Rozjanne Chrizsa A. Pahilan SOSCI 1 MWF 7:30-8:30pmBS PHARM 4 June 26, 2015

SUMMARY OF FOUR VISIONS OF SOCIETY

GERHARD LENSKI: Society and Technology Gerhard Lenski points to the importance of TECHNOLOGY in shaping any society. He uses the term SOCIOCULTURAL EVOLUTION to mean changes that occur as a society gains new technology.In HUNTING AND GATHERING SOCIETIES, men use simple tools to hunt animals and women gather vegetation

Hunting and gathering societies Are the simplest of all societies and were the earliest type of society on Earth Are nomadic Have only few dozen members Are built around the family Consider men and women roughly equal in social importance

HORTICULTURAL AND PASTORAL SOCIETIESDeveloped some 12,000 years ago as people began to use hand tools to raise crops and they shifted to raising animals for food instead of hunting them.Horticultural and Pastoral Societies

Are able to produce more food so populations expand to hundreds Show greater specialization of work Show increasing levels of social inequality

AGRARIAN SOCIETIES developed 5,000 years ago as the use of plows harnessed to animals or more powerful energy sources enabled large scale cultivation.

Agrarian Societies May expand into vast empires Show even greater specialization with dozens of distinct occupations Have extreme social inequality Reduce the importance of women

INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES which developed first in Europe 250 years ago, used advanced sources of energy to drive large machinery industrialization.

Provides many modern conveniences and advanced forms of transportation and communication Reduces the traditional importance of family Raises living standards

POSTINDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES represent the most recent stage of technological development namely, technology that supports an information-based economy.Postindustrialization

Shifts production from heavy machinery making material things to computers and related technology processing information

Requires a population with information-based skills. Is the driving force behind the information revolution, a worldwide flow of information that now links societies with

an emerging global culture.

KARL MARX: Society and ConflictKarl Marx’s MATERIALIST APPROACH claims that societies are defined by their economic systems: How humans produce material goods shapes their experience.CONFLICT AND HISTORYCLASS CONFLICT is the conflict between entire classes over the distribution of society’s wealth and power. Marx traced conflict between social classes in societies as the source of social change throughout history.

In ancient societies, masters dominated slaves. In agrarian societies, nobles dominated serfs. In industrial-capitalist societies, capitalists, dominate protetarians.

CAPITALISMMarx focused on the role of CAPITALISM in creating inequality and class conflict in modern societies.

Under capitalism, the ruling class (capitalists, who own the means of production) oppresses the working class (protetarians, who sell their labor)

Capitalism alienates workers from the act of working, from the products of work, from other workers, and from their own potential.

Marx predicted that a worker’s revolution would eventually overthrow capitalism and replace it with socialism, a system of production that would provide for social needs of all.

MAX WEBER: The Rationalization Of SocietyMax Weber’s IDEALIST APPROACH emphasizes the power of ideas to shape society.

IDEAS AND HISTORYWeber traced the ideas—especially beliefs and values—that have shaped societies throughout history.

Members of preindustrial societies are bound by TRADITION the beliefs and values passed from generation to generation.

Members of industrial-capitalist societies are guided by RATIONALITY, a way of thinking that emphasizes deliberate, matter-of-fact calculation of the most efficient way to accomplish a particular task.

RATIONALISMWeber focused on the growth of large, rational organizations as the defining characteristic of modern societies.

Rationality gave rise to both the industrial revolution and capitalism. Protestantism (specifically, Calvinism) encouraged the rational pursuit of wealth, laying the groundwork for the rise

for industrial-capitalism Weber defined six characteristics of rational social organization, OR BUREAUCRACY and feared that excessive

rationality would shift human creativity.

EMILE DURKHEIM: Society And FunctionEmile Durkheim claimed that society has an objective existence apart from its individual members.STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION

Durkheim believed that because society is bigger than any one of us, it dictates how we are expected to act in any given social situation.

He pointed out that social elements (such as crime) have functions that help society operate Society also shapes our personalities and provides the moral discipline that guides our behavior and controls our

desires.

EVOLVING SOCIETIESDurkheim traced the evolution of social change by describing the different ways societies throughout history have guided the lives of their members.

In preindustrial societies , MECHANICAL SOLIDARITY, or social bonds based on common sentiments and shared moral values, guides the social life of individuals.

Industrialization and the DIVISION OF LABOR weaken traditional bonds, so that social life in modern societies is characterized by ORGANIC SOLIDARITY, social bonds based on specialization and interdependence.

Durkheim warned of increased ANOMIE in modern societies, as society provides little moral guidance to individuals.