• Allows us to place people in context
• Allows us to see the framework of society as composed of individuals
• Society and individuals shape each other
• Enables us to grasp the intersection of history and biography

Set of interrlated ideas that allow for:

1. Systemization of knowledge of social world
2. Explanations of knowledge for social world
3. Predict future of that world

Belief that social phenomena should be studied with same methods as natural sciences

-Comte-

Separation of things that naturally belong together or to put antagonism between things that are properly in harmony

-Marx-

The desire for more money and the increase in surplus value for expansion leading capitalists to exploit workers as much as possible

-Marx-

Social structures and cultural norms and values that are external to and coercive of actors

-Durkheim-

Directly observable, external to individual, coercive over them

-Durkheim-

Nonmaterial Social Facts

Social consciousness that is not externalized

-Durkheim-

The general structure of shared understandings, norms, and beliefs. Primitive societies were more collective than modern society.

-Durkheim-

Sets of meanings that are shared by the members of a collectivity that come in "great waves of enthusiasm, indignation and pity"

 -Durkheim-

Cohesion and integration comes from the interdependence of the individuals of a society

-Durkheim-

Cohesion and integration comes from the similarity of the individuals of a society

-Durkheim-

Strength of attachment to society

-Durkheim-

Degree of external constraint on people (slaves to desire)

-Durkheim-

• Too low regulation leads people to feel like they have little control over theri own desires and the drive for gratification consumes them
• Breakdown of social bonds and rejection of self-regulatory values

-Durkheim-

Special, reverent and set apart from everyday activities

-Durkheim-

Common-place, mundane aspects of life

-Durkheim-

Probability that an event will be followed or accompanied by another event

-Weber-

Probabilistic statements about the relationships between social phenomena

-Weber-

Concept constructed by a social scientist, on the basis of his or her interests and theoretical orientation, to capture essential features of some social phenomena

-Weber-

The probability that certain specific commands (or all commands) will be obeyed by a given group of persons

-Weber-

Legitimate forms of domination

-Weber-

Things that people produce (art, science and philosophy)

-Simmel-

Capacity of actor to produce, absolve and control the elements of objective culture

-Simmel-

Relative "space" between the individual and other individuals or objects

-Simmel-

Troubles are our own personal problems that occur for the individual while issues are problems of public matter that are bigger than the individual

-Mills-

1. Stands the test of time
2. Has a wide range of applicability
3. Deals with centrally important social issues
4. Basic premise must be tested in empirical research

1. Workers are alienated from their productive activity
2. Workers are alienated from the product of their labor
3. Workers are alienated from their fellow workers
4. Workers are alienated from their human potential

-Marx-

The condition in which one person has the intention of hiding something while the other person is seeking to reveal that which is being hidden

-Simmel-

For some at the expense of others

-Marx-

• Proletariats sell labor, do not own means of production, produce only for exchange, are consumers, completely dependent on their wages to live
• Bourgeoisie own the means of production, pay wages, expoloit labor, create profit from selling commodities made by the proletariat, and live off the profit

-Marx-

• Communism did not work out as Marx envisioned
• Proletariat rarely leading the charge of revolution and does not want communism
• Missing dimension of gender-capitalism relies on women staying in the home' women are largely ignored by Marx
• Ignores consumption as a driving force of the economy

-Marx-

• Mechanical- traditional societies
• Organic- modern societies

-Durkheim-

1. Empirically studied
2. External
3. Coercive
4. Explained with other social facts

-Durkheim-

1. Rational: belief in the legality of enacted rules and the right of those elevated to authority under such rules to issue command
2. Traditional: belif in the sanctity of tradition and the legitimacy of the increasing authority under them
3. Charismatic: devotion of followers to the exceptional sanctity of exemplary character, heroism, or speical powers of leaders as well as the order sanctioned by them

-Durkheim-

1. Calculability- can be counted
2. Efficiency- best means to a given end
3. Predictability- things operate in the same way from one time or place to another
4. Replace human technology with nonhuman technology
5. Control- order over an array of uncertainties, particularly human uncertainty
6. Rational Consequences- world becomes less magical and meaningful

-Weber-

• Verstehen has its flaws
• Lacks fully theorized macrosociology
• Lacks critical theory
• Unremitting pessimism

-Weber-

• Allows for one member to act as a mediator
• Allows for competition for interaction within group
• A stratification system and authority structure can develop

-Simmel-

Something is of value to an individual if it is attainable but only with great effort. Too easy or too close, not valuable. Too difficult or too far, not valuable.

-Simmel-

1. Time to obtain object
2. The greater the difficulty of obtaining an object, the greater the value (to a point)
3. Scarcity
4. Need to give up other things in order to acquire it

-Simmel-

1. Increase in cynicism
2. Increase in apathetic attitude
3. Increase in impersonal relations among people
4. Decrease in individual freedom
5. Reduction of all human values to dollar terms
6. Development of "calculating" character (in that we start to calculate in a numeric, as opposed to emotional, manner, in deciding how people benefit us)

-Simmel-

• Simmel's forms presume order that does not exist
• Simmel sees alienation as a necessary and permanent condition of society
• Seems to have no coherent theoretical approach
• Does not integrate his wide-ranging ideas well

-Simmel-