Flashcards
Functionalism - Durkheim
Cards in this deck (20)
- 1How do functionalists view society?As a biological organism, it has inter-related, independent institutions & basic needs. Like human bodies with different organs, each branch of society serves a different cohesive social function. Social order is achieved through a shared culture creating value consensus. Individuals conform to shared norms due to socialisation & social control.
- 2Who was Durkheim & what did he argue in The Division of Labour in Society?He was an optimistic, consensus theorist, he believed that people have free will & that there are natural distinctions between people. The division of labour is economically efficient as individuals work collectively & participate in specific tasks to produce quicker production & greater wealth.
- 3What was the enclosure scandal?When lords took large proportions of land & reserved them for private pastures & fields. It resulted in a large landless population who soon became the basis of the industrial working class, especially in the north.
- 4What was Durkheim's goal?To figure out how society transitioned to an urban-industrial society & how social solidarity could be increased as it was collapsing. He focused on religion losing its place in society, the patriarchal family fading & the greater importance of individual rights.
- 5What is collective consciousness?A set of shared beliefs, ideas, attitudes & knowledge that are common to a social group or society. Morality is changeable, it constantly shifts with the times so it’s difficult to study.
- 6How did Durkheim view individuals?As naturally collective, it is through our engagement with the wider collective that we become human (taxes, charity, redistribution). However, forms of social solidarity in his own time & as part of the general process of modernity were under threat from individualism.
- 7What was mechanical solidarity?A characteristic of traditional societies, it reflects low-level societal differentiation, social bonds are based on sameness, there is a high level of collective conscience, a repressive law based on religious prohibitions & focus on ascribed status.
- 8What was organic solidarity?A characteristic of modern societies, it reflects a high-level of societal differentiation, social cohesion based on interdependence, increasing levels of individualization, secular & contractual law & a focus on achieved status.
- 9What is the division of labour a major part of the process of?Moving from mechanistic solidarity to organic solidarity. This can contribute to a more complex & diverse society, but not necessarily happier. There is the danger that social solidarity is undermined due to individualism, which can result in anomie.
- 10What is anomie?It denotes normlessness resulting from the breaking down of the bonds that bind an individual to society & the enhancement of individualism.
- 11Why is anomie widespread?The development of organic solidarity lags behind the growth of the division of labour, traditional forms of moral regulation have lost their authority, but new forms are not yet fully developed. The solution is to create new institutions to promote organic solidarity.
- 12How was Durkheim's approach to the division of labour similar & different from Marx's?Like Marx, he was concerned that workers repeat mindless tasks causing anomie or alienation. But he was not advocating a Marxist revolution as even rigid, hierarchical social systems can be accepted if they maintain high degrees of social solidarity & contributes to a wider, shared, positive goal.
- 13How was Khaldun similar to Durkheim?He thought that the division of labour has important social implications & cooperation becomes increasingly important as rising wealth leads to the development of specialist markets for different products, which in turn create more labour specialisation.
- 14What was Khaldun's concept of asabiyya?A group feeling, social cohesion & belief in the righteousness of a given social order. Thus, it is similar to Durkheim's idea of social solidarity but Khaldun was not recognised as he was not part of the canon of classics.
- 15What are criticisms of Durkheim's fucntionalism?His view of traditional & modern societies in a binary way misrepresents the coexistence of organic & mechanical solidarity in modern societies. It can lead to narrow biological understandings of social role - women confined to private sphere entrenching existing hierarchies.
- 16How did Durkheim relate his concept to religion?Religion unifies society as sacred symbols represent the collective conscience which is reinforced by rituals. Thus, religion creates social solidarity by uniting members into a single moral community.
- 17How did Durkheim relate his concept to crime?Crime is universal & inevitable as not everyone is socialised into shared values; diversity of lifestyles results in subcultures with values that may be viewed as deviant. Crime produces a societal reaction uniting its members & punishment reinforces social solidarity.
- 18How did Durkheim relate his concept to education?Education helps to create social solidarity by transmitting society’s culture & teaches us specialist skills needed for the complex division of labour in modern society. Education is a device for role allocation, inequality is necessary to ensure the most important jobs are filled by the most talented people.
- 19How did Durkheim relate his concept to the family?The extended family fitted pre-industrial society & the nuclear family fits industrial society as it has 2 essential needs; geographically & socially mobile workforce. The family has lost functions as work has moved to factories, so now it just performs primary socialisation & stabilisation of adult personalities.
- 20How can the concept of anomie be applied to modern society?Males account for 75% of suicides, the rise of reality TV has worsened the issue as both a Love Island & a Jeremy Kyle contestant committed suicide recently. Also, the rise of social media is putting massive pressure on young girls to look perfect & Molly Russell committed suicide recently after viewing self-harm images.
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- Revision - Sociology Flashcards on Functionalism - Durkheim, created by Miss Rogers on 27/05/2019.
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- Miss Rogers · May 2019
- Updated
- Jun 3, 2019
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