Chapter 2: Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology

Early Developments in Sociology

Sociology basically emerged to examine the social and economic problems of transition from traditional society to modern society in the 18th and 19th centuries. Early sociologists tried to examine what hold social groups together and also attempted to find a solution to the breakdown of social integrity. Among these, we can point out Saint-Simon, Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer.

Sociology dates back to the integration of scientific approaches and methods into social research by French philosophers Saint-Simon and Auguste Comte, who were inspired by the sociological thoughts of the Enlightenment.

It is emphasized that the most significant contribution of Saint-Simon to the development of sociology is the term industrial society, which successfully influenced both the radicals like Marx and the conservative theoreticians like Comte at same time by reflecting both socialist and conservative point of views. Saint-Simon argued that the social problems that occurred during the transition from feudal society to industrial society would be solved with the help of positive science, which he calls social physics, and society could be restructured with this new type of science. Therefore, Saint-Simon is considered “the first sociologist, and the first socialist”.

Just like Saint-Simon, Auguste Comte also examines “society” within an evolutionist and positivist framework. Saint-Simon contributed to the development of sociology with his studies, and Comte used the term “sociology” for the first time and established a tradition known as positivist sociology. The positivist approach developed by Comte is based on the assumption that social life has an objective reality just like natural life. From this point of view, positivists argue that quantitative data-based scientific methods used in natural sciences can also be applied in social sciences. According to this method, only observable, measurable and classifiable phenomena have a scientific reality, and truthful realities about a society can be explored and analysed through scientific methods.

Inspired by Comte’s works and having an important role in early phases of British sociology, Herbert Spencer adapted the “natural selection” principle, which means the survival of the fittest, into social evolution and rejected any type of state interventions and social reforms that are supportive of disadvantaged individuals in social life. In Spencer’s works, positivism has been developed within an evolutionary system based on the principles of Charles Darwin’s evolution theory. According to Spencer, social transformation in Darwin’s terms operates on the hypothesis that the strong ones survive and weak ones die, that is the natural selection law. Suggesting the presence of natural selection in social life, Spencer was a vivid supporter of free market and competition, and he rejected state planning and intervention as well as social state practices because he thought that they were not natural. Spencer’s sociological analysis, which deals with society within a system approach, contributed to later development in sociological theories. Unfortunately, this approach, which is called Social Darwinism because of Spencer’s ideas based on natural selection, was used as an excuse to legitimize social inequality and discrimination; especially racist discourse and policies.

Classical Sociology

Classical figures in the development of sociology as a discipline of social science can be pointed out as K. Marx, E. Durkheim, M. Weber and G. Simmel whose works have affected the development of sociology to a great extent until the present time.

Karl Marx developed a theory called historical materialism, which had anenormousininfluence in the fieldof sociology. In this theory, which emphasizes the importance of economic factors rather than thoughts and values in social transformation and can be defined brie y as “embracing history from a materialist point of view”, Marx specifically focuses on production. According to Marx, some social relations called production relations develop among the people participating in the production process in order to produce their social lives in the historical process. He underlined that social relations of production have critical roles in understanding historical development. The emphasis Marx places on economic factors in social transformation can be clearly observed in his distinction between substructure and superstructure in social analysis. In this distinction, the substructure consists of economic structure (means of production and relations of production) and superstructure consists of law, politics, religion, family and ideologies.

Marx advocates the idea that there is an interaction-based relationship between economic base and superstructure. However, economic substructure has a determinant effect on the superstructure. Although Marx (1970) was interested in various production types used throughout history, he specifically focused on critical analysis of capitalism in which – unlike other production types- great amount of goods and service are produced and everything is sold. According to Marx, capitalism is based on merchandized and alienated social relationships where labour force (in the form of paid labour) is bought-sold as goods. Marx was the founder of Marxism, which is one of the most important approaches of a tradition in sociology called conflict and consists of different schools of thought. However, Marx was criticized by some groups since he placed too much emphasis on economic factors in understanding history from a materialistic point of view.

Influenced by Comte’s sociology in France, Emile Durkheim became one of the outstanding figures of classical period of sociology. Durkheim, in his works, specifically focuses on the subject matter of sociology as a science and the methods to be used. at is why he is believed to be one of the most important founders of sociology. Durkheim adopted a point of view called functionalism and greatly contributed to the development of structural functionalism. According to Durkheim, society is similar to a biological organism consisting of components having different functions to form a unity. At this point, he believes that society has an independent reality in a way that cannot be reduced to the individuals that form it. Moreover, Durkheim argues society is also a reality beyond and over the individuals. He emphasizes that society has sanction power on individuals through social facts. For Durkheim, social facts have important functions in maintaining the continuity of societies. In this respect, even crime and punishment are functional facts to determine the limits of socially acceptable behaviours.

Durkheim, in his well-known work titled Suicide, examines the changes in the cases of suicides in order to depict that suicide is a social fact although it seems to be an individual action at first. Accordingly, the cases of suicides vary in groups having different social conditions and the rates of suicides change during the periods when rapid social changes occur, which shows that suicide is a social fact based on social factors. Durkheim explains suicide through two independent variables; namely integration and regulation. e extreme or insufficient presence of these two variables in a society leads to suicides.

Weber is considered a thinker that considerably contributed to the development of sociology as an independent social science. He adopted a sociological approach that differs from and is critical about positivism in many ways. Weber, unlike positivism, also places social action into the centre of sociology and sociological analysis. From this point of view, Weber’s ideas are associated with a general theoretical perspective in sociology called interactionism. Unlike positivists, Weber rejects the use of certain terms in sociology that are similar to the methods and terminology used in natural sciences. Individuals often act according to certain values in social life. At this point, human action is social and each single study aiming to explain social action should explore the meanings that shape social actions.

Weber, in his typology of action he mentions about four types of social action: traditional social action, affective social action, value rational social action and instrumental-rational social action. He also emphasizes authority and organization types in his social formation typology. These are traditional authority, charismatic authority and rational-legal authority.

In addition to this, Weber is mainly interested in rational action and rational-legal authority and organization type. Weber argues that the most typical example of rationalization is bureaucratic organization process, which is becoming more and more common. at is why he places special importance on bureaucracy, which - he believes - plays an important role in understanding organizational structure of modern societies. According to Weber, bureaucracy is an organization model unique to all modern societies based on capitalist and socialist economic regulations. Bureaucracy is also an administration type based on rational-legal authority and forms the basis for power in modern societies.

Georg Simmel, a sociologist from German sociology tradition, is also among the leading sociologists of the classical period with his humanist and anti-positivist approach focusing on the interaction among individuals in sociological analysis. Simmel considerably contributed to the development of sociology - especially to dialectical method and conflict theory from a different angle- with his works on sociology and other fields. Known for his studies on individual actions and interaction rather than his macro-level studies, Simmel greatly influenced symbolic interactionism and Chicago School, which is renowned for its urban studies in American sociology.

Development of Modern Sociology

20th century was an era when quite a number of new developments that transform the society was witnessed, which also led to emergence of new approaches in sociology. Often called as modern sociology, this new period produced new significant approaches and theories in sociology. e theories in modern sociology introduce more complex social analysis than those in classical sociology since they are about 20th century societies that are more developed, more complex and more dynamic in terms of technology, production and organizational structures. Among these theories, we can point out Functionalism, Marxism and Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interactionism.

Functionalism has an important place in modern sociology and was initially influenced by Durkheim’s works in sociology in the 19th century. In other words, functionalism adopted a positivist social science mentality while examining social life. Developed in the 20thcentury in social anthropology by A.R. Radcliffe-Brown (1881- 1955) and Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942), functionalism was later improved in American sociology especially by Talcott Parsons and Robert K. Merton.

Functionalism in modern sociology deals with society as a system based on self-regulation, which implies that society has a natural intuition to protect itself and have a balance. In other words, self-regulation enables societies to maintain its balance and operations by regulating its institutions in response to changes in the environment. Functionalists argue that just like a biological system, a social system also has basic needs to be met. These needs are defined and classified by Talcott Parsons (1902-1979), who considerably contributed to functionalism within a system approach as well as its being referred to as “structural-functionalism” later on.

According to functionalism, social system has to adapt to changing conditions to survive. In order to realize such an adaptation, social system develops new components and functions by multiplying many times within itself. For instance, the ever-increasing division of labour and specialization in society are the result of this need.

Conflict theories emphasize the importance of social structures in societies; however, unlike functionalism, which focuses on the consensus, they focus on power, social divisions, inequality and struggle among different groups pursuing their own interests. Marxism, which was later developed by social scientists who were influenced by Marx’s work, is acknowledged to be one of the most effective conflict approaches. The ideas suggested by the neo-Marxist theoreticians are quite influential. Lukas emphasized reification in a “commodified society” -which he considered as the most important structural problem of modern capitalist era- and Gramsci (2007) highlighted the hegemony of bourgeoisie that has the ideological power to create a general consent without resorting to force in masses in the Western world. The ideas of Louis Althusser (1918- 1990), considered the developer of the theory known as structural Marxism, were quite influential in sociological literature. Althusser suggests three basic social structures that emerge due to certain relationships in societies; namely economic, political and ideological social structures. Unlike traditional Marxism, Althusser argues that these three basic structures reject a relatively independence and autonomy.

Unlike traditional Marxists who emphasize economic structure, neo Marxist theories emphasize cultural and ideological superstructures of societies. Neo Marxists are not as optimistic as traditional Marxists about the fact that capitalism will inevitably disappear. Therefore, neo Marxists tend to examine how class consciousness of governed groups – especially working class- are shaped and controlled through upper structural concepts such as “cultural hegemony” and “culture industry”. Developed by neo Marxists, these concepts brought new dimensions to sociological analyses that focus especially on class and class conflicts. However, it is also claimed that neo Marxists, diminished the importance of materialist and economic understanding of historical development- the distinctive feature of Marxism- by emphasizing superstructures.

In the 20th century, in sociology, in contrast to the tension that started in structural- functionalism, various theories have been developed that focus on interaction between individuals rather than on social structures. Symbolic interactionism, phenomenology and ethnomethodology, which have emerged in connection with the general perspective called interactionism, have gained an important place in sociological theory in this period.

Symbolic interactionism is a sociological approach closely related to social psychology in American sociology. According to symbolic interactionism, society is the product of individuals’ symbolic interactions in social life. George Herbert Mead is considered to be the founder of this approach.

Symbolic interactionists claim that social order is based on the meanings we attribute to everything in our world (objects, events, actions etc.). In other words, society consists of meanings attributed by individuals to the world they live in rather than structures independent from individuals.

At this point, symbols and images are critically important since they represent things and the meanings we attribute to things. In fact, a symbol does not only represent an object or event but also defines it focusing on certain aspects. To illustrate when we consider a table, we imagine not only an object having a certain form but also a thing used for different functions such as eating, writing or a similar activity. In this respect, “table” is a symbol representing an object with a certain form as well as the meaning we attribute to this object.

According to Mead, the founder of symbolic interactionism, human beings are unique with specific features that are not observed in other beings. Instead of giving simple reactions to stimulants as animals do, human beings have the ability to adjust their behaviours according to the circumstances. They are the entities that can understand the world they live in (by constantly making sense of things and situations), express these meanings (and therefore the world) through symbols, interact with others and develop a “self” through symbols representing these meanings. The concept of “self” here refers to the “generalised others” in a sense of internalising the habits of the community in which one lives.

Feminism and Postmodernism

Feminism and postmodernism have become more and more effective in recent times and they are critical to all classical and modern sociological approaches.

Feminism can be defined as the accumulation of knowledge developed by feminist writers critically against the male dominant information system in order to support the organized struggle of women subject to gender discrimination. According to feminism, all approaches to sociology have been developed by men and / or from a male perspective and the problem of women and gender has been largely neglected in these approaches until this turn, especially in the works of classical period writers, which are also called “founding fathers” of sociology. Therefore, feminist theories developed from the point of view of women are necessary. At this point, feminism is regarded as a separate tradition developed for the analysis and transformation of relations based on gender. Unlike all other approaches, feminist theories focus on gender inequality, which they see as the most important and oldest form of inequality.

Postmodernism, like feminism, is critical to other approaches. Postmodernism has developed as an opposition to modernism, which emerged in the 18th century during the enlightenment period and consists of ideas, values, and hypotheses that rely on technology, knowledge, and progress. It can be defined as an approach reflecting the following ideas: the modernity project based on ideas of reason, rationalization and progress is over; societies are no longer guided by historical developments and meta narratives in a proper course of progress; and a new postmodern society is formed where diversity and pluralism are prevalent. Postmodern theories argue that social reality cannot be analysed by sociological approaches emerging in modern era, and that social life cannot be improved through rational ways of thinking. In this respect, postmodern theories suggest that the age of modernity, its science of causality and rational thought have come to an end.