Journal Entry 1: Seeing Connections
The article “Seeing Connections” by Durkheim (1984) shows a discussion of the relationship that exists between different social institutions in the society. In this case, the idea is that there is an existence of a balance between the institutions in a community and whenever a change occurs in one of the institutions, there needs to be an adjustment in the other parts that constitute the society to ensure a balance between the changes experienced in one institution with the other institutions. In circumstances where people fail to understand the interconnectedness experienced among different institutions, there is a probability that they end up suffering from problems that they can provide the origin. For people to address these issues, they need to establish a linkage among different social institutions and try to give a solution to the problem. The misunderstanding of awareness of the connection of different institutions applies even in situations where the government has to make decisions about a particular policy.
The effectiveness of this argument occurs in situations where an individual considers the relationship between family, education, and law institutions. The family is considered as the primary institution where people socialize children to the life of the community. Socialization process takes a broad feature as children have to go through the elements that govern their lives as they perform duties in their community (Tuomela, 2003). Going against the established norms and regulations is described as the origin of the failure for such people to meet the needs of the society. However, many people do not understand the effects family socialization process may have on children’s future behavior such as in schools and workplaces. For example, the family institution provides basic information related to gender roles. Historically, communities usually have duties designed to be performed by women and men. The process of creating awareness about these duties originates from the family setting.
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In modern society, there is an increased demand for increasing the level of equality between men and women at the workplace. Countries make policies to fight gender inequality at the national level, but they forget to address the sources of the problem to mitigate the issues witnessed in the international level (Tuomela, 2003). For instance, hierarchical societies expose women to roles that are lower than those designed to be performed by men. In effect, women are subjected to home chores while men are designed to perform challenging duties such as providing income to the family. In situations where women secure job chances in organizations, the inferiority they receive due to overdependence on men in a home setting translates into fewer powers prescribed to women in the workplace. Fighting this inequality in workplace requires people to begin by eliminating this problem from the family. As children grow, the family becomes the first institution to institutionalize a child into the rules of the society. Girls are told how to be submissive, and obedience to their husbands and this is reflected through the increased level of oppression of women by men in workplaces.
Policies made by the law also contribute to significant impacts experienced by people in the society (Niehues, 2014). For example, the increased concern about equality in the society calls for a need of the government to come up with strategies that focus on ensuring that there is a reduction of gender inequality. Most countries have responded by setting lower grades for girls joining higher education and increasing the grades for boys entering the same course. This law focuses on ensuring that there is a reduction of the gap in education between men and women in society thus increasing their chances of securing regular jobs in society. Critically, this policy worsens the situation because even in cases where men and women occupy the same position in an organization, there is always the probability that men will feel superior to women because of the difference in grades achieved in schools. The information indicates that activities enacted in one institution may have significant adverse effects in other institutions.
Journal Entry 2: The Sociologically Examined Life
The article” The Sociologically Examined Life” by Schwalbe (2005) examines the rate of discrimination that exists between people of different social status, race, and gender experienced in every society. The central idea of this information is based on the argument that inequality is evident in society, but there is an existence of interdependence among the involved groups. The differences occur by the gap in accessing economic facilities experienced by different groups (Schwalbe, 2005). Despite the existence of these differences, there is interdependence where each group relies on another group either directly or indirectly. In this case, the rich depend on the poor for performing duties such as cleaning while the less privileged depends on the privileged society for income. This argument indicates that though there may be benefits associated with inequality, there are significant adverse effects associated with social stratification.
Inequality has increasingly become a topic of interest in the society where people can be classified as high-income earners, middle, and lower income earners. In most cases, people come up with these structures as people have different opportunities for achieving the factors that characterize each group. Most countries have the notion that all people have equal opportunities for acquiring education, jobs, and exposed to the same level of income the effects. In reality, people do not have the same abilities for achieving the same level of wealth accumulation, and this becomes the fundamental reason behind the increased level of inequality in society. The positive effects of inequality originate from the fact that the economy possesses labor in all categories. For example, organizations usually have duties that need to be performed by skilled and unskilled personnel. In effect, social stratification becomes essential in the society because it ensures the provision of labors in the different categories demanded in the labor market. This creates benefits of interdependence where the owners of factors of production depend on skilled labor to turn the factors of production into a profitable output.
Though there are increasing strategies adopted to fight inequality in a country, it is undeniable that the policies should start from families and the educational institutions. People of different race receive different treatments in a society. For example, the whites have exercised a lot of discrimination against black Americans because they have different origins (Kluegel & Smith, 2017). In most cases, people may act in a manner suggesting that they are not racists. The reality contradicts their thinking because it becomes challenging for people to recognize their mistakes. In the family institution, children learn the behaviors and ways they should use interacting with people in society. If the community has a negative attitude towards people from a particular race, they will be in a position to exercise such behaviors whenever they interact with people from those groups. Despite the existence of racism exercised by people, there is some level of dependence especially in economic terms because countries cannot be fully independent without seeking input from other people in society.
Inequality is exercised in various institutions such as education, workplace, and also families. At the family level, there is a lot of differentiation where each family member plays an essential role to keep the family as live and strong social institutions. In this case, the father provides financial support to the family while the mother takes care of the children. Society requires children to be supportive to the parents and respect their parents. Based on the simple structure of the family institution, each plays an active role in maintaining the existence of the entire society. If one of the elements of the family fails to perform the assigned task, there is a possibility that there will be discomfort in the institution and this may lead to a collapse of the entire structure. This basic understanding of interdependence reflects the inequality that exists in society and the benefits of such inequality in a society.
Journal Entry 3: Basic Sociological Terms
The article “Basic Sociological Terms” by Weber (1978) describes the behaviors that people in society usually have on the lives of other people. They derive the concepts of social action where individuals are trained to behave like a particular group. From this view, an individual’s action in a society reflects what those people may consider being shared believes in society (Burrell & Morgan, 2017). The idea behind this argument is that people live in a country governed by customs and cultural values. If a person acts differently from the expected behavior, there is a possibility that the individual is branded as a deviant in the society. The actions presented by an individual shows that the individual is influenced by the behavior of the mass in the community.
In the society, there is an existence of several institutions such as the religious, education, family, and law. Each group member in the institutions shows that there is a need for developing a strategy that compels people to adhere to the rules to meet their objectives. For example, income accumulation is increasingly becoming the interests of the members of the society. However, people apply different approaches to achieve this call resulting in different social behaviors in society. For instance, one of the individuals may decide to evade tax with an objective of accumulating income while the person may be aggressive to create an improvement in the mechanisms of job skills that attract high salaries. Based on this example, the different methods applied by people in solving the problem originates from the motive for accumulating income. From this view, tax evasion is socially unacceptable, and institutions such as law take the responsibility for correcting the offender while the person seeking to improve income through education and seeking jobs in higher levels is socially acceptable.
The behavior displayed by the people indicates that people are rational and they seek to maximize their outcome as they interact with other individuals in the community. There are established laws that govern the activities conducted in society, but people usually have different motives that lead them to behave in a particular manner. For example, people believe that there is a need for coming up with strategies that govern the activities. For instance, the religious institution requires that people should live in an honest way and no violation of that rule. Despite the existence of the policies and rules that govern the operation of a group, people usually have other factors that determine their actions. This information indicates that though there is an establishment of groups where one can identify themselves, a majority of the behaviors are determined by inner forces of an individual. For example, people have sought to create a difference between their achievements and those of other members in a group by employing unique mechanisms.
The rules governing individualism and collectiveness in a society depends on the level at which members of the community perceive changes. In situations where an individual comes from a conservative social group, there will be limited chances for an individual to exercise their roles (Conte & Castelfranchi, 2016). For example, traditional societies have a strong bond governing their activities, and it becomes difficult for individuals to violate such rules. The customs and cultural values attached to the actions of an individual in each group depend on the set rules, and if a person breaks the norms, he or she is subjected to punishment by the community. In modern society, people are creating a society, and there are notable changes in their behaviors. For instance, there are increasing differences in the religious institution resulting from the establishment of denominations created by human beings.
References
Burrell , G., & Morgan, G. (2017). Sociological paradigms and organizational analysis: Elements of the sociology of corporate life. Routledge.
Conte, R., & Castelfranchi, C. (2016). Cognitive and social action. Garland Science.
Durkheim, Emile. "The Anomic Division of Labour." The Division of Labour in Society. Macmillan Education UK, 1984. 291-309.
Kluegel, J. R., & Smith, E. R. (2017). Beliefs about inequality: Americans' views of what is and what ought to be. Routledge.
Niehues, J. (2014). Subjective perceptions of inequality and redistributive preferences: An international comparison. Colognegv Institute for Economic Research. IW-TRENDS Discussion Paper, (2).
Schwalbe, M. (2005). The sociologically examined life: Pieces of the conversation. McGraw-Hill Humanities, Social Sciences & World Languages.
Tuomela, R. (2003). Collective acceptance, social institutions, and social reality. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 62(1), 123-165.
Weber, M. (1978). Basic sociological terms. Economy and society, 1, 3-62.
