the study of society. Functionalist theory is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. It can be argued that the functionalist theory has made a significant contribution to the study of society. It originates from the work of Emile Durkheim who suggests that social order is possible and society remains stable due to the functioning of several institutions. Everything has a specific function in society and society will always function in harmony. The main institutions studied by functionalism
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Using the material from item A and elsewhere asses the usefulness of subcultural theories in explaining subcultural crime and deviance in society. Durkheim argued that a certain amount of crime was ‘healthy’ for society and that it is deviant behaviour that provided a catalyst for social change. He said that crime and deviance are functional because the ritual of punishment is an expressive experience that serves to bind together members of a social group and establishment a sense of community;
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terms of money‚ power‚ education‚ and social prestige. This research increases our understanding of such causes of deviant behavior and hopefully finds innovative ways to diagnose and deter crime. The structural functionalist perspective by Emile Durkheim introduced the term anomie in which‚ Robert Merton also related his crime problem to anomie‚ thus formulation the strain theory. Robert Merton model of anomie and social arrangement has been willingly accepted as a helpful hypothesis‚ for the study
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you in a certain socioeconomic class. Marx believes that people only work out of a necessity‚ necessity for food‚ for money‚ for anything and because they are only working out of necessity‚ people grow more and more resentful of their jobs. Both Durkheim and Marx believe that a division of labor is necessary‚ but there is no need to resent your job as Marx suggests‚ and although money may be a factor taken into account when finding jobs‚ there can still be people in a lower socioeconomic class that
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Centuries have come and gone since the conceptualization of the three major sociological perspectives in Sociology. Symbolic Interactionism‚ Functionalist and Conflict Theory are the perspectives that offer sociologists’ theoretical paradigms for explaining how society influences people and vice versa. Each of these perspectives uniquely conceptualizes society‚ social forces and human behaviour which provides sociologists with an orienting framework for asking certain types of questions about society
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social and economic change‚ put forward theories and approaches to try and make sense of the changing society around them and the consequences these changes would have. In this essay I will refer to the main founding fathers of sociology: Comte‚ Durkheim‚ Marx and Weber. I will discuss their main ideas and concerns about the changing societies that they encountered. The Frenchman Auguste Comte (1798-1857) grew up in the wake of the French revolution of 1789. In these times of momentous change he
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opening a complete new discipline emerged. There was a lot of key thinkers around this time who were very influential in the creation of Sociology as a discipline. This essay will discuss the key thinkers around the creation of Sociology namely‚ Durkheim‚ Marx and Weber who are considered the founding fathers of Sociology. It will also analyse the Functionalist‚ Marxist‚ social action and postmodernist perspectives looking at some of the key figures and concepts within the perspectives. The term
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Sociology‚ the scientific study of human social behavior. As the study of humans in their collective aspect‚ sociology is concerned with all group activities: economic‚ social‚ political‚ and religious. Sociologists study such areas as bureaucracy‚ community‚ deviant behavior‚ family‚ public opinion‚ social change‚ social mobility‚ social stratification‚ and such specific problems as crime‚ divorce‚ child abuse‚ and substance addiction. Sociology tries to determine the laws governing human behavior
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Durkheim and functionalism Emile Durkheim‚ the founder of functionalism‚ spent much of his academic career studying religions‚ especially those of small societies. The totetism‚ or primitive kinship system of Australian aborigines as an “elementary” form of religion‚ primarily interested him. This research formed the basis of Durkheim’s 1921 book‚ The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life‚ which is certainly the best‐known study on the sociology of religion. Durkheim viewed religion within the context
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On the other hand‚ Durkheim argues that society only functions if there is a “shared framework of meanings and moralities”‚ also known as the collective conscience and social solidarity (SOC216‚ Jan. 19). According to Durkheim‚ the law is a visible form of social solidarity because it explicitly expresses the shared norms and morality of a society (SOC216‚ Jan. 19). Crime accordingly contravenes a society’s values and causes moral outrage amongst the members of that society (SOC 216‚ Jan. 19). The
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