The Sociological Perspectives - Essay Example

Application of sociological perspectives to analysis of existing social problems Modern societies offer for an observer who intends to understand their functioning so many different intricate and interdependent, and not always in the visible way, social phenomena that one can easily get lost in the multitude of possible interpretations and explanations. In this situation, in order to avoid unnecessary confusion due to unsystematic approach to investigation of social processes, a good solution is to start from the initial definition of methodology that will be used for examination of social problems. Generally speaking, the alternative methodologies, from which we can choose the ones that would best suit the needs of our research, are represented by different theoretical sociological perspectives. Such perspectives may be thought of as certain models of social reality. Indeed, each theoretical perspective offers general postulates about the way society works, and for this purpose tries to correspondingly interpret numerous facts of a societys functioning and development. As with other models which human beings employ for understanding the world, like in science, philosophy, and in our everyday goings-on, sociological perspectives construct models with the aim to uncover the meaning of what we regularly witness around us. However, particular models often tend to highlight some specific characteristics of the complex social network of interdependencies, and thus turn out to accentuate different elements of a societys structure and functioning. Some perspectives even proclaim the refusal to accept the indisputable universal validity of offered perspectives as such. In general, while such narrow focuses of sociological perspectives may be quite warranted if we consider that they help to concentrate the research on one problem or a set of closely-related problems for their proper clarification, there is a flip side of a coin as hardly any concrete theoretical sociological perspective may be righteously considered to be the best one. The reason for this is not only in the fact that conscious contraction of research space to one particular perspective makes the investigation inherently limited. After all, this limitation can be mitigated by addressing many alternative perspectives which in combination may produce a more coherent picture of social phenomena. The more subtle problem is rather in the limitations of sociological perspectives due to their mostly theoretical background which, if due to some reason it lags behind the actual social tendencies, may hinder productive efforts to build the most adequate model of social reality. Still, this problem seems to be inevitable in our dynamic social environment with its unprecedented level of change in many spheres of our life. Nevertheless, this should not discourage us from attempts to achieve the proper level of understanding of the roots and hidden driving forces behind existing social problems with the help of sociological perspectives. Rather, with the above considerations in mind we should be able to properly see when different sociological perspectives can be effectively employed, and which strong and weak points each of them contains. For this purpose, let us overview the so-called conflict and symbolic interactionist sociological perspectives, and identify a social problem which can be analysed with the help of those perspectives. Theorists of the conflict perspective are interested in the macro level of society and see it not as a solidary formation but as a battle-field for power struggles. Under this view, people are not really co-operating for social benefits, but instead are advancing their particular interests at the expense of other people. The notion of power plays a major role here, and can be defined as the ability of a person, or a group of persons, to fulfil their own will regardless of the existing disagreement of other people who are involved in their actions. Marx is a famous conflict theorist who viewed the conflict between classes as the main source of a social change. He observed that the rich and the poor fight for limited resources, so he grounded the essence of social conflict in the economic sphere, and highlighted the availability and lack of access to the means of production as the defining characteristics between competing classes. Of course, not all theorists of conflict perspective are related to Marx. For instance, Weber was conflict theorist as well. But aside from Marxist class separation as the driving force of conflict, other theorists described group and individual conflicts that do not relate only to class issues as such, and posited conflict as an inevitable feature of any society that may assume different shapes and which equally exists within classes. Simply put, conflict takes place between two people involved in a car accident, it happens among men and women, etc. In this way, the modern conflict perspective, which came into prominence in 1690s, is broader than that of Marx. In it the existing tension in society, within which a competition for scarce resources is ongoing, is thought to produce change, which in its turn becomes one of the main social characteristics. So, conflict naturally exists as people strive for wealth and power which are always limited. However, as we may have already guessed, conflict in this case is not a definitely negative appearance, because on one hand it still may serve as unifying force among people who choose to act according to their mutual interests, and on the other hand conflict is the source for necessary changes. In its balanced state, the conflict perspective views the existing social formation as such that ultimately serves not the common good of the whole society, but the interests of those endowed with power. Simultaneously, the orientation on serving the powerful groups within a society is accompanied with attempts to prevent other social groups from endangering their position. The ways this may work are manifold. For example, the notion of social mobility, which denotes the potential for children to move to another (in our case higher) social class than their parents, may serve this purpose as even despite the fact that such cases are not very common, the existence of such a myth is helpful for the upper class. Indeed, by instigating the lower classes it simultaneously helps prevent them from open hostility by offering a promise of a cleaner becoming a millionaire. This may make people of the lower classes more wary with the proposals to deprive the higher income people of some of their privileges. There are many other examples of such a subtle balance of power within a society if it is viewed through the eyes of the conflict perspective. Consider cases of protests against industrial environmental pollution, which for those who control industries are problematic as they may lessen the profits if measures to diminish the pollution are implemented. As the upper class is determined not only by income, but by involvement in political and cultural institutions, it becomes clear that visible and hidden conflicts literally permeate any society. To summarise, for the conflict perspective co-operation is not the real social motive, and the notion of an integrated society is an artificial concept. What really shapes the structure and dynamics of the social life is the influence on people via different manifestations of power, both visible and hidden, to make them comply. On the contrary, symbolic interactionists are devoted to micro sociology, and instead of building macro sociological constructs they explore interpersonal interaction mostly within our mundane everyday life. The symbolic interactionist perspective is concerned with the task to understand how people behave individually, and how they influence one another in the social environment. Naturally, for this perspective macro elements of society like government and the economy are not interesting. For interactionists, their attention to the interaction of individuals and groups is the tool to obtain new useful perspectives, to confirm or disprove expectations, and to define the boundaries of that pertaining to an individual and to a group. Simply put, this sociological perspective, in comparison to the conflict perspective, analyses societies from another direction - from bottom up, as for it society emerges out of interaction between individuals and their small groups. From this point of view, society is inherently dynamic and is constantly undergoing changes which arise from interaction between people. Thus, it is constant change, instead of fixed patterns, that defines the true nature of society. As for the interactionist perspective it is people who exist and act, thus they constitute the true social basis. All other formation present in societies are simply human creations that emerge out of the mentioned interaction. What adds dynamics to this perspective is the ensuing conclusion that society is actually permanently being re-created. Therefore, the symbolic interactionist perspective is much less deterministic than the conflict perspective with its rather invariable source of change determined by the macro social structure. In many cases interaction is occurring in the so-called reference groups, which refer to small and large professional organisations, like for example doctors or teachers, groups based on friendship, groups united by education, groups formed within communities we live in, etc. While some groups are more cohesive, and others do not last long, dynamics and change that emerge when people communicate is what is common between them. When taken together, such reference groups represent society. Importantly, the notion of symbolic interaction holds a very important place within the interactionist perspective. Generally speaking, this approach accentuates the fact that the interaction between people and groups takes place via symbols and symbolic representations of social reality. In this case, a symbol can be defined as something that can properly represent some other element of reality. In this way, symbolic interactionist perspective introduces into the social life a set of widely spread conventional traditions and customs, and thus deals not only with the immediate interaction between people and groups, but at the same time studies common meanings that people instill in society as they interact. The importance of this side effect of human interaction is hard to overestimate, as symbolic part of social life often becomes a substitute for reality, as exemplified by an observation of W. I. Thomas that if people define situations as real, then consequences of those situations are real. Now that we have overviewed the essence of the conflict and symbolic interactionist sociological perspectives, let try to apply them to a real-life social problem and analyse it from both points of view. To identify such a problem, I propose to pay attention to the alarming situation with Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, where petrol-sniffing has become in recent times a widespread practice among both adults and children. In fact, as reported in the article of Ashleigh Wilson "Petrol-sniffing Claims 60 Lives", up to 60 people died in the Northern Territory in the past eight years due to incidents related to this dangerous habit. While the article reports troublesome details about the danger of petrol-sniffing, and ponders what could be done to alleviate the situation, it is clear that a wider social problem underlies this issue. In fact, the problem is not only petrol-sniffing as such, but self-destructive behaviour of the Aboriginal people. Indeed, it seems reasonable to suggest that even if a way could be found to restrict access to sniffable petrol, there could emerge other manifestations of self-destructive tendencies. Thus, the root of the problem is apparently in general poor social conditions in which Aboriginal people subsist, namely their dependency on welfare and prevalent unemployment, the corresponding lack of elementary necessary living conditions, alcohol and drugs abuse, and weak governance. In this situation it is no wonder that money allocated by the federal Government for communities that suffer from petrol-sniffing are largely wasted because such programs are simply ineffective. In fact, such an attitude of the federal Government may be considered as a way to suppress the very existence of the problem. In this light, this issue gives us a plenty of room for interpretation. From the point of view of the conflict perspective, this situation indeed represents an instance when the groups that have power, i.e. government, are not very prone to being active in finding really effective solution to this problem, while the disadvantaged people seek their own deviant ways to avoid the unpleasant reality. The status quo seems to be an acceptable option for the government, and the fact that among those who perished due to the petrol-sniffing were no white people may even suggest that this is the main reason why little counteraction is initiated. So, the helpful aspect of the conflict perspective is its ability to delineate the general pattern of conflict - the inclusion of the presence of the social stratification enables the prognosis of whether a quick and effective action will be undertaken by the government or not. On the other hand, with its macro approach the conflict perspective may miss some subtle details about the situation with the Aboriginal people. Indeed, while the federal Government is probably not doing all it can to alleviate the problem, still it might seem that there are some ways for communities themselves to diminish it. And here the symbolic interactionist sociological perspective may be helpful with its attention to the micro level of interaction. What would be interesting for this perspective is the inability, and often the lack of determination, of the members of community to step in and try to prevent the visible manifestations of the entrenched habit of petrol-sniffing. However, if absolutised, this approach may actually place the whole burden of blame for the existing problem on the Aboriginal communities, which still would not be correct. Therefore, I believe it is warranted to use different sociological perspective for analysis of social problems, and to consciously extract those useful insights that each of them can provide without absolutising them. In our particular case, I guess the possible solution to the problem of petrol-sniffing might be two-fold. On one hand, pre-conditions for social development of Aboriginal communities should be created by the government. This is a realistic task, because for instance the community described in the mentioned article has all chances to thrive due to its close location to Australia's greatest natural attraction, Uluru. At the same time, whatever could be done to instigate the social development, if the communities themselves remain passive there is a bleak hope for a visible change for good, because in any case something should be done to medically treat those who already abuse petrol. Hopefully, if both processes begin simultaneously, they will be self-assisting and may reinforce each other, so that with time a social balance may be reached. Appendix Petrol-sniffing claims 60 lives By Ashleigh Wilson August 10, 2005 UP to 60 Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory have died from petrol-sniffing-related problems in the past eight years and community leaders are too scared to intervene, a coroner's inquest heard yesterday. Northern Territory coroner Greg Cavanagh said it was a "cop-out" for the federal Government to throw money at communities plagued by petrol-sniffing while asking them to be "proactive" about the problem. "We are talking about dysfunctional communities, and to say we will help you if you are proactive just leaves me open-mouthed," he said. Mr Cavanagh described the "sense of hopelessness" that infects some remote indigenous communities as he began an inquest in Alice Springs into the deaths of three Aboriginal petrol-sniffers. Two men, aged 21 and 37, suffocated and died last year while sniffing petrol at the Aboriginal community of Mutitjulu, near Uluru. Both were long-term sniffers who fell asleep while sniffing covered by blankets. The 21-year-old had previously been badly burnt on his arms and chest when the petrol he was sniffing caught alight. The third death was that of a 14-year-old boy from Willowra, north of Alice Springs. A first-time sniffer, he was found dead by his grandmother with a petrol bottle pressed against his face. Forensic pathologist Terry Sinton told the inquiry between 50 and 60 people in the Territory had died in the past eight years as a result of petrol-sniffing. Asked how many of those people where white, Dr Sinton replied: "To my knowledge, none." Dr Sinton said about 10 per cent of the deaths were directly related to petrol-sniffing. While petrol can often cause brain damage, the inquiry heard that death was relatively rare. As Mr Cavanagh said: "You end up like a zombie, but it's not going to kill you unless you suffocate yourself." The inquest heard petrol sniffing had become entrenched, tolerated and increasingly visible at Mutitjulu, with locals too afraid to step in because sniffers were unpredictable and violent. Counsel assisting the coroner Helen Roberts said two mothers of petrol-sniffers at Mutitjulu told her "they know their sons are going to die but they don't know what to do". Sources Ashleigh, W 2005, Petrol-sniffing claims 60 lives, The Weekend Australian, viewed 19 August, 2005, . Read More