Assignment no.1
Q.1 What is social theory? Discuss the social forces which played role in the development of sociological theory?
All intellectual fields are profoundly shaped by their social settings. This is particularly true of sociology, which is not only derived from that setting but takes the social setting as its basic subject matter.
Following are few of the most important social conditions of the 19th and early 20th centuries, conditions that were of the utmost significance in the development of sociology.
1. Political Revolutions-
Long series of political revolutions ushered in by the French Revolution in 1789 and carrying over through the 19th century was the immediate factor in the rise of sociological theorizing.
Impact- enormous, and many positive changes resulted………………………
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Q.2 Critically discuss the work of Talcott Parsons in sociological theory.
Talcott Parsons (1902-82) was for many years the best-known sociologist in the United States, and indeed one of the best-known in the world. He produced a general theoretical system for the analysis of society that came to be called structural functionalism. Parsons’ analysis was largely developed within his major published works:
Ø The Structure of Social Action (1937),
Ø The Social System (1951),
Ø Structure and Process in Modern Societies (1960),
Ø Sociological Theory and Modern Society (1968),
Ø Politics and Social Structure (1969).
Parsons was an advocate of “grand theory,” an attempt to integrate all the social sciences into an overarching theoretical framework. His early work”The Structure of Social Action”reviewed the output of his great predecessors, especially Max Weber, Vilfredo Pareto, and Émile Durkheim, and attempted to derive from them a single “action theory” based on the assumptions that human action is voluntary, intentional, and symbolic…………………..\……….\.
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Q.3 How Weber is in opposition to Marxist materialism. Discuss materialism and idealism in detail.
Arguably the foremost social theorist of the twentieth century, Max Weber is known as a principal architect of modern social science along with Karl Marx and Emil Durkheim. Weber’s wide-ranging contributions gave critical impetus to the birth of new academic disciplines such as sociology as well as to the significant reorientation in law, economics, political science, and religious studies. His methodological writings were instrumental in establishing the self-identity of modern social science as a distinct field of inquiry; he is still claimed as the source of inspiration by empirical positivists and their hermeneutic detractors alike. More substantively, Weber’s two most celebrated contributions were the “rationalization thesis
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Q.4 Define and discuss the conflict theory with examples.
Conflict theory is based on the thought that groups are always competing for limited resources and control, resulting in inequalities in those groups and their associated professions. Conflict occurs when unequal amounts of resources and power exist. The people with more power and resources try to maintain it, and may even do so by repressing those with less power and fewer resources.
Sociologists use conflict theory to explain conflict and inequality between groups, including:
Ø Social classes
Ø Genders
Ø Races
Ø Professions
Ø Religions
Ø Political groups
Ø Cultures