"Lifestyles are thus the systematic products of habitus, which, perceived in their mutual relations through the schemes of habitus, become sign systems that are socially qualified (as distinguished, vulgar etc.). (Bourdieu, P. 1979/1984 p. )

Michel Foucault introduces the "dispositive" by describing it thus: "a heterogeneous ensemble, which comprises discourse, institutions, architectural establishments, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical, moral or philanthropic dogmas, in short, everything that is said and not said. However, it is not these elements alone which result in the dispositive but rather that it describes the manner in which these elements interact. The "dispositive" is, thus, "the net that can be connected between these elements." (Foucault Dispositive of Power 1978) (source)

The word was coined in Germany by Ernst Haeckel in 1866, who defined its as the study of the relationship of organisms with their environment. By 1900 the word was sufficiently unknown in Britain to be absent from The Concise English Dictionary. Literary, Scientific and Technical and, in 1902, a British magazine specialising in ecology was called The New Phytologist

The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica defined oecology, or ecology as "that part of the science of biology which treats of the adaptation of plants or animals to their environment".

A concept of plant ecology that later became important for human ecology is succession. The Chicago botanist, Henry Cowles developed this concept in study of the vegetation of sand dunes.

"Cowles argued that the natural succession of plant forms in time could be traced in physical space as one moved inland from the open lake beach across ancient shorelines through the shifting dunes to the interior forest. Along this route, scrubby beach grass would give way to flowers and more substantial woody plants, cottonwoods and pines would be seen yielding to oaks and hickories, and one would finally encounter the climax forest of beeches and maples" (external source)

Animal ecology was developed by Charles Christopher Adams (1913 USA) and Charles Elton (1927 United Kingdom), amongst others.

The term Human Ecology was used by the Scottish theorist, Patrick Geddes, in his writing on city development on 1904 and 1915 [source].

The Chicago (USA) sociology of Robert Park and Ernest Burgess was centred on ecological concepts. In their 1921 textbook of Sociology they developed concepts of competition - conflict - adaptation - accommodation and assimilation which allowed them to adapt theories used for the analysis of "plant communities" to the analysis of human inter-relations. Of these concepts, conflict accommodation and assimilation are particularly relevant to the human world, whereas competiton was typical of plant communites. They wrote

"It is only in the plant community that we can observe the process of competition in isolation, uncomplicated with other social processes. The members of a plant community live together in a relation of mutual interdependence which we call social" [see example] "probably because, while it is close and vital, it is not biological. It is not biological because the relation is a merely external one and the plants that compose it are not even of the same species. They do not interbreed. The members of a plant community adapt themselves to one another as all living things adapt themselves to their environment, but there is no conflict between them because they are not conscious. Competition takes the form of conflict or rivalry only when it becomes conscious, when competitors identify one another as rivals or as enemies."

In his Presidential Address to the American Sociological Association in 1925, Park said:

"The sociologist's interest in human ecology is in man's relation to other men as found in the definite and typical patterns which the population assumes in natural areas. In so far as social structure can be defined in terms of position, and social changes in terms of movement of the population, social phenomena are subject to mathematical measurement."

Park's Chicago web biography says

" Human ecology was a phrase Park coined, borrowing concepts of symbiosis - invasion - succession - dominance - gradients of growth, superordination, and subordination from the science of natural ecology. Such concepts of interaction and dynamic mobility in society were useful in redirecting sociology from reform to scientific analysis without denying the social importance of knowledge."

ecology only part of the story

Park and his Chicago colleagues argued that ecology is one of three fundamental processes shaping the city. The other two are cultural and economic. The ecological forces are the result of competition and are "not the result of the design of anyone"

"Eco" in ecosystem comes from ecology. It means the system of living beings occupying an area with common features (for example, a lake, a field or an area of a city) together with the physical environment they interact with. Living beings includes human beings.

Arthur Tansley introduced the concept of ecosystem to ecology in 1935. His earlier (1920) work on psychology shows the importance of systems to his theoretical understanding of human reality.

" It is in our public schools that the majority of our children are being formed. These schools must be the guardians par excellence of our national character. They are the heart of our general education system."

A school provides formal education for children, outside the family.

Further education and higher education refer to stages of education beyond the school. Included in higher education is university education.

Emotion

Emotion is central to Mary Wollstonecraft's evolutionary perspective on society and history. She writes:

" For what purpose were the passions implanted? That man by struggling with them might attain a degree of knowledge denied to the brutes, whispers Experience. "

Emotion is central to Emile Durkheim's perception of what makes society real. For Durkheim, solidarity and society are the foundation of our feelings.

Crime, Durkheim argues, is defined as "an offense to collective sentiments" that are not superficial, but "emotions and tendencies which are strongly ingrained in us"

Emotion is central to Sigmund Freud's vision of the evolution of society and the individual. In our collective history and personal development we are shaped by the forces of love and sex, betrayal and hatred, murder and guilt, compromise and reconciliation.

Charles Darwin's Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals is a starting point for George Herbert Mead's analysis of the evolution of mind, self and society.

Enlightenment

Enlightenment means what its says - a light shines and we see the world. It is the process by which reason and science are supposed to have opened the world up to us.

Although often linked to specific events, such as the French Revolution, there are four periods of intellectual history (with a focus on different countries) often spoken of as periods of enlightenment. The word is also used generally for a process that may still be going on.

Immanuel Kant wrote (1784) that

"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another"

So enlightenment is also the process by which human beings take control of our lives and become autonomous - self-directing. It is a description of humanity gaining freedom - See, especially, Rousseau - Hegel - and John Stuart Mill's concepts of freedom.

Has the enlightenment project failed

Critical theorists claim it has, but what do they mean?

Here is my (over) simple answer -

At the beginning of the 20th century liberal and socialist theorists expected society to progress towards greater rationality and greater democracy. The continuation of the enlightenment process.

Then came National Socialism - when German voters "democratically" gave up freedom to a regime that was authoritarian and anti-reason.

This is the "failure of the enlightenment project" that the critical theorists were analysing after the second world war.

By this time, most of them lived in America. America got richer. Americans thought they were free. Perhaps the enlightenment project had not failed after all? Oh no! said the critical theorists. It has failed, because modern advertising and things like that have destroyed our freedom.

But, not everyone agrees that the Enlightenment project has failed. Parsons argues that (despite what critical theorists and others argue) people in America had more freedom (in 1970) in more spheres than at any other time in history - and that the process is still progressive.

If people are arranged on different levels, one above one another, we call that hierarchical

John Locke lived in and approved of a hierarchical society but wrote that reason teaches us that:

"being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions."

Many social theories take as an axiom that there is a natural equality between human beings. The same social theorists may hold that there is a natural hierarchy to human society. The two concepts are not necessarily contradictions. Consider, for example, a parent and child. The hierarchy is evident. The parent controls the child. Does this mean that the parent has a greater value than the child? Or that the parent and child are not "equal and independent" beings?

We understand the human world by thinking of the other person as ourself. Reading what I write, you understand it by thinking of me as someone like you who is trying to communicate with you. Looking into the face of a baby you do the same without words. This equality of being is an aspect of what social theorists mean by natural equality. It is an equality that exists irrespective of differences of age, rank, race, religion, size, ability, wealth or whatever.

Arguing against equality as a basis of social policy, the conservative theorist Ian Gilmour writes:

"The difficulty is that men are manifestly not equal. In some ways of course the difference between them are less important than the similarities. Most people accept that all men are equal in the sight of God, which takes us back to Coleridge's idea that no man should be treated as merely a means to an end. In this sense the phrase 'all men are equal means all men are men and should be treated as such." (Gilmour, I. 1977/1978 Inside Right pp 175-176)

The way in which the similarities between humans are more important than the differences (in some respects) is the issue that theorists are often highlighting when they make natural equality an axiom of their social theories.

This natural equality is linked to natural freedom. (Notice Locke's phrase "equal and independent"). Rousseau is adopting the axiom of equality when he writes:

"Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains"

In the sense I have defined it, a belief in equality, can be found in most social theorists to different degrees and with varying emphasis. It appears to be completely absent from Nazi theory.

Locke's idea of equality is explored in Social Science History chapter 2

Balance is measured mechanically by scales and the idea of equilibrium is an important part of the physical science of mechanics, going right back to the ancient Greeks. (See Statics)

Equilibrium has been used in economics, from the late nineteenth century, for the point at which the forces of supply and demand are matched and prices stable. The image here is of a system that balances itself. If prices are high, people do not buy all the goods, sellers lower the prices. If they fall far enough, all the goods are bought and there is a shortage. Prices are raised and this encourages more provision of the goods at the same time as it reduces purchases. In this way, the market moves towards a price that balances supply and demand.

The idea of a system that is self-balancing has since been applied widely in the social sciences, including psychology and sociology. See, for example, Arthur Tansley's interpretation of Freud and Robert Park and others in The City. The concept was also used by Durkheim and Parsons

Everyday Life and Common Sense

Some sociologists give everyday life and common sense an important role with respect to sociology. Bauman and May (2000, p.5) say that the kind of questions that define sociology are "part of the practical realities of every day life" and "Thinking sociologically is also distinguished by its relationship with so- called 'common sense'"

In Erving Goffman's The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, everyday life is something that he compares and contrasts with another life: the life acted on a theatre stage. He argues that we present ourselves in everyday life in ways that can be analysed (to some extent) as if we were acting,

So (perhaps), everyday life is the ordinary life that we all live every day as contrasted with specialist lives, such as actor, sociologist, train driver, company director, or whatever, that some of us live some of the time.

Goffman also calls his approach a "sociological perspective from which social life can be studied". Which suggests social life as another term for everyday life. His analysis is particularly relevant to the life we live in "domestic, industrial, or commercial" establishments - In other words, to the life we live at home and at work.

In considering the relationship between everyday life and common sense, one can note Goffman's use of the term everyday sense. If everyday sense is like common sense, it suggests that common sense is the sense (meaning) that we attach to ideas in our everyday lives.

The Evangelical revival in Britain was, according to this theory, a major contributor to the creation of Victorian values.

The history of the evangelical revival conveniently begins with John and Charles Wesley and the pursuit of "methodism" within the Church of England. Methodism (reluctantly) burst out of the established church and became an independent group of denominations. The "Clapham Sect" formed within the Church of England and was associated the teaching of Simeon and others at Cambridge University.

The Evangelical, William Wilberforce, was active in securing A Proclamation for the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue and for preventing and punishing of Vice, Profaneness, and Immorality, issued by George the Third (June 1,1787) and started the Proclamation Society to see it enforced.

A inter-denomination magazine called The Evangelical Magazine was founded in 1793. The Conservative social reformer, Ashley was an evangelical. During the 19th Century, Evangelical causes were closely associated with Exeter Hall

Before we had books, we had scrolls. A book can just be opened at a page and read, a scroll must be unrolled - the message develops as you unroll more. The Latin for unrolling scrolls gave us the word evolution which describes the opening up or unfolding of forms. A flower evolves from bud to blossom, through faded, fertilised, bloom to seed. The idea has long existed that all the forms we find in the world may have evolved. One plant may have evolved from another, one animal from another, one form of society from another. In the mid- 19th century, Charles Darwin and others suggested the mechanism of natural selection as an explanation of how this might have happened.

In social science history one of the most important interests of evolutionary theory has been the transition from nature to society.

See State of Nature theory - George Herbert Mead

In social science history another important interest of evolutionary theory has been the development of society. Parsons refers to this as social evolution (see quote)

See Herbert Spencer's evolutionary theory

Some of the words used in the 19th and 20th centuries by theorists of the evolution of human being are have offensive associations and are no longer current in anthropology. Key terms used by earlier evolution theorists (see Engels, for example), with their meaning, were:

civilisation: from the word civis a city. A 1900 dictionary defines it as "the state of being refined in manners from the rudeness of savage life, and improved in arts and learning".

A distinction is made between ancient civilisations and modern civilisation..

Civilised can have an even narrower meaning. For example, in 1847, Engels said that the civilised countries of the world included at least ... England, America, France, and Germany.

Culture can be used as an alternative word for civilisation, as in "culture and barbarism"

primitive From Latin primitivus, earliest of its kind, from primus, first.

A horde is a nomadic group of families that wanders. The concept was used by some theorists for an imagined transitional group between animal and human societies. These theories relate back to Charles Darwin's speculations about sexual relations before humans became fully human. Discussion of this plays an important part in Freud's theories about the origins of society. The term horde is also used by Durkheim for an imaginary "society whose cohesion was exclusively the result of resemblances". Had such a society existed, it would have been the earliest form of society.

savagery from silva, a wood. A 1900 dictionary says that savage means belonging to the forest or wilderness, wild... uncivilised... untaught. 19th century anthropologists used savagery as the name for a period of nomadic (wandering) existence, before human beings settled down to cultivation.

barbarism from the ancient Greek word for (uncivilised) foreigners who did not speak Greek. [See Aristotle 1252b and 1252b15]. 19th century anthropologists used barbarism as the name for a period of agricultural existence, before towns developed. But, like savagery, it is also used as a pejorative word: "barbarity is extremely cruel behaviour" (Plain English Dictionary). In 1947, Adorno and Horkheimer argued (in Dialectic of Enlightenment) that reason was not necessarily civilising, but could become an instrument of totalitarian control. They described anti-semitism as civilisation reverting to barbarism.

Civil and savage Two photographs taken in different parts of the world between 1906 and 1919. The first (about 1906) is of a working class Lancashire family, in their best clothes, posing for the one family photograph that will be hung in the front room.

The second is of a chief and selected companions, posed for a picture intended for the October 1919 National Geographic Magazine. The chief's head dress is made of the hair of enemies he has eaten. Click on the Lancashire family to read about civilisation in the twentieth century. Click on the chief and his naked ladies to read Freud's theories of the relationship between the dreams of neurotics and myths of savages The small girl on the right in the Lancashire picture is Lily Mckenzie - One of many whose boyfriends won medals in the war for civilisation.

Freud argues that

"civilisation enters on the scene with the first attempt to regulate social relationships which affect a person as a neighbour, as a source of help, as another person's sexual object, as a member of a family..." (Freud, S. 1930 par.3.12)

The pictures above make suggestions in our minds about the relationship between sex and good-neighbourliness (The Lancashire family do not eat their neighbours) and the family (The chief has a group of sexual partners rather than a family with children and responsibities)

"Consider social facts as things"

British empiricist philosophers in the 17th and 18th century argued that the only reality we can rely on is experience. From this developed another idea of fact. Facts are sensory experiences from which we infer knowledge, or facts are data that we collect as the basis on which to build science. Durkheim was not an empiricist. [I am sorry if your text book says he is. Click on the link to read what he says about empiricism.] He criticises empiricism from a Kantian perspective.

Family

a part of society - theoretical implication for social theory

history of word - history of forms - family and household - family today - family statistics - family and social theory - domestic violence -

History of the word family:

Writing over 2,000 years ago, Aristotle said the family arose out of relations between husband and wife and master and slave. This should alert us that there are broader concepts of family than just parents and children. [See Large Patriarchal Families and read Aristotle

The Anglo-Saxons word hiwscipe included the husband, wife, children, servants, slaves, animals, buildings, and lands. It began to be replaced by family in the 14th century.

The origin of the modern English word is also household (Latin familia - from famulus: servant)

Reflecting the family base of, even earlier, tribal societies, the 1611 Bible uses family for much larger groups than we would today:

"Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.... By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations"

History of family forms:

Historically the family has taken different forms. Engels argues that the study of these forms began with a German writer Bachofen in 1861. To gain an broad overview of the forms Engels suggests, see my Summary of Historical Materialism which has links to extracts from Engels.

Die Familie (1912) by Franz Carl Müller-Lyer outlines three stages in its historic development 1) the tribal stage with the clan, 2) the familial stage with large and then small patriarchal families, 3) the individual era with the asmall family of husband, wife and children

See Clan

See Patriarch

Abraham: A Christian term for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and other revered rulers of families (tribes) in the Bible is the Patriarchs.

ancient Rome a "very close approximation" to "absolute power" in the Large Patriarchal Family.

The medieval family

15th century "the small patriarchal family of medieval society" in which " marriage was arranged by parents with stress upon economic rather than romantic considerations".

The modern family

Burgess Locke describe the changing family form in modern society as a journey from institution to companionship

Willmott and Young describe this transition in Britain as having three stages:

The pre-Industrial family (Pre-1750): Characterised as:
Stable
Productive as an economic unit
Having economic links with wider society
Father as head of household, exercising economic control over family

The asymmetrical family (1750 - 1900)
Characterised as:
Disrupted by the ndustrialisation process
Involving a clear separation between home and work
Having "absent" fathers (at work)
Emphasising women's role as "mother" and domestic labourer

The symmetrical family (20th century)
Characterised as:
Stable
Child-centred
Involving greater levels of equality between males and females

Family and household Family in late Victorian dictionaries: 1870 Dictionary: "household; race, generation; honourable descent" - 1887 Dictionary: - "a household, living in one house and under one head, including parents and children, and primarily, as well as sometimes still, servants" - "those who descend from one common progenitor; a tribe or race" - "kindred" ...

The UK Office of National Statistics uses these definitions of family and household. Both appear to require living together:

A family is a married, civil partnered or cohabiting couple with or without children, or a lone parent with at least one child. Children may be dependent or non-dependent

A household is defined as a person living alone, or a group of people living at the same address who have the address as their only or main residence and either share one main meal a day or share living accommodation (or both).

Family today

Speaking of European and North American societies today, Agnes Miles (1981, p.115) says that most people live in "family groups" which are usefully defined as "relatives living in the same household, sharing common table and living room" (a definition used by census takers).

Two other definitions she suggests are: elementary or nuclear family, including "parents and their non-adult children only" and extended family, which also includes "grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins".

The nuclear family can mean a household of (just) father, mother, and children, or it can mean father, mother, and children, regarded as a basic social unit and (possibly) living as part of an extended family. Talcott Parsons sometimes refers to the isolated nuclear family to distinguish the household of (just) father, mother, and children from the nuclear family as part of a larger family or family household.

The following uses of the phrase nuclear family (include the examples from the Oxford English Dictionary) illustrate different uses:

1924 B. Malinowski in Psyche 4 p.294 "The nuclear family complex..is due to a certain type of social grouping". (Oxford English Dictionary)

1941 George Murdock in Sociometry 4 p.146 "The nuclear or individual family, consisting of father, mother, and children, is universal; no exceptions were found in our 220 societies". (Oxford English Dictionary)

"the nuclear family is ... universal to all known human societies. The minimal criteria for the nuclear family are, I suggest, first that there should be a solidary relationship between mother and child lasting over a period of years and transcending physical care in its significance. Secondly, in her motherhood of this child the woman should have a special relationship to a man outside her own descent group who is sociologically the "father" of the child, and that this relationship is the focus of the "legitimacy" of the child, of his referential status in the larger kinship system." Talcott Parsons 10.1.1954

1963 Alastair Heron Towards a Quaker View of Sex p.56 "This taboo is of social origin, designed to protect the basic unit of society the 'nuclear' family from disintegration". (Oxford English Dictionary)

1990 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 23 May 23/2 "'The idea of a nuclear family is a very unnatural way to live,' Dave said". (Oxford English Dictionary)

Other writers have suggested more diverse categories of family groups in countries such as the present day United Kingdom. In addition to the above:

Lone parent family

A lone parent is "a parent who does not live with a partner and thus has most, or all, of the responsibility for bringing up a child or children" (Oxford English Dictionary). Other terms are one parent family and single parent family

Re-constituted family Where individuals separated from one family relationship become part of another. Where children are involved, this creates step-families.

Co-habiting couples

Same sex couples

Statistics - United Kingdom - 2001
Source: Focus on Families 2007 Office of National Statistics.
Based on 2001 Census, Office for National Statistics; General Register Office for Scotland; Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency

Total Families 16,545,777
with no children 6,796,057
with dependent children 7,220,594
with non-dependent children only 2,529,126

Married couple family 11,641,007
with no children 5,504,332
with dependent children 4,559,060
with non-dependent children only 1,577,615

Married couple stepfamily 502,150
with dependent children 377,333
with non-dependent children only 124,817

Cohabiting couple family 2,191,165
with no children 1,291,725
with dependent children 814,939
with non-dependent children only 84,501

Cohabiting couple stepfamily 373,902
with dependent children 313,328
with non-dependent children only 60,574

Lone mother family 2,342,966
with dependent children 1,664,081
with non-dependent children only 678,885

Lone father family 370,639
with dependent children 182,514
with non-dependent children only 188,125

One of the reasons family is discussed by social theorists is its theoretical implication for social theory generally.

Robert Filmer, in the 17th century, and and Roger Scruton, in the 20th, for example, both construct views of society around the idea of family. Both theorists contrast the idea that "contract" is the foundation of society, with their own view that society is better understood by thinking about the relations that exist in the family, between parents and children. Scruton sees the family model as a "conservative" model and contract as the "liberal" model.

The title of Jean Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract shows that it is in the contractual, liberal camp. However he combines his contractual theory with an analysis of family bonds as the basis of society:

"The family then may be called the first model of political societies: the ruler corresponds to the father, and the people to the children; and all, being free and equal, alienate their liberty only for their own advantage."

Family relations include those between adult partners as well as those between adults and children. Aristotle conceptualised the difference between these relations, but wives have often been thought of theoretically as similar to children in their relation to the male "head" of the household.

Harriet Taylor and John Stuart Mill, two liberal theorists, argued in an 1848 essay that an authoritarian, hierarchical, paternalist relationship in which women are dependent on men is unsuitable to a modern society based on self determination. Mill elaborated on this in The Subjection of Women (1869), arguing that egalitarian families would educate people for democratic political societies.

Sigmund Freud contrasted his theories of society and human relations, based on an analysis of the unconscious mind, with the consciously rational analysis of Mill (and Taylor). Mill imagined society and family based on freely determined relations been autonomous adults, educating children in a school of freedom. Freud analysed the family as the site of deadly conflicts, conflicts that are paralleled in society and history.

One of the issues in dispute between these theorists is the nature of science. Those who support the family model against a contract model tend to argue that their model is based on analysis of what is real (a "thing" as Durkheim would say) rather than on a philosophic rationalism that relates more to what some people might want society to be then to what it is. (See the positivist distinction between science and philosophy)

Domestic violence - child abuse - violence against women

Domestic violence is violence within a family or household. As the following quotations indicate, it can be viewed as deviance or normal behaviour.

The range of behaviour that can be covered is indicated in this quotation:

"In Women's Aid's view domestic violence is physical, sexual, psychological or financial violence that takes place within an intimate or family-type relationship and that forms a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour" (source)

Domestic violence is mainly violence by men against women and/or children. Violence against children is sometimes classified separately as child abuse. See external link to National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children "Defining child abuse"

Violence by men against women may be institutionalised in societies, as suggested by this quotation:

"Although it is noted that in some African countries, violence against women is a criminal offence, many Governments do not address the issue. Certain traditional practices, rape, female genital mutilation, wife battering, incest, sexual harassment are rampant and are harmful to the health of women and the girl-child. Often these practices affect the perceptions of the girl-child to the extent that she does not see herself as a victim." (source)

For a possible theoretical structure for patriarchal violence see the 17th century works of Robert Filmer. For the case for controlling patriarchal violence see the 19th century works of John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor, especially their 1848 paper and Mill's 1869 book.

The 2004 The UK introduced a single definition of domestic violence to be used by all government departments so that victims were not faced by different definitions. The Act defines domestic violence as

"any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are, or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexual orientation'."

An adult is any person aged 18 years and over and family members are defined as mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister and grandparents, whether directly related, in-laws or step-family. The definition is supported by an explanatory text that makes it clear that domestic violence includes female genital mutilation, forced marriage and so called "honour crimes". (source)

In 2011 the government consulted on extending the age rang for "domestic violence" (as distinct from "child abuse") to include 16-17 year olds (its preferred option) and/or to include the phrase to include 'coercive control' and/or to include all ages. (Sources: December 2011 Consultation - 24.10.2011 Impact assessment

Your kin are your family, race or blood relations

Since the mid-nineteenth century, anthropologists (and social theorists generally) have used the word kinship for the pattern of relationships (by descent or marriage) recognised in a culture and the way they form the basis for the social organisation of the society.

Relationships by descent (blood relations) are called consanguineous. Relations by marriage are called conjugal

However, note Malinowski (1913, p. 182)

"Consanguinity (as a sociological concept) is therefore not the physiological bond of common blood ; it is the social acknowledgment and interpretation of it."

What was once the women's emancipation movement became the feminist movement. The words feminism and feminist, in this sense, emerged in the late 19th century. They are not in Blackie's Concise English Dictionary of 1900, but "feminist" is used in the title of a journal in 1911. Freud criticises the "feminist demand for equal rights" in 1924. The Daily Express Encyclopedia of 1934 has quite a long entry:

"Feminism, a movement for bringing about equality both legal and social between the sexes...One of the earliest advocates was Mary Wollstonecraft. John Stuart Mill... put forward very advanced views... The Married Women's Property Act... was the first big step.. The Women's Suffrage campaign... proved with what determination women were fighting for their cause... The Divorce Act of 1923... and the Legitimacy Act of 1926... are fruits of feminist movements... Scandinavian countries and Soviet Russia are very advanced both in feminist legislation and social outlook, while France is one of the most backward countries, Germany and England taking an intermediate position. In many states of the USA, women have a considerable advantage over men, especially in regard to divorce..."

Simone De Beauvoir used the words feminism, feminists and anti- feminists in The Second Sex (1949 - Translated into English in 1953) and I suspect this had considerable influence on the use of the words in English.

feminist theories

The early use of feminist was for campaigners for women's rights. Since the 1970s, feminism and feminist have also been applied to a set (or sets) of theoretical perspectives about society. People, therefore, speak of feminist theorists and feminist theories - An example of what Foucault calls a discourse (See Wikipedia article) In 1974, Juliet Mitchell reviewed six theorists as "feminists".

A sociological concept of fields (les champs in French) has been developed by Pierre Bourdieu (See Bourdieu, P. 1993 )

A field (or social field) is an area of social organisation in which roles, positions, and relations are produced. In Bourdieu's theory, society is a collection of overlapping fields, including economic, cultural, artistic, political, religious and sporting fields. A field shapes how individuals and collectives within it are interpellated (asked questions about who they are) and how they can occupy the field. A field does not determine how participants respond to it, and so who they become, but the strength of the field has a powerful influence.

Bourdieu and Passeron's La Reproduction (1970) is about the education system (see reproduction) and its relation to the class system. At one point in this, they say that the "structure of class relations" can be "regarded as a field of forces". This field of forces exerts its influence on "different areas of activities" or "sub- systems" (in this case, the "education system"). However, people's practice within a sub-system "owes its specific form... to the laws proper to each of the subsystems". Which would appear to imply that something like the education system is, itself, a field of forces governed by its own laws. Bourdieu and Passeron compare and contrast this with the social system as described by Talcott Parsons, with its different, inter-related parts. Bourdieu, P. and Passeron, J. 1970/1977 pp 203-204).

The word "feudal" was coined from "feud" in the early 17th century. Feudal tenure was holding an estate in land in return for homage and service to a superior lord who granted the land. The land was held "in feud" or "in fee". The person who held the land was the "vassal" of the "lord" to whom homage and service was owed. In England the highest Lord was the king. Beneath him were superior vassals who were, in turn, lords to inferior vassals, and so on downwards.

Feudal tenures were abolished in England in 1645. By this time, the word "feudal" was used to describe the whole system of administration, jurisdiction and land tenure based on the relationship between vassals and their superiors.

The feudal system, in the wider sense above, was the political, social and economic system of medieval Europe. Nineteenth century social theorists called it "feudalism". Marx analysed it as the mode of production that preceded capitalism.

Homage: Nowadays means a public display of special respect. This comes from the medieval ceremony in which someone (the "man" or the "vassal") pledged allegiance to another (known as the "lord"). As in the picture, the vassal knelt and placed his hands between the hands of the lord.

In July 1789 French peasants revolted against Feudal rights and privileges, which were abolished in August 1789. These "seigneurial rights" (rights of the lord) included requirements to use a mill, bakehouse or wine-press belonging to the "lord", special rents, pigeons and rabbits kept by the lord feeding on the peasants' crops, tolls on roads and rivers, and various local dues. Although claiming origin in the feudal period, these rights had not been fading away. The right were bought and sold as a kind of property and professional "feudistes" searched ancient manuscripts to discover forgotten rights that could be imposed to raise more money.

Feudal Tenure continued in Scotland until abolished by the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc (Scotland) Act in 2000AD

A Plain English Dictionary definition: "If people use force to achieve something, they use physical strength or violence" (See fuller definition below) Hobbes says that we are bound to obey agreements, even if agreement was forced on us. Rousseau: "force does not create right, and ... we are obliged to obey only legitimate powers".

Different words (synonyms) for force

Force: to compel by violent means. This can be physical force or mental (social) force. A blackmailer, for examples, forces someone to give him or her money by threatening to reveal a guilty secret.

Coercion Another word for force. It means to forcibly constrain or impel someone into obedience to or compliance with your will. To force or compel to do.

Compulsion Compel To drive irrisistably to an end. So it can be used for forcing someone to do something or for forces within us that make us do things.

Constraint Constrain A restricting force.

Violence There is something unruly or unjust about violence. It is rough action, or force used to injure or damage. Or it can be used for unruly power, as in the "violence of the storm".

The term Folklore was suggested on 12.8.1846 by William John Thoms (born 16.11.1803, died 15.8.1885) in The Athenaeum under the pseudonym Ambrose Merton. It was a term for the "lore of the people". That is for the learning or knowledge of ordinary people. What, Thoms said, was then usually referred to as popular antiquities or popular literature.

The 1911 Encyclopedia describes it as "the traditional learning of the uncultured classes of civilised nations"

Eve learns about good and evil and Prometheus and Pandora bring hope and industry   Wollstonecraft comments: Man has been held out as independent of His power who made him, or as a lawless planet darting from its orbit to steal the celestial fire of reason

Socrates: These two harmonies I ask you to leave; the strain of necessity and the strain of freedom

Aristotle: a state is a community of freemen

Filmer: I see not then how the children of Adam, or of any man else, can be free from subjection to their parents

Hobbes: Liberty, or freedom, signifieth properly the absence of opposition [Corresponding to Berlin's negative freedom]

Locke: men are naturally in... a state of perfect freedom... within the bounds of the law of nature

Rousseau: Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains... What can make it legitimate?

Hegel: ethical life is the concept of freedom developed into the existing world

John Stuart Mill: After the primary necessities of food and raiment, freedom is the first and strongest want of human nature. [See varieties of freedom]

Durkheim: It would never have been possible to establish the freedom of thought we now enjoy if the regulations prohibiting it had not been violated...

Sartre: I am condemned to be free [existentialist freedom]

liberalism   conservatism

"if [the division of labour] only brought together individuals who united for some few moments to exchange personal services, it could not give rise to any regulative action. But what it brings face to face are functions, that is to say, ways of definite action, which are identically repeated in given circumstances, since they cling to general, constant conditions of social life."

Functional and Dysfunctional

Functional is a relatively old word (mid 17th century) meaning that something serves its purpose. It also distinguished the purpose of something from its structure or form. In the mid 19th century doctors coined the phrase "functional disorder" for a disease without an organic base.

In the early 20th century (1916) a new word dysfunction or disfunction was seen in some medical writing, meaning a fault in the way some part of the body is working. A limp is a leg dysfunction, a heart attack is a major heart dysfunction. The word spread. A gas fire that will not light is "in a state of dysfunction".

The word dysfunctional was not observed until 1949, when Robert Merton wanted to counter the assumption that everything in society serves its purpose well. He defined functional and dysfunctional thus:

"Functions are those observed consequences which make for the adaptation or adjustment of a given system, and dysfunctions, those observed consequences which lessen the adaptation or adjustment of the system. There is also the empirical possibility of nonfunctional consequences, which are simply irrelevant to the system under consideration"

In popular language, a family that does not work is a dysfunctional family - which implies you have a theory of what families are supposed to do when performing their functions properly, what can go wrong, and why. I suspect the term became popular in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of family therapies, modelled on those of Virginia Satir (USA 1916-1988), that seek to heal the dysfunctional family.

Functionalism

A functional analysis of society tries to explain the parts of the society in terms of the purpose they serve within the whole society. Marx and Engels, therefore, make a functional analysis of classes when they argue that capitalist and labourer (together) are necessary for the production of capital. The emphasis of their Communist Manifesto, however, is on the conflict generated between the classes, and its role in the development of society.

Functionalism is a term developed in 1930s England to describe theories that emphasise an analysis of parts of the society in terms of their purpose within the whole. Bronislaw Malinowski (1884 - 1942) said that "the magnificent title of the Functional School of Anthropology has ben bestowed upon myself, in a way on myself" (quoted Fletcher, 1971). He wrote:

"This type of theory aims at the explanation of anthropological facts at all levels of development by their function, by the part which they play within the integral system of culture, by the manner in which they are related to each other within the system" (1926 Encyclopedia Britannica article, quoted by Robert Merton, 1957, p.22)

The term (or similar) was also adopted by USA sociologists. Robert Merton (1957) spoke of "functional analysis" and compared it to the "dialectical" analysis of Hegel. and then of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Both ways of analysing society, he argued, could be used by conservatives or radicals. They provide value neutral tools

Functionalism is often linked to Structure to give "Structural-Functionalism". The essays of the British anthropologist Alfred Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1955) were published in 1952 as Structure and Function in Primitive Society. In 1951, USA Sociologist Talcott Parson wrote that the systematisation of theory in the present state of knowledge must be in structural-functional terms - See Wikipedia

The term functionalist has also been applied to earlier theorists, notably Durkheim, who do not have the same emphasis as the theorists who later called themselves functionalists. I think it is unhelpful to call Durkheim a functionalist. It can be helpful to point out that some functionalists saw him as an intellectual predecessor. Robert Merton argues that "Durkheim adopted a functional orientation throughout his work"

Many characteristics often ascribed to functionalist theory do not accurately describe Durkheim's theories. However, they also fail to accurately describe Malinowski or Radcliffe-Brown. Ronald Fletcher (The Making of Sociology, 1971, vol.2, p.674) has attempted a description that does (partly) describe Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown. I have altered the tense and added links for terms:

The 'functionalist' approach to the study of society maintains that society is a system of social institutions and attendant patterns of culture. Social institutions are ordered, regulated patterns of social action which are rooted in men's need and interests; which rest upon strongly established sentiments, and - as forms of social regulation - are crucial, organised embodiments of values. Culture is the total material, mental, spiritual apparatus and 'ethos' which is instrumentally related to these institutions. The patterning of 'culture' is concomitant with the pattern of 'institutionalisation'. The total 'social structure' of a 'society' (a 'social system') can be systematically analysed in terms of its institutional 'parts'. However, the whole is a system of interconnected parts. The parts are inter-operative, they work (function) in a process of interdependence with each other. No part can therefore be understood excepting within a knowledge of the whole. The very nature of a part of society lies in its functional interconnections with, and contributions to, other parts in the entire social system. The study of society has, therefore, to rest upon this primary recognition of the social system (of the inter-connectedness of social facts); and could only provide a reliable body of knowledge about its subject-matter if it employed the 'structural-functional' method of analysis.

One's gender can just mean one's sex in the sense of being either male or female. Most people would agree that this is simply decided by whether one has a penis or a vagina. If you "sex" an animal you just look at its genital organs to decide if it is a boy or a girl.

In its richer sense, gender refers to all the characteristics that attach to being male or female, including ones that are of cultural origin. Wearing lipstick, for example, is something that women in my culture often do, but men only do in plays, if dressing up as women ("drag") or making some political point about gender roles (often called sex roles. Such roles are very real: They force themselves on us. Men who wear lipstick are made to feel very uncomfortable. Men who wear a dress may even be arrested. Even wearing a coat with the buttons on the "wrong side" can be embarrassing.

Judith Butler has argued that even what we regard as our biological sex is shaped by society.

Barbara Risman (2004) argues that gender should be thought of as a social structure, situating it at "the same level of general social significance as the economy and the polity".

Core gender identity

"gender identity is your own sense or conviction of maleness or femaleness" (1966)

"Gender identity is a person's inner sense of being male or female, usually developed during early childhood as a result of parental rearing practices and societal influences and strengthened during puberty by hormonal changes." (An internet definition based on the Random House Dictionary 2010.

Judith Butler:

"There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender... identity is performatively constituted by the very 'expressions' that are said to be its results" Butler, J. 1990 p.25)

The scientific study of (biological) hereditary, with special reference to how variation comes about. Genetics, as a name for the subject, dates back to 1905. The origin of the science is usually traced back to 1900 when papers by Gregor Mendel, originally published in 1866, were resurrected by several biologists.

The physical units that carrying the data of what an organism will be are Chromosomes (which are molecules) - Genes (which are relatively small sections of DNA which encode - provide a template for - proteins) and the DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) of which the genes are composed. Chromosomes are molecules that consist of a very long strand of DNA coiled many times, and a few proteins called histones which hold the whole structure together.

sex-determination. Most animals (including humans) have their biological sex (gender) determined by the combination of X (female determining factor) and Y (male determining factor) chromosomes in their cells. Females have two X chromosomes (XX) - Males have one of each (XY). The female sex-cell (egg) contains an X chromosome. About 50% of male sperm is X factor and 50% Y factor. If a cell is fertilised by an X factor sperm, it will develop as a female. If fertilised by a Y factor sperm, it will develop as a male.

The following summary of gestalt psychology is taken from The History of Psychiatry, a lecture by Larry Merkel, 18.9.1903

Gestalt psychology began as an attack on Wundtian atomistic psychology. The basic concept was that the combination of sensory elements produced something more than the sum. Kant (1724-1804) in opposition to the British Empiricists felt the mind actively took sensory elements and combined them into a meaningful whole, quite differently than the passive process of association. Early Gestalt psychologists held that the act of perceiving was as important as the content of what was perceived. Experiments in physics and physiology supported this, for example in music a melody evokes a response more than just a series of notes. William James was an early influence on Gestalt psychology. Goethe and the philosophy of phenomenology, the unbiased description of immediate experience, also had an influence. Physics, and the investigation of force fields and wave theory, as opposed to atoms also had an influence. The early German Gestalt psychologists began as Wundtian students [Max Wertheimer (1880-1943), Kurt Koffka (1886-1941), and Wolfgang KÇôhler (1887-1967)]. With the rise of Nazis in Germany Gestalt psychology immigrated to the U.S. They developed principles of perceptual organisation and the notion that learning/problem solving required situational evaluation and mental sequencing, rather than simple trial and error as Behaviouralists argued. Furthermore they argued that learning occurred more effectively when the elements of learning were organized into meaningful wholes rather than simple practice and repetition. Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) the originator of Field Theory is probably the best known of Gestalt psychologists. Gestalt psychology recognizes consciousness and urges it's study while recognizing that the methodology can never be as precise as in behaviourism.

Globalisation Compare R.E. Park (1925) on the change from primary to secondary relations when we move from a village to a town

"The globe" is a phrase that has been used for the sphere of the world since the late sixteenth century. In 1944 (according to Webster's dictionary) the verb globalise was coined to mean making something worldwide. Then, in the 1960s, the Canadian theorist Marshal McLuhan (1911-1980) popularised the idea that developments in modern media are creating a global village. Today that term means that all the world is thought of as being closely connected by modern communications and markets and therefore inter-dependent. The media is making real, on a world-wide scale, the claim of the 16th century poet Jonne Donne, that:

"No man one is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent ... if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less ... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee"

In 1960, McLuhan and his colleague, Carpenter, wrote:

"postliterate man's electronic media contract the world to a village or tribe where everything happens to everyone at the same time. Everyone knows about, and therefore participates in, everything that happens the minute it happens. Television gives this quality of simultaneity to events in the global village." (Carpenter, E. and McLuhan, M. 1960 Quoted in The Oxford English Dictionary)

In the 1980s, and increasingly in the 1990s, this one world media vision was combined with Adam Smith's vision in The Wealth of Nations (1776) of a world wide division of labour invisibly integrated by the exchange of goods and services for money. This view of a world integrated by markets and media, a world where isolation means extinction, has been called globalisation. - See Global Age

In economic terms, globalisation refers to an increasing tendency towards an interconnected worldwide investment and business environment. The strength of this, and the penetration of the media, has made most nationally based "socialist" and "communist" economies unviable. Globalisation has become the victory of capitalism over socialist alternatives and the protests against reducing society to the market are now referred to in the media as "anti-globalisation" rallies.

"Globalization can thus be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa" (Giddens, A. 1990 p.64).

"Productivity and competitiveness are, by and large, a function of knowledge generation and information processing; firms and territories are organized in networks of production, management and distribution; the core economic activities are global - that is, they have the capacity to work as a unit in real time, or chosen time, on a planetary scale. (Castells 2001: p. 52: "Information Technology and Global Capitalism" in W. Hutton and A. Giddens (Editors.) On The Edge. Living with Global Capitalism London: Vintage

Goal attainment is one of the four basic needs that Parsons says that all Social Systems have. All societies need to define and sustain certain fundamental objectives. In the social system as a whole, this is done by the political system.

The political meaning is the commonest. "The Government" is the body that rules a society. The word can be used as an alternative to "The State", or it can be used for just the part of the state at the top.

If we talk about "Government and State" we are probably distinguishing between the people who rule the whole (the Prime Minister and his government, for example) and the whole apparatus that carries out their wishes: civil service, army, police etc.