Privacy Policy

Privacy is very important to us. We want you to fully understand our privacy practices. After reading the our entire privacy policy, If you still have additional questions, you may send us an email. By visiting SOCIOLOGYPROFESSOR.COM, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy. If you do

7 Comments

Racism

Theory of the biologically determined basis of human social character. The term ‘racism’ is used critically of those employing such theory, rather than as a term of self description. Humans are divided into biologically distinct groups whose characteristics are passed on by inheritance. Differences in ability, taste, aptitude and culture are thus explained by

1 Comments

Relative deprivation (20TH CENTURY)

A theory of the causes of social and political discontent. People are roused to political action as a result not of absolute changes in their material conditions but of changes relative to the circumstances of those with whom they compare themselves. Source: W G Runciman, Relative Deprivation and Social Justice (London, 1966) Theory In

3 Comments

Social Darwinism (19TH CENTURY)

Attempted application of theory of the survival of the fittest to public policy. The provision of social services allowed the ‘unfit’ to survive, and reproduce children who inherited their social characteristics. Such services, therefore, however well-meaning, damaged society. Also see: eugenics Source: David Miller et al., eds, The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought (Oxford, 1987) Social Darwinism refers

3 Comments

Social Theories

Theory n A model or framework (made up of a body of principles) to explain phenomena. The word ‘theory’ derives from the Greek word ‘theorein’, which means ‘to look at’. Choose social theories from the menu on the right. Definitions Social theory by definition is used to make distinctions and generalizations among different types of societies, and to analyze modernity as

3 Comments

Sociobiology (1975)

Developed and popularized by American zoologist Edward O. Wilson (1929- ) in his text Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975), this is the study of animal and human social behavior in the light of evolutionary biology. Sociobiology encompasses the idea that evolution by natural selection applies to behavior as it applies to physiology and morphology,

2 Comments

Spontaneous order (20TH CENTURY)

Theory of Austrian social scientist Friedrich A. Hayek (1899-1992). Social order is not deliberately created but arises out of the natural selection of those institutions and values and practices which are effective, so that a traditional framework develops over time within which individuals may operate securely. Source: F A Hayek, Law, Legislation and Liberty (London, 1982)

2 Comments

Structural functionalism (20TH CENTURY)

A more systematic exposition of functionalism, particularly employed in comparative politics. Societies and political systems may be compared, whatever their formal or institutional differences, in terms of the various functions which contribute to the operation of their overall structures. Source: Geoffrey Roberts and Alistair Edwards, A New Dictionary of Political Analysis (London, 1991) Theory In

3 Comments

Survival of the fittest (19TH CENTURY)

Theory of social progress of English social scientist HERBERT SPENCER (1820-1903), wrongly attributed to Charles Darwin (1809-82). If government is kept to its minimum functions of the defence of persons and property, the enforcement of contracts, and the defence of the frontiers, individuals will flourish according to their ability or fitness to adapt to changing

1 Comments

Sir Francis Galton

An English scientist, explorer and anthropologist, Francis Galton was a cousin of Charles Darwin and was one of the first to recognize how Darwin’s theory of evolution was going to clash with theology. He coined the word eugenics to denote scientific endeavors to increase the proportion of persons with better than average genes. This was to

2 Comments

George Herbert Mead

George Herbert Mead was born in South Hadley, Massachusetts, on February 27, 1863. He was the second child of Hiram Mead (d. 1881), a Congregationalist minister and pastor of the South Hadley Congregational Church, and Elizabeth Storrs Billings (1832-1917). George Herbert’s older sister, Alice, was born in 1859. In 1870, the family moved to

2 Comments

Sir Francis Galtonir Francis Galton

An English scientist, explorer and anthropologist, Francis Galton was a cousin of Charles Darwin and was one of the first to recognize how Darwin’s theory of evolution was going to clash with theology. He coined the word eugenics to denote scientific endeavors to increase the proportion of persons with better than average genes. This was to

2 Comments

Herbert Spencer

Ideas – ‘Life under all its forms has arisen by a progressive, unbroken evolution.’ – The law of evolution provides a philosophical generalization capable of scientifically explaining all phenomena. – Evolution is change from an incoherent homogeneity to a coherent heterogeneity. – As organisms increase in size, they increase in structure, and the progressive

1 Comments

Jurgen Habermas

Jurgen Habermas (born in Düsseldorf, Germany) is a philosopher and social theorist in the tradition of critical theory who has integrated into a comprehensive framework of social theory and philosophy the German philosophical thought of Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schelling, Friedrich Hegel, Wilhelm Dilthey, Edmund Husserl, and Hans-Georg Gadamer, the Marxian tradition, both the theory of Karl Marx himself as well as

2 Comments

Henri Lefebvre

Henri Lefebvre, the most prolific of French Marxist intellectuals, was born in 1901. During his long career, his work has gone in and out of fashion several times, and has influenced the development not only of philosophy but also of sociology, geography, political science and literary criticism. Born in the Landes of South-West France

3 Comments

Max Weber

Ideas – Society must be understood objectively, a procedure that entails refusing to jump to evaluative conclusions. – An important contribution of the social scientist is to alert us to inconvenient facts and the unintended consequences of human action. – Humankind may be constructing its own iron cage: Ironically and tragically, our own presumed

3 Comments

Norbert Elias

Elias was born on June 22, 1897 in Breslau in Silesia to Hermann and Sophie Elias. His father was a businessman in the textile industry and his mother a homemaker. He fought in the Prussian army during World War I and then completed his Ph.D. under Richard Hönigswald at the Johannesgymnasium in Breslau in

1 Comments

Paulo Freire

The Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, one of the most the influential educational thinkers of the late 20th century, was born in Recife, Brazil, on September 19, 1921. After a brief career as a lawyer, he taught Portuguese in secondary schools from 1941-1947. He subsequently became active in adult education and workers’ training, and became

1 Comments

Pierre Bourdieu

French sociologist, anthropologist, philosopher, and champion of the anti-globalisation movement, whose work spanned a broad range of subjects from ethnography to art, literature, education, language, cultural tastes, and television. Bourdieu’s most famous book is Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1984). It was named one of the 20th century’s 10 most

8 Comments

Prince Peter Kropotkin

Peter (or Pyotr) Kropotkin was born in Moscow. His father, Prince Alexei Petrovich Kropotkin, belonged to the old Russian nobility; his mother, the daughter of a general in the Russian army, had remarkable literary and liberal tastes. In 1857, at the age of fifteen, Kropotkin entered the Corps of Pages at St Petersburg. Only

6 Comments