Upload
rona
View
230
Download
1
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Social Theory: SOCL/ANTH 302 Georg Simmel. Georg Simmel 1858-1918. Born : Berlin, Germany Family: Business-oriented Prosperous Jewish. How is society possible?. Sociologists should focus on people in relationships Society-- Patterned interactions among members of a group. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Citation preview
Social Theory: SOCL/ANTH 302
Georg Simmel
Georg Simmel 1858-1918
Born: Berlin, Germany
Family:Business-orientedProsperousJewish
How is society possible?
Sociologists should focus on people in relationships
Society--Patterned interactions among members of a group
Everyday Life
Began with the elements ofeveryday life—playing games keeping secrets being a stranger forming friendships
Macro or Micro
Resisted reducing social behavior to individual personality
Social relationships not fully explained by larger collective patterns such as “the economy.”
Interaction orderEveryday interaction creates levels
of reality “Interaction order”
Never totally fixedAlways problematicCapable of change
Task of SociologySociety = A web of patterned
Interactions
Sociology’s TaskStudy formsforms of interactions
SociationSociety= Name for individuals
connected by interactions
Major field of study: Sociationociation
Patterns & Forms in which people associate and interact
Formal Sociology (Social Forms)
Forms of InteractionFor example:Study of warfare and Study of marriage
Qualitatively different subjects
Essentially similar interactive forms in martial conflict and in marital conflict
Formal Sociology (Social Forms)
Behavior displayed at Court of Louis XIV
At Offices of American corporations
Study forms of subordination and superordination Common patterns
Forms of Social InteractionSocial Processes
Conflict and Cooperation
Subordination and Superordination
Centralization and Decentralization
Georg Simmel: Social TypesSimmel constructed a gallery of social typessocial types to complement his inventory of social formssocial forms:The StrangerThe MediatorThe PoorThe AdventurerThe Man in the MiddleThe Renegade
Georg Simmel: Social Types
The typetype is created through relations with others who:Assign him a particular position Expect him to behave in specific
ways.
Social Types: “The stranger” Is not just a wanderer “who comes today and goes tomorrow,” having no specific structural position.
He is a “person who comes today & stays tomorrow… He is fixed within a particular spatial group… but his position…is determined…by the fact that he does not belong to it from the beginning,” and that he may leave again.
The stranger is “an element of the group itself” While not being fully part of it. “
“The Stranger” He therefore is assigned a role that no other
members of the group can play. By virtue of his partial involvement in group
affairs he can attain an objectivity that other members cannot reach…
Moreover, being distant and near at the same time, the stranger will often be called upon as a confidante…
the stranger may be a better judge between conflicting parties than full members of the group since he is not tied to either of the contenders…
Social Types: The PoorOnce poor accept assistance
Removed from preconditions of previous statusPoverty as special statusAssign people to “poor” category
They are declassifiedPrivate trouble becomes a public
issue
The PoorThe poor come to be viewed not by
what they doBut what is done to them
Society creates social type of the poor Assigns them a peculiar status that is
marked only by negative attributes By what the status-holders do not have
Georg Simmel: Social TypesThe stranger and the poor, and
Simmel’s other types Assigned their positions by specific
interactive relations
Societal creations Must act assigned roles
Georg Simmel: Dialectical Method
Sociationociation involves:Harmony and conflict Attraction and repulsion Love and hatred
Human relations characterized by ambivalence
Intimate relations not only positive but also negative sentiments
Georg Simmel: Dialectical Method
ConflictStrengthen existing bondsEstablish new ones Creative rather than destructive force
Georg Simmel: Significance of Numbers
One of most abstract characteristics of a group:
Number of participantsNumber of participants
Georg Simmel: Significance of Numbers
Dyad versus TriadDyadyadic relationship differs qualitatively from
other types of groups
1.Two participants confronted by only one other
2. Dyad depends on each element Elements=people, groups, countries
Georg Simmel: The Significance of Numbers for Social Life
Dyad -> TriadTriad One more element added brings major
qualitative change In triadtriad, as in all associations involving more
than two personsEach participant confront possibility of
being outvoted by majority
Georg Simmel: The Significance of Numbers for Social Life
Triad is simplest structure in which group achieves domination over component members
Social framework for constraining individual participants for collective purposes…
Triad=Characteristics of all social life: Freedom and constraint
Autonomy and heteronomy
Georg Simmel: The Significance of Numbers for Social Life
Third member enters dyad, Processes become possible that
previously could not take place
A third member may:MediateRejoiceDivide and Rule
The Philosophy of Money
Economic exchange is formform of social interaction
When monetary transactions replaced barter
Changes in forms of interactions between social actors
The Philosophy of MoneyMoney is subject to:Precise division and manipulationPermits exact measurement of
equivalents
Impersonal in ways that objects of barter, like crafts and shells, can never be
The Philosophy of MoneyPromotes rational calculation in human
interactions
Increases rationalization in modern society
Replaces personal ties with impersonal relations Limited to specific purpose
The Philosophy of MoneyAbstract calculation invades areas
of social life such as:Kinship relations Esthetic (artistic) appreciation
Previously domain of qualitative rather than quantitative appraisals
Contributions to SociologyMicro sociologist--Small-group
research
Form rather than content of social interaction
Study of these interactions as primary task of sociology
Contributions to SociologyBegan inquiries from micro (individual)
Observing smallest social interactions
To see how institutions (macro) emerged from them
Differs from other classic writers--Simmel returns to the individual