Postmodern Theory In Research

They agree that religion has the power to introduce and change social Norms. Norms refer to common and agreed ways of behavior in various social activities. (McDonald, 2006, p. 14) The difference of opinion on whether this was a positive or negative can be read in the quotes below: “If Religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society is the soul of religion” Emile Durkheim “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” Karl Marx As both sociology perspectives also differ greatly and often contradict each other I will use the following questions (Used by O’Donnell) to explain the many differences between Functionalism and Marxism. (McDonald, 2006, p. 19) How is society constructed?

Glerhard Lenski however, was a sociologist known for his donation to the human science of religion, social imbalance between individuals, and presenting the environmental developmental hypothesis. As opposed to the other sociologist, Mr. lenski viewed society and the social structure from a different perspective. He focused on the social and cultural elements of society in which he studied Macro sociology. Lenski was the theorist of Social Change and technology. Changes that occur within society allows technology to take control and this process is known as sociocultural revolution.

Paradigms of American Society The four major paradigms, or theoretical perspectives, dominating American sociological thinking are a) functionalism and the systems paradigm, b) interactionism and the conduct paradigm, c) critical theory and the conflict paradigm, and d) exchange theory and ecological perspective (Straus, 2002). The functionalism and the systems paradigm states that the properties of a society are based on the interrelatedness of its members and not on the individual characteristics of the members themselves. The interactionism and the conduct paradigm states that people interact with one another in determining their realities. The critical theory and the conflict paradigm states that social conditions are influenced through group conflicts. The exchange theory and ecological perspective states that social conditions are influenced through interpersonal and intergroup transactions.

Introduction In the following, I am going to analyse Marx and Weber 's social conflict views of stratification and in what way their views resemble and to what extend they differ from each other. At first, I will provide an explanation of stratification in general. Thereupon, I will define Karl Marx 's ideas and point of view of stratification. Then I am going to analyse Max Weber ' s aspects of stratification. Lastly, I am going to compare their views and state the similarities and differences between them.

A common question that many people ask about society is why certain events happen and what causes them to occur. Sociology is a study that explains why these questionable events take place, and what motivates human behaviour. Sociology developed from sociologists creating theories based on human behaviour in society. Many sociologists contribute to the study of society by creating ideas and constructing theories in order to try to explain the reasoning for the functioning of human society;. Specifically, Charles Cooley studied the relationship between the individual and society.

Philosophical assumptions are often referred to as background or domain assumption (Bohm and Vogel, 2011). These theories are constructed of three types of philosophical assumptions. The first philosophical assumptions are the ethical assumption. It defines what is good and bad, right or wrong for an individual (Bohm and Vogel, 2011). The nature and obligations of an ethical assumption are to attack crime by using existing social institutions (Bohm and Vogel, 2011).

This period was known for posing critical sociological issues without the possibility of their resolutions. The afore-mentioned resolutions came about more distinctly in the nineteenth-century. According to Alan, the early nineteenth-century sociological thought sought to define the social both in terms of society as a complex structural whole and in its relation with specific institutions (Swingewood, 1991). The science of sociology began in the search for explanations for social change and this has resulted in mainly three schools of sociology. These include: Early sociological thought, Classical sociological thought and Modern sociological thought.

In sociology, there are three theoretical perspectives; symbolic interactionism, functional analysis and conflict theory. The major point of symbolic interactionism is to use symbols to help understand how we as a society view the world, and how we communicate with one another. In functional analysis, the major point is to look at society as a whole, constructed of various parts, or groups, that all have their own function. Lastly, conflict theory is the opposite of functional analysis. In this perspective, society is viewed as different groups, each competing for power, or dominance.

The social world has to be verified in a purely empirical manner by understanding of empiricism and realist ontology. Both have a view that the world exists independently of researchers’ knowledge of it and that social phenomena have causal powers on which we can make causal statements. Both Marxist and positivist stress the need for a rigorous scientific method, for scientific analysis of the social phenomenon and natural world. However these two perspectives have some traits which make one unique from another and these are discussions as below, Marxist perspective is more objective that is to say; describes a problem from the point of view of those experiencing the problem whereas positivist perspective is more subjective that is to say; it is interpreted by the researcher about the problem. Marxist perspective focuses less on empirical study and abstains from a historical explanation of social phenomena but focuses on an epistemological position which is sceptical of the naive perceptions that which lead to a proper understanding of the social world without using theoretical framework whereas positivism focuses on ontological realism and objectivity in understanding the world with value free empirical

He distinguishes sociology from Philosophy by emphasizing on empirical nature of sociology. Durkheim is of view that in order to be objective and scientific; a discipline must deals with “things” and not “ideas” or “concept”. He criticizes the social sciences of his time as for dealing more with ‘concept’ and ‘ideas’ in comparison of