Social Theories

1. Theories are invented to explain problems. Mathematical, biological and social… Social Theories …applied to current problems in the social world.

2. Activity • As we go through the presentation, you are to fill out a table of the theories presented. Do not write everything. Just what is relevant for your table.

3. Conflict theory

4. Conflict theory • The belief that social inequality leads to conflict. Oppressed people will stand up to oppressors to force change. • Change includes • -reforms (slow and gradual) • -more radical types (instant and en masse) eg REVOLUTION.

5. Applying conflict theory • Change doesn’t happen because of CONFLICT THEORY. Change happens because of CONFLICT. THEORY explains the conflict and puts in in a historical context. • Theory helps us understand past present and future societal behaviour.

6. Examples of application: • Gender inequality: women organise for their rights. Elite women protested in the 1800s for the vote. working class and coloured women protested in the 60s for abortion, divorce and workers rights. • Racial Inequality: Slave revolts. 1950s- civil rights in America, anti-apartheid in South Africa… • Sexual Inequality: gay Rights movement in 1960s. Stonewall Riots. Sydney’s first Gay Mardi gras. Today’s protests for same-sex-marriage • Colonialism: indigenous struggles for land rights: Aborigines, Native Americans, Palestinians and many more

7. Conflict Theory and War • Marxists and other proponents of conflict theory argue that war happens because the ruling class plunder one another’s pools of wealth. (Imperialism.) • Marx wrote that the ruling class are a “Band of warring brothers” meaning they work together to exploit workers over all over the world but they go to war with each other because competition for wealth-accumulation is central to the way capitalism works. • Marxists (eg socialists/communists) argue that war only benefits the rulers (bourgeoisie) and never the workers (proletariat) who have to fight and be killed. The Russian Marxists, the Bolsheviks, called on Russians to boycott the war and “turn the imperialist war into a class war.” In other words, reject Nationalism and see the bosses as the enemies rather than see their fellow proletarians (workers) in Germany as the enemy.

8. 1800s Cartoon of Imperialism Would the picture be different today?

9. Gender inequality • What are the inequalities faced by women? How have these changed or continued over time?

10. Conflict Theory (Marxism) and women • Marxists see women’s subordination as necessary for the functioning of capitalism. Women are reduced to baby-makers and domestic servants to serve the interests of the bourgeoisie. (the rich) the state doesn’t need to pay anyone to house, clothe, bathe and feed the working class coz women do it for free! Coz they’re so “lovely”! • Society is divided along lines of class. Male and female workers must unite against the exploitation of the ruling class (the bosses.) Marxists (conflict theorists) believe that men do not necessarily benefit from women's subordination. The system oppresses both sexes. Bourgeois women benefit from sexism because rich women can exploit poor women. • The struggle is about class. • Conflict theorists argue that class conflict is the essential drive to all social change. The working class or those without economic superiority would have to push against the capitalist ways and revolt to cause change.

11. Feminism • Feminists see inequality as the result of the patriarchy – innate dominance in men. • feminism is a social theory for the battle for equality in political, economical and social rights for woman. • Feminism is an outcry against sexual inequality and oppression and exploitation in a male-ruling society. Over time this movement has branched off into more specific feminist and political perspectives. • The struggle is about gender. The “sisterhood” etc.

12. There are some “Marxist feminists” Who put gender first but see the link with class oppression. There are also anti-Marxist feminists who think all women should stand together no matter what class they belong to. What do you think? How does CLASS RELATE TO GENDER? What about race? Sexuality? Disability?

13. On class and gender… Can a billionaire woman who makes her fortune in diamond mining in Sierra Leone really say she’s fighting for all women? What about the women victims of blood-diamond wars? Or who have to work for rubbish wages in the mine? According to the Marxists, the rich woman’s class position demands that she continue her support of exploitation - whether the victims are male or female. Baiada workers vs CEOs

14. WAR AND WOMEN Marxist feminists urge women to have solidarity with workers and the poor. Bourgeoisie feminists/anti-Marxist Feminists believe the West can end women's oppression through force and occupation. So they tend to support the “war on terror” and the banning of the burqa (as in France.)

16. Evolutionary Theories Concepts / terminology - survival of the fittest • Natural selection • Adaptation • Evolution • Westernisation • Eurocentic….. Ethnocentric • Biological determinism

17. Evolutionary Theory + Crime • According to Evolutionary theory, more civilized and developed societies have more order and therefore should experience lower rates of crime. Compared to societies that aren’t as developed they actually have higher rates of crime and incidence. • The contradiction is that studies of indigenous/hunter-gatherer societies show much lower likelihoods of crime compared with modern, Western civilizations.

19. “A Darwinian Theory of Beauty” • Charles Darwin’s biological theory of evolution (organisms changing in order to adapt to environmental needs) can be related to Beauty. Traditional and mainstream notions of beauty are Eurocentric. Why? Discuss plastic surgery…

20. The article discusses the idea of how beauty in art, music or beautiful things are not just simply ‘in the eye of the beholder’ but rather within our human nature with ‘deep evolutionary origins’.  The affect of cultural conditioning can be seen as the reassurance of our perception/value of beauty in connections to our human nature. It is also recognized that the wealthier culture are usually more desirable in perception • https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PktUzdnBqWI

21. Poverty Evolutionary theory suggests the poor remain in poverty because of their adaptations to the burdens of poverty. Poverty, it would seem, is a natural feature of civilization.

22. Q. How would evolutionary theory apply to gender inequality? The persecution of gay people? The Aids epidemic in Africa? The suffering of the third world which is predominantly brown-skinned? “Fear of a Brown Planet” Ameer Rahman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLTinB_4lko

23. Racism Darwin didn’t mean for his biological theory to be applied to human societies. Infact he was against slavery when most intellectuals were for it. Darwin ’s theory was used by Nazi’s during WWII to support and justify Eugenics and the study and classification of races into a hierarchical order due to supposed intelligence.

24. “So what did the Evolutionist say to the Marxist?” • Marxists talk about the “common sense” view of society which is in fact merely an acceptance of capitalist values. One example is the common acceptance that we live in a “meritocracy” • How does the notion of a meritocracy relate to the evolutionary view? • Critics of Marxism say that today there is more social mobility. Public education aims to allow equal access to all children to become successful. We are all “equal before the law”… etc. So is there no longer a need for “conflict” or radical change? • Critics also say that class is too different today than it was in Marx’s day (industrial rev) Society has “evolved.” so the theory is no longer relevant.

25. Today the privileged use evolutionary theory as a justification of class inequality. They call the modern class system (Capitalism) a “meritocracy” - meaning those that get ahead do so because they’ve earned it. An echo of “survival of the fittest.” • Perhaps today class structure is less rigid than several hundred years ago. There is more social mobility. Public education aims to allow equal access to all children to become successful. We are all “equal before the law”… etc. • We are taught that privileged people can become underprivileged through bad decisions (e.g. sub prime mortgage crisis) and vice versa (the classic poor migrant moves to the Big Apple, works hard and strikes it rich…heard that one before!!!!) • It is however the case that the majority of people do not break from the class they were born into (e.g., working class or ruling class.) Statistics show a widening gap between rich and poor in OECD countries over the last 30 years.

26. Review: • 1. What are “eugenics” • 2. How did Darwin’s theory get applied to slavery? And how was it used by Nazis? • 3. Why do (socially literate) people now talk about “ethnicity” rather than “race”?

27. Parson’s Functionalist Theory

28. Functionalism: a model for society. • Functionalist theory: theory used to analyse functionalist society. • (Marxists call our society “capitalist” and want to change it to be more “socialist.” Feminists call our society “patriarchal” and also want it to be changed. Functionalists do not see the need for radical or dramatic change. As in the evolutionist view, Society will take care of itself.)

29. Functionalist Theory Gradual/incremental change Reform Equilibrium Institutions Differentiation/ specialization

30. A relatively wide-spread theory of social change is functionalism. • One of the prominent functionalists who has dealt with societal change is Talcott Parsons. • Parsons views society as a system consisting of several interdependent parts. • Each part, perhaps each institutional arrangement (religion, family, law, education), performs unique functions in relation to the whole. • Therefore, a system is always in some sort of equilibrium, with each part of the system functioning in special ways to maintain the system over time.

31. Change is generated from within the system itself. • As the laws in society change, the religious, educational, or other institutions also change in an effort to maintain or to reestablish the equilibrium of society. • A law to banning racial segregation as a means of establishing equality of educational opportunity for members of different racial groups may cause alterations in the educational institution. • Then as the educational institution changes, so do other institutions such as the tax structure or the political structure.

32. The functionalist perspective directs our attention to each institution and the functions it performs in the society at large. • This perspective does not deny that social systems become increasingly complex, because the functionalist simply notes the increase in the number of institutions created by the system to perform more complex and specific functions.

33. Cyclical Theories of Change.

34. Those who hold to the theory of cyclical change tend to view social systems or societies as living entities. • Biological organisms are born, live in a given environment facing threats to their existence, and eventually die.

35. The rise and fall of the Roman Empire is often cited by these theorists as evidence of the cyclical nature of social change. • Other societies are also offered as proof that the cyclical theory of change has a basis in fact.

36. The German historian Oswald Spengler was a well known cyclical theorist. • In his book, The Decline of the West, published in 1918, he argued that most civilizations have gone through both low and high points in their development as societies. • Wars and other times of crisis in each civilization pointed to what Spengler labeled societal "decay," and he predicted that each social system was "doomed" to ultimate extinction.

37. His views were primarily speculative. Also, theorists who rely heavily on the biological analogy draw fire from critics because there are far more discrepancies between a society and a biological organism than similarities.

38. Interactionalist Theory

39. Interactionalist Theory • This is the most recent theory relating to social change. This theory follows from the writings of the late nineteenth century German sociologist, Max Weber.

40. For social change to take place three elements need to be present in society. • First there is as need of successive changes to have taken place. This succession needs to be linked over a time period and thirdly and most importantly; these changes have to exist over a period of time.

41. Interactionalists study the effect of this change on groups and individuals. • Change happens at different speeds for different groups. • Not every group accepts new ideas at the same rate. • This rate of difference in accepting change is called succession.

42. This theory sees people as decision makers who are involved in making choices about their everyday social life. • Interactionalists concentrate on explaining the ways by which people respond to and interpret the actions of others.

43. We have got to remember that there are those who resist change. • There are two strong constraints opposing change. • These are strategic constraints- these are the people who you are associated with, such as family members. • Then there are Ecological constraints- these are the society wide constraints with institutions such as the Church or Law.

44. How do societies change? • Interactionalists point out that certain people push ideas. These people find an audience. These ideas gain acceptance and become institutionalised by persisting over time.

45. Spontaneous Change.

46. Spontaneous Change. • Probably the least useful, as well as the least used view of social change is that it occurs spontaneously. • According to this theory, most social change is traceable to one factor or event as significant altering the course of a society's destiny.

47. The eruption of a volcano can obliterate a society totally or seriously hinder its cultural development. • Natural disasters can generate changes in society that appear to be spontaneous.

48. The major criticism of the spontaneous change view is that it cannot successfully be linked with any existing theory of social change. • It is impossible to predict really spontaneous events and, as a result, theories about spontaneous change are impossible to construct.

49. What is the use of Theories? • They make generalisations about the complex human world. • They simplify the complexity and help us to make comparisons. • They have developed to explain how and why social change takes place.

50. Traditional to Industrial to Modern Society. • Tradition societies are characterised by a society in which social life is governed by personal, informal considerations, with tradition and custom prevailing