Lecture 3.1-Society-Oct 19

Lecture: 3.
1
SOCIETY : THE
MAJOR
CONTRIBUTIONS
Sociology, 15th Edition, Global Edition, Pearson Education © 2015

Society
People who interact in a defined territory

and share culture.
According to sociologists, a society is a
group of people with common territory,
interaction, and culture.
Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis

Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Visions of Society
Four diverse perspectives on what accounts
for social change and societal evolution
• Gerhard Lenski
– Society and technology
• Karl Marx
– Society conflict that arises as people work
within economic syestem to produce goods
• Max Weber
– The power of ideas shapes society
• Emile Durkheim
– How traditional and modern societies hang
together
Five Types of Societies
1. Hunting and 2. Horticultural and 5.Postindustrialism

gathering pastoral • Information made using
• The use of simple tools to • Pastoralism– The computer technology
hunt and gather. domestication of animals as a • Digital technology is the
resource for survival steam engine of information
• People hunted wild animals
and foraged for uncultivated • Horticulture–Use of hand societies
plants for food tools to raise crops
3. Agriculture 4. Industrialism
• Large-scale cultivation • A dramatic rise in technological
invention, as the Industrial
using plows harnessed to Revolution.
animals or more powerful • The production of goods using
energy sources advanced sources of energy to
drive large machinery.

Gerhard Lenski: Society and Technology
• Technology shapes other cultural patterns. Simple

technology can only support small numbers of people
who live simple lives.
• The greater amount of technology a society has
within its grasp, the faster cultural change will take
place.
• High-tech societies are capable of sustaining large
numbers of people who are engaged in a diverse
division of labor.

Copyright  2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights
reserved.
Gerhard Lenski: Society and Technology
Societies have varying patterns of technological complexity.

• Societies simple in technology tend to resemble one another.
• More technologically complex societies reveal striking cultural diversity.
Technology shapes other cultural patterns.

• Simple technology can only support small numbers of people who live simple lives.
• High-tech societies are capable of sustaining large numbers of people who are engaged in a diverse division of
labor.
Technology influences the pace of societal change.

• The greater technology a society has, the faster cultural change will take place.

Limits of Technology

Theoretical Perspectives on Society: Émile
Durkheim
• Modernization is defined by an increasing
division of labor.
• Society transformed from mechanical to
organic solidarity
– Mechanical solidarity: Shared moral sentiments
– Organic solidarity: Mutual dependency between
people engaged in specialized work

Theoretical Perspectives on Society: Émile
Durkheim
• A social fact is a pattern that is rooted in
society rather than in the experience of
individuals
• Society is an elaborate, collective
organism, far more than the sum of its
parts.It shapes individuals’ behavior,
thought, and feeling

Émile Durkheim
• Society
– More than individuals
• Society has a life of its own, beyond our personal
experiences
• Social facts
– Any patterns rooted in society rather than the
experience of individuals
– Examples: Norms, values, religious beliefs, and
rituals

Émile Durkheim: Modernity and Anomie
• Warned that modern society creates anomie–

A condition in which society provides little
moral guidance to individuals
The division of labor, or specialized economic
activity, has increased throughout human
history.
• Mechanical solidarity
• Organic solidarity

Émile Durkheim: Division of Labor
• Modernization is defined by an increasing

division of labor.
• Society transformed from mechanical to
organic solidarity
– Mechanical solidarity: Shared moral sentiments
– Organic solidarity: Mutual dependency between
people engaged in specialized work

Karl Marx: Conflict and History
History of all existing society is the history

of class conflict.
• Conflict between entire classes over the
distribution of a society's wealth and power
• Evolutionary and revolutionary change

Capitalism and Alienation
• Alienation–The experience of isolation and
misery resulting from powerlessness.
• Marx: To the capitalists, workers are nothing
more than a source of labor.
• Another contradiction of capitalist society: As
people develop technology to gain power
over the world, the capitalist economy gains
more control over people.

Revolution
• The only way out of capitalism is to remake
society.
• Socialism is a system of production that could
provide for the social needs of all.
• Marx believed that the working majority would
realize they held the key to a better future.
• The change would be revolutionary and perhaps
even violent.
• Marx believed a socialist society would end class
conflict.

Marx: Revolution
• The working
majority would
realize they held
the key to a better
future.
Marx • The change would

be revolutionary
believed and perhaps even
violent.
• A socialist society
would end class
conflict.

Max Weber: Rationalization of Society
• Rationalization of
society
• Idealism
• Ideal type
Weber • Historical change
from tradition to
rationality as the
main type of human
thought.
A rational society is one built around logic and efficiency rather than
morality or tradition.
Max Weber: Rationalization of Society
Weber wrote that
 members of preindustrial societies
embrace tradition, sentiments and
beliefs passed from generation to
generation, while
 industrial societies are characterized
by rationality, deliberate, matter-of-
fact calculation of the most efficient
means to accomplish a particular
task.

Weber's Rational Social Organization
Personal
discipline
Specialized Awareness of
tasks time
Large-scale Technical
organization competence
Distinctive Seven
social characteristics Impersonality
institutions of organization

Four Visions of Society: What Holds
Societies Together?
• Gerhard Lenski: A shared culture
• Karl Marx: Elites force an 'uneasy peace’
• Max Weber: Rational thought, large-scale
organizations
• Emile Durkheim: Specialized division of labor

Critical Review:Four Visions of Society: How
Have Societies Changed?
• Gerhard Lenski: Changing technology
• Karl Marx: Social conflict
• Max Weber: From traditional to rational
thought
• Emile Durkheim: From mechanical solidarity
to organic solidarity

Are Societies Improving?
• Gerhard Lenski: Modern technology offers
expanded human choice, but leaves us with
new sets of dangers.
• Karl Marx: Saw in not unity but social position
based on class position. True social unity can
occur only when production becomes a co-
operative process.
• Social conflict would only end once production of
goods and services were taken out of the hands
of the capitalists and placed into the hands of all
people.
Are Societies Improving (Cont..)?
• Max Weber: Saw modern societies have
created reational.
– Considered the question of change from the
perspective of how people look at the world.
– members of preindustrial societies have a
traditional outlook, modern people look take a
rartional worldview
• Emile Durkheim: Was hopeful about modernity
and possibility of more freedom for individuals,
but concerned about the dangers of anomic
feelings.

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Lecture: 3.

Sociology, 15th Edition, Global Edition, Pearson Education © 2015

People who interact in a defined territory

Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis

1. Hunting and 2. Horticultural and 5.Postindustrialism

Sociology, 15th Edition, Global Edition, Pearson Education © 2015

• Technology shapes other cultural patterns. Simple

Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis

Societies have varying patterns of technological complexity.

Technology shapes other cultural patterns.

Technology influences the pace of societal change.

Sociology, 15th Edition, Global Edition, Pearson Education © 2015

Sociology, 15th Edition, Global Edition, Pearson Education © 2015

Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis

Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis

Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis

• Warned that modern society creates anomie–

Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis

• Modernization is defined by an increasing

Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis

History of all existing society is the history

Sociology, 15th Edition, Global Edition, Pearson Education © 2015

Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis

Sociology, 12th Edition by John Macionis

Marx • The change would

Sociology, 15th Edition, Global Edition, Pearson Education © 2015

Sociology, 15th Edition, Global Edition, Pearson Education © 2015

Sociology, 15th Edition, Global Edition, Pearson Education © 2015

Sociology, 15th Edition, Global Edition, Pearson Education © 2015

Sociology, 15th Edition, Global Edition, Pearson Education © 2015

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