Unit 1 Sociology

Perspectives
1. Functionalist
  1. Murdock
    1. Sexual: There are rules limiting sexual relationships outside of marriage, to keep the social system stable
    2. Economic: The family is a unit of production, buying goods and services for the goods, making an important contribution to the wider society
    3. Reproduction: The family is the main unit for reproduction of children, society wouldn't exist without this function
    4. Educational: The family is largely responsible for primary socialisation, without this there would be no culture, and no consensus on norms and values
  2. Criticisms
    1. Ignores the diversity in family life
    2. Parson's view on the family can be considered sexist
    3. The 'dark side' of the family can be ignored
    4. The reality of family life is not the perfect ideal that is pictured by a functionalist
  3. Parsons
  4. The family is the centre of society
2. New Right
  1. The family is the centre of society
  2. The family is in decline and under threat
  3. Evidence
    1. Lone parent families
    2. Fatherless families
    3. Divorce rates
    4. Cohabitation
    5. Gay and lesbian couples
  4. Causes
    1. Breakdown of traditional family values
    2. Over-generous welfare benifits
    3. The influence of feminism which has devalued the family
    4. Increased sexual permissiveness
    5. Greater tolerance of gay and lesbian relationships
  5. Consequences
    1. Young people may underachieve in school
    2. Welfare dependancy
    3. Lone mothers become 'married to the state'
  6. Soulutions
    1. Returning to traditional family values
    2. A change in government policy, redirecting welfare and social service provision to support and maintain two parent families
  7. Murray (1984)
    1. The welfare state gives 'perverse incentives'
    2. Weakening self reliance
    3. Depndancy culture
3. Marxist
  1. Conflict between the mass and the small ruling poupulation
  2. The family maintains the position of the ruling class
  3. The economy shapes the rest of the society
  4. Institutions such as the family are shaped around capitalism
  5. Engels (1884)
    1. The modern nuclear family had developed under capitalism
    2. Private property is at the heart of capitalism and most of that is owned by men
  6. Marxist views on what the is family do not deter far from the functionalist view
  7. Criticisms
    1. Many sociologists reject the view of capitalism and therefore marxism
    2. Sociologists disagree that economics shapes the family through its needs
4. Feminist
  1. Marxist Feminists: Focus on the inequalities of the class system
  2. Radical Feminists: More of a focus on the structure of society
  3. Domestic Labour
    1. The work done by the woman in the house is unpaid labour
    2. Men receive the benefits of this
    3. Marxist feminists say unpaid labour is invaluable to capitalism
  4. Emotional Labour
    1. Radical feminists say that wives provide the emotional support not husbands (Delphy & Leonard, 1992)
    2. Marxist feminists say that the women soak up all the frustrations of working for capitalism
  5. Economic Dependancy
    1. Married women are dependent on the man economically
    2. Mothers often return to part time work not full time
  6. Male Domination
    1. The family is male dominated
    2. Men control key areas of decision making
    3. Domestic violence is widespread, the majority of cases being on women
Diversity
1. Reconstituted families
2. Extended and nuclear families
3. Cultural Diversity
4. Shared households/families of choice
5. Conventional married couple families with their own natural dependent children
6. Differences in roles of men, women and children
7. Class diversity
8. Cohabiting families
9. Lone parent families
10. Life cycle diversity
11. Regional diversity
12. Single person households
13. Gay and lesbian households
14. Dual worker families
Demography
1. Growing Population
  1. 1901, population of UK was 38.2 million By mid 2006 it was 60.6 million
  2. Between 1901 and 1911 the growth rate was around 1% In the 21st century it is around 0.25%
  3. Every year since 1901 there have been more births than deaths, except 1976
  4. Migration between 2001 and 2005 resulted in their being an increase of 182,000 people, compared to an average 92,000
2. Births/Fertility
  1. Actual numbers: The actual number of live births in a population over a given time, 1901 nearly 1.1million, 2005 there were nearly 723,000
  2. Birth Rate: The number of live births per 1,000 of the population of the year, 1900-02 it was 28.6, 2005 it was 12.0
  3. Total Fertility Rate (TFR): The average number of children a woman is expected to have during her lifetime, estimated at 3.5 in 1900, and 1.84 in 2006
3. Deaths/Mortality
  1. Actual Numbers: The actual number of deaths over a given period, in 1901 it was 632,000, and 2005 it was 582,000
  2. For the population as a whole as the deaths per 1,000, 18.4 in 1900-02, 9.4 in 2005
  3. Infant Mortality Rate: The number of deaths of infants per thousand live births, 142 in 1901, 5.1 in 2005
4. Life Expectancy
  1. The number of years a person can expect to live
  2. Females: 1901 it was 49.0, 2003-05 it was 86.1
  3. Males: 1901 it was 45.5, 2003-05 it was 76.6
5. Ageing population
  1. From 1971 to 2006 the population of over 65's grew by 31%, while those under 16 declined by 19%
  2. People are living longer and women are having less children
6. Family Size
  1. In 2006, 37%of women reaching the age of 45 had a complete family of 2 children
  2. The proportion of women having 3 or more children has fallen from nearly 40% for women born in 1941, to 30%for women born in 1961
  3. Childlessness has also increased in recent years, one in ten women born in 1941 having no children compared with nearly one in five women born in 1961
Childhood
1. Social Construction of childhood
  1. Childhood is given its meaning through the different cultures that it exists inside of
  2. The way children should behave, be treated change within different societies
  3. Child soldiers in African countries at war would not be an accepted occurance in modern day Westernised culture
  4. Society in the UK molds itself around children
2. Childhood in History
  1. Ariés (1962)
    1. When the upper classes started to send their children to school in the 16th century, this was the start of childhood
    2. Childhood did not exist the the medieval times, there was nothing between infancy and adulthood
    3. In the 19th century factory acts were introduced to prohibit children working in the factories, with children being physically separated from adults
    4. Our world is obssessed with children
3. Images of Childhood
  1. The Welfare View
    1. Children are vulnerable and need protecting
  2. The Control View
    1. Children are unable to control their anti-social tendancies
  3. These are social constructions
4. The Uncertainty of Childhood
  1. Lee (2001)
    1. Both adults and children are in a state of becoming
    2. Growing similarity in children and adults
    3. Children are increasingly seen as beings in their own right
5. The End of Childhood?
  1. Postman (1983)
    1. There is no such thing as childhood
    2. The mass media has brought the adult world into chioldhood
    3. Television has broken down secracy
  2. Lee (2001): Childhood has become more complex

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Unit 1 Sociology

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