Theories in Sociology and Their Roles in Understanding the Society - Essay Example

Theories in Sociology and their Roles in Understanding the Society When someone narrated a piece of information that a woman in India was applauded for refusing to join her husband unless he built a toilet in the house, I found it amusing that there could be a house without a toilet. Why was this news worthy? Sanitation and personal hygiene facilities are poor in India where social inequalities like poverty and illiteracy forced “636 million Indians” (the guardian 2014) to defecate in the open. Women are the worst affected since they have to wait until dark to relieve themselves and often had to risk dangers like being raped or attacked by wild animals. This led the woman to take the step. There seemed no possible explanation until one applies perspectives of social inequalities to developing countries like India, where gendered constructs make the woman’s protest as a mark of change and news worthy. Sociological theories help us understand social occurrences, events and patterns (Allan 2006) and become useful tools in understanding the ways and means to transform the society, as in above stated example. This essay shall briefly illustrate how sociological theories create ways to understand the social world. This will be done in two parts - the first part will explain how Structural Strain Theories have helped us understand the so-called deviant behaviours like sexual orientations of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders (LGBT), leading to comparatively lesser stigmatization than before, and better acceptance of same-sex marriages in societies. The second part shall illustrate how feminist theories have led to a general awakening of women to issues related to their rights, economics and social status. The essay shall point out that much more structural changes and transformations are required to mitigate the huge inequalities of gender and sex in spite of the awareness brought about by feminist theories. Functionalist Perspectives, LGBT and Social Change Deviance theory is an offshoot of Emile Durkheim’s Functionalist perspective who views the society as comprising of many parts each with its own ‘function’ that regulates social interactions on a common platform with positive impacts. Robert Merton terms disruptive non-conformation as ‘dysfuntion’ or deviant behaviour (Henslin pp. 30-31, 192). Deviance is relevant only when it occurs in specific cultural, sociological situations, according to Symbolic Interactionists like Becker and hence what is deviant in on cultural milieu may not be deviant in another (Henslin p.192). For example, while wanting to marry outside the choice of parents and the community may be considered deviant behaviour in Amish community (Henslin p. 86), it is the way of life in the rest of America. Furthermore, in this perspective, the dysfuntion of one part of the society impacts the other composite parts too causing social problems and consequently to social change. When some individuals in the society are unable to achieve their aspirations within the framework of the social structures, there arises tensions which lead to rejection of the norms by individuals, causing change if it occurs in increasing frequency. One good way of understanding Deviance is the way in which societal constructs of gender, sex and human bodies have created gaps for some individuals in societies all over the world. During the early period of modernization, advancements in printing and communication technologies increasingly exposed the hitherto uncommon and queer relationships of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenders and their sexualities to public gaze. People born thus were considered as physically and socially defective, ‘deviants’ and were subject to extensive stigmatization in western societies, some of which carry on till date. Racial, religious and social prejudices labelled them as socially unfit, leading to their marginalization and pushing them into lives of secrecy. Even though curiosity and mystery surrounded the lives of such ‘social deviants’ from early twentieth century, labelling and stigmatization of these people reached a peak during the Nazi regime’s inhuman experiments with homosexuals, when they were taken to concentration camps with a “pink triangle” (Biedro 2006, pp. 1-2) marked on them and treated as specimens for torture and termination. Even though the defeat of Hitler released people from such extreme acts of torture, the stigma and queer labelling of LGBT remained. Drawing on Symbolic Interactionist theories, researcher Pascoe (2005) examines the connotations of sexualities, masculinity and femininity and homophobia, to point out that “American adolescent boys become masculine” by constant “repudiation of ‘fag’ identity” (pp. 329-46). Increasingly research works in associated fields of sociology get published in the media and academic circles, awareness gradually spreads in societies, helping these marginalized sections to collectively take action to better their lot. For example, anthropologists Ellen Lewin and William Leap conclude that “The increasing visibility of lesbian and gay rights movements has provided us with the ability to … shed light on questions of identity, personhood…” (1996, p.22) This is also evidenced from the recognition or their rights by the UN and institutions like Amnesty International (2009), and increasing number of countries recognizing their rights in the west, leading to their positive inclusion in the society as worthy and productive contributors. Whereas the LGBT communities may be stigmatized and labelled in western societies, eastern societies have traditionally held a more inclusive and tolerant view of such behaviours. Research works of Michael Peletz (2006) and Rian Gayle (2010) on the treatment and acceptance of LGBT communities in East-Asian countries like India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar have explicate this and give western societies positive models from which integration of such individuals into the society can be worked out. Sociologists postulate theories and study lived interactions in societies through the “language, symbols, stories, role-taking….” (Plummer 2010, p. 108); deviant theories help us understand that such behaviours may be “seen as ‘ways of life’ and ‘designs for living’, as ‘tool kits’ for assembling ‘webs of significant meanings’, as ‘the scraps, patches and rags of daily life’. They can be seen as a set of creative tools and responses, lived daily in a flow and a flux to try and help us resolve our daily problems of living” (Plummer 2010, p. 106). Understanding Change through Liberal Feminism References Allan, Kenneth. 2006. Contemporary Social and Sociological Theory: Visualizing Social Worlds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. Jones, P. (2003). Interpretive sociology: action theories. In Introducing social theory, (pp. 102- 107). Cambridge:Polity Press. http://en.www.devoiretmemoire.org.systranlinks.net/actualites/sorties/extrait_site_auschwitz_2.html http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/aug/28/toilets-india-health-rural-women-safety http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/lgbt-rights/about-lgbt-human-rights?id=1106573 Read More