Functionalism

Major aspects:

1. Structure – social relationships and patterned and recurrent

2. Function – effect on society
3. Functional prerequisites – means for the society to survive
4. Value consensus - agreement on values by the society for determining what the
prerequisites are
5. Social order – order and stability is necessary for survival of a social system

Phenomenology

 Impossible to measure any aspect of human behaviour objectively

 Humans categorize behaviours to make sense of it – categorization is subjective
 Thus, cannot rely on factual or statistical data since those are products of the opinions
of the people who produce them – have to rely on the meaning individuals give to
certain phenomena

Ethnomethodology

 The study of the body of common-sense knowledge and the considerations by which
ordinary members of society make sense of and act on the circumstances they find
themselves in
 While phenomenological sociologists focus on what people think,
ethnomethodologists are concerned with what people actually do.

Scope of sociology

 Boundary lines/domain of sociology

 Formalistic and synthetic school of thought
 Formalistic school – specialistic objective of understanding
 Synthetic – interdisciplinary approach, more synthesis of the knowledge you accumulate
from different sources

Formalistic school of thought

 1. Led by the German sociologist Georg Simmel – focused more upon the minor
aspects of sociology and brought about a linkage between European and American
thoughts
2. Weber also followed the formalistic school of thought
3. Basic postulates
o Sociology is a pure and independent science
The meaning is that only the abstract form of sociology is considered, not the
concrete subject-matter
Eg: “Family evolved gradually” – here family is focused on as a concept and not any
particular family – referring to a concept is an abstract approach rather than a concrete
approach because you cannot show someone what a family is, you can only show
them the individual members of a family.
On the other hand, talking about a particular family would be taking the concrete
approach since you are focusing on the unit and not the form.
The abstract form focuses on the form and makes generalizations.
Hence, there are two ways of understanding family through a sociological study – the
abstract form and the concrete form.
Criticisms:
a. Sorokin – take the example of a glass as a skeleton – fill the glass with
water or any other kind of liquid – according to Sorokin, you can choose to
look at the form of the glass alone without considering the liquid you just
poured into the glass – Sorokin says that you cannot ignore the liquid
inside the glass since that is of significance too – this is similar to looking
at the concept of family without looking at the individual members of the
family – this is not a complete sociological study because the form may
change as the individual members change.
o Looks only at the abstract form of sociology

Synthetic school of thought

 Rejects the idea of the formalistic school of thought – focuses on the synthesis of
knowledge – borrows knowledge even from different branches of study
 Main thinker – Emile Durkheim, Morris Ginsberg
  Sociology needs to understood in the form of understanding the inter-relationship
between different branches of study.
 Social morphology, social physiology, general sociology, social pathology (used by
Durkheim and Ginsberg – just as the body has certain pathogens, even the society
may have certain problems like crime, property, overpopulation, unemployment etc –
here the social body itself interrupts the functioning of the society)
 Thus, when you are studying sociology, you are not merely studying the society or the
social life – it is actually a synthesis of the knowledge you obtain from the different
branches of study which focus on the concrete form of study
 Synthetic school of thought has a much broader approach and hence has much lesser
criticisms as compared to the formalistic school of thought – however, it is criticized
on the basis that there may be faults and errors during the synthesis of knowledge
from different sources.

Whether the study of sociology should be done as a pure science or as a synthesis of multiple
branches of study?

 The synthetic school gives a more holistic, encyclopaedic and comprehensive

approach but essentially one can follow any approach that they choose.

20/08/2022

Stages of Socialization

 Oral stage - birth to one year of age

o Stage of oral dependency – child knows that he has to show and express his
demands in order to get what he wants
 Anal stage – 3 to 4 years of age
o Child is in a position to make a difference between himself and his
caregiver/mother
o The mother becomes a mediator for the learning of the child – mediates
between the child and what he should learn from the society
o What should the mother her child though? –
o Child makes a categorization between dos and don’ts and rewards and
punishments – learns about social discipline
  Oedipal stage – 5 years to 12 years
o Sigmund Freud’s theory
o What the child actually learns through the socialization – learns to identify his
gender and sexual identity
o Also learns to associate and identify himself with others of similar
characteristics – self-identification
 Adolescence – 12 to 18 years
o Physiological and psychological changes take place simultaneously – along
with these changes, a lot of social conditioning takes place as well (eg: girls
not being able to go out of the house at night)
o Tries to internalise social norms and stereotypes in the child – tries to make
him aware of the social roles
o Social saturation takes place – a necessary outcome of the learning process –
has to learn how to accommodate all the changes he is being subject to
 Adult socialization
o Basic personality has already been developed but now you are motivating
yourself towards whatever role you have chosen for yourself
o Whatever internalization has taken place now comes out explicitly
o Also has to learn several new things depending on the social changes
happening around him – consider a person brought up in a patriarchal society;
once he enters a professional work environment with female bosses, he has to
expand his learning and get used to taking instructions from women as well –
change his existing perceptions of society and the numerous internalizations
that have been made thus far in his life

Types of Socialization - Ian Robertson

1. Primary socialization – what takes place in the early stages (oral and anal stages) of
your life – the learning of the basic norms of your culture and society
2. Anticipatory socialization – an anticipation to shift from one culture to another and
the socialization involved in that process – modification of life style to suit the new
social structure they are joining
3. Developmental socialization – extension of the primary socialization – example of
newly-wedded girl who has to adjust to her husband’s household and the norms
 followed there – not learning completely new things but extending your knowledge
further
4. Re-socialization – completely new socialization and learning completely new norms
– complete change from the existing structure you knew – example of a woman who
was captured and forced to become a sex worker – has to completely re-mould their
social experiences, norms and values and completely change their personality –
change their roles and the membership group they were a part of.

Development of the self - whether the self is social or not?

One side says that the self existed from birth through the concepts of soul and being and the
other side says that the self is social because the concept of self arises through the process of
social interaction.

Self is social

Your imagination of how people perceive you is what lends to the development of your self –
“people” includes general society as well as the norms of society – you develop an idea of
what good is and what bad is from your interactions in society.

This signifies the importance of the society in the formation and development of the self.

Theories of the self

Looking glass self theory – Cooley

 When you look at your reflection in the mirror, you have your image in the mirror and
your imagination of what you look like in the mirror
 This theory consists of two parts – what another person actually thinks about you and
what you think another person thinks about you
 This theory is primarily concerned with the development of your imagination of what
other people may perceive you as.
 The imagination of the other of your imagined appearance – based on whatever
perception you have of another person’s perception of yourself, you develop your
own perception of yourself (eg: consider two situations where the child is constantly
praised by his mother and another where he is constantly scolded by his father – here
 the child develops his self-concept on the basis of his imagination of the perception of
others in society.)
 The self is social – your self-perception cannot exist without the assistance of the
society.

Theory of the self (Role-playing theory) - Herbert Mead

 Trying to form a conception of yourself by putting yourself in the shoes of others.

 “Others” – not necessary that all the members of the domain of “others” is significant
– the members vary in their importance to the self (eg: parents and teachers are more
significant to a child than other people in the society)
 The child combines his perceptions of all the significant “others” in order to form a
conception of the general “others” – uses this to assign different roles to people in
society.

Concept of the human mind - Sigmund Freud

 Concept of super-ego
 Id, ego and super-ego
 Id – animal impulses of a human being; ego – mediator between impulse and action
on the basis of super-ego; super-ego – behavioural norms of society, gives direction to
the ego
 Three levels of a mind to an iceberg – top of the iceberg is the id, part of the iceberg
under the water but still visible is the ego; bulk of the iceberg under the water is the
super-ego

Theory of definition of situation – WI Thomas

 The way people act in situations is determined by the way they define that situation.
 Definition of a situation depends on experience.
 Where the individual has no definition of a circumstance, they may be aided in
developing a circumstance by certain social agents.

Collective representation- Emile Durkheim

  Combining individual beliefs of people eventually results in the emergence of a new
reality in the form of collective representation.
 It is an organic emergence.
 Collective representation is symbols and images that hold meaning of ideas and
values – emerge from social relationships and cannot be separated; has to be viewed
as a whole – hence the term “collective”

The role of culture in shaping the personality

 Sub-culture has a greater influence than the culture

 Take into account the assumption that culture does have an influence on your
personality
 Why is there a difference among members of the same culture?
1. Sub-culture influence
o Consider the case of India – though we all have one culture, there still exists
differences among us – this is indicative of the significance of sub-group
culture influence
o The sub-culture we take birth in has a more significant role in our life than the
culture – this is the cause of the differences between the people of one nation
itself.
2. Cultural alternatives
o Cultural universal – eg: marriage – present in all societies
o Cultural alternatives – eg: different norms existing among societies and
cultures for the institution of marriage.
3. Biological factors within same community
4. Situational differences in family (culture learning)
o Take the example of a family – gender socialization of the children will
greatly be related to the spouse relationship between the parents – owes to
why two children coming from the same family may have different cultural
personalities

Who is a social agent?

1. Two categories
 Of the same age – peer group or friends
  Does not have authoritative control over you
 Once you come into contact with your peers, you subconsciously end
up altering several aspects of your value system and the acceptance of
the culture norms that was imbibed in you from your family level.
 Older than you – parents and teachers
 Have authoritative control over you
 Any person helping you in understanding the social norms and helping you develop
your social personality is known as a social agent
 Social media is also emerging as a different form of communication media and acts as
a social agent – has a great influence on the shaping of the social personality of an
individual.
 A social agent teaches you how you can live and function in a society.

What happens if there is a failure in the socialization process?

 The social role you have imagined for yourself greatly depends on how you have been
brought up.
 What happens where there is a gap in communication between the one imparting
knowledge and the one receiving it?
 There may be gaps when different social agents are transmitting information to the
young ones or people who want to join the group
 Problems
1. Damage of your self-image – while learning the social norms, you may come
across several harsh social realities (stratification in society) – when the social
agent teaches you about the social norms, consciously or unconsciously, these
social realities are also transmitted you
Here, you get the perception that you are something less than others in the
society (girls in a family are often taught that they are lesser than the boys).
2. Instead of developing a balanced self-image, you develop a damaged self-
image – affects your behaviour, performance and responses to social
realities. Consequently, leads to mental health issues in the individual
3. Inconsistency in information from two different social agents – results in
confusion
4. Parenting style – controlling v. supportive styles
 Excessive control may result in the child resisting the control – can lead to a
lot of complications and lead to faults in the formation of the personality of the
child
5. Society often determines the goals an individual should have.
Eg: in case of men and women in a society, the different gender roles and goals
defined for them often end up confusing the young ones in society.
Stratification
It is the ranking of individuals or groups
Ancient phenomena – been present from the primitive societies itself – though in different
forms, there has always been some form of stratification in society (caste-based, class-based,
age-based, gender-based etc.)

However, unless the stratification is recognized by the society, the criteria for ranking does
not gain legitimacy – social acknowledgement is important in the legitimization of the
ranking order or stratification arrangement

Thus, it is an ancient, universal and social phenomena.

Ground social reality – social stratification is consequential in nature – the ranking order
results in certain consequences and determines your life chances and lifestyle (life chances –
mortality, physical or mental illnesses etc.)

Life chances and lifestyles are related to social stratification

Eg: infant mortality is linked to gender-based stratification in society – girl children are less
preferred and hence the mortality rate of girls will be higher than that of boys because of the
difference in social preference (life chance)
Say there is a stratification based on class and there are educational institutions charging high
fees – a person from a family with high income will be able to afford better educational
opportunities compared to a person from the low-income families in that society, who cannot
afford all the educational opportunities that are available to them.

Social stratification leads to social differentiation – because there are differences in

society, society itself legitimizes these differences in the form of a ranking
Talcott Parsons – 3 causes of social differentiation – “why do differences exist between
individuals in a society?”
1. Possession
The material things you possess – money, wealth, house – anything else that has
utilitarian value – the difference in material possessions among different people in the
same society leads to differences in the people
2. Quality
Every person takes birth with several inherent capabilities which are linked to your
success later in life – physical strength, intellectual ability, creative skills
Eg: for a person with ADHD, it becomes hard to keep focus for a prolonged period of
time – here, they may find it hard to flourish in academics and studies
A person who is not born with musical abilities find it harder to perform as well in
performances as a person with the inherent ability to sing
3. Performance
How are you executing the possession and qualities that you have? (eg: if you have both
wealth and intellectual capability but are not putting gin effort in academics, then you are
not performing well)
It could be that a very capable person has numerous commitments at the same time and
hence, is unable to perform well
According to Parsons, society creates the ranking in society based on a combination of
the above three factors.

Origin of stratification
Kingsley Davis – stratification is basic and universal
1. Functional theory – these differences are functional in society – justifies the
differentiation and stratification present in society
2. Conflict theory – there are different classes in society with scarce resources – each class
will try to monopolize on the resources and depending on who is able to monopolize what
resource, the stratification takes place in society

However, the functionalist theory says that the conflict theory is insufficient in understanding
the origin of stratification but can only give a reason as to why social stratification may exist
in society.

Social mobility
Social movement between the different ranks in society – whether it is possible to move or
shift from one segment of society to the other segment of society and whether the society
gives you that exposure or not? (eg: caste group is a closed system whereas class group is an
open system
 1. Vertical mobility -people moving from one status to another – eg: becoming rich
after being born in a poor family
2. Horizontal mobility – status is not changing but the position is changing – movement
gives the exposure for you to move but your status is not essentially changing

Different scholars give two more perceptions of mobility:

1. Inter-generational mobility (father working as a clerk and then the son becoming an
IAS officer)
2. Intra-generational mobility (a person who worked as a clerk becoming an IAS officer)

(gap in notes)

Conflict school of thought (Marxian perspective)

 Talk about the polarization of society – exploitation done by one group of another
group.
 Class consciousness emerges
 Main postulate: Stratification as a means to bring social change – not as an
integrative structure of society
 Difference in approach between functional and conflict schools of thought
 Class – class is a social group whose members share the same relationship to the
forces of production
 Summary
o Ruling class – one social group has complete control over forces of production
o Workers/labourers – subject class
o Society is polarized into two classes
o Surplus value – cost maximization and exploitation of subject class
o Exploitation of classes leads to class conflict
 Marx used historical method to understand class conflict
o At every point in the history of the world, there has been polarization in
society
o The very early phase of the evolution of the society had primitive
communism (because ownership of private property was not a concept yet)
 o With the development of society and the introduction of the concept of
ownership, there emerged exploitation of one class by the other – classes and
class conflict
o Primitive society – no class concept, no class conflict
 Using historical method, he tried to say that the forces of production have always
divided the society into two classes
 Relationship between two classes is that of mutual dependence as well as conflict
o The capitalists depend on laborers selling their labour power to capitalists and
in return the capitalists give them wages
 In any capitalist economy, the capitalist invests his money in the production process
and tries to accumulate whatever profit he accumulates form that business – day by
day, the laborers keep getting poorer and the capitalists become richer
 The huge divide in society further adds to the class conflict
 Eg: two groups of cobblers, one who are workers and one who are owners – the
workers coe
 When one social group develops class consciousness and class solidarity, it becomes a
class for itself – gradually they succeed in putting forward a collective action to
overthrow the ruling class – thus, class conflict leads to class solidarity which in turn
leads to revolution
 “Class in itself” and “class for itself”
o Class for itself – has class solidarity and works for their collective well-being
 Superstructure in a society – major institutions, societal beliefs etc.
 Infrastructure – economic condition
 Superstructure depends on economic infrastructure – who has control over
economic infrastructure will control the superstructure
 Feudal structure and capitalism
o Certain minorities in the form of feudal aristocrats emerged as the ruling class
– this was the emerging minority of the capitalist class
 Looking into the history of evolution of the world, there has always been class
conflict which led to the emergence of a new kind of society where class
consciousness and class solidarity develop and with the help of class solidarity and
consciousness, they collectively use the revolutionary means to overthrow the
 capitalist structure to result in a communist socialist society – everything in society is
shared and everyone gets what they need
 Contradictions within capitalist structure which led to birth of a new society
o Dialectical materialism – combine the approach of Hegel and Feuerbach – by
clubbing thesis and antithesis, a new form emerges as synthesis
o A state existed as thesis and a contradiction to that state emerged as antithesis
 Factors in the polarization of classes
o Human work is being replaced by machine work – efficiency of human work
is classified on the basis of skill which leads to the basis for division – when
machines are used, there will not be such difference in skill in ordinary course
of nature to cause death
o Highly subjective enquiry

(Gap in notes)

Types of social stratification (in India)

Section 354

 Caste-based and Class-based

 Caste
o Closed form of stratification – specific to Hindu religion
o It is an ascribed system – decided on the basis of your birth – cannot be altered
o Varna system Brahmins, Ksahtriya, Vaishya and Shudra (fifth varna of
untouchables was given by Lewis Drummond)
o A lot of factors worked cumulatively to bring a change to the system of
stratification and result in the varna system – led to a lot of restrictions and
exploitation on the basis of caste.
o GS Ghurye – two views of caste:
 Caste as a hierarchical structure – based on the hierarch, humans
have certain reactions to it – impose certain restrictions on the basis of
these restrictions
 Caste as a segmental division – the Hindu social structure is divided
into small segments – caste becomes form of identity and for
 development of class consciousness rather than a means for class
exploitation
o When your class becomes closed, it becomes your caste – no mobility
possible
o Rigidity of the caste system has greatly reduced
o Divine origin – purity and impurity
o Endogamous group
 Class
o Open form of stratification – universal, not confined to only India – social
mobility possible
o It is the social status
o Achieved status
o Secular origin – nothing to do with religion
 Caste-class relationship
o Higher the caste, higher the class
o Brahmins – historically, they always received a lot of land from the kings and
rulers and it was your property-ownership that determined whether or not you
are higher in the hierarchy
o Post-independence:
 Land reform policies – tenants and zamindars became land owners and
became the affluent classes in those areas – some communities which
were landless labourers gained ownership rights after the land reform
policies which made them affluent
 Thus, it is not necessary that you are from a section that is “higher” in
the hierarchy
 Within the caste system, there is the emergence of a class system –
Brahmins who received land are placed higher in the hierarchy. A lot
of factors like education and land reform took away the land ownership
from the Brahmins – became lower in the hierarchy in the class system
– thus, there emerged a class system even within the castes
 There is a mixture of the open and closed systems – because within the
caste system the class system has emerged – both are intertwined
Utility of social stratification (functionalists – no society is classless)

 Stratification is required because it is related to motivation – encourages hard work to

motivate someone to change their class and move to a higher segment of society
through hard work – what is best in society is determined based on stratification – the
majority of the society wants more and more achievements so that they can move to
the higher class
 Also ensures the circulation of the elites – efficient people are able to rise to the top
and inefficient people sink – makes sure that the top spots are not occupied by one
group of people
 Prevents waste of resources
 Ensures harmony of society
Social Stratification

Deals with unequal distribution of power in a society

 Power: the degree in which individuals or groups can impose their will on others with
or without the consent of those others
 Prestige: the amount of esteem or honour associated with social positions, qualities of
individuals and styles of life.
 Wealth: material possessions defined as valuable in particular societies.

Social inequality and social stratification

 Social inequality: existence of socially created inequalities

 Social stratification: particular form of social inequality – hierarchical structuring of
social groups based on power, prestige and wealth – eg: Hindu caste system
 Stratification only one form of social equality – can exist even without social strata –
eg: Western industrial society has no social classes with a class consciousness but
rather there is a hierarchy of occupational statuses with different levels of prestige and
economic rewards.

Features of stratification systems

 Own subculture – norms, attitudes and values distinctive to them as a social group
 Group consciousness – feeling of kinship with other members
 Social mobility – opportunity to move form one stratum to the other – upward or
downward, closed or open
o Open – high rate of social mobility
o Closed – low rate of social mobility – fixed at birth – caste system

A person’s position in the stratification system has an important effect on his life choices –
chances of obtaining those that are desirable in his life and avoiding those that are
undesirable in society – eg: Whites’ and Blacks’ life chances and opportunities in education,
employment, criminal record, marriages etc.
Social v. Natural Inequalities

 Socially created inequalities form the basis of the systems of social stratification.
 Biological inequalities, though negligible, form the basis for the formation of the
structures of social inequality.
 Hindu caste system, European feudal system – examples of socially created
stratifications and inequalities – no biological justifications.
 Biological inequality – argument adopted for the justification of racial segregation
between Blacks and Whites – racial stratification due to supposed genetically based
inferiority of the Blacks and inferiority in intelligence
o Rebutted that the basis for racial stratification in society actually has a social
basis and not a biological basis
o Systemic discrimination against Blacks was made possible only by the power
of the dominant stratum.
o Intelligence not a factor to determine superiority – intelligence majorly
depends on genetic AND environmental factors – the deprivations experienced
by a member of a low social stratum will thus reduce his IQ score – also, the
standard for testing intelligence is largely determined by the standards and the
environment of Whites – prejudiced against Blacks
 Thus, the importance of biological factors in stratification systems depends majorly
upon the meanings assigned to them by different cultures – eg: old age
 Biological differences become inequalities only when they are defined as such –
members of a particular society select certain characteristics and evaluate them a
certain way – biological explanations for justifying social stratification is thus only a
rationalization for the system

Functionalist perspective of social stratification

 There are certain functional prerequisites that must be met if society is to survive - the
functionalist theory looks to social stratification to see if it fulfils these prerequisites.
 Parts of a society form an integrated whole – how does social stratification fit into this
whole?
 Functionalists look at the function of social stratification and its contribution to
the maintenance and well-being of society.
Talcott Parsons
 Stratification systems derive from common values – it is the ranking of units in a
social system in accordance with the common value system
 An individual will receive high prestige if he exemplifies and personifies common
values.
 Stratification is an inevitable part of all human societies – universal
 Since stratification is the expression of shared values, it is generally believed that
these systems are just, right and proper.
 Though there may be conflict between the classes, the conflict is kept in check by the
common value system which justifies the unequal distribution of rewards.
 No single social group is self-sufficient – functionalists see the relationship between
social groups as one of cooperation and interdependence.
 Since each social groups focuses on different tasks like organization and execution, it
will inevitably lead to inequality in terms of power and prestige – those who organize
have a higher social status than those who execute and are directed by the former.
 Social stratification is inevitable and functional
o Inevitable – derives from shared values which are a necessary part of all social
systems
o Functional – serves to integrate various groups in society.
 Inequalities of power and prestige serve to further the collective goals which are
based on shared values

Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore

 Stratification is universal – effective role allocation and performance is one of the
prerequisites for the survival of a society – achieved through social stratification
 Important function of stratification is matching the most able people with the
functionally most important role – different skill levels in society with differently
skilled individuals – special skills are necessary for their effective performance.
 Social stratification: It is a device by which societies ensure that the most important
positions are conscientiously filled by the most qualified persons.
 How to determine the functionally most important positions in society?
o Degree to which a position is functionally unique
o Degree to which other positions are dependent on the one in question
  Social stratification is a functional necessity for all societies – solution to the
problem of placing and motivating individuals in a social structure
o Differential rewards are functional for society and contribute to the
maintenance and well-being of social systems.

Melvin M. Tumin
 Majorly criticized the theory given by Davis and Moore.
 No way of measuring the functional importance of positions.
 Davis and Moore – only a limited number of people have the talent to acquire the
skills necessary for the functionally most important positions.
o Tumin – no effective way of measuring talent and ability.
o No proof of exceptional talent for those important positions
o Pool of talent in the society may be considerably larger than assumed and thus,
unequal rewards are not necessary to harness it.
 Differential rewards during the period of training are justified but there is no need to
continue this differential compensation for the remainder of an individual’s working
life.
 Social stratification acts as a barrier in the motivation and recruitment of talent –
eg: closed systems like caste and racial stratification.
 The motivation to succeed is unequally divided throughout the class system.
 Tumin says that Davis and Moore did not consider the fact that those who occupy
high positions erect barriers to recruitment – use power to restrict access to their
positions to increase their rewards.
 Only when there is a genuinely equal access to recruitment and training for all
potentially talented people can it be said that differential rewards are functional.
 social stratification is divisive rather than integrative – differential rewards
encourage hostility, suspicion and distrust among the people.

Michael Young
 The Rise of the Meritocracy –meritocracy is a system of role allocation where social
status is achieved on the basis of merit in a society where all members have an equal
opportunity to realise their talents.
  Dysfunctional possibilities of meritocracy:
o Members of lower strata may be demoralized – other forms of stratification
allow them to blame other factors for their lowly status by providing reasons
for their failure.
o Those at the bottom in a meritocracy are there because they are clearly inferior
to the others in society – members of the lowest strata have no able members
to represent their interests.
o Upper strata of a meritocracy – deserved position since it is based on merit –
upper strata become free from self-doubt – may become arrogant and haughty
o Society based on stratification system may not be functional – advocates
against over-liberalism

Eva Rosenfeld
 Stratification may not be functional but it is inevitable
 Even in a seemingly egalitarian society, social inequality exists – two distinct social
strata:
o Upper – leader-managers – day to day running of the community.
o Lower – rank and file – labourers
 Authority and prestige are unequally divided
 Clearly points towards how social stratification is inevitable – any division of labour
requires and authority to organize the various tasks and this authority will be at a
higher position and carry more prestige to operate effectively (Parsons).
 Rosenfeld – just because an egalitarian society does not exist yet does not mean it is
not possible – the evidence does not point to social stratification being inevitable.

Conflict perspective of social stratification

Karl Marx
 Stratification is a divisive rather than integrative structure – means for one group to
exploit another and not a means of furthering collective goals
 Focus is on the actual social strata rather than inequality
 Main theory:
o Ruling class and Subject class (ruling class exploits the subject class)
 o Basic conflict of interest between two classes – the major institutions of
society are all run by the ruling class.
o Exploitation can be ended only if these institutions and forces of production
become communally owned.
 Class – it is a social group whose members share the same relationship to the forces
of production.
 Used the historical perspective to explain his theory – 4 epochs:
o Primitive communism – the only classless society
o Ancient society – masters and slaves
o Feudal society – lords and serfs
o Capitalist society – capitalists and wage labourers
 Primitive communism
o Societies were based on socialist mode of production – no concept of
individual ownership; everything was communally owned
o Every member of society shared the same relationship to the forces of
production – no classes
o Classes emerge when the productive capacity exceeds the basic level for
subsistence – hunting and gathering was a subsistence economy and hence no
classes.
 Private property and the accumulation of wealth form the basis for the development of
class societies – class of producers (owns labour power) and non-producers (owns
forces of production).
 Marxian relationship between classes – mutual dependence and conflict
o Relationship is not equally symmetrical – exploiters and exploited
o Ruling class gains at the expense of the subject class
 Surplus value – the difference between the value of wages and commodities –
appropriated in the form of profit by capitalists
 Political power is derived from economic power – the political superstructure of
society is largely determined by the economic infrastructure – hence, political and
legal systems reflect the interests of the ruling class.
  The ruling class ideology creates a false class consciousness – false picture of the
relationship between social classes – ideology is a distortion of reality or a false
picture of society.

Class and social change

 Marx said that class struggle is the driving force of social change.
 Class struggles have historically between the minorities in the society – eg: between
feudal aristocracy and emerging capitalist class
 Marx’s idea of social change was driven by the conflict between a minority and a
majority – the bourgeoisie and the proletariat – private property to be replaced by
communally owned property

Class in itself and Class for itself

 Class in itself – a social group whose members share the same relationship to the
forces of production
 Class for itself – where members of the class develop class consciousness and class
solidarity
o Class consciousness – become aware of the nature of exploitation they have
been subject to.
o Class solidarity – the unity among the members of a class where they
recognize their shared interests
o Class consciousness and class solidarity lead to the classes taking positive
steps to overthrow the ruling class through collective action
 A social group only becomes a class when it becomes a class for itself.
 Factors forming a class for itself:
o Instability of the capitalist system – can only be resolved by its transformation
o Conflict of interest between bourgeoisie and proletariat cannot be solved
within the capitalist economy.
o The contradiction between social production and individual ownership would
highlight the exploitation of the proletariat.
 Certain factors in the development of a capitalist economy will result in the
polarization of the two main classes.
o Obliteration of differences in labour
 Use of machinery results in homogenous working class – differences between
skilled and unskilled workers will disappear as machines remove the skill
required in production.
o Pauperization of the working class
Different in wealth between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat will only
increase as the accumulation of capital continues (pauperization – members of
the working class become poorer in relation to members of the ruling class
even though wages and living standards may improve)
o Depression of the intermediate strata into the proletariat
Competition will depress the intermediate strata into the proletariat – because
only the wealthiest companies survive in a capitalist economy

Max Weber
 Classes develop in market economies in which individuals compete for economic gain
– a person’s class situation is basically his market situation.
 Class division – between people who own the forces of production and those who do
not
 Identified class groupings in a capitalist society:
1. The propertied upper class
2. The propertyless white-collar workers
3. The petty bourgeoisie
4. The manual working class
4. Differences between Marx and Weber:
o Weber identified factors other than ownership or non-ownership of property
(market value of the skills of the propertyless and the resulting differences in
economic returns are significant)
o Weber does not support the idea of the polarization of classes (small property
owners enter the white-collar class or the skilled manual trades rather than the
class of unskilled workers – the white-collar middle class expands as
capitalism develops)
o Rejects inevitability of the proletarian revolution (class consciousness and
class solidarity need not always develop)
 o Political power does not derive from economic power always (class is only
one possible basis for power)
5. Weber says that classes in society form also due to their status situation
o Groups form where their members share a similar status situation
o Status is an unequal distribution of social honour.
o Eg: the Hindu caste system in India
6. Link between class and status situations
o People who share the same class situation need not belong to the same status
group
o Eg: Shudras who have worked out their class system and established
themselves on a similar pedestal financially to that of a Brahmin will still not
be in the same status group as the Brahmin though they now belong to the
same class group.
o Thus, status groups create divides within classes.

Class in Capitalist Society

 Anthony Giddens – three major classes in an advanced capitalist society:
1. Upper class – ownership of property in the means of production
2. Middle class – possession of educational or technical qualifications
3. Lower or working class – possession of manual labour-power.
7. Class inequalities generate prestige inequalities – high occupational prestige is
primarily due to high occupational reward.
8. Ralf Dehrendorf – differences in skill levels in the working class after the advent of
machines: skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers.
9. Images of society
o Working class – power model – ‘us’ and ‘them’
o Middle class – prestige model – society is a ladder with different strata
differing in terms of occupational status and lifestyles of carrying prestige.

Embourgeoisement
 Process where manual workers were entering the middle stratum and becoming
middle-class.
  Middle-mass society: with more people in the middle stratum that the working or the
wealthy class, the shape of the society now resembles a diamond or pentagon shape.
 Middle class incomes lead to middle-class lifestyles
 Embourgeoisement was accelerated by the need for a mobile labour force
 Only an unproved hypothesis – no actual mobility between classes is taking place –
however, Goldthorpe and Lockwood found two points of normative convergence
between the working class and the middle-class: privatization and instrumental
collectivism.

Social institutions
Marriage

Family

Kinship

Difference between institutions and associations

 Social institution – norms and practices evolved over a period of time to cater to
human beings
 Some needs of humans may be fulfilled by an artificially created group but some can
only be fulfilled through a slow and gradual process.
 Though a person may consider themselves to be self-sufficient, it is almost impossible
to completely isolate oneself from the group for fulfilling their needs.

Association

Artificially created groups to fulfil human needs – certain norms and regulations do exist with
individuals are the members

Institutions

Groups that gradually evolved naturally – individuals are not the members but it is only a set
of norms and practices that have evolved over years to cater to the needs of humans

 Primary institutions (religion, marriage) and secondary institutions (state, law,

education)
  Primary institutions - primitive societies where people had just started living in
groups started fearing natural calamities and started worshipping supernatural beings
to protect themselves from these calamities – religion evolved over time
 Secondary institutions – evolved later according to the needs felt in the society – did
not exist in primitive societies – only present in later societies to suit new
circumstances and problems

Marriage
 Institution evolved to regularize social approval of the union between two people
and to give social legitimacy to a child that may be borne out of that relationship.
 Early forms of marriage were purely between men and women in nuclear families – as
the families and agricultural-based families evolved, they needed more and more
labour for the work and hence, led to extended family – then with modernization and
the Industrial Revolution, families started reverting to the structure of nuclear families
and monogamous marriages.
 Since there were multiple relationships in the society with people engaging in open
relationships and polyamory, there was a need to introduce certain norms in society to
regularize these relationships – led to the introduction of the institution of marriage
(implies the view that marriages were not originally monogamous and that the first
forms of relationships between humans was in the form of open relationships)

Types of marriages
Types are based on the number of mates involved in each individual marriage

Monogamy – one male is married to one female

Polyandrous and polygamy – one female is married to multiple men and one man is married
to multiple females

Ways of determining paternity – socio-cultural methods – some cultures regard the

oldest male to be the father or the child to be the child of all of them men collectively

Polyandry – due to skewed sex ratio where females are much lesser than men and also
due to the practice of bride price (family of the groom giving money or gifts to the
bride’s family) in the tribal societies

Group marriages –
Symbols in institutions – in marriage, religion, education etc. that help you identify that
particular institution – may change over the passage of time but there will always be certain
symbols – eg: the social appearance of a husband and wife is a symbol of both marriage as
well as of family.

Marriage norms
Endogamy

 Marrying members within the same group is known as endogamy – eg: caste
endogamy
 Reasons why endogamy is practised:
1. For a wealthy group, to keep the wealth and property within that caste itself.
2. Some castes are considered to be higher or purer than others – it was considered
that they should marry among themselves to keep the purity intact.
3. Occupation criteria – occupational purity was one of the most important factors of
the caste system – even the children would continue the same occupation and keep
the business going.
4. Cultural similarity – helps in continuance of customary practices and traditions of
the groups – also helps the individuals to accommodate each other comfortably
since there is no difference among the cultures – though it may be possible to
ignore such differences in individuals from different cultural backgrounds, it is
mostly the case that a person from one culture will be able to accommodate better
with someone who is from the same culture as them.
5. In the accommodation between the individuals, endogamy eliminates the
difference in status between husband and wife that would exist in an exogamous
marriage due to them being from different castes.

Exogamy – marry outside the group – gotra, pinda, sapravar and village exogamy

 Gotra – lineage
o Tracing ancestors and saying that all humans originate from 7 Rishis – if you
have descended from the same Rishi, then you cannot get married to each
other
o It is the smallest exogamous unit in the caste system.
o Marrying within the same gotra is discouraged due to genetic deformities in
the offspring.
 o It is not synonymous to your surname but one’s surname often represents the
gotra name.
 Sapinda – parentage
o Pinda – literal meaning is the sharing of body particles
o Essentially, members in a pinda are your close relations – marriage between
close relatives are highly discouraged.
 Sapravar – uttering the name of a guru during certain yagyas – if two people share the
same guru, they too cannot get married.

Anuloma and pratiloma

Anuloma (Hypergamy) - A man of a higher varna married of a woman of a lower varna is
appreciated and approved

Pratiloma (Hypogamy) - a woman of a higher varna getting married to a man of a lower

varna is neither appreciated nor approved

This is because a woman’s social status and caste and gotra get changed completely after
marriage – shifting to a lower class is considered to be unacceptable by society – because
marrying off your daughter to a man of a higher varna increases her social status.

 Reasons for practising exogamy

1. Scientific reason – To prevent certain genetic disorders from being passed down
from one generation to another

Family
A family is a long-lasting association or bond between a man or a woman, with or without
children, or a man and a woman alone with child or children (no scope for joint family in this
definition).

Origin of family
Evolved as an institution because the man and the woman in a relationship wanted possession
over the child – originally, in hunter-gatherer communities, there was no concept of family,
everyone lived independently.

The human instinct is that you want control over whatever is your creation – led to ownership
of property and then to the regularization of marriages and families.
Human nature – companionship is a basic human instinct – the companion happened to be a
member of the opposite gender and they started living together and procreating – led to each
of them wanting to legitimize the union and the production of the union (children)

Purpose for the origin of families:

1. To regularize relationship
2. Give approval of the group to the children born out of it
3. Human nature of yearning for companionship

Thus, the basic rationale for the origin of the family lies in the basic human nature.

Family is smallest unit in the society – not the individual. It involves the primary relationship
of humans with each other (face-to-face relationships, everyone knows each other and is
accustomed to each other)

Types of family
Nuclear or joint? Matriarchal or patriarchal?

 Types of families:
o Authority concept – matriarchal or patriarchal
o Structure concept – nuclear or joint
 The first families were in the form of matriarchies – because it is always the women
who bear child – here, the women and the child form the association; men did not
play much of a role.
 Gradually, this converted into patriarchal families when men wanted to seize power
and feel a sense of control in the association.
 Two different views
o The very initial phase – family as a social unit emerged in the form of a
nuclear family.
o The family system was then converted into a joint family system with the
introduction of an agriculture-based society – need for more labour.

Functions of a family
Primary functions

 The regularization of relationship between man and woman

 Legitimization of the child borne from the relationship
  Source of Primary socialization and culture transformation
 Ascribing status – gives you your first identity in a society – helps you in organization
of what happens to you in the society (your family determines your class, caste,
gender norms etc.)

Secondary functions

 Economic security – financial dependence on family when you have no means of

livelihood.
 Psychological function – love, affection, caring bond etc. that is necessary for the
development of the individual – love and trust is mostly higher with the family as
compared to friends or colleagues – functionalist school
This view is opposed by the conflict school – familial conflicts lead to the destruction
of the personality and development of an individual
 Educational – not a purely formal education but provides knowledge, information and
values to its members – determines the shaping of the basic personality and intellect
of the individual and the views they hold of the society they belong to.
 Recreational – helps in releasing stress and relaxing with people close to you.

Sociologists are of the opinion that the secondary functions have been largely modified in the
present age to the modernization – have we lost these secondary functions?

These functions have not been lost altogether but they have been modified with the
passage of time in order to suit the present age and the mentalities of its members
better.

Stratified diffusion

Whatever happens at the top of the structure diffuses to the lower strata

Talcott parsons – functions of family

Primary socialization

Stabilization of young personality

4 stages of family – young and walmort

Q.what are the four stages of family and what is its relevance?
Conflict school of thought
 A Runaway World – Edmund Leach – challenged the notion of family being a
supportive structure.
 Pre-industrial phase comprised of joint families and families were an important social
institution – slowly moved to a nuclear family along with urbanization
 Nuclear family becomes more inward-looking and the social conditions are such that
there is higher competition among the families – each person in a nuclear family is
too tightly linked to each other – they have no one else to turn to and thus, creates a
mroal pressure on the members
 Nuclear family is an overloaded electrical circuit – in isolation, each member of the
family relies too much on the 4-5 people in the nuclear family – the relationship need
not always be good between these members – leads to emotional and moral stress.
 However, in earlier times, whenever a conflict arose, the entire family would sit
together to resolve the issue and there was no need to have to rely on 3-4 people only
– kinship as a concept was more prevalent in the pre-industrial phase
 Isolation and close nature of contemporary life is not limited only to the individual
and also permeates into the society they live in as well – connections with your
neighbours have weakened with the introduction of the isolated nuclear families
 social discontent is also caused by the interrelationship between the members of the
family, primarily the husband and the wife – this relationship has an effect on the
children and hampers the socialization process of the child which affects the
community as well.
 The structure of the family has transformed from a joint family to a nuclear family
with the increased competition in society as a result of urbanization and
industrialization.
 With the introduction of nuclear families, there is increased distrust between
individuals and heightened competition between members.
 In pre-industrial society, families served to help the individual and the community
whereas this is not the case in the post-industrial phase.

Conflict School of Thought

 Functionalists always focused on harmony, balance and structure in the society –
focused on the functional part of the family.
  The critical conflict school of thought creates an image of a stressful situation.
 Leach says that family has become a closed electric circuit
 Laing – children become a sort of shuttlecock between the other two members of the
family
 David Cooper – family is no longer functional
 Marx – family is an instrument in the hands of the state to create members who can
support the state ideology in the future – crush the development of the personality
within the family
o Revolutionary ideas in the minds of young ones are crushed within the family
itself just to conform to the social norms.

Edmund Leach - Death of Family

 Comparison between pre-industrial and industrial society
 Pre-industrial society – close kinship existed – helped in relaxing and destressing
 Industrial societies – less members and hence more dependent on each other – there is
a lack of mechanism which can ease out your stress – the husband and wife are
always in conflict and the children become rebellious – conflicting picture of the
family was presented.

RD Laing – politics of family

 Focused on schizophrenia and how it is not an inherent tendency but is rather shaped
by the family themselves – child becomes a shuttlecock between the husband and the
wife
 The parents toss the children from one side to another depending on the conflict –
take an example where the father is always scolding the child, the child moves to the
mother for emotional support and the mother does not want to lose her child so she
keeps pampering and spoiling him – thus, the child keeps shuttling between both
parents, no stability in the family

David cooper- death of family

 Same picture as that of Karl Marx

Murdoch

Stages of family
New emerging forms of the family
 Same sex families
 Single parent families without marriage
 Matrifocal family – only female and no male members in the family
 Dual income with no child families
 Cohabited partners
 Sologamy

Challenges to marriages
Law and the changing forms of marriage in family – live-in relationships as an alternative,
changes in adoption law

Impact of Hindu Marriage Act on changing forms of marriage

Divorce – considered to be taboo by Indian society

Inter-caste marriages – allowed – huge blow to Indian caste system

Age – 18 to 21 for girls marriage

Abortion law – unmarried single girl also has permission to abort the foetus for contraceptive
failures.

Kinship
 A community of close-knit people related by marriage or blood.
 If family is a unit, kinship is the overarching structure over the close-knit people.
 Various practices and norms and commonly practiced
 Kinship is basically more relevant under anthropology but is relevant to sociology too
because it gives a skeleton for understanding the units under this skeleton.

Structures of kin
 Groups are formed based on the lineage (eg: gotra) – refers to the smallest group –
multiple lineages refer to the clan
 Family  clan  phratry  moieties (“half”)  tribe
 Some believe that moieties are endogamous which is why they are formed by dividing
tribes in half.
Types of kin
 Primary – first family members, husband-wife, father-son, father-daughter, mother-
son, mother-daughter, younger brother, younger sister – logical 8 possible
combinations
 Secondary – extended family – first cousins (parents’ siblings and their children and
spouses) – logical 33 possible combinations
 Tertiary – secondary kin of the primary kin – (mother’s first cousin, husband’s
brother’s son) – logical 151 possible combinations

Kinship usages and practices

Anthropologists talk about 6 types of norms/practices to maintain these relationships

 Rule of avoidance
o While maintaining a relation with some of your kin, you need to maintain a
certain distance which is appropriate for maintaining a healthy relationship
between you and your kin.
o Eg: between a father-in-law and the daughter-in-law.
 Joking/casual relationship
o Becomes a safety wall
o Grandparent and grandchildren relationship, relationship between brother and
sister’s husband
 Teknonymy
o Not referring to the kin by their direct name (wife’s not taking the direct name
of the husband, daughter-in-law not taking the name of the mother-in-law)
o Way of showing respect
 Avunculate
o Relationship between a mother’s brother and her sister’s children
o More in matriarchal structures
 Amitate
o Relationship between father’s sister and his children
 Couvade
o Relationship between husband and wife
 o Sometimes, the husband gives up certain foods during the period of pregnancy
of his wife and the special care he gives his wife during the period signifies
the love, friendship and companionship between the husband and the wife.

Social Research
Sources of knowledge
Three important sources of knowledge (epistemological study):

1. Observation (pratyaksh)
 Different strata even among these sources – observation can be casual or
careful.
2. Inference (anumam)
 Going back to the cause after observing the inference
 The inference is always that certain things are there on the basis of which
you infer something.
 Example: if you see the ground is wet, you could infer that it rained before.
 However, there could always be mitigating factors that negate the
inference you made (the ground could be wet because someone
intentionally wet it, not necessarily rain)
3. Authority (shabda)
 A claim being made by a person treated as an authority on that topic
 Example: you would listen to a doctor for your health but would not listen
to an engineer about your health.
 Thus, even though there are three main sources of knowledge, there may be various
variations even among them.
 Experimentation:
o Experiments also act as important source of building your knowledge.
o If you want to know how a particular type of parenting affects children, social
experiments are conducted to observe certain outcomes even though the
outcome may not always reflect true society since the situation so created is
artificial and may not elicit an accurate response.
o Breaching experiment (Garfinkel)
 o Thus, experiments act as a source of information and knowledge which can be
further used in further studies.
 Social media
o Though it may be a modern source of information and knowledge, it is hard to
verify the veracity of the information so received.

How should the research be started?

 Should start with posing a question and then the rest of the research should be
conducted in an attempt to answer this question.

Different knowledge paradigm/ basic research postulates in sociology

Positivism

 How does a researcher use positivism in his research?

 A positivist researcher collects objective data and tries to generalise certain answers
or postulates or axioms
 Approach – collection of certain objective facts and the representation of these facts
in a quantitative form using quantitative techniques.
o The reduction into mathematical entities is devoid of any human emotions.

Constructionism

 Started with the entry of Max Weber – emphasized upon the social subjective
meanings associated with these data – subjective meanings given by human beings
 Assigning meanings means that humans include an emotional aspect to this data –
involves a certain extent of subjectivity (individual’s own subjective meaning is
inserted)
 Due emphasis was given to the construction of meaning and how he attaches it to a
social setting.
 Example: for conducting research on poverty, you collect data and factually represent
it (quantitative). Including an interview by a poor person and his perspective of
poverty and the meaning of poverty for him is the qualitative aspect (this meaning
varied greatly from individual to individual)

Critical sociology
  According to Karl Marx’s theory – why inequalities are generated and how you can
work against these inequalities.
 Tries to find out why social problems exist in society and how these problems are
created due to the inequalities present in society.

Pragmatism

 Tries to find practical solutions to the problems being faced by society.

 These solutions also try to map how to resolve these problems and prevent them in the
future.

Different components of theories

Theoretical theories and empirical theories

Theoretical Empirical
 Construct/concept  Variables
 Proposition  Hypothesis
 Theory  Model

 Construct and concept

o Constructs are more abstract than concepts
o It is easier to find gradation in abstraction in multi-dimensional constructs than
uni-dimensional concepts – because
o For examples: intelligence (construct – more abstract – multidimensional) and
academic achievements (concept – less abstract – unidimensional)
o In empirical research, intelligence is measured by testing the IQ level of a
person – cannot directly be tested – you can only test variables
 Variables
o Those quantities that vary are known as variables – in a field study, the
variables are tested in order to get an observation about the construct/concept
– it is not the concept/construct that is directly being tested.
o Independent and dependent variables
 Independent variable is that which explains the dependent variable
 Dependent variable is that which is explained by the independent
variable.
  Independent variable can become a dependent variable in a different
 “Intelligence has a positive effect on the earning potential”
 Here, intelligence is the cause (independent) – earning potential
is the effect (independent variable)
o Intermediate variable – intermediate variables are those factors that lie
between a dependent variable and independent variable
 Helps in the explanation of independent and dependent
 For example, intelligence leads to the earning potential but in between
intelligence (IQ) and earning potential (salary), it is your academic
achievements (CGPA) that determine your placements and hence your
salary
o Moderate variables – has an impact on the entire system of relationships
between independent, dependent and intermediate variables.
Moderate variables (outside the system but exerts influence

Independent Dependent

Intermediate

o Control variable – effect of which is minimized in the research – these

variables are withheld from the outcomes of the research
 For example, even though there may be gender differences and caste
differences in society, these factors are set aside for the scope of that
particular research – because you do not want to analyse the impact of
those factors in your research outcome.
o An empirical study depends on the testing of variables and the relationship
between them.
 Proposition
o Declarative statement of the relationship between the concepts
o Example: “Poverty is correlated with crime” – poverty and crime are concepts
and this proposition declares a relationship between these two concepts
 Hypothesis
o A tentative solution to the problem
o Question – “why is poverty related to crime?”
 o You answer: “They have the need and are hence feel compelled into the
crime”
o Hypothesis - “The crime rate of the lower strata level is high” – has to be
further tested.
o Hypothesis should be strong – declarative and state a causal relationship
between the concepts
o “Intelligence is related to earning potential” – this is not a strong hypothesis as
it does not state what kind of impact it has or whether it is positively or
negatively related
o “Intelligence is positively related to earning potential” – more declarative –
stating that intelligence has something to do positively with the earning
potential
o “Intelligence has a positive effect on the earning potential” – making one a
cause and the other an effect – this becomes a causal hypothesis
o Thus, a hypothesis should be causal and directional.
o It is a statement of relationship between dependent and independent variables.
o Each research question has one hypothesis each because each problem should
have a tentative solution – it is fine even if your data disproves your
hypothesis
o Null and alternative hypothesis
 Null hypothesis – H0 – no significant relationship between the
variables
 Alternative hypothesis – H1 – proves relationship between variables
 By proving the alternative relationship, you disprove your null
hypothesis.
 Theory
o It is a statement of the proposition.
 Model
o Model is a representation of your research and theory is an explanation of your
concepts.

Ontology and epistemology

 Ontology - statement of reality

 o How do we know the status of the world
 Epistemology - knowledge
 4 combinations of research outcomes possible
o World has change and world has order (from ontology)
o Objective way of knowing this change and subjective way of knowing this
change (from epistemology)
CHANGE

ORDER radical

Research types and data

 Positive and interpretative

 Based on objective: why are you doing the research
o To explore – where there is no hypothesis (you don’t know the probable
reason) and your methodology is uncertain but you want to explore this
completely new topic
 You yourself are unaware about the possible outcome of this research
o To describe
 Description of the facts – “60% of the people who sit for placement get
placed”
 Collecting quantitative data and providing a description of the facts –
no analysis of the facts is involved
o To find out a causal connection
  “Why do people from rural backgrounds generally not go for the
corporate sector?”
 Here, you try to find a correlation between people from rural
backgrounds and the reason they do not go to corporate jobs.
o Explanatory
 To explain the reason for something.
 Based on application
o Pure (fundamental)
 Newton’s Laws – simply theory building
 Becomes the basic postulates for later research
 Philosophers are involved in pure research because they build theories
– not concerned with applications
o Applied
 Application of the pure theories to find out the solution of a problem
you have identified.
 A theory of crime can explain the behaviour of a child as well as for
finding the proper solution for the crime being present in the society.
 Cost-benefit analysis can be an application of a theory.
 For all fields and topics, there is a theory part and an application part.
 Some authors use diagnosis research – more related to the medical
field – diagnose an issue and try to find the cure for it.
 In the social world, we diagnose problems and try to find a solution to
it.
 Types of data
o Qualitative
o Quantitative
 Field study is not a type of research but rather it is an empirical method of analysing
data.

27/09/2022
Social Control and Conformity
What are norms?
 Basic rules or accepted, standardized forms of behaviour
 Most acceptable, standardized form of behaviour.
 Norms are a wide domain including your day-to-day activities
 Norms are accepted forms of behaviour which originate from the group or society that
you live in.
 Exceptions: people who do not follow the norms laid down by the society are known
as deviants (called ‘criminals’ or ‘delinquents’ in criminal law) – all of them are
people who do not adhere to the norms or rules.

Why do we adhere to norms?

 Conformity – adherence or acceptance of the norms – but why is there conformity
among the society?
 Do we conform to the norm simply due to the sanction that comes along with it?
 Primarily two reasons:
o Because you are habituated to the norm
 Though the origin of the conformity to the norm may be due to
different reasons, over time, the reason for the conformity to the norm
becomes because you become habituated to following that norm
 This habituation happens due to the socialization process that takes
place – the socialization is the learning of the norms of the group.
 Eg: - attendance requirement in colleges – when you initially enter a
new college, your seniors inform you about the minimum attendance
rule – depending on the attitude the seniors say it with, you either get
habituated to attending class or you get habituated to skipping class –
here, the new college environment is the socialization process
whereas the seniors are the social agents.
 Socialization and the habituation due to socialization is the primary
reason for an individual conforming to norms – the subsequent rewards
and punishments may act as incentives or deterrents in making you
want to follow a norm.
o Because you fear what will happen to you if you do not adhere to the norm.
 o Collective belonging
 If everyone is following the norm and you do not follow the norm, you
may feel isolated and excluded – one may follow a social norm for the
simple reason of not feeling excluded or facing social criticism.
 Man’s need for approval and appreciation – individuals may feel that if
they follow the societal norms, they will be appreciated by the bulk of
society.
o Subculture influence
 Some sociologists think that your subculture has a greater influence in
shaping your personality that your culture.
 Subculture influence is more of a reason as to why one deviates from
norms rather than for explaining why people conform to norms
 Subculture theory of deviants – a small group of young boys forming a
gang – this gang may have their own norms and rules which are often
opposed to the norms of the main culture – the gang essentially acts as
a rebel group (deviant) from the main culture
 Thus, if you are in a subculture that teaches you norms that are
contrary to the norms of the main culture, it acts as a reason for
explaining why some may deviate from the accepted norms of the
larger society.

Deviance
Merton’s Theory of Deviance (Strain Theory)

 Tries to explain why people commit crimes and why there are deviants in society.
 It says that societal structures can pressurize people into committing crimes
 Because people cannot cope up with the societal pressures, they resort to crime
 Eg: - the American Dream – spreads the materialistic dream of amassing wealth –
when some people cannot become as rich as they thought they could be, they tend to
resort to violence and crime as an outlet for their frustration
 The social structures are such that they pressurize people into
 Legitimized goals and legitimized means are given by the society itself
1. Conformity - accepts goals and institutionalized means of obtaining them
 2. Innovation - accepts goals and rejects institutionalized means of obtaining them -
they try to come up with new means to attain the goals - deviate from these means
due to their inability to attain these goals – they are the deviants
3. Ritualism - rejects goals and accepts or adheres to institutionalized means of
obtaining them
4. Retreatism - rejects both goals and means of obtaining them
5. Rebellion - creates new goals and new means of obtaining them

What is social control?

 The mechanism through which you are able to see whether the individuals are
adhering to the norms or not.
 The need for social control
o To look at the stability and integrity of the members.
o Coherence among members (social solidarity)
If there are common laws for everyone in society it creates a sort of solidarity
and unity among the members of the society.
o For social conformity
To make sure members do not deviate from the social norms and constantly
monitor the conduct of the individuals and ensure social conformity of the
members.
o In order to affirm the social changes
Social control checks whether a social norm needs a change or evolution
according to the changing values of society – social control helps bring about
institutional changes to prevent later revolts by the individuals in the society in
the absence of such a change.

What are the factors/agencies dominating social control?

 Formal – a written, explicit and codified rule exists – non conformity with these rules
will attract sanctions.
 Informal – customary practices
 Difference between customs and practices
o Customs have evolved slowly and gradually over several years and become an
implicit part of the human behaviour – though there is no legal sanction
 attracted from not following customs, it is a subject of social criticism if you
do not conform to the customs
o Even if people are not aware of the law of the land, the customary practices
are so entrenched in the culture of a society that everyone is aware of it
themselves.
 Overlap between customs and practices
 There may be laws which are not customarily accepted – similarly, there may be
customary practices which are not accepted by law
 Religion, customs and law, your personal resolution, peer groups, public opinion
(media decides public opinion), government propaganda, rituals, fashion (trends)

30/09/2022

Systematization of the discussion thus far…

I. Nature of social control

 Control means any kind of influence exerted by the society
 The influence is for the welfare of those individuals
 The social control is a universal, social phenomenon in place since time
immemorial
II. Purpose/objective of social control
Three main indicators
i. Maintain solidarity
ii. Conformity of social groups
iii. Social changes brought about by social control mechanisms
iv. Continuity of social norms
III. Types of social control
 Formal and informal
 Formal – more codified
 Both attract sanctions but the degree is different for both – punishment is
not certain in case of informal control.
 Law can be the representation of formal and customs are the representation
of the informal
IV. Norms and conformity
 Personal or social norms
  Society is more interested in social norms rather than personal norms
 Because personal norms do not attract sanctions.
V. Agencies of social control
VI. Value
 Concerned with judgment.
 It is a measure of the goodness, rightness or wrongness.
 Value are higher order norms.
VII. Norms
 Norms are standards of behaviour which are universal but differ from
society to society
 What is a norm in one group may not be a norm in another society (the
same applies for values)
 The basic nature of the norm is such that they are not always obeyed by all
the members in the society – this is where the discussion of deviants arises.
 Norms are internalized by individuals during the socialization process
VIII. Conformity and deviance
 Different ways of violating norms
i. Simple way – eg:- government officials misusing the equipment
given to them
ii. Systematic violation – a group indulges in the violation of the
social norms in a very systematic manner – eg:- though drugs are
prohibited, it is observed that on some religious festivals, those
groups indulge in consuming those drugs; child marriage.
 They conform to the norm that they decide (though this is
deviance from the general standard of society, it is
conforming to that new norm for that group) – this is why it
is said that norms are relative
IX. Functional aspect of norms
 We do require conformity with norms for its functional utility
 Imagine a situation where there is no conformity to norms in society –
there will be a state of normlessness – this state is a case of anomie
 Emile Durkheim discussed anomie with reference to integration – in a
more industrial society, the integration is more due to organic solidarity
 (each organ has its own existence though it is dependent on the body)
since there is more individualism among the members in the society – this
leads to a state of anomie or normlessness in society
 Marx discussed anomie this more in reference to the economic conditions
and labour class
 Merton discussed the pressure developed in social structures between
norms assigned and the institutional means to attain these goals – due to
capitalist society and achievement-based society in the American society –
however achieving these high standards are not possible for all the
members in the society and thus leads to a state of normlessness within the
individual since they are not able to conform to the norms expected of him
by the society.
Theories of Crime
Three typed of deviants

1. Deviance being positively rewarded

 Those who bring about change in existing outdated norms.
2. Deviance attracting sanctions
 Completely violate the norms of society and attract social disapproval and
criticism – these deviants get punished for their deviance.
3. Deviance that is overlooked by society
 These are usually minor acts of deviance which do not really affect the society
adversely or the existing social structure.

For the majority of the sociologists, they concern themselves with the second category of
deviants – crime and delinquency are the different forms of deviance.

Deviance is a relative phenomenon – social norms differ from society to society and what
may be unacceptable in one society may be acceptable in another.

Freedom of will
Is a person free to act or not?
There are four factors that govern a person’s actions:

1. Physical capability
2. Mental capability
3. Variety of options available to the person.
4. Is your act voluntary or not?

Determinism and non-determinism

Determinism means that every action is already determined – if you know a person then you
can predict what kind of an option that person will take in a given situation.

All these factors go into determining whether a person’s moral response.

Why does a person commit a crime?

 A crime is that act which goes against the existing norm and attracts punishment –
negatively associated with punishment.
 Possible reasons (sociological theories)
 o Lack of resources
o Social disintegration
o Structural pressures

Biological and psychological theories for the origin of crime

 They focus on the origin of crime by focusing on factors internal to an individual as
opposed to the sociological theories which focus on the factors internal to a social
system
 Lombroso – Born Criminal Theory
o Criminality is inherited and someone “born criminal” could be identified by
the way they look
o He focused on the physical features of an individual and generalized certain
facial features which could predispose a particular person as a criminal.
o This theory has been heavily criticized and has since been rejected – there has
been no study or research which can prove that genetic and biological factors
are solely responsible for a criminal disposition.
 Sheldon – Body Type theory
o Three body types – endomorphic (stout and short), mesomorphic (athletic) and
ectomorphic (thin and tall).
o They tried to correlate that people with mesomorphic body types have the
predisposition to commit crimes.
o Rejected – though many of the criminals have this body type, it is the lack of
resources available tot hem that actually causes these people to commit crimes
– only a coincidence to societal factors, not an actual reason backed by
science.

06/10/2022

Emile Durkheim’s explanation about deviance

 Three main postulates:
1. Crime is a normal phenomenon.
2. Crime is inevitable.
3. Crime is functional.
  According to Durkheim, the disconformity to norms is just as natural as conformity to
norms – because it is not proved that each and every member of society will follow
the norms.
 It is obvious that there will always be some people in society who do not conform to
the norms – this is the very nature of human behaviour to rebel against certain
established authorities – thus, it is inevitable
 Deviance is functional if it is in a small amount – if it is on a large scale, it may lead
to disharmony in the society – small amounts of deviance are necessary for the
constant functioning of the social systems – because you, as a member of society, will
be attracted to deviant traits, and the social systems need to function in order to
prevent more and more people from deviating.
 Cohen - says that some kind of deviance acts a safety wall – says that prostitution is
functional as it helps a person relieve some of the stress accumulated and rather, it
helps in saving the institution of marriage and family.

Strain theories (haralambos)

1. Merton
 Functionalists believe in value consensus in the society – materialism as a value is
appreciated in American society and based on these appreciated values, there are
certain legitimized goals and legitimized means to reach these goals.
 If a society is a balanced society, then there is no problem since everyone conforms
to these legitimized goals and means – however, Merton says that American society
is not a balanced society – though people may internalize certain goals, certain
sections of the society do not have access to the legitimized means to achieve these
goals.
 Merton says that the lower strata of society that does not have access to the
legitimized means will take recourse to alternatives, like stealing, in order to achieve
the goals that they have internalized within themselves – they deviate from the
legitimized means due to the structural pressure on them to conform to the
legitimized goals.
 Merton says that American society is not balanced because it focuses primarily on
capitalism and materialism – on the other hand, the European society has more of a
 balanced nature as most people have access to the legitimized means that they
require in order to attain the legitimized goals.
 Thus, in Merton’s theory, the social structures create a pressure on people to
conform to the legitimized goals but they do not have the means to achieve these
goals.

2. Cohen
 Cohen draws upon Merton’s theory and gives the following criticism of Merton:
o That Merton takes deviance as an individual phenomenon – Cohen says that it
is a collective phenomenon.
o Merton limits deviance only to the utilitarian crimes (money-related crimes)
but cannot relate it to non-utilitarian crimes and cannot relate the two.
 Cohen says that deviance is a collective phenomenon – the lower strata of the society
develop a sub culture for themselves based on the legitimized goals of the society –
what is generally not considered appropriate for the majority (the consensus group),
the sub-culture considers it to be appropriate amongst themselves
 The deviants create a sub-culture among which the acts they do are appreciated
 This explanation of deviance also explains the non-utilitarian crimes also
 Merton said that these people would look for alternative means, meaning it is an
individual response – Cohen, on the other hand, says that it is a group phenomenon in
which a sub-culture is created to appreciate the acts which are not appreciated by the
majority of the society

3. Miller
 Says that the lower strata are not creating a new sub-culture but that they have their
own sub-culture which has been prevalent in their society
 This sub-culture is not created as a reaction to being unable to achieve the legitimized
goals of the society.
 Miller says that there are certain instances and situations which demand the people
from the lower strata to act/behave a certain way (to show their strength or toughness)
and it is these circumstances

4. Cloward & Ohlin

 Talks about illegitimized structures – it is not that the differences exist only in the
legitimized structures.
  Merton said that for each member in the society, the means are available in a different
amount for
 Says that differences exist even among illegitimized structures and not just among
legitimized structures – eg: even two mob groups may have differences in values
between them even though they are both illegitimate structures.
 Due to three types of differences in subcultures:
i. Criminal sub-culture
A person is born into that kind of a neighbourhood where he already has an
exposure to criminal activity.
ii. Conflict sub-culture
They do not have the legitimized means structures or illegitimized means
structures – they do not have the environment for them to be trained into
criminal activity – in this instance, small gangs develop in the area and no
gang has complete monopoly over the area
iii. Retreatist subculture
Do not have legitimized opportunity structures but they are indifferent about it
– they develop a drug culture - they do not care about achieving goals through
any kind of means, be it legitimized or illegitimized means - they are
considered to be failures by society

David Metza

 The person tries to neutralise or rationalise his deviant act

 For example, he justifies his wrongful act due to his bad childhood and the
neighbourhood he grew up in
 This theory trues to explain what is the constant factor which influences you into
engaging in deviant behaviour
 Says that it is not about legitimized or illegitimized structures but rather about
rationalization or neutralization of the reasons behind which one may commit
deviating acts.

Howard Bekker – Labelling theory

  Society imposes certain labels to acts by virtue of which it is deemed to be an act of
deviance – eventually, these deviants feel pressured into conforming to these labels
that have
 The rule has been justified prior to the commission of the act – eg: an act has already
been labelled as an act of deviance and the person is labelled as a deviant upon the
commission of that act.

(make notes for Goffman’s theory also)

Functionalist

Shaw and McKay (Ecological Theory of Deviance/ Chicago theory of deviance) – not in
Haralambos

 They tried to connect the environment with deviance – ecological theory

 Divided the city of Chicago into different zones and on the basis of the environment,
he tried to explain the deviance in these different zones
 Zone 1 – centre of the city – highly densely populated – people from other regions
also present – scarcity of resources and hence higher chances of the commission of
deviant activities like pickpocketing, prostitution, gambling
 As he moved towards the outskirts of the city, there are less instances of deviant
activities.

Southerland – differential association theory

 Deviance and the commission of criminal acts is a learning process

 When a person comes into contact with a particular group, this association leads to
that person learning and adopting the deviant traits prevalent in that group.
 Also talked about white collar crimes for the first time – crimes being committed by
people in a highly educated and well-respected profession

Interactionist

Cicourel – negotiation of justice

 Looks at how the society responds to the deviant act instead of explaining the causes
– only explains the process
  One of the limitations of the interactionist school is that they do not give any causal
links for deviance but only explains the process of deviance.
 Entire process of naming a person as a deviant
 Consider two groups – a group of vagabonds and another group of middle-class boys
– if a crime is committed, the police tend to investigate the vagabonds first
 The suspicion starts from the lower strata since those people are unable to play a role
in the negotiation of justice process – the justice delivery system itself has certain
preconceptions
 Cicourel conducted studies in varies cities of California – in one city there was more
influence of social media and the way in which justice was delivered in those cities
was different from another system where the influence of social media and political
leaders was less – he studied the impact of these factors in ascertaining who gets
labelled as a criminal first
o Eg: media trials ascertain who the criminal is before the trial itself and it
influences the public opinion and the justice delivery system
o This influence makes a person a deviant, irrespective of whether they actually
are or not

Bekker

Goffman – social stigma theory

 How social institutions like prisons creates a stigma and makes a person a deviant
 For example, a person sent to prison has his entire identity crushed and when he goes
outside, this prisoner identity stays with him and the social stigma against him stays
with him and negatively impacts his re-integration into society.
 The same is the case with mental health institutions
 Thus, whether or not a person is a social deviant is completely decided by another
third person in the society
 How the stigmatized status exists in certain institutions which makes it difficult for
the person to re-enter the society that he was forced out of.
 How does it affect the life of a person when he is labelled as a deviant? (it is equally
applicable to all three of the interactionist theories)
Who is powerful in the society? Is it the majority opinion which is powerful and determines
who a deviant is or is it the rule of law which decides who a deviant is?

Social groups

 At least two people are required to make any action a social action - this
communication can be verbal or non-verbal
 Contact and communication are the two essentials to say whether a particular group of
people are an actual social group or not.
 Socialization helps in making a living being a social being
o For example, the incident of the two children found in a wolf den – no
socialization and isolation

Types of social groups

Sunner – in group and out group

 In group – ‘we’ group

 Out group –
 Members belonging to you and you having an association with those people on the
basis of having a ‘we’ feeling with the group – the belongingness can be on the basis
of class, caste, religion, educational setting etc.
 For the others or the ‘out’ group are outsiders and you have no association with them.

Ellwood

 Involuntary and voluntary groups

 You are a member of a group where you have no control over it – family, caste,
religion, gender.
 The voluntary groups are those that you join out of your own volition and choice –
political groups, class

Sorokin

 Horizontal and vertical groups

 Horizontal – nation, political groups
 Vertical group – class – smaller than vertical groups but gradation exists
Cooley

 Primary and secondary group

 What remains out of the primary group is what is known as primary group
 Sympathetic contact – mutual wanting and understanding – family, community and
caste – primary group
 Categorical contact – you have the contact with a person because of the position you
are in – relationship between employer and employee in an organization – secondary
group.

Tonnies

 Gemeinschaft – community
 Gesellschaft – association
 Communities evolved slowly and gradually and evolved geographically whereas
associations are artificially created groups – based on that belongingness, Tonnies
creates a distinction

Simmel

 Differentiation into groups based on size.

Organized and unorganized groups

 Organized – made for a specific interest.- formed based on position and

communication and contact is based upon that position.
 Unorganized – made without any common interest and gathered casually –
spontaneously formed group

Reference group

 A group that an individual admires

 Muzafer Sherif – An Outline of Social Psychology
 You are trying to be influenced by these groups and they are treated as the ideal in the
society – such a group is the reference group.