Monday, January 25^th, 1999
Announcements: none

1. African-American sociologists

1. W.E.B. Dubois (1868-1963) 1^st African-American graduate of Harvard University with a PHD – Made two predictions about society:

1. Racial issues will continue to be a major problem into the 21^st century. In his book, The Philadelphia Negro, he stated that Black inferiority is due to White racism and institutional discrimination. Blacks were not born with defects.
2. Ghettoization would occur in large cities and other places.

1. W.J. Wilson – Marxist – took the Conflictists point of view. He wrote Disappearance of Work in which he said the economy was shifting to the information revolution. He said people should use their "sociological imagination" to understand the Black people’s situation.

1. What is a theory? A process of what linking concepts and facts together in order to understand them. A cause and effect relationship
2. Structural – Functionalism: A macro level (family, marriage, institutions, etc.) theory. Sociologists such as Comte, Spencer, and Durkheim believed in it.

1. Organic Analogy – looked at society as a living organism. Example: If you break your leg all the other parts of your body are affected. All societal institutions are interconnected.
2. Social Structures – Every aspect of social structure has a function. Example: Everything in the classroom has a function (teacher, seats, lights, etc.) Example: Why do people get married? To procreate, replenish the schools and job markets that exist.
3. Social Function – Functional requisites – Example: A Penn State graduate in computer science cannot find a job. Institutions are connected with the economy, which is connected to the family.
4. Society is Stable but Social Change is Slow. Example: Birth rates increase, so therefore the schools must increase class size. Example: If Clinton is removed, it will effect the economy, foreign policy, and many other aspects of society. That is the reason people don’t want Clinton to be impeached, because they don’t want society to undergo a major disruption.
5. Normative Consensus – Set of values and beliefs holding society together (capitalism, democracy, religion) People must respect their teachers and peers or chaos will abound. Example: No one is disrupting the class, just listening and taking notes because they know to respect their teachers.
6. Robert Merton – challenged the traditional views. Said all social phenomena have these 3 things:

1. Manifest Functions – Intended and recognized. Example: Penn State University’s intended function is to provide students with a quality education, good job, responsibility, etc.
2. Latent Functions – Unintended and unrecognized. Example: Penn State University unintentionally provides people with a network of friends, work ethic, marital partners, etc.
3. Dysfunctions – Undesirable effects on society. Example: Negative effects of PSU are alcoholism, depression, pregnancy, etc.

1. The Social Conflict Theory – macro picture

1. Inequality and conflict develop over scarce resources. Conflictists say the world is filled with tension, disharmony, competition, etc. Resources include land, money, jobs, education, power, and health care. Example: Fights with siblings when people are young usually develop over who should get to play with the toy or get the piece of candy.
2. Inequality is related to demographic features.
3. These are factors that contribute to disintegration
4. The one thing that exists in every society is a Power Struggle. Example: Clinton Sex Scandal – Republicans want to strip Clinton of his power.
5. Common values divide society. Example: Catholics and Protestants fighting in Ireland. Example: Hindus and Muslims fighting in India and Bangladesh.
6. Conflict is good – it leads to social change. Example: Boyfriend and girlfriend fight and the resolution results in change. Example: People who are "have-nots" rebel and the result is that they receive more than they originally had. The Civil Rights movement and the Woman’s movement are examples.
7. Values are an illusion created by the dominant class. All social arrangement is beneficial to the dominant class. All societal institutions are not functionalist, but only help the rich.