Explain the Principal Sociological Perspectives

P1: Explain the principal sociological perspectives

                (Unit 7)

There are many different views on how society works by sociological theorists. Some of these include: Functionalism, Marxism, Interactionalism, Collectivism, Postmodernism and New Right.

Functionalism was proposed by the theorist August Comte. He argued that functionalism shows an understanding of social institutions within our society. The social institutions are representative of the different parts of society. Some of these institutions include: family, education, health service, politics, media and economy. Comte proposed that if one person within an institution or a whole institution did not work, the whole of society will not work.  The theory stems from the work of another theorist, Emile Durkheim. His work focused on how society remained steady.

They also proposed that to have a successful and working society, we all have to have the same values. This would be called the common value system and functionalists believe that this is learnt through socialisation through family and education. Socialisation is a term used to describe how society teaches you how to behave.

Another part of functionalism is functionalism of the family. In the functionalism of the family, there are some ‘rules’ about how to raise your children into a functionalist society. Some of these rules include to ensure that new babies will actually survive to become adult members of society. Another is to regulate sexual activity. This would be taught to do in s marriage or pairing as taught by social rules. This would be done to create healthy offspring that can grow up into a functionalist society. Another is to ensure that children are satisfactory socialised into the norms and values of society. This would be done as children are born believing that they are the centre of everything. Therefore, it is necessary that they are taught the rules of society through socialisation. Another would be to provide economic support for family members. For example, hundreds of years ago, men would hunt whilst women would do a less risky job such as forage. Or in farming communities, it is common for the whole family, even children to work alongside each other to retrieve food and help sell it. Another is to satisfy our emotional needs for love and security. This would include giving children love and attention from a young age to ensure they will be able to develop relationships and friendships later in life. If children are not given a substantial about of love of support in their younger years, psychologists have found that they will not be able to develop relationships later.  

Functionalism is a structured sociological perspective. This means that there is order. The perspective suggests that everyone should value the same things and work the same amount to allow society to work. This is the opposite of perspectives such as New Right and Post-Modernism^[a].

Another sociological perspective is Marxism. This theory was proposed by Karl Marx. Similar to functionalism, Marx believed behaviour of individuals were shaped by systems featured in society. Although Marxism varies from functionalism as Marx believed that the systems benefited the Bourgeoisie, which were the rich. The Bourgeoisie were considered to be part of a capitalist class, that usually owned most of society’s money. The Proletariat, the poor, were considered as the working class and the people who worked for the Bourgeoisie. The Proletariat would sell their labour to the Bourgeoisie in order for the Bourgeoisie to get profit. Another part of Marxism is Conflict Theory. This Theory explains how the revolution between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. As there are a few bourgeoisie and many proletariat, the bourgeoisie would be easy to defeat. When the proletariat realise they have been exploited and see what the bourgeoisie are really doing, they may have a revolution. They will throw out the bourgeoisie, and turn society into a communist society from a capitalism. The proletariat’s goal will be to remove classes and make everyone equal. Eventually the equal society will slowly get a new leader and the society will begin trading and make a money profit. Therefore, the equal society will return to capitalism and the bourgeoisie and proletariat are formed again. A way to explain this is George Orwell’s book; Animal Farm. The book describes a farm of animals that overthrow the power of humans to become an equal farm, which would be an equal society (communist). However, to pigs Napoleon and Snowball rise to leadership, and after Snowballs exit from the farm due to Napoleon pushing him out, we see all the original equality rules of the communist farm, turning back to the capitalist ways of before. This book is based on the capitalist society of Russia^[b].