber believed that understanding why people do things is the basic building block of sociology,
a concept he termed “verstehen” (understanding from an insider’s point of view). Why do
protestants seem to do better in a capitalistic environment when compared with other religions
(Catholicism).
o Verstehen is like Mill’s Sociological Imagination and most sociologists have this concept even if
there is in another name: being empathetic.
o Human ideas shape society and Protestantism (Calvinism) made it easier to move to capitalism.
o Capitalism → The ideas and spirit that favor the rational pursuit of economic gain. Weber points
to links between religious belief and economic behavior. Social Change (rationalization and
modernity) was influenced by religion. Consciousness (Protestantism) shapes social existence
(capitalism).
o Rationalization → The process of replacing traditional and emotional thought with reason and
practicality.
o The rise of scientific study, the development of capitalism and the introduction of bureaucracy
into government are examples.
o Max Weber lamented that the loss of religious underpinning to capitalism’s spirit has led to a kind
of involuntary servitude to mechanized industry.

• RATIONALIZATION AND MARX

o Society and conflict:
▪ The world of ideas is founded on economic and material reality (relationship to means
of production).
▪ Society and production.
▪ Conflict and history.
 ▪ Capitalism and class conflict.
▪ Capitalism and alienation (4 ways of alienation).
▪ Social existence (relationship to means of production) shapes consciousness (in
contrast to Weber).
▪ Religion → Block to social change, revolution.
o Religion over rationalization of society → To Marx, religion was a problem. A block to social
change. He is talking about Catholicism, not Protestantism. Because Catholics forgive, have
hope in God and that keeps us from going to revolution because it involves killing people and
destroying other’s property.
o If you are interested in money, you are not interested in revolution.
o Marx saw a big difference between owners and managers of factories and the people who
worked there who were the victims (proletariat) but they were a lot of Catholics. Marxism is
very anti-Christian. God wanted to share but not share forcefully like communists/Marxists.

• Compare Social Change and religion as Seen by WEBER, MARX AND DURKHEIM
o Weber → Sought out to study how religion contributed to social change (Protestant Ethic and
Spirit of Capitalism).
o Marx → Set out to prove that religion inhibited social change (Opium of the Masses).
o Durkheim → Sought out to prove that the negative effects of social change (anomie) where
controlled or influenced by religious beliefs within groups.

11) BUREAUCRACY & TYPES OF ECONOMY

o Economy: A social system that produces, distributes and consume goods and services in a society.
o There are three sectors:
▪ Primary: natural resources
▪ Secondary: transforms natural resources
▪ tertiary: sell the product/services.
o and these are divided into different areas:
▪ public/government,
▪ private/private ownership
▪ volunteer.

• ECONOMY & GOVERNMENT

o Social institutions
o Economy: Generates revenues to support government systems
o Government: Largest employer in any nation which regulates commerce and makes laws to
protect people, territory and sovereignty.

• TYPE OF ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

o Two prominent:
▪ Capitalism → ownership, competition, profit. Modern corporations/multi nationals. Its
main point is profit. People shouldn’t consider money as an end, but it is good and solves
a lot of problems, it can help people. Sometimes we take out God in life and put something
else in it (as money). Self-interest is part of human nature, we want more. Competition is
 part of our being and part of our ability to choose and it is an aspect of our freedom but
there needs to be regulation, so more government regulation leads to better capitalism.
We need something else exterior to ourselves that give us boundaries that we follow, to
look at the goal. The problem of capitalism is profit, if it is our only end.

– Welfare Capitalism → Keeps capitalism at bay through market constrains.

Controls from wild capitalism because wild capitalism leads to communism
because it becomes dehumanizing.
– Lazyfer Capitalism → Not much government control. Can lead to wild
capitalism.
▪ Socialism → State ownership, central economy, production without profit. Communism
(radical socialism). Driving forces don’t drive the market, the government does, that does
not allow for profit nor freedom.
o Communism (radical socialism) → Government affects every aspect of life. The problem with
socialism and communism is that there is no private property and thus no human rights
o Christian idea → Think of your workers, money is not everything. Christianity promotes freedom
because it will keep us on track from this type of political and economic slavery that can exist.
o If there is no virtue, then it doesn’t matter how you do it or what philosophy you are supporting.
We can’t assume one party can solve our problems; it depends on the virtue of the person
representing the party.

• ECONOMIC SYSTEM
o Refers to the social institution through which goods and services are produced, distributed and
consumed. Like religion, family and government, it shapes aspects of social order and is in turn
influenced by them.
o Influences social behavior.
o Most influential social institution outside the family.

• ECONOMIC SYSTEMS IN UNEMPLOYMENT

o Capitalism → Laissez-faire (John M. Keynes), government commitment to full employment after
WWII and worked until 1970s.
o Capitalism if it includes wild capitalism then it isn’t the best because the work can’t have the best
effect in the worker because they feel disconnected from their job.
o Keynesianism fazed out due to globalization.
o Free market system by itself, rather than the government, was best equipped to ensure economic
prosperity.
o Socialism-Communism = no private property.
o Private property is very important, an aspect of our freedom, democracy. Is up to each person’s
conscience what to do with but the head of a party shouldn’t tell you what to do with it
(communism).

• IS WORK GOOD FOR PEOPLE?

o Work is essential to human nature if the dignity of person is not degraded by the work thats done.
o Economic benefits needed to sustain life.
 o She/he is a subject capable of acting in a rational way and pursuing a profession that brings
happiness.
o Brings self satisfaction, identity, human dignity and sense of accomplishment. Also brings each
working person into the larger body of workers through a fraternal link which contributes to
universal solidarity and freedoms and adds to humanity’s ultimate uniqueness in his ability to
contribute to the improvement of society.

12) STRATIFICATION IN SOCIETY

• WHAT IS SOCIAL STRATIFICATION?

o Social Stratification is the ranking of people or groups according to their unequal access to scarce
resources. → social mobility
o Scarce is an insufficient amount to satisfy the need or demand. Insufficient resources are:
▪ Wealth, Income, Power, Prestige
o To move from one class to another → education
o Education is the most important aspect in social stratification

• DIMENSIONS: → according to Weber and Marx

o Economic dimension
▪ Bourgeoisie vs proletariat: whoever controls the capital controls the legal, educational,
and governmental systems
▪ Income vs wealth
o Power dimension→ ability to make people do what you want to do
o Prestige dimension→
▪ Combination of power and property.
▪ It is not always related with wealth. It is objective, relative to the position. It is voluntary
given

• CLASS SYSTEMS:
o Open Class System: a system in which social class is based on merit and individual effort;
movement is allowed between classes
o Caste System: a stratification structure that does not allow social mobility.
o Estate System: of feudal Europe: nobility, royalty and peasants
o Slavery: still exists today
▪ A form of social stratification in which some people own other people. Usually based on
4 factors:
– Debt (cannot pay debt)
– Crime (A murderer might be enslaved by victim’s family)
– War (when a group raided another, they killed men or enslaved them.)
– Prostitution: Is this slavery?

• CHARACTERISTICS:
o Shows how society is organized.
o Social stratification can be changed through the years
o happens universally
 Why social stratification is universal? → Davis & Moore view (1945 & 1953)
▪ Why does social inequality exist? → Because job rewards are unequal.
▪ Society must make sure certain positions are filled. Some positions are more important
than others
▪ The more important positions must be filled by the most qualified people = Meritocracy.
– Some top jobs are scarce... restricting competition.
– To motivate the more qualified people to fill these positions, society must
offer greater rewards.

• WHAT DETERMINES SOCIAL CLASS?

o KARL MARX
▪ Some jobs are very needed for society. Not everyone can do them. We benefit from those
jobs. Require more education.
▪ The means of production (tools, factories, land, investment capital)
▪ Bourgeoisie - the capitalists
▪Proletariat - the exploited class
▪Class consciousness - awareness of a common identity based on one’s position in the
means of production.
▪ False class consciousness - workers identifying with interests of capitalists
o REVOLUTION?
▪ Why didn’t revolution occur in the west?
▪ James Davies (1962) made a critic of Marx and offered another explanation for absence
of revolutions in industrialized societies.
– Poverty of people→ not ideal condition to make a revolution
– Rather, social protest and revolution more likely when living conditions
improve as expectations go up too.
– This relative depression, a frustration due to lack of rising expectations.
– Components of collective action:
▪ Organization
▪ Mobilization
▪ Common interests
▪ opportunity
o MAX WEBER
▪ Makes a critic of Marx
▪ Argued there are 3 components of social class
– Property: gives power & prestige
– Prestige: gives prestige & property
– Power: Property (corruption)& Prestige

• SOCIAL MOBILITY
o Studies on social mobility, social stratification and intergenerational social change have
concluded that occupational rank is the single most representative indicator of social status
generally.
o Other indicators like income, education, power and authority have also been used to evaluate
social status which were found to be correlated with occupational prestige.
 o Relative prestige of social roles basically invariant in all complex societies because of division of
labor.

• KUXNETS CURVE:
o In economics, a Kuznets curve graphs the hypothesis that as an economy develops, market forces
first increase and then decrease economic inequality. The hypothesis was first advanced by
economist Simon Kuznets in the 1950s and '60s.

• QUALITY OF LIFE? WHAT TO DO?

o Work - Life balance: I in 8 employees in OECD countries work longer hours (more than 8 a day).
o Healthy neighborhoods. The poor live in areas where the quality of air, noise and peace is inferior.
o The poor children in developed countries tend to eat the cheapest food which, more often than
not, is prefabricated and not healthy, full of saturated fats, processed sweetness and
preservatives (some of which are being shown to cause cancer.)
o Lobbying, poverty & obesity.

• SOCIAL STRATIFICATION – UNIVERSAL

o Davis & Moore (1945 & 1953)
o Functionalist: What is the ? they are asking?
o Why does social inequality exist? What do you expect? Job rewards are unequal.
o Society must make sure certain positions are filled. Some positions are more important than
others
o The more important positions must be filled by the most qualified-Meritocracy.
o Some top jobs are scarce… restricting competition.
o To motivate the more qualified people to fill these positions, society must offer greater rewards.
o Does this theory make sense? Is human capital really rewarded?
o Universal?