Sociology

Durkheim believed that society had a reality , or ‘above all’: it was a greater force existing beyond individuals and controlled their actions. This meant that even apparently private, personal actions like suicide could be seen as governed by social forces, and that sociologists could looks for patterns in behaviour, which he called ‘social facts’. He defined this term as collective ways of acting, thinking, or feeling, which are characterized by externality and constraint. 33-34

The process of designing a piece of social research has four aspects: purpose, method(s), style, and strategy. Robson identifies three main purposes a researcher can have: of a new or under-researched area, of patterns or trends in an already established area, and of why such patterns have occurred. Triangulation, by contrast, is a technique of combining research methods so that the strengths of one compensate for the weaknesses of another. 74-76

The meaning of community life is changing as some traditional, class-based forms decline and other, new communities emerge. These include ethnic communities or villages, often based upon immigrant groups’ shared experiences of exclusion and discrimination. ‘Gay villages’ have emerged in many cities, such as London, Manchester and Brighton, where sexualities are celebrated in their diversity. Even online, virtual communities can thrive, based upon a sense of ‘imagined community’ (Anderson 1983) rather than direct, face to face contact. 517-519

Strike action is a form of open industrial conflict between employees and employers. Official statistics on industrial disputes provide interesting but limited data, which can be unreliable for many reasons. Strike records depend on the willingness of employers to report strike action, and indeed to define it as such. The definition of a strike is limited to action involving ten or more workers and lasting at least one day; smaller scale action would not be included. There are also different ways of measuring the severity of strike action (for example frequency or worker days lost), and so different cases may be incomparable. 677-679

It is argued that in modern society, new structures of control have emerged that have transformed organizations. These include the trend to debureaucratization, which has introduced such structures as the ‘organic organization’ (based around a flexible division of labour) and the ‘network organization’ (a more open structure based on information technology and computer networks). The latter organization can subcontract work out through the network to self-employed teleworkers or external organizations, as and when it needs them. 553-555

We can think about ‘society’ as a structure that is organized at various levels. These range in size from the smallest scale face-to-face interactions of everyday life, to social organizations or institutions (such as a business corporation or a school), to the community, which can be located in a physical setting or in cyberspace, and finally to the nation state, a complex economic and political apparatus, which provides citizenship and certain rights (for example, access to health care or education). It is interesting to consider how smaller scale units relate to larger ones, for example through globalization. 10-11

Marx saw political action as a reflection of the relationship between two social classes, based upon economic interests: the dominant ruling class and the subordinate, oppressed working class. He argued that as capitalism developed, the groups’ class consciousness would polarize, and they would come into conflict. In the case of the working class, this would occur through the growth of the labour movement, trade unions and pressure groups. 819

Contemporary debates about the family often refer to an apparent decline of ‘family values’. This view was endorsed by New Right politicians in the 1980s and early 1990s, who pointed to the alleged ‘problems’ caused by rising divorce rates, increasing numbers of single parents (especially mothers), increasing rates of abortion, and homosexual couples. 451-452

Pragmatism is a philosophical approach to knowledge and meaning, endorsed by James and Peirce in the nineteenth century. It centres on the idea that we do not, and cannot, have objective, direct knowledge of the social world; rather we construct a more pragmatic set of ideas and beliefs on the basis of our personal experiences: we accept an idea as knowledge if it appears to ‘work’ in helping us to understand the world and act in it. This means that all knowledge is limited and subjective, but meaningful. 51

The family is not always a place of relaxation, comfort and security; sociologists also refer to the ‘dark side’ of the family that is shown by domestic violence and sexual abuse. Measures of the extent of domestic violence vary, according to the criteria that are used and how behaviours are defined, and so it is difficult to ascertain the true extent of the problem. There is also a large ‘dark figure’ of unreported incidents, due to the fear of repercussions and the shame and embarrassment that some victims (especially men) feel. 480-482