Sociology - Appunti Lezioni

notes

Sociology

LECTURE 7.01.2019

What is a society? A group of people which shares the same rules, values, norms that have created

social institutions (i.e. university, the state). Once in a society you must accept the order, with chaos

human beings cannot exist.

Sociology concerns the analysis of the social order and its changes, how the individual behaviour is

influenced by society. Sociology wants to analyse the different interest of a society that confront

each other. It is a paradigmatic science: a science in which different point of views exist. Without it

the society in itself, according to sociology, does not exist. Functionalist paradigm: the social order.

The main issue is the question of social order and consensus. A society in which the military keeps

people in place giving them no chance of consensus. Even totalitarism gives people the chance of

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expressing consensus a manipulation of conscience can create consensus.

Socialisation is fundamental to human structure. It makes us citizens of a particular society/land.

Otherwise we accept what it already is. Socialisation by one way of thinking which makes us

understand the epistemological categories of society to illustrate the Bible (emblem religion which

dominates the way of thinking and the culture in which we are socialised).

Our personality is shaped by the culture! The biological level is not the most important, we are

shaped by society (according to sociology) in every aspect of life.

Sociology deals with contemporary phenomena, but it also has a many longer-term interests

because of its deep historical roots. It was born as a science of modernity, before the French and the

industrial revolution the world was explained by religions (i.e. monarchies, oligarchies all must be

accepted without doubt). Sociology is the product of social actions, we can reform society no god is

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part of the world structure now. Society should not have poverty highest point of sociology

Karl Marx was one of the founders of sociology, the one who imagined a new kind of

society since the modern one was unfair. But he was really ideological, other after will

change their points of view. Sociology has invaded the interest in basic moral questions in

eradicating poverty in the current time, not in the future.

But to understand the present, sociology also had to understand the history of societies. Classes and

social changes. Historical root of contemporary phenomena:

The transition from pre-modern society to modern society. Which were the historical factors which

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allowed the transition? The industrial revolution in 18 and 19 centuries and the French revolution.

The moment a new class becomes dominant it must bring or create new values. Historical taps in

history which brought to the formation of new societies

Then:

The French revolution: extremely important for it gave rise to individual rights, before in the

feudal societies the individual was only inside the community. Now each individual has

economic and political right. Overthrown of the earlier state formation

Industrial Revolution: The formation of the industrial sector. This transition meant one

important change: the labour force became commodity, people now could sell the labour which

was “forbidden” before. The formation of a liberal state, the recognition of individual political

rights. th

Post-industrial era: mid-19 century. The shift from a blue collar (those who work into

factories) to a white collar (those who work in an office). A major shift.

Now:

Globalisation: another social change after the post-industrial age and its starting process. Started

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in the 21 century. It meant a new idea of society, no more the idea of a society as a close nation

and close society. A connection of different societies, a transnational and global communication.

The UE, the UN. Not just a change at local level but also as global. Crisis of the globalised

economy: migration. Free market and circulation were among the positive aspect during the

creation of a global society. Pros: access to goods, services, and information. Cons: Spread of

diseases, deviant globalisation (terrorism, sex-traffic, etc.)

The increase of consumption. The production was the most crucial factor during the industrial

era, now consumption is. Marx already predicted it for he said that capitalism had major

contradiction s which will lead to its end. Capitalism will produce so many commodities that we

will always need to find new markets to support itself: the bombarding of ads nowadays. The

shift from factories, then to offices and nowadays to shopping. All of this had a profound impact

of culture. The culture of consumption.

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The micro-macro relationship Micro level analysis concerns individual actions and thoughts,

how they are shaped by society. Macro analysis regards the formation of groups (i.e. political

parties or families), authoritarian states, the formation of classes. The worldwide processes now

belong to the macro aspect of the world. The relation between the individual and the structure is

sociology in a nutshell. 

Agency Vs Structure Relationship Agency: social actors which have power to influence social

structure. Agency gives importance to the individual (the agent) as having power and capacity for

creativity. The individual has the power to change society with the action. Social actors are

influenced by the sovra-structure, yet they believe that society cannot entirely shape the conscience

of men and Charismatic leader, who brings new values that create a new social order: the theory of

Weber.

Social structure: an assemble of relation, an order that stays for an extended period of time the

relationships hardly changes, nowadays we have the same structure as two centuries ago: capitalism

and democracy. This leads to an important debate of confrontations of two points of view: one

claiming that we are now in a different structure and those who claim that we are now in the same

modern structure as after the industrial revolution. Society is made of various parts like a human

body. Without one of the organs the society/body collapses. The increased separation of labour.

The survival of a prolonged period of time.

Functionalism means that we want to explain the formation of a given structure.

Structuralists analyse the structures that are not so visible as others, yet they influence the

society. The relationship formed between the person who sell the labour force

(workers/proletariat) and the one who will own it after all(capitalists): the exploitation structure

according to Marx. The fair social exchanges that are visible are actually unfair, they must be

changed, according to the philosopher.

Charles Wright Mills

Sociological imagination: Analysis of society through imagination. C. W. Mill was the founder of

this movement, he was nor a structuralist nor a functionalist. A distinctive way of looking at data or

reflecting on the world around. The we have to explain the issue by the institutional, biographical,

and historical point of view. The reflection on the linkage between private troubles and public issues

their relation is key. Private trouble are public issues with no exceptions. What seems a micro issue

is actually related to the social process which is dominant at that moment. Analysis of the whole

spectrum, nothing is personal, all is interrelated with the public sphere. Is globalisation responsible

of unemployment? Question to analyse.

Born in Texas, 1916. He frequented the Austin uni, a prolific author during the 50s. a cold war at

institutional level when everyone was a commie influenced the Texan environment during the 50s. a

repressive and heavy situation. He wanted to denounce what was happening at the structural level as

well as the political one in his book: The Power Elite. In this masterpiece, he denounced the power

structure of the US and the expansion of the process of beaurocreatisation. Politicians, capitalists

which produced weapons. He denounced the industries of war. The US had a military industry

which Mills strongly criticised. It was opposed by the establishment then as well as now. He

focused on military capitalists, industries, and their oil interests.

He wrote White Collar in which he analysed the change from blue to white collar. Against the

functionalist, quantitative studies (relating on statistic). It led to the explosion of bureaucracy led

him to pose the question of monopoly in the economic field. The transition from white to blue

collars, the change from industrial era to post-industrial era. Individualistic attitudes: the individual

conquest of status comes to replace the conflict. Solidarity is not the point, free competitions and

total competition is now the dominant social interaction. Liberalism and individual freedom are

increasingly conditioned and held back

LECTURE 08/01/2019

Power Elite: during the 50s there were 3 important elites in the us: military, political and economic.

These three shared the same interests: to do more and favour war. He denounced the power

structure. Ideology is a cover of reality, he tried to make an analysis of what was really going on i.e.

the exportation of democracy by the US throughout war. A military elite defined reality: military

metaphysics. A military definition of reality: the leaders have the power of masses and will decide

for them.

An elite is a group of people who think that can rule the masses for they are better than them.

“Superiorism” is the elitarian way of thinking which separates them from the mob. They have

power, wealth and therefore they believe it is their duty to take action and decisions for the others.

According to Mills there’s an interchange among the elites which thereafter rule as one. The power

structure is then a permanent war economy. The economy will be directed toward military goals. In

the 60s Eisenhower addressed the population quotating mills, claiming that people need not to

incentivise the military war economy.

Social structure of reality: objecting data and question of interpretation. Reality is actually an

interpretation, it does not exist outside the human mindset. There is no such thing as an individual

reality. In it there’s the social agency who creates, via their actions, the kind of ideology which is

dominant in a period of time giving them values, morals. All of those are shared by the community.

Our way of perceiving the world outside is defined by the structure who will then have a life of

their own for then merging and shaping the way we see. The social actors shape the reality that we

see. Single actors cannot define the social reality. Main social actor shaping our way of thinking

about politics, economy: the medias. There is a dialectic world between the structure and the

people. People, nevertheless, they can run to change the structure.

Positivism and August Comte

Positivism: Main point of history for the creation of sociology. With modernity people started to

think that they could change society for it is the product of humankind. The first man who organised

this way of thinking was Auguste Comte. Before sociology (coined in Comtian terms) there had

been some philosophers who defined a utopic society. Sociology should be the study of society, on

how we can reform society based on scientific knowledge. He defined the method used by positivist

sociologist: Sociology should study the physiology of society (the forms and the functions of each

parts) and how society changes overtime. Discours sur l’Esprit positif in 1844, the identification of

laws that gov the history society as well as the process of knowledge. He was the first to use the

term sociology and he considered it as the queen of science. Based on all the results of other

sciences and then synthetize them to create the

Parts of society: political and economic system, cultural system. Is there a dominant part? Before it

was culture, nowadays its economic and political ones.

Static and dynamic sociology. How the various parts are related.

Static: an analysis of a society and how it behaves in a given moment.

Dynamic: an analysis in history on which were the social determinant factors which led to the

modification of society. The archaic society; the feudal society; the modern one: the three

societies considered by Compt.

The change in the mentality. He defined the primitive society as theological societies for in it people

explained the social phenomena in types of religion, it was a polytheist society. The feudal society

was defined with Metaphysical origin of the world: now a monotheist society, in it we have

religious reality that was separate from the concrete reality. Social phenomena are explained in one

single aspect/god/cause, not like before, there is a different metaphysical realm in which god lives.

An important change with the positivist mentality: science became dominant. The scientific

thinking is the beginning of modernity, started by the enlightenment. Scientific thinking does not

exclude the presence of a god, this is analysed in a more scientific way.

What’s a theory: a set of interlaced ideas that have stood the test of time. Without them we would

have knowledge of isolated bits of social world. Theorizing about the social world is not restricted

to sociologists (they use theories that have been tested, based on data.) They are scientists, they

relate their theories on accumulated knowledge (classical ground theories).

The grands of sociology

 Auguste Comte

 Karl Marx

 Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

 Max Weber (1862-1920)

 Charles Wright Mills (1916-1962)

 Erving Goffman (1922-1982)

 Robert Merton

 Du Bois

Karl Marx

Jewish german, first a young Hegelian philosopher. For Hegel, the engine of history was the

absolute spirit, which Marx denied. The latter, as well as the young Hegelians, criticised the

idealistic approach of Prussian philosopher. For Marx, the fundamental aspect is the materialistic

dialectic of history. History had been governed by the conflict between the dominant ruling class

formed by those who had the means of production, the dominants, and the proletarians, the

dominated.

He was the first to speak about class, based on the possession of the means of production (not the

wealth). The historical transition from one society to another embodied the change in the mode of

production. Structure is the mode of production. Various societies described by Marx

Primitive societies: classless, the communist one is based on it. Moral development led to

people ruling together peacefully, there was state, religion (sciaman), no propriety or classes.

Ancient society: based on private propriety, therefore there was a dominant cast: landowners,

and the dominated one: slavery. The ruling one exploited the slaves. Christianity led to the

“abolition” of slavery, all men are equals. Slavery is explicit, the Greek society was the first and

not the Egyptian one, land is not a collective property, is just in the Greek one that the individual

can buy land.

Feudal society: feudal lords were dominant, and serfs were the dominated one. Still the

exploitation was no secret, the feudal lords still owned everything.

Capitalist society: capitalists and proletarians. It’s the result of the French and industrial

revolutions. The former brought the rights, bourgeoisie as new dominant class with a new

agenda for everything: freedom (migration from the countryside to the urban centres finding a

job), rights, against serfdom. Aristocracy was for the status quo. Result of political change.

For Marx, the social struggle brought to social change. He utilised the Hegelian method: dialectic

thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. This for a historical change, nor an epochal one. History is an

history of class struggle. Materialistic interests of the classes, different from Hegel. Hence, we

could also consider Marx as a politician, no pure scientific system. He was the founder of the first

international as long as Bakunin: giving the proletariat the political representation to spark the

social change who would lead to the communist society.

Marx’s historical evolutionary theory: Reach the top of the progress, an evolutionary view of

history. not a strict one (time rules all), to change you need to have a bloody revolution. he criticised

the capitalist society for contrary to the claim of the bourgeoisie of a free society, we are still living

in an exploitation society, not as visible as before but still existing. Belief in gradual change toward

the highest point: the communist society. Unite interest: human development, rather than a system

where someone/thing exploits another.

Theory of exploitation: Das Kapital: Marx major work, it had to show how the process of

exploitation occurred in society. The exchange between labour and capital is unequal, the workers’

salary does not correspond their hours of work. Based on historical criteria. Capitalist earn by

exploitation, they use technology against the workers. It was a response request of more salary.

Same amount, less hours and same gain.

LECTURE 09.01.2019

Moral issue: for Marx the existence of men exploitation was unbearable. The fault is in the

structure, not in human nature. Therefore, he tried to explain the social mechanism which allows

capitalism: the unequal reward of the labour force by the capitalists. Necessary work: the hours

spent to give back the amount of money received as salary, then the rest is surplus that goes to the

wallet of capitalists. Absolute surplus value (considering the total amount of hours fraction the

hours needed by the workers to repay the salary received) and relative surplus value (with the

introduction of technology and machineries into the working progress). The worker does not know

that he is working for free, he believes to be just repaying the capital. Thanks to the first

international workers were made aware of what was happening leading to workers merging into

trade unions, parties, struggle to obtain better salaries, less work hours. To obstacle this movement

the capitalists replaced men with the machines. Early years of capitalism, machineries led to the

surplus earned by the capitalists.

Aside of exploitation Marx describes another con of the capitalist society: Alienation. Separated

from work, they cannot be creative (imposed work), the separation from the means of production

and the product of their work, form the other workers for competition was the ruling feeling, no

solidarity. Artisans were the only one