Soc 462, 3rd week slides

Soc 462, 3rd week slides

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  SOC 462 IDENTITY ANDCULTURE Asst. Prof. Fatma Altınbaş Sarıgül Istanbul Kemerburgaz University Sociology Department
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  The Development of‘Action’ Sociology and Interactionists • Max Weber- German sociologist- acc. to him, culture is created by humans through the meanings and motives they hold which allows them to make sense of what they do. • The basis of that approach; Humans are not passive victims of the social structure Society is not a ‘thing’ but interactions of individuals Social life is meaningful for individuals The reality of the society can only be understood by looking at what people do and what they think about their actions.
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  WEBER • All sociologicalexplanations should try to be ‘adequate’ on 2 levels; 1.at the level of meaning – ‘Verstehen’ 2.at the level of casuality – ‘Erklaren’ • To understand the reality of what society is, and how works, we must look at how individuals make sense of what they do. • The task of sociology is to see how culture socializes some symbols into a group of people, who use these symbols to gain an understanding of what they do, what others do, and what others expect them to do.
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  ACTION SOCIOLOGY-INTERACTIONISM • Theaim is to look at the meanings and motives of action and interaction through the eyes of those doing the act. • Acc. to Weber, individuals do not act unless they have a reason or ‘motivation’ to do it. • Acc. to action sociology, culture is the collective sets of meanings, values and motives that together make up the ‘subjective understandings’ of all those involved in the creation of society. • So, culture is not a thing but something that individuals do. • Identity is essential if meaningful interaction is to take place among a society of thinking, creative, conscious and active individuals.
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  The Ideas OfWeber • Society is actively created by individuals. • Individuals need to have motivations for what they do, they have conscious over their actions. • Culture has no overall pattern that controls and moulds the individual- people with their own minds create culture by interacting each other. • Societal evolution is accidental. • It is human action and interaction that causes social change and societal evolution. • The outcome of this interaction can never be predicted in advance • Cultural ideas and values are independent of the economy and of how production is organized.
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  George Simmel • Simmelalso saw society as being made up of individual members who act with full consciousness. • ‘web of group affiliations’ • Common forms exist in each culture, but the content of social life varies according to the individual in question. • Society is a process of exchange, a ‘happening’ made possible by the collective efforts of many. • ‘Individual identity’ and ‘social group identity’ clash. – Homo Duplex
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  Identity in the‘Modern Age’ • ‘iron cage bureaucracy’ – Weber • ‘the metropolis’ effect- Simmels
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  Modernity • Society headsinto a particular direction • Social change represented the onward march of progress • Science and technology were of increasing benefit to humankind. • Societies and humans were becoming more rational • The aim of sociology was to discover the ultimate truth of social life. Then comes postmodernism.
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  Modern Classics ofSociological Thought • Symbolic Interactionism It is based on the premise that humans are active agents who manipulate symbols that have meaning. Founders are referred as the Chicago School Human acitivity is a process of interaction between self-aware, self-consciousness beings who are able to reflect on what they do.
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  • Phenomenology It isinterested in how individuals go about the process of creating meaning, sharing meaning and classifying meaning through the use of symbols- especially language. • Ethnomethodology They study how members of society created an ordered social reality through their everyday lives.
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  Strengths and Weaknessesof Interactionism • Human are seen as active and thinking beings. • Individuals create their own reality and the ‘structure’ of the society. • Individuals think about self-identity and they have some control over it. • Culture is seen as the outcome of shared meanings. Humans are seen as total free will but one cannot truly do as one wishes in society without control. They ignore the role that power and inequality play in shaping the outcome of interaction. It is not clear enough how and if individuals are able to rejct others definitions of them.