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Emotions and Logic in Consumerism Video

Theorists in late-nineteenth-century Europe were living during extraordinary times. They were attempting to explain social order, social change, and social inequality while the world around them changed as a result of the Industrial Revolution.

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At the same time, they were witnessing political upheaval and the birth of democracy brought about by the French and American Revolutions. These were changes on the grandest of scales in the macro order of society. Frequently referred to as classical sociology, the theories that arose during Ejotions period reflect the broad subject matter of a sweeping Emotions and Logic in Consumerism.

Structural functionalismor functionalist theory, was the dominant theoretical perspective within sociology well into the mid-twentieth century. New or neo- functionalists continue to apply their own vision of the theory to study a wide variety of social phenomena today. He was born into a close-knit and deeply religious Jewish family who instilled in him a strong sense of morality not just as an abstract concept but as a concrete influence on social relations and a strong work ethic.

Conflict Theory

After witnessing the ravages of the Franco-Prussian War —he hoped that applied science could stabilize and revitalize France in the aftermath of its devastating defeat. In his first major Consunerism, The Division of Labor in SocietyDurkheim stated that solidarityor unity, was present in all types of societies but that different types of societies created different types of social bonds. He suggested that people in a simple agricultural society were bound together by mechanical solidarity —that is, on the basis of shared traditions, beliefs, and experiences.

Both types of solidarity have interpersonal bonds—just with different qualities. Durkheim believed that even the most individualistic actions have sociological explanations and set out to establish a scientific methodology for studying these actions. He chose for his case study the most individualistic of actions, suicide, and used statistical data to show that suicides were related to social factors such as Consumerisj affiliation, marital status, and employment. Durkheim theorized that suicide is one result of anomiea Emotions and Logic in Consumerism of disconnection brought about by the changing conditions of modern life. The more firmly anchored a person is to family, religion, and the workplace, the less anomie he is likely to experience.

In his final major study, The Elementary Forms of Religious LifeDurkheim suggested that religion was a powerful source of social solidarity because it reinforced collective bonds and shared moral values. He believed that society could be understood by examining the most basic forms of religion. Durkheim became the first professor of social science in France, at the University of Bordeaux inand later won a similar appointment Consumersim the Sorbonne in Paris, Emotions and Logic in Consumerism very heart of French academic life. Auguste Comte proposed that society itself could and should be studied. Herbert Spencer added the idea that societies are living organisms that grow and evolve, just like other species on the planet.

As the discipline of biology might study the physical organism of the human body, the discipline of sociology could study social organisms in the world of human development.

Structural Functionalism

Durkheim integrated and advanced these insights into a comprehensive theory for understanding Logi nature of society. There are two main principles of functionalism. First, society is conceived as a stable, ordered system made up of interrelated parts, or structures. Second, each structure has a function that contributes to the continued stability or equilibrium of the unified whole. Structures are Emotions and Logic in Consumerism as social institutions such as the family, the educational system, politics, the economy, and religion. Any disorganization or dysfunction in a structure leads to change and a new equilibrium; if one structure is transformed, the others must also adjust.

For example, if families fail to discipline children, then schools, churches, and the courts must pick up the slack. It may seem contradictory that a theory concerned with order and stability would emerge in a discipline that arose in a period of rapid social change.

But it is important to remember that change had previously occurred much more slowly and that one response to rapid social change is to try to understand what has come before—stability, order, and equilibrium. It was exported and updated by American functionalists, who increased its popularity and helped spread its reach well into the s. For example, Talcott Parsons — elaborated on the theory and applied it to modern society, specifying some of the functions that social structures might fulfill in contemporary life.]