AGIL schema
Talcott Parsons’ division of society into four functional requisites: Adaptation, Goal attainment, Integration, and Latent pattern maintenance.
His AGIL schema provided a useful analytical grid for sociological theory.
anomie
A social condition or normlessness in which a lack of clear norms fails to give direction and purpose to individual actions.
He described this breakdown as a state of normlessness or anomie — a lack of norms that give clear direction and purpose to individual actions.
capitalism
An economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership and production of goods and their sale in a competitive market.
Early sociologists like Comte and Marx sought to formulate a rational, evidence-based response to the experience of massive social dislocation brought about by the transition from the European feudal era to capitalism.
content
The specific reasons or drives that motivate individuals to interact.
The “contents” of a society are never simply a set of objective qualities like the chemical composition of gases or the forces operating on celestial spheres.
critical sociology
A theoretical perspective that focuses on inequality and power relations in society in order to achieve social justice and emancipation through their transformation.
This framework became the foundation of contemporary critical sociology.
culture
Includes the group’s shared practices, values, beliefs, norms and artifacts.
A society is a group of people whose members interact, reside in a definable area, and share a culture.
dialectics
A type of analysis that proposes that social contradiction, opposition and struggle in society drive processes of social change and transformation.
Dialectics in sociology proposes that social contradiction, opposition, and struggle in society drive processes of social change and transformation.
disenchantment of the world
The replacement of magical thinking by technological rationality and calculation.
Key to the development of science was the technological mindset that Max Weber termed the disenchantment of the world.
dominant gender ideology
The belief that physiological sex differences between males and females are related to differences in their character, behaviour, and ability.
Key to patriarchy is the dominant gender ideology: the assumption that physiological sex differences between males and females are related to differences in their character and behaviour.
dual consciousness
The experience of a fissure or dividing point in everyday life where one crosses a line between irreconcilable forms of consciousness or perspective.
From this standpoint, Smith observed that women’s position in modern society is acutely divided by the experience of dual consciousness.
dynamic equilibrium
A stable state in which all parts of a healthy society are working together properly.
According to American sociologist Talcott Parsons (1881–1955), in a healthy society, all of these parts work together to produce a stable state called dynamic equilibrium (Parsons, 1961).
dysfunctions
Social patterns that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society.
Social processes that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society are called dysfunctions.
empiricism
The philosophical tradition that seeks to discover the laws of the operation of the world through careful, methodical, and detailed observation.
Instead modern science combined two philosophical traditions that had historically been at odds: Plato’s rationalism and Aristotle’s empiricism (Berman, 1981).
egoistic suicide
Suicide which results from the absence of strong social bonds tying the individual to a community.
They were more prone to what Durkheim termed egoistic suicide.
feminism
The critical analysis of the way gender differences in society structure social inequality.
Historical materialism, feminism, environmentalism, anti-racism, queer studies, and poststructuralism are all examples of the critical perspective in sociology.
figuration
The process of simultaneously analyzing the behaviour of an individual and the society that shapes that behaviour.
German sociologist Norbert Elias (1887-1990) called the process of simultaneously analyzing the behaviour of individuals and the society that shapes that behaviour figuration.
formal sociology
A sociology that analytically separates the contents from the forms of social interaction to study the common forms that guide human behaviour.
His answer led him to develop what he called formal sociology, or the sociology of social forms.
function
The part a recurrent activity plays in the social life as a whole and the contribution it makes to structural continuity.
Key to Durkheim’s approach was the development of a framework for sociology based on the analysis of social facts and social functions.
functionalism (functionalist perspective)
A theoretical approach that sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals that make up that society.
Two forms of positivism have been dominant in sociology since the 1940s: quantitative sociology and structural functionalism.
global-level sociology
The study of structures and processes that extend beyond the boundaries of states or specific societies.
The basic distinctions, however, are between micro-level sociology, macro-level sociology and global-level sociology.
historical materialism
An approach to understanding society that explains social change, human ideas, and social organization in terms of underlying changes in the economic (or material) structure of society.
Historical materialism, feminism, environmentalism, anti-racism, queer studies, and poststructuralism are all examples of the critical perspective in sociology.
interpretive sociology
A perspective that explains human behaviour in terms of the meanings individuals attribute to it.
The natural sciences may be precise, but from the interpretive sociology point of view their methods confine them to study only the external characteristics of things.
labelling
A social process in which an individual’s social identity is established through the imposition of a definition by authorities.
Howard Becker’s Outsiders (1963) for example described the process of labelling in which individuals come to be characterized or labelled as deviants by authorities.
latent functions
The unrecognized or unintended consequences of a social process.
Manifest functions are the consequences of a social process that are sought or anticipated, while latent functions are the unsought consequences of a social process.
macro-level sociology
The study of society-wide social structures and processes.
The basic distinctions, however, are between micro-level sociology, macro-level sociology and global-level sociology.
manifest functions
Sought consequences of a social process.
Manifest functions are the consequences of a social process that are sought or anticipated, while latent functions are the unsought consequences of a social process.
micro-level sociology
The study of specific relationships between individuals or small groups.
The basic distinctions, however, are between micro-level sociology, macro-level sociology and global-level sociology.
mode of production
The way human societies act upon their environment and its resources in order to use them to meet their needs.
Are structured by the society’s economic mode of production — the way human societies act upon their environment and its resources in order to use them to meet their needs.
multi-perspectival science
A science that is divided into competing or diverse paradigms.
Sociology is a multi-perspectival science: a number of distinct perspectives or paradigms offer competing explanations of social phenomena.
paradigms
Philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them.
Sociology is a multi-perspectival science: a number of distinct perspectives or paradigms offer competing explanations of social phenomena.
patriarchy
Institutions of male power in society.
The feminist critique of patriarchy leads to interesting insights into how structures of power and inequality work.
positive stage
A stage of social evolution in which people explain events in terms of scientific principles and laws.
Finally, in the positive stage, humans explain causes in terms of positivist, scientific observations and laws (i.e., “positive” knowledge based on propositions limited to what can be empirically observed).
positivism (positivist perspective or positivist sociology)
The scientific study of social patterns based on methodological principles of the natural sciences.
Comte named the scientific study of social patterns positivism.
quantitative sociology
Statistical methods such as surveys with large numbers of participants.
Two forms of positivism have been dominant in sociology since the 1940s: quantitative sociology and structural functionalism.
rationalization
The general tendency of modern institutions and most areas of life to be transformed by the application of instrumental reason.
Macro-level phenomena like capitalism, the moral order, or rationalization refer to many ongoing processes of interaction between individuals.
Rationalism
The philosophical tradition that seeks to determine the underlying laws that govern the truth of reason and ideas.
Instead modern science combined two philosophical traditions that had historically been at odds: Plato’s rationalism and Aristotle’s empiricism (Berman, 1981).
reification
Referring to abstract concepts, complex processes or mutable social relationships as “things.”
Reification refers to the way in which abstract concepts, complex processes, or mutable social relationships come to be thought of as “things.”
social action
Actions to which individuals attach subjective meanings.
Rather than defining sociology as the study of the unique dimension of external social facts, sociology was concerned with social action: actions to which individuals attach subjective meanings.
social facts
The external laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and cultural rules that govern social life.
Key to Durkheim’s approach was the development of a framework for sociology based on the analysis of social facts and social functions.
social reform
An approach to social change that advocates slow, incremental improvements in social institutions rather than rapid, revolutionary change of society as a whole.
On the basis of extensive research, interviews, and observations, she published Society in America and worked with abolitionists on the social reform of slavery (Zeitlin, 1997).
social solidarity
The social ties that bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location, and religion.
Laws create a basis for social solidarity and order.
society
A group of people whose members interact, reside in a definable area, and share a culture.
A dictionary defines sociology as the systematic study of society and social interaction.
sociological imagination
The ability to understand how your own unique circumstances relate to that of other people, as well as to history in general and societal structures in particular.
Mills defined sociological imagination as how individuals understand their own and others’ lives in relation to history and social structure (1959/2000).
sociology
The systematic study of society and social interaction.
A key insight of sociology is that the simple fact of being in a group changes your behaviour.
standpoint theory
The examination of how society is organized and coordinated from the perspective of a particular social location or perspective in society.
Dorothy Smith’s development of standpoint theory was a key innovation in sociology that enabled these issues to be seen and addressed in a systematic way (Smith, 1977).
structural functionalism
see functionalism.
Two forms of positivism have been dominant in sociology since the 1940s: quantitative sociology and structural functionalism.
structure
General patterns that persist through time and become habitual or routinized at micro-levels of interaction, or institutionalized at macro or global levels of interaction.
In global-level sociology, the focus is on structures and processes that extend beyond the boundaries of states or specific societies.
symbolic interactionism
A theoretical perspective through which scholars examine the relationship of individuals within their society by studying their communication (language and symbols).
Critical sociology and symbolic interactionism are two other sociological paradigms which formulate the explanatory framework and research problem differently.
theory
A proposed explanation about social interactions or society.
It also presents in a highly condensed form Marx’s theory of society, which differed from what Comte proposed.
Verstehen
German for “understanding”; in sociology it refers to the use of empathy, or putting oneself in another’s place; to understand the motives and logic of another’s action.
To deal with this problem, Weber and Dilthey introduced the concept of Verstehen, a German word that means to understand from a subject’s point of view.
These terms were extracted from Introduction to Sociology – 2nd Canadian Edition by William Little, eCampusOntario (originally published by BCcampus, 2016) which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on Introduction to Sociology by OpenStax (© 2013 Rice University), licensed under CC BY 3.0.