The Rules of Sociological Method
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Durkheim and Organizational Culture
IRLE IRLE WORKING PAPER #108-04 June 2004 Durkheim and Organizational Culture James R. Lincoln and Didier Guillot Cite as: James R. Lincoln and Didier Guillot. (2004). “Durkheim and Organizational Culture.” IRLE Working Paper No. 108-04. http://irle.berkeley.edu/workingpapers/108-04.pdf irle.berkeley.edu/workingpapers Durkheim and Organizational Culture James R. Lincoln Walter A. Haas School of Business University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 Didier Guillot INSEAD Singapore June , 2004 Prepared for inclusion in Marek Kocsynski, Randy Hodson, and Paul Edwards (editors): Social Theory at Work . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Durkheim and Organizational Culture “The degree of consensus over, and intensity of, cognitive orientations and regulative cultural codes among the members of a population is an inv erse function of the degree of structural differentiation among actors in this population and a positive, multiplicative function of their (a) rate of interpersonal interaction, (b) level of emotional arousal, and (c) rate of ritual performance. ” Durkheim’ s theory of culture as rendered axiomatically by Jonathan Turner (1990) Introduction This paper examines the significance of Emile Durkheim’s thought for organization theory , particular attention being given to the concept of organizational culture. We ar e not the first to take the project on —a number of scholars have usefully addressed the extent and relevance of this giant of Western social science for the study of organization and work. Even so, there is no denying that Durkheim’s name appears with vast ly less frequency in the literature on these topics than is true of Marx and W eber, sociology’ s other founding fathers . -
Structuralism 1. the Nature of Meaning Or Understanding
Structuralism 1. The nature of meaning or understanding. A. The role of structure as the system of relationships Something can only be understood (i.e., a meaning can be constructed) within a certain system of relationships (or structure). For example, a word which is a linguistic sign (something that stands for something else) can only be understood within a certain conventional system of signs, which is language, and not by itself (cf. the word / sound and “shark” in English and Arabic). A particular relationship within a شرق combination society (e.g., between a male offspring and his maternal uncle) can only be understood in the context of the whole system of kinship (e.g., matrilineal or patrilineal). Structuralism holds that, according to the human way of understanding things, particular elements have no absolute meaning or value: their meaning or value is relative to other elements. Everything makes sense only in relation to something else. An element cannot be perceived by itself. In order to understand a particular element we need to study the whole system of relationships or structure (this approach is also exactly the same as Malinowski’s: one cannot understand particular elements of culture out of the context of that culture). A particular element can only be studied as part of a greater structure. In fact, the only thing that can be studied is not particular elements or objects but relationships within a system. Our human world, so to speak, is made up of relationships, which make up permanent structures of the human mind. B. The role of oppositions / pairs of binary oppositions Structuralism holds that understanding can only happen if clearly defined or “significant” (= essential) differences are present which are called oppositions (or binary oppositions since they come in pairs). -
Read Book Writing and Thinking in the Social Sciences 1St Edition
WRITING AND THINKING IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Sharon Friedman | 9780139700620 | | | | | Writing and Thinking in the Social Sciences 1st edition PDF Book Psychology is a very broad science that is rarely tackled as a whole, major block. This means that, though anthropologists generally specialize in only one sub-field, they always keep in mind the biological, linguistic, historic and cultural aspects of any problem. For a detailed explanation of typical research paper organization and content, be sure to review Table 3. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. Understanding Academic Writing and Its Jargon The very definition of jargon is language specific to a particular sub-group of people. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. The fields of urban planning , regional science , and planetology are closely related to geography. What might have caused it? It is an application of pedagogy , a body of theoretical and applied research relating to teaching and learning and draws on many disciplines such as psychology , philosophy , computer science , linguistics , neuroscience , sociology and anthropology. The Center is located in Taper Hall, room Historical geography is often taught in a college in a unified Department of Geography. The results section is where you state the outcome of your experiments. This means adding advocacy and activist positions to analysis and the generation of new knowledge. Search this Guide Search. Present your findings objectively, without interpreting them yet. However, what is valued in academic writing is that opinions are based on what is often termed, evidence-based reasoning, a sound understanding of the pertinent body of knowledge and academic debates that exist within, and often external to, your discipline. -
University of Cincinnati
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date: 11-Dec-2009 I, Marjon E. Kamrani , hereby submit this original work as part of the requirements for the degree of: Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science It is entitled: "Keeping the Faith in Global Civil Society: Illiberal Democracy and the Cases of Reproductive Rights and Trafficking" Student Signature: This work and its defense approved by: Committee Chair: Anne Runyan, PhD Laura Jenkins, PhD Joel Wolfe, PhD 3/3/2010 305 Keeping the Faith in Global Civil Society: Illiberal Democracy and the Cases of Reproductive Rights and Trafficking A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Political Science of the College of Arts and Science by Marjon Kamrani M.A., M.P.A. University of Texas B.A. Miami University March 2010 Committee Chair: Anne Sisson Runyan, Ph.D ABSTRACT What constitutes global civil society? Are liberal assumptions about the nature of civil society as a realm autonomous from and balancing the power of the state and market transferrable to the global level? Does global civil society necessarily represent and/or result in the promotion of liberal values? These questions guided my dissertation which attempts to challenge dominant liberal conceptualizations of global civil society. To do so, it provides two representative case studies of how domestic and transnational factions of the Religious Right, acting in concert with (or as agents of) the US state, and the political opportunity structures it has provided under conservative regimes, gain access to global policy-making forums through a reframing of international human rights discourses and practices pertaining particularly to women’s rights in order to shift them in illiberal directions. -
2. Natural Versus Social Sciences: on Understanding in Economics* Wolfgang Drechsler
2. Natural versus social sciences: on understanding in economics* Wolfgang Drechsler Verstehen ist der ursprüngliche Seinscharakter des menschlichen Lebens selber. (Gadamer 1990, p. 264, 1989, p. 259) Half a century ago, Ludwig von Mises concluded an essay with a title very similar to the present one by addressing the proponents of mathematical economics thus: ‘If it may some day be necessary to reform economic theory radically this change will not take its direction along the lines sug- gested by the present critics. The objections of these are thoroughly refuted forever’ (1942, p. 253).1 Mises’s first statement was factually wrong; this does not mean, however, that the second one was incorrect as well. Indeed, it seems to me that the problem of the current mainstream, math- ematical, usually neoclassical approach to economics2 is two-fold. It is flawed both practically and theoretically: practically because it does not deliver, theoretically because it rests on premises that are problematic at best, and extrapolates from them by equally questionable means. The argu- ment by its protagonists has been to excuse practical problems by pointing to theoretical truth-value, and theoretical ones by pointing to practical success. This chapter concentrates on the theoretical problems. It rests on the assumption, rather than tries to demonstrate, that mathematical econom- ics does not deliver; if one feels that it does, then one need not read on. But of course the theoretical problems have a practical connection (see Kant 1992, pp. 23–5), because the purpose of pursuing economic scholarship is not to create an aesthetically pleasing theoretical system, but rather to say something meaningful and consequential, directly or indirectly, about reality. -
Anomie: Concept, Theory, Research Promise
Anomie: Concept, Theory, Research Promise Max Coleman Oberlin College Sociology Department Senior Honors Thesis April 2014 Table of Contents Dedication and Acknowledgements 3 Abstract 4 I. What Is Anomie? Introduction 6 Anomie in The Division of Labor 9 Anomie in Suicide 13 Debate: The Causes of Desire 23 A Sidenote on Dualism and Neuroplasticity 27 Merton vs. Durkheim 29 Critiques of Anomie Theory 33 Functionalist? 34 Totalitarian? 38 Subjective? 44 Teleological? 50 Positivist? 54 Inconsistent? 59 Methodologically Unsound? 61 Sexist? 68 Overly Biological? 71 Identical to Egoism? 73 In Conclusion 78 The Decline of Anomie Theory 79 II. Why Anomie Still Matters The Anomic Nation 90 Anomie in American History 90 Anomie in Contemporary American Society 102 Mental Health 120 Anxiety 126 Conclusions 129 Soldier Suicide 131 School Shootings 135 III. Looking Forward: The Solution to Anomie 142 Sociology as a Guiding Force 142 Gemeinschaft Within Gesellschaft 145 The Religion of Humanity 151 Final Thoughts 155 Bibliography 158 2 To those who suffer in silence from the pain they cannot reveal. Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Professor Vejlko Vujačić for his unwavering support, and for sharing with me his incomparable sociological imagination. If I succeed as a professor of sociology, it will be because of him. I am also deeply indebted to Émile Durkheim, who first exposed the anomic crisis, and without whom no one would be writing a sociology thesis. 3 Abstract: The term anomie has declined in the sociology literature. Apart from brief mentions, it has not featured in the American Sociological Review for sixteen years. Moreover, the term has narrowed and is now used almost exclusively to discuss deviance. -
Herbert Spencer in His Own Words
Herbert Spencer In His Own Words On materialism: "What is Comte's professed aim? To give a coherent account of the progress of human conceptions. What is my aim? To give a coherent account of the progress of the external world. Comte proposes to describe the necessary and the actual, filiation of ideas. I propose to describe the necessary, and the actual, filiation of things. Comte professes to interpret the genesis of our knowledge of nature. My aim is to interpret . the genesis of the phenomena which constitute nature. The one is subjective. The other is objective" (1904, p.570). "The average opinion in every age and country is a function of the social structure in that age and country" (1891, p. 390). "There can be no complete acceptance of sociology as a science, so long as the belief in a social order not conforming to natural law survives" (1891, p. 394). Herbert Spencer (1867, 327) first posited a unity of the evolutionary process: “Evolution, then, under its primary aspect, is a change from a less coherent form to a more coherent form consequent on the dissipation of motion and integration of matter. This proves to be a character displayed equally in those earliest changes which the Universe at large is supposed to have undergone, and in those latest changes which we trace in society and the products of social life.” On the division of labor: As the population becomes more diverse in terms of occupation, experience, wealth, interests, and values, the people also become more dependent upon one another. -
The Concept of Social Metabolism in Classical Sociology Theomai, Núm
Theomai ISSN: 1666-2830 [email protected] Red Internacional de Estudios sobre Sociedad, Naturaleza y Desarrollo Argentina Padovan, Dario The concept of social metabolism in classical sociology Theomai, núm. 2, 2000 Red Internacional de Estudios sobre Sociedad, Naturaleza y Desarrollo Buenos Aires, Argentina Disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=12400203 Cómo citar el artículo Número completo Sistema de Información Científica Más información del artículo Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal Página de la revista en redalyc.org Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto REVISTA THEOMAI / THEOMAI JOURNAL The concept of social metabolism in classical sociology Dario Padovan * Department of Sociology, University of Padua. E-mail: [email protected] 1. Introduction Recently, social metabolism has been defined as "the particular form in which societies establish and maintain their material input from and output to nature; the mode in which they organize the exchange of matter and energy with their natural environment" (1). However, among early sociologists the concept of social metabolism was widely adopted. At that time it was used to describe the same process: the exchange and the transformation of matter, energy, labour and knowledge carried out between the social system and the environmental system. But it did have various different meanings. For some authors it was one concrete way in which society was embedded in cosmic evolution, which simultaneously offered models to help understand how the social system functioned; for others it was a way of describing the exchange of energy and matter between society and nature, that which permitted the reproduction of the social system and of the social achievement needed for human advancement; for others again, social metabolism was one way in which society could renew its élite. -
University of California Riverside
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Reviving the Organismic Analogy in Sociology: Human Society as an Organism A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology by Matthew Bjorn Dunn June 2016 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Jonathan H. Turner, Chairperson Dr. Christopher Chase-Dunn Dr. Dr. Alexandra Maryanski Dr. Raymond L. Russell Copyright by Matthew Bjorn Dunn 2016 The Dissertation of Matthew Bjorn Dunn is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside AKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the help and assistance of many people. First, I would like to thank all of my family for their love and support over the years. I would specifically like to thank my parents, Doug and Linda Dunn, and my wife, Gaby Dunn, for everything. I wouldn’t be where I am today without your unconditional love and guidance and for that I will forever be grateful. I would also like to thank all of the faculty at UCR who have both shaped my understanding of the world, and helped me navigate through the complexities of graduate school. Specifically, I would like to thank Dr. Jonathan H. Turner, Dr. Alexandra Maryanski, Dr. Christopher Chase-Dunn, Dr. Raymond Russell, Dr. Stephan K. Sanderson, Dr. Jan E. Stets, Dr. Peter J. Burke, and Dr. Scott V. Savage for all of their wisdom, guidance, and support over the years. I would like to thank the friends I’ve made as a graduate student at UCR. Jenna Mead, Kevin McCaffree, Kevin ‘Akron’ Curwin, Ryan Trettevik and Tony Roberts, you have all influenced my thinking and helped keep me sane. -
Relativism: Cognitive and Moral Author(S): Steven Lukes and W
Relativism: Cognitive and Moral Author(s): Steven Lukes and W. G. Runciman Reviewed work(s): Source: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, Vol. 48 (1974), pp. 165-189+191-208 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Aristotelian Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4106865 . Accessed: 01/06/2012 14:22 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Blackwell Publishing and The Aristotelian Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes. http://www.jstor.org RELATIVISM:COGNITIVE AND MORAL StevenLukes and W. G. Runciman I-Steven Lukes . on ne voit rien de juste ou d'injustequi ne changede qualiteen changeantde climat.Trois degresd' elevation de pole renversenttoute la jurisprudence;un meridien decide de la verite; en peu d'anneesde possession,les lois fondamentaleschangent; le droit a ses epoques, I'entree de Saturne au Lion nous marque l'origine d'un tel crime. Plaisantejustice qu'une riviere borne! Verite au dea des Pyrenees,erreur au dela! (Pascal,Pensees, V, 294). In this paper I want to considerhow serioulythese words of Pascalshould be taken. -
Do Metaphors Evolve? the Case of the Social Organism
Roskilde University Do metaphors evolve? The case of the social organism Mouton, Nicolaas T.O. Published in: Cognitive Semiotics Publication date: 2013 Citation for published version (APA): Mouton, N. T. O. (2013). Do metaphors evolve? The case of the social organism. Cognitive Semiotics, V(1-2), 312. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain. • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 30. Sep. 2021 Journal of Cognitive Semiotics, V(1-2): 312-348, http://www.cognitivesemiotics.com . Nico Mouton Roskilde University Do Metaphors Evolve? The Case of the Social Organism A long line of philosophers and social scientists have defended and extended the curious idea that collective entities – states and societies, cities and corporations – are biological organisms. In this article, I study a few short but spectacular episodes from the history of that metaphor, juxtapose mappings made in one era with correspondences conjured in other epochs, and reflect upon the reasons why they differ. -
Essay on Durkheim's Theory of Division of Labour
National Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development ISSN: 2455-9040 Impact Factor: RJIF 5.22 www.nationaljournals.com Volume 2; Issue 3; September 2017; Page No. 580-585 Essay on Durkheim’s theory of division of labour 1 Ajay Kumar Gautam, 2 Neha Yadav 1 Research Scholar, Centre for Studies of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India 2 Research Scholar, Centre for Social Medicine & Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India Abstract Emile Durkheim is pre-eminently known for instituting a social theory which views sociology as a natural science subject to empirical study. His seminal research on labour, The Division of Labour in society, uses a comparative method to explain the morphological changes in labour in preindustrial and post-industrial societies. Durkheim categorised labour in primitive societies as mechanical solidarity for its homogenous nature, and its industrial counterpart as organic solidarity, suggesting its heterogeneous nature. Division of labour has a significant role to perform in the society since it does not depend on the establishment of economic services only but also generates harmony between people. Anomie has contributed to chaos in the social life and society is conscious of it and when society revitalises it results in social reconstruction. A foremost theme in all Durkheim’s writings is the importance of collective social norms and values in preserving social cohesion and solidarity. He argued that the nature of this social solidarity depends on the extent of the division of labour. Keywords: division of labour, mechanical solidarity, organic solidarity, anomie, social fact 1. Introduction 3. It reinforces the faith of the collectivism on the power of Durkheim was deeply concerned with the impact of the large- society doing right thing in the right place at right time scale structure of society, and society itself, on the thoughts 4.