2. THE CONFLICT TRADITION
Sociologist Contribution Period
Karl Marx and Friedrich History as Class Struggle 1848
Engels
Materialism and the Theory of
Ideology 1846
Karl Marx The Class basis of Politics and 1852
Revolution
Max Weber The Origin of Modern Capitalism 1920
Ralf Dahrendorf Power Divisions as the basis of 1959
Class Conflict
Gehard E. Lenski A Theory of Inequality 1966
Randall Collins A Conflict Theory of Stratification 1975

3. Society divided into two distinct classes:
BOURGEOISIE 
CLASS OF CAPITALISTS
(RULING CLASS)
Proletariat 
CLASS OF WAGE LABORERS
(WORKING CLASS)

4. HISTORY AS CLASS STRUGGLE
(KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS)
• Believed working class (proletariat) was oppressed by the ruling class
(bourgeoisie)
• The relationship between these social classes was based upon
exploitation and class conflict. Secondarily the two social classes
obviously depended upon each other as a source of employment or
as a source of profit
• What the bourgeoisie produces above all, are its own grave-diggers.
Meanwhile, the fall and victory of the proletariat is inevitable.

5. MATERIALISM AND THE THEORY OF IDEOLOGY
(KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS)
• The basis of human society is how humans work to produce the means of
subsistence.
• There is a division of labor into social classes (relations of production)
based on property ownership where some people live from the labor of
others.
• The system of class division is dependent on the mode of production.
• The mode of production is based on the level of the productive forces.
• Society moves from stage to stage when the dominant class is displaced
by a new emerging class, by overthrowing the "political shell" that enforces
the old relations of production no longer corresponding to the new
productive forces. This takes place in the superstructure of society, the
political arena in the form of revolution, whereby the underclass "liberates"
the productive forces with new relations of production, and social relations,
corresponding to it.

6. POWER DIVISIONS AS THE BASIS OF CLASS
CONFLICT (1959)
 Conflict theorists like Ralf Dahrendorf characterize
society as being in a state of flux and dissension.
According to conflict theorists, coercion holds society
together, not norms and value.
 Dahrendorf focused on the role of authority in
society, which he viewed as involving the
superordination and subordination of groups
Ralf Dahrendorf
occupying particular positions within what he called
imperatively coordinated associations.
 Groups within a given association are defined
according to their specific interests. These interest
groups have the potential to turn into conflict groups,
and their actions can lead to changes in social
structures.

7. A THEORY OF INEQUALITY (1966)
• Humans are by nature, social animals who engage in ―antagonistic
cooperation‖ in order to maximize their need satisfaction.
• Humans appear to have an insatiable appetite for goods and
services. ―This is true chiefly because the goods and services have
a status value as well as a utilitarian value.‖ Goods and services
within societies are distributed on the basis of need (subsistence
goods) and power (surplus goods)
• Society is a system; however, it is an imperfect system at best. The
fact that society is an imperfect system means that not all of the
parts function to strengthen the whole system
• Highly stratified societies with powerful elites tend to emphasize
political stability, those less stratified favor maximizing production.
Gerhard E. Lenski
• Economic goods and services are not distributed equally to all
members of society —some always get more than others
• An individual’s position in each of the relevant class system (and
these vary by society) determines their overall social class, and this
will affect their access to goods and services as well as the prestige
accorded to them by others.
• The Civil Rights movement in the United States can be viewed as a
struggle to reduce the importance of the racial-ethnic class system
as a basis of distribution.

8. A CONFLICT THEORY OF STRATIFICATION (1975)
• Social stratification—the process by which
some people have more wealth, power and
privilege than others.
• Stratification touches many features of social
life – wealth, politics, careers, families,
communities, lifestyles, etc.
• Social class must be looked at not only in terms
of material production but mental production—
how class cultures and values are symbolically
communicated. Upper classes tend to articulate
Randall Collins their own class perspective, while lower classes
tend to have their worldviews imposed upon
them.

10. THE RATIONAL/UTILITARIAN TRADITION
Sociologist Contribution Period
George C. Homans Social Exchange among Equals and 1961
Unequals
James G. March and Bounded Rationality and Satisficing 1958
Herbert A. Simon
Thomas C. Schelling Tacit Coordination 1962
Mancur Olson Public Goods and the Free Rider 1965
Problem
James S. Coleman The Realization of Effective Norms 1990

11. SOCIAL EXCHANGE AMONG EQUALS AND
UNEQUALS (1961)
• There is a pattern of individual interactions
underlying every social institution
• ―Homans Law‖ – Interaction increases
liking and conformity, provided that it takes
place among social equals
• Social behavior is an exchange of rewards
(and costs between persons)
• A man’s social behavior displays two
tendencies: a tendency to interact with,
and respect, persons in some sense
―better‖ than himself and a tendency to
George Caspar Homans interact with, and like, persons in some
(1910-1989) sense similar to himself

12. BOUNDED RATIONALITY AND SATISFICING (1958)
People decide rationally only in a limited
number of situations.
They make choices according to their
interpretation of the situation which is often a
simplification.
Rationality is "bounded", e.g. humans seldom
have access to all relevant information and
must rely on a 'strategy of satisfying', that is to
make the best decision on limited information.
James G. March Herbert A. Simon
They choose the first opportunity that seems
satisfactory rather than seek the best solution.

13. TACIT COORDINATION (1962)
• Tacit coordination deals with situations in
which economic actors attempt to match
the actions of others without knowing
what these others will do and without an
agreement about what to do.
• There are ways that coordination can take
about without direct communication if
there is a salient feature in the
Thomas C. Schelling environment: ―focal points‖

14. PUBLIC GOODS AND THE FREE RIDER PROBLEM
(1965) • The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods
and the Theory of Groups challenges the
accepted wisdom in Olson’s day that everyone
in a group has interests in common, then they
will act collectively to achieve them
• Olson argues that individuals in any group
attempting collective action will have incentives
to ―free ride‖ on the efforts of others if the group
is working to provide public goods. Individuals
will not ―free ride‖ in groups which provide
benefits only to active participants.
Mancur Olson 1932-1998 • Latent groups can be mobilized with the aid of
―selective incentives‖ (positive or negative)
• Group size is one of the determining factors in
deciding whether or not it is possible that the
voluntary, rational pursuit of individual interest
will bring forth group-oriented behavior

15. THE REALIZATION OF EFFECTIVE NORMS
• One possibility is that people want the resulting benefits.
So, when behavior produces harms for others, those
others have an interest in regulating it. In turn, they are
more likely to punish it, example: Smoking. When people
realized that second-hand smoke caused health
problems, they wanted smoking to be regulated
EXTERNALITY NORMS
PRODUCING
B E H AV I O R S
James S. Coleman
R E G U L ATO RY PUNISH
INTEREST DEVIANCE

17. THE DURKHEIMIAN TRADITION
Sociologist Contribution Period
Emile Durkheim Precontratual Solidarity 1893
Social rituals and sacred objects 1912
Henri Hubert and Marcel The social circulation of sentiments, 1906-34
Mauss magic, and money
Claude Levi-Strauss Kinship as sexual property exchange 1949
Erving Goffman The nature of deference and 1956
demeanor
Warren O. Hagstrom Social control in science 1965
Mary Douglas Grid and group 1973

18. DURKHEIM’S LAW OF SOCIAL GRAVITY
• The major determining factor is ―Social Morphology,‖ the
structural relationships among people. The essential laws of
sociology show how variations in the patterns of social
interaction determine variations in people’s behavior and belief
• Historical change happens mechanically, independent of
individual wills, by a kind of ―law of gravitation‖ of the social
world. Individuals develop progressively more specialized roles
because of the growth of population, developments in the
technology of transportation and communication
• The above two changes in the social structure bring about a
―progressive concentration of societies.‖ This diminishes the
space between groups and brings more people into interaction
with each other. This variation in ―social density‖ is a key aspect
in Durkheim’s theory
Emile Durkheim • Where there is high social density, the structure changes
(1858 – 1917) towards a complex division of labor (p. 187 – 188)
It is competition that motivates individuals to seek specialized
niches when society density increases

19. THE TWO WINGS TO THE DURKHEIMIAN TRADITION
Macroemphasis
(theory of the Microemphasis
division of labor) (theory of rituals)
– social
anthropology
• Robert Merton
• Talcott Parsons • Marcel Mauss
(Functionalists) • Erving
Goffman
Macrolevel and Microlevel
• Claude Levi-Strauss

20. MERTON, PARSONS, AND FUNCTIONALISM
• The key entity is the social system as a whole
• Parsons developed an extremely complex analysis of
categorizing its various functional sectors and subsectors
• The whole society has a set of values that are inculcated into
individuals (p. 201)
Talcott Parsons
• Manifest functions – results that
people try to consciously attain
• Latent functions – produced by the
action of the social system itself
Robert Merton

21. FUSTEL DE COULANGES AND RITUAL CLASS WAR
• Religious rituals can form an entire society – it is the
basis of social institutions, ranging from the family and
property to war and politics
• Social change springs from transformations in the
nature of religion
• Society emerges initially as a religious cult. Religion
not only established the basic social groupings, but
also their politics and moralities, It also shaped the
economy. (p.208)
• Religion is a weapon of domination

22. DURKHEIM’S THEORY OF MORALITY & SYMBOLISM
• The reality of religion is not transcendental and that
God is a symbol of the society and its moral power
over individuals
• Type of God corresponds to the type of society.
Rituals are the mechanism that produces ideas
charged with social significance, and the content of
ideas reflects the structure of society (p. 212)

23. W. LLOYD WARNER: THE RITUAL BASIS OF
STRATIFICATION
• Different religious doctrines not only symbolized
different social groups, but also served to keep these
groups separated and stratified
• The very symbols of modern religions reflect the
family – if the family structure were to change, the
predominant religious conceptions would change also
(p. 217)
• Patriotic ceremonies are ritual weapons of class
domination; they suppress feelings of class conflict
and dissension by emphasizing group unity

24. ERVING GOFFMAN: EVERYDAY CULT OF THE
INDIVIDUAL
• Goffman found rituals of which we are not ordinarily
aware as such, rituals that permeate every aspect of our
social encounters – the most clearly formulated of these
rituals of everyday life are what we call politeness or good
manners
• Every such ritual – both gives some deference for the
other person and claims some status for oneself by
showing that one is a person who knows how to carry out
the proper formalities.
• Interaction rituals are weapons that people can use to
score points: to make the right contacts, to embarrass or
put down rivals, to assert one’s social superiority.
• Rituals are performances. They not only have social
consequences – creating ideal image of the self,
negotiating social ties, controlling others – but they also
require certain resources, both material properties and
cultural skills,

25. COLLINS, BERNSTEIN, AND DOUGLAS: INTERACTION
RITUALS AND CLASS CULTURES
• Social classes are divided according to how much they
give orders or take orders (p. 220). The main dimension
of stratification is organized power.
• Those who give orders constitute the ―official class‖ and
are in charge of organizational rituals
• The higher social classes are one cultural type
Randall Collins and the lower classes are another cultural type
(p.222)
• The type of control people exert over their own
body depends on the structure of the group they
inhabit.
Mary Douglas
• Focused on the differences in language among social classes
• The lower class use a ―restricted code,‖ a form of talk that
assumes listeners knows the local details of what is being talked
about
• The higher social classes use an ―elaborated code,‖ talk that
communicates information without depending on local context
(abstractions)

26. MARCEL MAUSS AND THE MAGIC OF SOCIAL
EXCHANGE
• Magic depends on the same kinds of things, ideas, and
actions as religion
• Magic is always a derivative of some religion
• Religion is not an illusion – it symbolizes a real thing: the
power of society (p. 226)
• Economy was founded on religious belief. For money is a
medium of exchange, a universal standard and store of value
that makes it possible to convert all other particular goods
without the cumbersome process of barter
• Gift exchange seems horizontal, but it has vertical
consequences

27. LEVI-STRAUSS AND ALLIANCE THEORY
• The basic structure of a family is a network
• Marriages are exchanges much like gifts – they create moral
obligations that can only be violated by a loss of status
• Levi-Strauss proposed that the earliest fate of societies
depended on the strategies of marriage politics they pursued
(p. 231). Only those that took the greater risks of investing in
the long cycles were able to amass larger alliances and, hence,
acquire the political networks and the economic wealth that
made possible the rise of the state.
Claude Levi-Strauss

28. A THEORY OF INTERACTION RITUAL (IR) CHAINS
• Every interaction is a ritual. Every aspect of
people’s mental and cultural possessions become
charged with significance as a marker of social
membership
• The entire society can be visualized as a long
chain of interaction rituals, with people moving
from one encounter to another. Various outcomes
are possible, depending on how each person’s
Randall Collins cultural matches up with the other person’s cultural
capital. Through a market-like process, individuals
tend to make their most satisfying exchanges at
their own level

30. THE MICROINTERACTIONIST TRADITION
Sociologist Contribution Period
Charles Horton Cooley Society is in the mind 1902
George Herbert Mead Thought as internalized conversation 1934
Herbert Blumer Symbolic interactionism 1969
Hugh Mehan and Houston The ethnomethodology of the human 1975
Wood reality constructor
Erving Goffman Frame Analysis 1974

31. THE PRAGMATISM OF CHARLES SANDERS PIERCE
• Meaning is a three-cornered relationship, between the
sign, the object, and the internal referent or thought.
• Man is a sum total of his thoughts, and this sum is
always a historical bundle of his society’s experience
(p. 252)

32. COOLEY : SOCIETY IS IN THE MIND
• Cooley sought to highlight the connection between
society and the individual and felt that the two could
only be understood in relationship to each other.
• One’s personality comes from one’s influences. He
coined the concept of the ―looking-glass self‖, the
social determination of the self.
• Cooley ultimately wanted to show that the facts of
social life are mental, and the conduct of persons,
groups and institutions are the result of fundamental
Charles Horton Cooley mental phenomena.

33. GEORGE HERBERT MEAD’S SOCIOLOGY OF
THINKING
• We can never see our body as a whole, even in a mirror
(p.256)
• The individual experiences him/herself not by direct
observation, but only indirectly from the standpoint of others
• Thought is a conversation of gestures carried out with
oneself
• Each individual has multiple selves – we have different
relationships to different people and are one thing to one
persona and another thing to someone else
• Mead provides a model of the mind as a set of interacting
parts (p. 260) - it is socially anchored because ―the
generalized other‖ is its central reference point. At the same
George H. Mead time, it is individual and fundamentally free because the ―I‖
always negotiates with other people rather than accepts
preexisting social demands.

34. HERBERT BLUMER : SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
• People do not simply find roles ready-made. They
constantly create them and recreate them from one
situation to the next
• Society is not a structure but a process. Definitions of
situations emerge from this continuous negotiation of
perspectives. Reality is socially constructed
• Interactionists focus on the subjective aspects of social life,
rather than on objective, macro-structural aspects of social
systems. One reason for this focus is that interactionists
base their theoretical perspective on their image of humans,
rather than on their image of society (as the functionalists
do).
• For interactionists, humans are pragmatic actors who
continually must adjust their behavior to the actions of other
actors. We can adjust to these actions only because we are
able to interpret them, i.e., to denote them symbolically and
Herbert Blumer treat the actions and those who perform them as symbolic
objects. This process of adjustment is aided by our ability to
imaginatively rehearse alternative lines of action before we
act. The process is further aided by our ability to think about
and to react to our own actions and even our selves as
symbolic objects. Thus, the interactionist theorist sees
humans as active, creative participants who construct their
social world, not as passive, conforming objects of
socialization.
• Interactionists tend to study social interaction through
participant observation, rather than surveys and interviews