1 / 30

Thinking Sociologically SO3066

Thinking Sociologically SO3066. Simmel's BiographySimmel's Career

min
Download Presentation

Thinking Sociologically SO3066

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

    1. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Georg Simmel 1858-1918 The Fourth Founding Father?

    2. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Simmels Biography Simmels Career & Intellectual Community The Outsider

    3. Simmels Sociology: Intellectual Roots: Hegel: Dialectics (also Simmels conception of alienation) Kant and Categories of Thought Thinking Sociologically SO3066

    4. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Hegels Influence: Individual and Society as a Dialectical Process

    5. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Kant Making Sense of Experience

    6. Natur & Geist (Nature & Spirit) Simmel seeks a middle ground between two of the major traditions of his time. Organic evolution of social whole v. History as a collection of unique events Thinking Sociologically SO3066

    7. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Society is merely the name for a number of individuals connected by interaction

    8. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Conversely? Sociology asks what happens to men and by what rules they behave, not insofar as they unfold their individual existences in their totalities, but insofar as they form groups and are determined by their group existence because of interaction

    9. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Formal Sociology: The Focus of Sociology is neither social facts nor social action but social Interaction or sociation.

    10. Forms: Patterns of interaction that are apparent across a broad range of varying social and historical situations. Social relationships either neither determined by external constraints nor are they utterly haphazard and unique to specific situations. Recurrent forms emerge from the process of interaction itself. Thinking Sociologically SO3066

    11. Forms Superordination and Subordination Conflict and Cooperation Thinking Sociologically SO3066

    12. Forms Centralisation and Decentralisation Intimacy and Distance Thinking Sociologically SO3066

    13. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Social Types The type becomes what he is through his relations with others who assign him a particular position and expect him to behave in specific ways. His characteristics are seen as attributes of the social structure (Coser, 1977). The Adventurer: One who breaks the continuity of everyday life The Renegade: One who disrupts the social group The (Man) in the Middle: The person who stands half way between leader and subordinate within the social group.

    14. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Social Types The Mediator: The person who may act impartially to resolve disputes or, alternatively, who may manipulate disputes between other group members for advantage. The Poor: The person at the bottom of society, defined by his or her dependence on others welfare and benevolence. The Stranger: The person who is present, but always distant from the group (Simmel?). The Stranger is a permanent member (geographically close), but always retains a critical (psychological, emotional and cultural) distance from the other members.

    15. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Social Differentiation The Significance of Numbers Dyads: Two person group with no independent structure individuality not challenged by the group. Tryads: With a three person group a stratification system becomes possible. There is an expansion of potential social roles and relationships.

    16. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 The Web of Group Affiliations

    17. Thinking Sociologically SO3066

    18. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Individual & Society Subjective Culture: Internalised Culture Objective Culture: Reified Cultural Production

    19. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Simmel Modernity, The Works & The Legacy

    20. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Simmel & the Modern City Traditional Life: Individuals are bound closely to the group, but by very few ties. Urban Way of Life: Individuals have more loose affiliations and personal freedoms, but are more dependent on, and more constrained by, the formal relationships and organisation of society as a whole.

    21. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 The Metropolis and Mental Life (1902) The deeper problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces (Simmel, 1902).

    22. Fashion (1904) : Provides a suitable vehicle for observing the dialectical relationship between conformity and distinctiveness in urban society. Allows the demonstration of a degree of distinction amongst the urban mass and, simultaneously, indicates our affiliation and conformity to the group. Thinking Sociologically SO3066

    23. For Simmel "... fashion represents nothing more than one of the many forms of life by the aid of which we seek to combine in uniform spheres of activity the tendency towards social equalization with the desire for individual differentiation and change." (F, p. 133) In each social relation there are two forces at work: one pushing us to bind ourselves to others through imitation, and another pushing us to unbind ourselves from others, to undo the social network, through distinction. But social life changes in so far as the balance between the socialising force and the de-socialising force is always unstable and provisional. Fashion is an example of the way in which actual social life always includes in some way its own opposite, an asocial life (Benvenuto, 2000). Thinking Sociologically SO3066

    24. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 The Philosophy of Money (1900) Distance : Money allows human beings to interact in a more impersonal manner- provides a medium of exchange whilst removing the need for interpersonal bargaining and reciprocity. This removes restrictions on exchange. Money & Value : The value of numerous objects and activities is made objective through being measured in monetary terms rather than subjective desire.

    25. The Philosophy of Money (1900) Calculation: Money renders many relationships and exchanges open to calculation. Rationalization: Interactions and relationships become more rational (due to the calculability afforded by money). Reification: Money becomes both an end in itself and a major feature of the objective culture that limits human freedom. Thinking Sociologically SO3066

    26. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 The Tragedy of Culture : The differentiation and diffusion that holds the potential for individual freedom is countered by the weight of the reified culture of urban society.

    27. The Sociology of Secrecy and of Secret Societies (1906) Non-Knowledge & Lying Secret Societies: Reciprocity & Protection Distinction & De-individuation Threat (to society?) Thinking Sociologically SO3066

    28. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Durkheim, Marx, Weber, Simmel & The Relationship between Individual & Society

    29. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Simmel Legacy: Interactionism & Phenomenology: The Chicago School, SI & The Interaction Order Schutz Berger & Luckmann The Social Construction of Reality

    30. Thinking Sociologically SO3066 Simmels Legacy: Forms and the Individual/Society Dialectic Elias & Figurations Giddens & Structuration

More Related