Society!

By: Jamion K. Knight

Date: Thursday, 18th November, 2010
 What is society?
Social structure – organized patterns,
arrangements and interactions between
groups who comprise various social
institutions.

Socialinstitutions – e.g religion, the

economy, politics, education, and health
Religion
Education
Family
 What do the Functionalists believe?
 Functionalistviews social structure as working in such a
way to ensure peace and stability.

 Structures and interactions make certain that the

collective will of members is satisfied.

 Undesirable behaviors are discouraged through social

structures such as laws, norms, rules, roles, values and
sanctions.

 Socialization
What is Marxism
What do the Marxists believe?
Marxist sociologists also understand
society in terms of its social structure but
do not hold the harmonious views.

They say that the structures in capitalist

societies are enabling for the wealthy and
coercive for poorer groups. Gross
inequalities occur and they do not have the
power to change societal arrangements.
 Religion - Functionalism
SociologistEmile Durkheim believed that social life is
impossible without social shared values.

Intheir absence, there would be no social order, social

control, social solidarity or cooperation.

In short, there would be no society.

Religion reinforces the collective conscience.

Integration of society is strengthened through worship

 Religion - Marxism
“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature,
the sentiment of a heartless world and the soul
of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the
people.” (Karl Marx)

To Marx, religion is an illusion which eases the

pain produced by exploitation and oppression.
It is a series of myths that justify and legitimate
the subordination of the subject class and the
domination and privilege of the ruling class.
Promises a paradise of eternal bliss

Some religions make a virtue of the suffering produced by

oppression.

Religion can offer hope of supernatural intervention to

solve the problems on earth.

Religion justifies social order

By making unsatisfactory lives bearable, religion tends to

discourage people to change their situation
Education - Functionalism
Functionalist view of education tends to focus
on the positive contributions educations makes
to the maintenance of the social system.

“Society can only survive if there exist among

its members a sufficient degree of homogeneity;
education perpetuates and reinforces this
homogeneity by fixing in the child from the
beginning the essential similarities which a
collective life demands.” (Durkheim, 1961)
School provides a context where skills can be learned.

Discipline

Education teachers skills necessary for their future

occupations. This function is particularly important in an
industrial society with its increasingly complex and
specialized division of labour.

Value of achievement

Evaluation of students – future roles

 Education - Marxism
Capitalistssystem requires hard working,
obedient and highly motivated workforce
which is too divided and fragmented to
challenge the authority of management.

Acceptance of hierarchy. Teachers give

instructions and students accept without
question.

Students motivated by external rewards

Family - Functionalism

Murdoch (1949) argued that families perform

four basis functions: sexual, reproductive,
economic and educational.

Parsons (1959) says that family provides primary

socialization and secondary socializations

“Families are factories” which produce human

personalities.
Family - Marxism
Reproduction

Exploitation