Sociology Canadian 9th Edition Macionis Solutions Manual 1
Sociology Canadian 9th Edition Macionis Solutions Manual 1
Sociology Canadian 9th Edition Macionis Solutions Manual 1
Solution Manual
Chapter 4
Society
Chapter Outline.
I. Society. Society refers to people who interact in a defined territory and share culture. This
chapter explores four important theoretical views on the nature of human societies. Key scholars
include Gerhard and Jean Lenski, Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim.
B. The limits of technology. While expanding technology can help to solve many existing
social problems, it creates new problems even as it remedies old ones.
B. Conflict and history. Marx argued that early hunting and gathering societies were based
on highly egalitarian primitive communism, and that society became less equal as it
moved toward modern industrial capitalism dominated by the bourgeoisie class
(capitalists). Communism is a system by which people equally own and share resources
that they produce.
C. Capitalism and class conflict. Industrial capitalism contains two major social classes—
the ruling class and the oppressed—reflecting the two basic positions in the productive
system. Class conflict as conflict between entire classes over the distribution of a
society’s wealth and power. Marx argued that class conflict is inevitable.
1. In order for conflict to occur, the proletariat must achieve class consciousness,
workers’ recognition of their unity as a class in opposition to capitalists and,
ultimately, to capitalism itself. Then workers must organize themselves and
rise in revolution. Internally divided by their competitive search for profits, the
capitalists would be unable to unify to effectively resist their revolution.
D. Capitalism and alienation. Marx condemned capitalism for promoting alienation, the
experience of isolation and misery resulting from powerlessness.
1. Marx argued that industrial capitalism alienated workers in four ways:
a. Alienation from the act of working.
b. Alienation from the products of work.
c. Alienation from other workers.
d. Alienation from human potential.
E. Revolution. Marx was certain that eventually a socialist revolution would overthrow
the capitalist system.
B. Tradition refers to values and beliefs passed from generation to generation. Weber
argued that traditional societies are guided by the past.
E. Weber’s great thesis: Protestantism and capitalism. Weber traced the roots of modern
rationality to Calvinist Protestantism, which preached predestination and the notion that
success in one’s calling testified to one’s place among the saved. Weber’s analysis
demonstrates the ability of ideas to shape society.
F. Rational social organization. Weber argued that rationality is the basis of modern
society. He identified seven characteristics of rational social organizations:
1. Distinctive social institutions.
2. Large-scale organizations.
3. Specialized tasks.
4. Personal discipline.
5. Awareness of time.
6. Technical competence.
7. Impersonality.
G. The growth of rational bureaucracy was a key element in the origin of modern society.
H. Weber feared that the rationalization of society carried with it a tendency toward
dehumanization or alienation. He was pessimistic about society’s ability to escape this
trend.
A. Function. Society as a system. Social facts are functional and comprise a complex
system that extend beyond their effects on individual people.
B. WINDOW ON THE WORLD—Global Map 4–1 (p. 107) High Technology in Global
Perspective. While countries with traditional cultures either cannot afford, ignore, or
sometimes resist technological innovation, nations with highly rationalized ways of life
quickly embrace such change.
5) Explain how Lenski uses technological 1) Provide an example of each type of society
development as a criterion for classifying outlined by Lenski. Which would you most like
societies at different levels of evolutionary to live in? Why?
development and identify five types of
societies according to their technology. 2) To what extent does contemporary
Canadian society still reflect the industrial
6) Summarize how technology shapes model and in what ways in which
societies at different stages of sociological contemporary society is post-industrial?
evolution.
3) Identify several modern examples of false
7) Be familiar with the principal consciousness. What are some of the
characteristics of hunting and gathering, consequences of widespread false
horticultural, pastoral, agrarian industrial, and consciousness in a society?
post-industrial societies.
4) Differentiate between class and false
8) Explain the central role of social conflict in consciousness. Can you identify examples of
Marx’s theory. Define and understand the false consciousness that you have experienced
concept of alienation. in your life?
9) Explain Weber’s notion of ideal types. 5) Have you or your friends or family worked
in jobs which were alienating? How accurately
10) Examine how Weber used the concept of does Marx describe the characteristics of these
the rationalization of society as a means of jobs?
understanding and interpreting historical
change. 6) According to Marx, how does capitalism
alienate workers? How did Marx feel that
11) Identify seven characteristics of a rational workers could overcome their alienation?
social organization. 7) What ideas from Marx remain relevant to
contemporary society and what ideas must be
12) Define Durkheim’s concepts of structure discarded in the wake of the collapse of the
by function and personality. Soviet Union and the Marxist societies of
Eastern Europe?