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Modernity
Modernization: The process of social change initiated by
industrialization. The key dimensions are:
Decline of small, traditional communities: Cars, TV, and
high-tech communications puts small towns in touch with
the world
Expansion of personal choice: An unending series of
options referred to as individualization
Increasing social diversity: Modernization promotes a more
rational, scientific world-view
Future orientation and growing awareness of time
2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc.
Ferdinand Tnnies:
The Loss of Community
With
Emile Durkheim:
The Division of Labour
Specialized economic activity moves from
Mechanical solidarity refers to a time when society was
held together by social bonds anchored in common moral
sentiments
Organic solidarity refers to modernity during which time
social bonding is accomplished by way of mutual
dependence
Critical evaluation: Societys norms and values are strong
enough to avoid anomie for most people, and people value
the personal freedom of modern society despite the risks.
Structural-Functional Analysis
Theory of mass society, where industry and
bureaucracy have eroded traditional social ties
Modern life is on a mass scale leading to the dehumanizing of everyone.
Ever-expanding states doom traditional values and
social patterns.
Critical evaluation: theory romanticizes the past and
ignores plight of women and minorities
2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc.
Social-Conflict Analysis
Theory of class society, a capitalist society with
pronounced social stratification
Capitalism promotes self-centredness
Persistent inequality and the state cannot combat
problems because it is controlled by capitalists
Critical evaluation: theory overlooks the increasing
prosperity of modern societies; human rights have
improved; and most Canadians favour unequal
rewards for talent and effort.
2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc.
Class Society:
Problems of Powerlessness
Persistent
Global
Postmodernity
Patterns of post-industrial societies
In important ways, modernity has failed: Much
poverty and and lack of financial security
The bright light of progress is fading: Less
confidence about future
Science no longer holds the answers: Science has
created its share of problems.
(Contd)
2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc.
Postmodernity (Contd)
Cultural
Looking Ahead
Finding meaning
Resolving conflicts among nations
Eradicating poverty
Controlling population
Treating AIDS
Establishing a sustainable economy
Rising Expectations
When
Sociological Imagination
Social Darwinism
Historians looking back at these efforts
to justify social hypotheses by analogy
to natural selection term the
phenomenon Social Darwinism
The term was not coined until 1877 by a
German and did not become a
widespread term for this phenomenon in
the English speaking world until after
WW II
It is generally used to discredit the
social hypotheses under discussion
Social Darwinists
Herbert Spencer, who coined the term the
Struggle for Existence was a sociologist who
saw human societies evolving and increasing
in complexity
Freidrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud
borrowed concepts to apply to the
development of the human psyche
Frederich Engels and Karl Marx (co-founders
of Marxist communism) saw their theory as
evolutionary, a basis of struggle in history
Karl Marx wrote to Darwin for permission to
dedicate his book Das Capital to him, but
Darwin declined the honor
Social Darwinists
Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini relied on Darwinian
justifications for their fascism
In America, laissez faire capitalists, the Rockefellers
and van der Bilts, etc., and author Ayn Rand justified
their economic philosophy, in part, by analogy to the
survival of the fittest, but in their view, to be rich
was to be fit
This is just the short list of some of the most famous of
the Social Darwinists; there are still Social Darwinists
today, though they wouldnt use that term themselves
Social Darwinism
Not everyone agreed that biological concepts should
be extended to society, even though nature and
culture share similar evolutionary mechanisms,
especially natural selection
Thomas Huxley Evolution and Ethics (1893)
Julian Huxley Evolutionary Ethics (1943)
The naturalistic fallacy described by British
philosopher G. E. Moore in his Principia Ethica (1903)
Moore stated that a naturalistic fallacy is committed
whenever a philosopher attempts to prove a claim about
ethics by appealing to a definition of the term "good" in terms
of one or more natural properties (such as "pleasant", "more
evolved", "desired", etc.)
Eugenics
Human traits and human populations
could be improved by guiding their
evolution through selective breeding
First advocated by Darwins cousin,
Sir Francis Galton in 1883
Positive Eugenics: increase the
frequency of beneficial alleles
Negative Eugenics: decrease the
frequency of harmful alleles
Eugenics
Initially eugenics was simply
proposals to encourage or
discourage marriages based on
phenotypes
Even at the outset, this was
impractical and it was difficult to
identify superior or inferior
phenotypes in an impartial
scientific way
Originally it was well-meaning,
progressive, and based on the
good science of the day
Eugenics
Idealized for its lofty goals for half a century and
supported by many prominent thinkers, it fell into
disfavor when abused by the Nazis
Simultaneously, advances in genetics, i.e., the
Modern Synthesis, showed that harmful alleles
cannot be eliminated by controlling breeding, since
most harmful alleles exist in phenotypically normal
heterozygotes, and that with multigenic and
pleiotropic effects, it is difficult to determine which
alleles are truly harmful at the population level
We may be entering a new age of molecular
eugenics thanks to the Human Genome Project, etc.
Deleterious Alleles
Despite improvements in medical care,
alleles that have obvious deleterious
effects still affect human populations
(genetic load)
Some arise as new mutations
Some are preserved by heterozygote
advantage or hybrid vigor
Others are preserved because public
health, sanitation, and medical science
reduce the effect of natural selection, but
add to our genetic load
Collapse
Collapse is a catalog of case
studies of the deaths of past
civilizations, such as the
Mayans and Anasazi, as well
as contemporary societies,
such as Rwanda during the
1994 genocide
In Collapse, Diamond argues
that past civilizations
collapsed for five reasons:
environmental damage,
climate change, hostile
neighbors, friendly trade
partners, and societal
responses to environmental
problems
Cultural Evolution
Outpaces Biological Evolution
One measure of how change
continues to affect us is the time it
takes to double our collective
knowledge
Human minds have become
agents of a novel selection
mechanism by consciously
choosing among alternatives
because of their consequences
(rational decision making)
Figure 02:
Ultrasound
attem/ShutterStock,
Inc.
Presentation On Social
Groups And
Organization
Social group
Group is any physical
collection of people.
Number of people who
share
consciousness
of
membership together and
of interaction.
Characteristics of Group
Collection of individuals
Interaction among Members
We feeling
Group Unity
Common interest
Group norms
Size of the group
Stability
Influence on personality
Importance of Social
Group
Survival
Support
Society
Friendship
Communication
Family
1. Psychological Factors
2. Biological Factors
3. Kinship Bond
4. Geographic Factors
5. Cultural Factors
6. Economic Factors
7. Religious Factors
8. Political Factors
Classification of Groups
Primary Group
A small social group whose
members share personal and
enduring relationships.
Secondary Group
A large and impersonal social
group whose members
pursue a specific activity or
goal.
Social Organization
General social agreement or
social consensus.
An articulation of different
parts which perform various
functions.
Nature of Organizatio
1. A definite purpose
2. Organization is a process
3. Consensus among the
members
4. Harmony between statuses
and roles
5. Structure of relationship
6. Control of the Organization o
the behavior of the
individuals
Types of Organization
Informal Organization
Formal Organization
Large secondary groups
organized to achieve their
goals efficiently.
Examples : Banks, Universities,
Corporations,
Trade Unions, Political parties,
Factories etc
Max Webers
Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy is an
organizational model
rationally designed to
perform tasks efficiently.
Any
Questions ?