Durkheim
What did Durkheim want out of his work, and why?
He thought that the French Revolution was chaotic, unorganized, and unpredictable. Thought about how we can bring about social order, social integration, and social stability? He believed that the Division of Labor was great and solved the problem of social order.
He saw society functioning as a bureaucracy.
Who are the Bourgeoisie? Who are the Proletariat? Who owns everything? Who produces everything?
Bourgeoisie: The owning class that owns everything and produces nothing.
Proletariate: The working class who produces everything but owns nothing.
What is the reserve army of labor? And what is its purpose?
The unemployed pool. To ensure there are more workers than jobs available, creating high competition among workers, and ultimately giving the Capitalists leverage to keep wages low.
What is power? What is authority?
Power: the ability to make someone engage in and act despite their resistance.
Authority: legitimized power (we gave consent for ____ to exercise power ie. president)
How did Durkheim view the Division of Labor? What did he think it would bring to society?
Division of labor: Everyone is united by making the same thing; we don’t need the same language, we don’t need the same culture, etc. D.O.L. creates jobs for everyone, and we will engage in solidarity in making products through D.O.L.
What are the 3 types of authority that Weber argued we have? Explain each one and how he saw them.
1. Charismatic authority: someone has so much charisma that they can gain control. Weber saw this as unstable and irrational.
2. Traditional authority: someone given authority through traditions (monarch). Weber saw this as irrational.
3. Rational Legal authority: Rationality that is written into laws - Bureaucracy reflected this. Weber saw this as the way to go.
What did Marx think about the Division of Labor? What are the implications of the division of labor on wages?
D.o.L. makes work easier because if more people can do the work, competition goes up, and when competition goes up, wages go down. Logically, D.o.L. in capitalism suppresses wages.
Why are workers incapable of leaving the capitalist class?
Because workers' livelihoods depend on their ability to sell their labor power for wages, if they stop selling their labor power, they would not be able to survive.
What macro-sociological theory was derived from Durkheim's organism analogy, which argues that society is a complex system where its various parts, like institutions such as family and school, work together to promote stability?
Structural Functionalism
What is mechanical solidarity, and what are the 3 components associated with it?
During pre-industrial times:
Low Division of labor (made things yourself)
High degree of social cohesion (people shared the same beliefs and morality)
Operates under repressive laws (social control through understandings and agreements)
What did Weber think about Bureaucracy?
In the beginning, he thought bureaucracy was a good thing because it went against the irrationality of tradition and nepotism. In face value, bureaucracy is understood and rational, but he realized later that covertly, bureaucracy can turn into a maze that you can’t get out of.
What are the 4 prerequisites for Capitalism?
There will always be more workers than jobs available (reserve army of labor)
D.o.L
Commodification of EVERYTHING, including your labor power
Exploitation of labor (labor in exchange for SUBSISTENCE WAGE)
What is the fetishism of commodities?
Under capitalism, the commodity starts to have a life of its own, and it begins to dictate to us the worth, and we begin to worship its value.
According to Comte, what are the Law of 3 Stages, and what are the authority figures associated with each phase?
Theological Stage: authority = God/Church
Metaphysical Stage: authority = Philosophers
Positive: authority = scientists
What is organic solidarity, and what are the 3 components associated it?
During industrialization:
High Division of Labor (factories began creating assembly lines)
Low Social Cohesion (People coming into cities with different cultures, religions, languages, etc)
Restitutive laws (To restore what once was based on the market value)
What are the 4 characteristics of bureaucracy?
1. Bureaucracy is rule-bound (dos and don’ts)
2. Hierarchical (follows different parameters for different positions - the higher up you go, the more responsibilities you have)
3. Standardized (all do the same work and get paid the same)
4. Efficient
What two components led to the rise of Capitalism and why?
Enclosure movement: The turning of common land becoming private land, leading to peasant revolutions. Now, with no land to work on and the rise of industrialization, workers had nothing to sell but their labor power to capitalists.
Rise in technology: Capitalism relies on mass production, therefore, needs machines
How does money hide the unequal power relationship between the capitalists and the working class?
In capitalism, money matters, which is why we all blindly pursue Subsistent Wages, which is the bare minimum to survive to come back another day to work because workers have nothing to sell but their labor power.
Jessica was denied the promotion to Principal despite her years of teaching experience and qualifications, and was instead given to Daniel, a new teacher with only 1 year of teaching experience. These scenarios are examples of:
The glass Ceiling and Glass Escalator
What was the analogy that Durkheim created about the Division of Labor? What are the social implications of his analogy?
Provided the organismic analogy, viewing society as one giant living organism, and without saying it, creates a natural and pre-established hierarchy of power, authority, and importance. We grow up with the idea that this is the natural order of things, and social implications such as sexism, racism, etc, are natural.
What is the big issue with bureaucracy?
Weber ends up calling bureaucracy an iron cage that is hard to break out of. It becomes a system that has power dispersed everywhere, to the point where you cannot get things done. Bureaucracy itself can reflect the ideals of injustice, and unless we have guide rails, bureaucracy itself can become an oppressive tool.
Why does Marx argue that scarcity is a myth? And how does capitalism use the myth of scarcity?
Marx says that there is no such things as scarcity (natural resources) because human beings are infinitely creative, and we will always replace the things we need. Scarcity is the story that we need to believe and accept for capitalism to function. When things are limited in supply, prices go up - we believe this as a natural state of affairs of supply and demand.
What is a commodity? And why does Marx say workers have become a commodity in Capitalism?
Commodity: Something that can be traded and exchanged at the marketplace.
Capitalists buy workers' labor power in exchange for subsistent wages so workers can survive. We are selling ourselves and accepting low pay, and selling parts of our lives.
What are the social consequences of having an authority figure use socially constructed concepts to dictate how we treat people?
We let socially constructed concepts create definite social consequences that are dependent on the institutional, systemic, and structural powers to elevate one group of people over another.