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Durkheim and The Durkheimian School  

Sociological Questions:  

Social Order, Social Change, Relationship of Individual ? Society  

Basis:  

Durkheim saw ideas and values (culture) as the fabric of society. However, unlike the interpretivists, he argued for a science of social values. He argued that social theory would reveal the underlying moral order of societies.  

Durkheim was ? Idealist  

Realist  

Science of society  

Key Ideas  

Social Solidarity  

How do societies hold together?  

A set of shared values. A collective consciousness which exists independently of (i.e. is external to) individuals. These collective moral values are the fabric of social order.  

Division of Labour: Social order shaped by changing collective conscience  

Mechanical Solidarity (similarity)
Organic Solidarity (interdependence)
 

 

The Individual and Society  

Society constrains individuals by integration and regulation.  

Suicide; Too little integration leads to egoistic suicide  

Too little regulation leads to anomic suicide  

Durkheim influenced development of structuralism and sttructural functionalism. His ideas on integration and anomie have bee widely developed, especially in the study of deviance.  

Criticisms  

Difficulty in explaining conflict and power  

Difficult to test empirically  

Weber and Interpretive Sociology  

Sociological Question  

Order, Change, Power and Inequality  

Basis:  

Distinction between natural and social sciences.  

Social life meaningful. Sociology has to understand intentions of social actors.  

Materialist views must be balanced by recognition of role of ideas in producing social order and change.  

Weber ? Idealist  

Empiricist/ Realist  

Interpretivist  

Key Ideas  

Verstehen  

Sociology must begin to try to understand human action from the point of view of those being studied. ?Action? has to be linked to explanation.  

Rationalization  

Attempt to understand the characteristics of modern societies. Rationality. Replacement of tradition by rational-legal control, science and calculation.  

Social Change  

Weber ? in opposition to Marx ? attempt to illustrate importance of ideas in producing social change by looking at the role of religion in the development of modern rational capitalism.  

Power / Inequality  

Weber developed a more complex view of inequality than Marx. Recognized social (status) and political (power) aspects of stratification.  

Had a more complex view of power than Marx, recognizing a plurality of interests and the role of the state.  

Weber?s work has influenced the study of methodology, development, religion, power and inequality in modern sociology.  

Criticisms  

Did not explain the sources of power and inequality.  

Did not resolve tension between interpretive and explanatory sociology.  

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