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Comparing and contrasting karl marx to emile durkheim
Strengths and weaknesses of durkheim's approach to sociology
Comparing and contrasting karl marx to emile durkheim
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agency debate?
Within the social sciences there is a ongoing debate over the primacy of structure or agency in relevance to shaping human behaviour. Agency is the ability and capacity in which a person or persons make their own free choices (Barker 2005). Structure is the continuous patterned arrangements that will influence or even limit the choices or opportunities available to the individual. When looking at the structure versus agency debate within sociology, I have understand that one may look at this debate as a issue with socialisation against autonomy, whereby which I mean how both of these issues determine whether an individual acts of their own accord, free will etc or they are dictated by social structure. Two theorists on which I will highlight in-depthly throughout this essay are Giddens and Bourdieu.
The debate over the primacy of structure or agency is one that appears in both classical and contemporary sociological theory. For functionalists such as Karl Marx for example believe in the idea that social structure can refer to both economic and cultural e.g. the norms and traditions or even ideologies of that certain culture. Theorists such as Emile Durkheim, by contrast, emphasise the point that structure and hierarchy are without reproach when looking into the stabilisation of the existence of society as a whole.
Other theorists highlight that the ideas and knowledge we have about our social existence is largely determined by the overall structure of society e.g. social structure whereby I mean the patterned social arrangement in society that are both come from and also determined by the actions of the individuals. The alleged agency of an individual can also mostly be explained by the operation of t...
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...articipating in the field. These actors that are incorporated into the existening habitus have specific rules which then allow them to be constituted into the field. Therfore , habitus enacts the structures of the field and the field mediates between habitus and practice (Bourdieu, 1977; 1984; 1992
Bourdieu highlights this analgy to help explain better the existence and relationship between each term. ‘For instance, of a footballer, we can infer that it is necessary to take into account the player’s ‘feel for the game’ (Bourdieu, 1998, p.76-77) developed by his past experiences playing football (habitus), his physical and tactical resources (capital) and the rules of the football game alongside the privileged forms of capital within it (field/doxa) if we are to fully understand and explain why the sportsman behaves in the way he does
(action/practice). ‘
The idea of a “social structure” is probably one of the most popular and influential concepts in the world of sociology, with social theorists from Durkheim, Marx, Weber, and Parsons, all base their work off the fundamental idea that there is a large societal structure which pl...
society is structured. Belcher and Deforge stated that “the structural view focuses on the society’s structure
Do we have the freedom to be who we want to be? How much of our identity can we claim to be truly of our own choosing? Numerous theories claim that our social structures decide who we are and therefore robbing us the power to choose what we wish to be. Great theorists such as Georg Simmel argue that our social networks best explain who we are. To a very great extent, it is hard to separate the way one behaves from their social network. This paper seeks to investigate the claim that our social structures are indeed responsible for who we are.
In conclusion, as we can see there are many difference in Foer’s and Winner’s thesis and the way they approach soccer. The most remarkable difference are that Foer’s approaches soccer as a way of religion and identification and Winner’s by looking at the style of play and not the form. In Foer’s analysis we identity soccer as a way of resisting nationalism and join a global culture. Winner’s analysis of Dutch soccer also associates soccer with personal price rather than a national pride. But in Foer’s analysis, people are turning to sports fo find values and others characteristic that they would find are taught in religion. While in Winner’s we are looking at players who are looking for a beautiful goal and being the center of attention. In one we see the search for values and in the other self-conscious players looking for glory.
In sociology, there are three names you will always hear, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. Each are successful sociologist, they have made many significant contributions to the development of sociology. While all being enlightenment thinkers, each of them have their own distinguish perspective and focuses in their respective theories. Durkheim, a structural functionalist, argued everything in society exist for a purpose, and that society are bounded together by ideas and social unity, social solidarity. Weber focused on rationality and bureaucracy, he believes they are key element to modern society and he is interested to understand how people feel. Marx is primarily study society with economic perspectives, focused heavily on inequality among classes
Social structure in terms of sociology means “the distinctive, stable arrangement of institutions whereby human beings in a society interact and live together,”(Britannica School, “social structure.”) Social structure is not a behavior science, these structures are not formed by behavior differences, and this is proven by studies done by sociologist. Social structure can be thought as how people with different social entities interact with each other. Unlike social class where people are defined by the way they interact with people with different qualities, social structure is more on how it is all structured together and how those different social classes interact with one another. All the different social classes that exist are what a social structure is made up of. The term structure was first introduced to society...
Theories in sociology sometime provide us with the different perspectives with which to view our social...
Mills(1959), also wrote about public issues of social structure, referring to matters that go beyond the individual and look at society as a whole. How society is organised and how society works. This goes far beyond ‘the troubles of milieu, as it doesn’t look at the person and there individual experiences in society but looks at the wider social structure e.g social institutions… education, religion, family, law and how they have developed and interact with each other examples of the differenc...
Coser, Lewis A. edt. 1975. The Idea of Social Structure: Papers in Honor of Robert K. Merton.
...Henslin, James M. "Social Structure and Social Interaction." Essentials of Sociology: A down to Earth Approach. 10th Ed. 10th ed. Pearson, 2013. 112. Print.
Some sociologists believe that humans have the freedom to make their own choices and decide how they behave (agency) while others theorize that human behavior is determined and influenced by the patterns, arrangements, norms and guidelines of society (structure). The third position doesn’t choose either or but rather states that the two; structure and agency equally play a role in shaping human behaviour and attitudes; this perspective is known as structuration; developed by Giddens (as sited in Huyssteen, 2003).
In the world of sports, referees play a crucial role and can dictate a team or a player’s fate as they
We see many of fields of society for example; government, educational, cultural and many more. Sociology is importantly the basis for almost all policies and idea which shape the world we are in. For example; Harriet Martineau, first female sociologists brought attention to ignored topics such as marriage, children, domestic and religious life and race relations. Without this idea being brought it up it would have always been an issue from society. Solving topics are so beneficial to making our society a better place. On a personal level it’s really changed my vision in the world. This enables us to understand paradigms. Structural functionalism was inspired partly by Durkheim, he stated that society is defined as a social system, with structures organized in an orderly way to form an organic, stable whole. This system enables us to understand and meet the circumstances in order to
Trying to compare social groups to the three theoretical perspectives is the hardest part of the paper. With the functionalist perspective, groups bind people together. Every member of that group must share a working knowledge of the same aspects of life. With the conflict theory perspective, a societies groups are controlled by an high society that manipulates them in order to maintain its own position of wealth and power. With the symbolic interactionist see how groups perceive different things for example ideas and how it would affect their behavior.
Human existence, behavior, and knowledge are the foundational queries to the understanding of the perception of society, or lack thereof, in the world today. Ontology, epistemology, and human nature create the discursive facts, fallacies, and surrealistic conceptualization of the natural world, the things that exist, the complex social construction of knowledge, and the impact on society. These notions can be reduced to simply reaching for the answers of why, how, and what creates a being, why they exist, what is meant by existence, the barring of knowledge, and its influence on "natural" existence. The equation in which forces the complex breakdown of human nature derives from the theories of ontology and epistemology. The science of sociology