Click to edit Master title style

INTRODUCTION TO APPROACHES
TO SOCIOLOGY
• STRUCTURALISM &
INTERPRETIVISM
• DIFFERENT PRESPECTIVES OF
SOCIOLOGISTS

1
Click to edit Master title style

2 2
Click to edit Master title style

Subtitle

3 3
Click to edit
EXAMPLES OFMaster
MACRO title style APPROACH:
& MICRO

An example of macrosociology would

be analyzing the study habits of
college students who play video
games.
An example of microsociology would be
examining the way college students in
one particular dorm interact with each
other when playing video games.

4 4
Click
HOW to edit Master
DIFFERENT title style INTERPRET THE SOCIETY
SOCIOLOGISTS

STRUCTURALISM- MACRO APPROACH:

Structuralism or Macro Theories is the school of thought that human
behavior must be understood in the context of the social system – or
structure – in which they exist.
People are not just independent actors making independent decisions,
they are the product of the social conditions in which they live. Emile
Durkheim is considered to be the pioneer of Structuralism.
In more simpler terms, Structuralism is a method of interpreting and
analyzing such things as language, literature, and society, which focuses
on contrasting ideas or elements of structure and attempts to show how
they relate to the whole structure.
5 5
Click
HOW to edit Master
DIFFERENT title style INTERPRET THE SOCIETY
SOCIOLOGISTS

INTERPRETIVISM- MICRO APPROACH:

This approach concentrates on the individual level of the society and this
is the reason why it tends to concentrate more on how people perceive
the world.
Max Weber said that sociology is ‘a science which attempts the
informative understanding of social action in order, thereby to arrive at a
causal explanation’. Weber said we need to understand why people do
things if we are to truly understand their actions.
Example, when a crime occurs, an interpretivist would be interested in
knowing what the people involved had to say about how they behaved
and just not what happened in the crime.
6 6
Click to edit KEY TERMS
Master USED IN SOCIOLOGY
title style

1. CONSENSUS:
They tend to share basic agreement on shared values. It comprises of
those that see people in society as having shared interests and society
functioning on the basis of there being broad consensus on its norms and
values. This is most associated with functionalism.
2. . CONFLICT:
It comprises of people that tend to disagree with other social groups on
the basis of different interest. Wealth, status and power are the main
sources of social conflict.

7
Click to edit Master title style
KEY TERMS USED IN SOCIOLOGY

3. PERSPECTIVES:
The sociological perspective is one that observes society through a
lens without personal opinions. It generalizes the causes and actions
of individuals into patterns and categories. However, it not only
observes these patterns of society but also tries to explain such
patterns or behaviors.
Sociologists are not concerned with personal characteristics;
instead, they aim to find common attitudes and features as well as
hidden patterns in those characteristics and behaviors across
millions of people.
8 8
Click to edit
THEORIES OFMaster title style
SOCIOLOGY BASED ON DIFFERENT
PRESPECTIVES
The 5 basic perspectives in Sociology are:

1. Functionalism,
2. Marxism,
3. Feminism,
4. Social Action Theory and
5. Postmodernism.

9 9
Click to edit Master title style
FUNCTIONALISM

This is a theory that views society as a complex but orderly and stable system with
interconnected structures and functions or social patterns that operate to meet the needs of
individuals in a society. They perceive the society as being THE HUMAN BODY.

The main sociologist associated with functionalism is Talcott Parsons (1902- 1979).

Typical examples of the functional approach in operation are specialized agencies of the United
Nations (UN) such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the World Health Organization (WHO), each of which
has nearly global membership..

1010
Click to edit MasterOrigin
title style
of Functionalism

Functionalism originates in the work of Auguste Comte

(1798–1857) and Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), who was
interested in social order and how societies maintain
stability over time.
Durkheim suggested that society was more than the sum of
its constituent parts, with each part providing stability and
in someway relying on all other aspects of society.

1111
Click to edit Master title style
Examples of Functionalism

1. Aging: As people age they gradually withdraw from society and are
relieved of responsibilities, providing an orderly transition between
generations. This shift justifies the discrimination (ageism) older
people experience as they become less useful to society.
2. Deviance: Creates social solidarity by branding some behaviors as
deviant. Those that are labeled deviant will develop a collective
identity.
3. Education: Transmits knowledge to the next generation, teaching good
citizenship, and preparation for future work.
4. Family: Provides reproduction and protection of children; as a primary
agent of socialization fosters understanding of expected behaviors,
norms, and values.
1212
Click to edit Master title style
Criticisms of functionalism:

 Functionalism understates the power imbalances and the role of conflict

within society.
 Higher status individuals have more power, prestige, and wealth because
they are more important to a functional and stable society.
 Functionalism is far too conservative and accepting of the status quo,
particularly inequality.
 Inequality serves a purpose as it promotes solidarity among the affected
classes and incentives people to work and improve themselves.
 Functionalism is a macro sociological perspective.

1313
Click to edit Master title style
Marxism

Marxism is a social, political, and economic philosophy named after

Karl Marx (1818- 1883). It examines the effect of capitalism on labor,
productivity, and economic development and argues for a worker
revolution to overturn capitalism in favor of communism.
The economic and political theories expounded by Karl Marx argue
that there is a struggle between the working class (proletariat) and
the owners of the means of production (bourgeoisie), that struggle is
needed for historical change and will lead to capitalism being
replaced by communism.

1414
Click to edit Master title
Example, style
Bourgeoisie & Proletariat

The definition of Marxism is the theory of Karl Marx which says that
society's classes are the cause of struggle and that society should
have no classes. An example of Marxism is replacing private
ownership with co-operative ownership.
By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of
the means of social production and employers of wage labour.
By proletariat, the class of modern wage laborers who, having no
means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour
power in order to live.

1515
Click to edit MasterCriticism
title styleOf Marxism

1. The class structure is more complex than Bourgeoisie &

Proletariat.
2. Capitalism is less exploitive nowadays.
3. Control of the economic factors does not mean control of the
super structure.
4. Criticism of false consciousness created by the media.
5. Workers are given a chance to make decisions regarding working
hours and environment.

1616
Click to edit Master Criticism
title styleOf Marxism

6. Capitalism has evolved overtime and works for many economies.

7. Communism is outdated and obsolete.

1717
Click to edit Master title style
FEMINISM

Feminism refers to the belief that women and men should have equal
opportunities in economic, political, and social life, while sexism refers
to a belief in traditional gender role stereotypes and in the inherent
inequality between men and women.
Four Types of Feminism
Scholars propose that there are four distinct types of feminism in
theory: Radical, Marxist, Cultural, and Liberal. However, it is important
to keep in mind there are many other variations and different
definitions of feminism.

1818
Click to edit Master Radical
title style
Feminism

Radical feminism is most closely tied to the second wave of feminism, which occurred from the
early 1960s into the 1980s, and was most popular in the United States and Europe. Radical
feminists fought to overthrow the patriarchal structure of capitalist society in order to free women
from traditional domestic roles. Certain items that were important to radical feminists include:

1. Challenging heteronormative gender roles

2. Raising awareness of sexual assault and harassment
3. Reproductive rights
4. Identifying the sexual objectification of women

Some of the most famous theorists who promoted radical feminism are Simone de Beauvoir,
Laura Mulvey, and Ti-Grace Atkinson.
1919
Click to edit Master title style(Socialist) Feminism
Marxist

The ideology of Marxist feminism is similar to radical feminism in that the natures
of patriarchy are examined and opposed. Marxist feminism, however, is based
exclusively in Marxist theory and predicates its ideals on the ideas of capitalism
and private property, which originated in the early 19th century.
Marxist feminists took ideals from Marx's writing and applied them to the
treatment of women during movements of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
Marxist feminists believe that the way to achieve women's liberation is to
dismantle the capitalist society that allows women's labor to go unpaid.

2020
Click to editImportant
Master title styleof Marxist feminists
beliefs

Some of the most important beliefs of Marxist feminists include:

1. Freedom from traditional domestic duties, characterized as oppression
and slavery
2. Creating wages for domestic and household labor in order to compete in
the market
3. Acknowledgement of emotional labor placed on traditionally domestic
women
4. Challenging women's connection to reproductive labor
Some of the famous theorists and writers that thought about Marxist
feminism include Angela Davis, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Claudia
Jones.
2121
Click to edit MasterLiberal
title style
Feminism

Liberal feminism arose out of the earliest form of feminism known as the first-wave.
This type of feminism focuses of women's legal rights and gender equality. It began
in the 19th century, but has influence in almost all features of feminist theory.
Some of the issues that liberal feminists have fought for are:
1. Access to education
2. Reproductive rights
3. The right to vote
4. The right to own property

One of the pioneers of liberal feminism is Mary Wollstonecraft, who published A

Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792.
2222
Click to edit Master
HOW DO title style STUDY THE SOCIETY?
SOCIOLOGISTS
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH

2323
 Click toHOW
edit Master title style STUDY THE SOCIETY?
DO SOCIOLOGISTS
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH- INTERPRETIVISM
Interpretivism is a theory with its particular research that
encourages sociologists to see those studied as thinking
and feeling subjects as opposed to objects of scientific
research. Weber developed interpretivism because he saw a
deficiency in the positivistic sociology pioneered by Émile
Durkheim.

Durkheim had worked to make sociology be seen as science

by centering empirical, quantitative data as its practice.

On the other hand, Weber recognized that the positivistic

approach (positivism) is not able to capture all social
phenomena, nor is it able to fully explain why all social
phenomena occur or what is important to understand about
them. Positivism focuses on objects (data) whereas
interpretivism focuses on subjects (people). 2424
Click to edit
METHODS OFMaster title USED
RESEARCH style IN DIFFERENT APPROACHES

2525