Summary, Conclusions and Implications of Unit I

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Summary, Conclusions and Implications of Unit I

• Classical theory
• Dynamic Feedbacks
• An example Gunnar Myrdal

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The contemporary importance of Classical Theory

• Marx, Durkheim and Weber are generally recognized
  as the classical theorists.
• There are about 10 times as many references to
  them in texts and article, as to any other
  theorists.
• Each began a tradition that has important
  research in every topic-area, today,
• because each of them examined structures,
  dynamics and social problems that are very
  pervasive and important.
• Each raised theoretical and methodological
  problems that are still important.
• We have approached them in terms of
• 1 Coherence (structure)
• 2 Dynamics (social change)
• 3) Social Problems.

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The Overview (p.122)
  Marx Conflict theory Durkheim Functionalism Weber Organization theory
Basic model          Game of Monopoly Differentiated Organism Clock

Coherence of Social structure Class                         Inequality, domination, unequal life chances Norms                     Social integration, normative integration Organization           Formal organization, bureaucracy
Dynamic of Social change Matthew Principle polarization, poverty, expropriation Organic solidarity civil law, pluralism, ending of forced division of labor Rationalization     bureaucracy, rational-legal organization, science.
Basis of       Social Problems Alienation             (lack of power) Anomie                 (lack of norms) The iron cage                       (lack of meaning)
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Social Facts the Chicago School

• Through the 1940s the main empirical sociology
  was that from Chicago.
• Chicago theorists noticed that different
  neighborhoods had different stable rates of
  juvenile delinquency, homicide, divorce,
  addiction, suicide, etc.
• The stable rates showed that it is not the people
  but the social structure

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2 Main Explanations
Culture of poverty
poverty

• Rents
• Class
• Alienation
• One set of poor people was being replaced by
  another
• Subculture
• Norms
• Anomie
• A new generation was being socialized into
  families and gangs

Culture of poverty
poverty
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Alienation
Culture of poverty
poverty

• By the 1960s the view of class, income and
  resources as the driving force was consolidated
  into a development of (Marxian) conflict theory.
• The basic rules of the game (made by the winners)
  leads to the accumulation of privilege on the one
  side, and of disadvantage on the other.
• Similar conflict theories account for differences
  in gender, race, education, crime, health,
  addictions, etc.
• We analyze this as the dynamic of a game of
  Monopoly, stemming from positive feedback.

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Anomie
Culture of poverty
poverty

• The other main approach, developed by Durkheim
  and consolidated by Parsons in the 1930s viewed
  the problem as the subculture that undermined the
  norms.
• Different processes leading to weakened norms or
  anomie were suggested, such as Mertons
  development of the concept of strain.
• And a generalized analysis of the social
  structure as normative and of social problems as
  resulting from anomie was applied to gender,
  race, education, crime, health, addictions, etc.
  by Parsons and his students.

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Cant both be true?
Culture of poverty
Poverty

• Yes indeed.
• One causal influence is logically consistent with
  another.
• But given the different accounts, there is still
  the question whether they are

1.essentially the same, in different words
2.useful in analyzing different structures
3.different, compatible accounts of different
aspects of any structure 4.different in their
stress of which aspects are dynamically important
5.contradictory in their claims about what
produced the structure and what would resolve the
problem.
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Dynamic core of Classical Theory in terms of
feedbacks

• Conflict theory
• Marx
• Positive feedbacks
• Alienation
• Rich get richer

• Functional theory
• Durkheim
• Negative feedbacks
• Anomie (Weak Normative controls)
• Functional needs

-

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Conflict theory as a game of monopoly

rents
properties

Or, more generally,

Access to further resources
resources

• This dynamic insures, that no matter what the
  abilities or attitudes of the players, the rich
  will get richer and the structure will polarize

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Real world Monopoly

• In Marxian analysis, property income is one part
  of class polarization
• But life-chances, power, status and ideology are
  also important.
• E.g. income wealth education
  

Or buying power, influence or social position
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Functional theory as thermostats

• We have seen that 20th c. functionalism took the
  maintenance of homeostasis in a biological
  organism as its model.
• Parsons argued that the normative system
  maintains social functions.

Violation of a norm (which maintains a functional
need)
Negative santions
-
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Some examples in Durkheim
-

• Crime punishment crime
• Differentiation anomie
• That anomie higher level normative
  principles and organic solidarity which
  anomie.
• 20th c functionalism would develop the view of
  social structure as a self maintaining cybernetic
  control system.

-
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Weber as synthetic

• At the micro-level of individual action,
• Human goal-directed activity, meanings and
  identities all involve self-regulation.
• And they often involve self-reinforcing
  developments.
• At the macro-level of social institutions,
• The elements of rationalization are mutually
  reinforcing (elective affinities).
• And each of those elements is a control system.

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An example An American Dilemma (1944)

• Gunnar Myrdal had developed various economic
  feedback models in the 1930s.
• His massive and influential analysis of US race
  relations, An American Dilemma,
• was based on the concept of cumulative
  causation i.e. positive feedbacks.
• He developed the analysis in the 1950s and 60s
  to deal with Third World development,
• And in 1978 he received the Nobel Prize.

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1st Positive feedback the vicious cycle of
minority deprivation

• He argued that disadvantage produces further
  disadvantage in a vicious, cycle.
• The advantages of an advantaged group cumulate,
  and the disadvantages of a disadvantaged group
  cumulate.

low income
low wealth
poor health
high crime rate
low educational attainment
family disorganization
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2nd Positive feedback racism and minority
deprivation

• Myrdal also argued that the poverty,
  unemployment, crime or other disadvantages of a
  disadvantaged group tend to generate or reinforce
  stereotyping, prejudice, segregation and
  political marginalization.
• And they are reinforced by them
• Minority deprivation leads to racism.
• Racism leads to minority deprivation

Racism
Minority deprivation
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Consequences of Positive feedbacks

• Myrdal argued that the cumulative consequences of
  these feedbacks was a cascade that appeared
  natural
• but that was socially produced, highly unstable,
• and amenable to social policy in the long run.
• In the same way that in increase in racism or in
  minority deprivation produces a cascade of
  further increases,
• A decrease in racism or in minority deprivation
  produces a cascade of further decreases

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Negative feedback in An American Dilemma

• Myrdal argued that the main control system was
  the value system he called the American Creed.
• It calls for all persons and groups to have equal
  opportunity, equal treatment by the law, and
  equal life chances.
• The operation of cumulative causation violates
  the American Creed, generating pressure for
  reforms.

Pressure for reforms to reduce racism and racial
inequality

Racism and racial inequality
-
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Positive and negative

• Warning the evaluation of the consequences of a
  feedback is different from the nature of the
  feedback.
• The consequences of positive feedbacks are often
  negative.
• The consequences of negative feedbacks are often
  positive.

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Myrdals dilemma as an example of a Synthetic
model
Violation of the American Creed
Vicious cycle of deprivation and racism
Minority poverty

Pressure for reforms to reduce racism and racial
inequality


Majority racism



-

Minority family breakdown, crime, etc.
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Practical implications of Myrdals Model

• Racism and racial inequality are social created.
• They can be changed.
• But only by broad spectrum changes
• that address all the various multiply reinforcing
  structures of sentiment, unequal resources and
  segregation.

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Analogy to poverty, gender, etc.

• Analogous analyses were developed about poverty,
  gender, education, and a host of other topics in
  sociology.

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Qualitative and Quantitative behavior of the
system.

• Myrdal maintained that all these implications
  flowed from a general, qualitative analysis of
  the sign of the effects, without knowing their
  exact size.
• But by 1978, he noted that such qualitative
  nalyses cannot answer the main questions
• E.g. whether a policy reverses an avalanche or
  not requires quantitative estimation

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Implications of feedback approaches to theory

• Theoretical standpoints in the discipline
  usually try to be dynamic, and to deal with
  reciprocal effects, even when the empirical
  research and methods assume static, one-way
  causality.
• Theory is often concerned with the dynamics,
  implications and conditions of particular causal
  effects.
• Systemic feedbacks are the main way to conceive
  dynamics, implications and conditions
• Ie. the big picture.