SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Compare and Contrast of Two Sociological Perspectives

[Name of the institute]Compare and Contrast of Two Sociological Perspectives

Introduction

Sociological theories are complex theoretical frameworks. Sociologists use these theories to explain and to analyze how different social actions, social processes and social structures work. The sociological study of society is an interesting and challenging endeavor. For the researcher of applied sociology, especially if you are considering intervening in families, communities or organizations, social perspectives provide valuable information to help understand these institutions, and to predict what will emerge from these interventions. Sociologists have spent more than a century fighting great battles based on three completely different ways of looking at society. Sometimes these battles are recalled in the current discussions. These three sociological perspectives are as follows:

Symbolic Interactionism

Functionalism

Conflict Theory

The aim and objective of this paper is also to talk about sociological perspectives in terms of families which is one of the most important parts of the society.

Compare and Contrast Two Key Sociological Perspectives

As mentioned above that sociological theories are complex theoretical frameworks so, there are various perspectives of the sociological theories. The following are the three perspectives of the sociological theories:

Symbolic Interactionism

Functionalism

Conflict Theory

Out of these three social perspectives the two perspectives that are selected to discuss in this paper are functionalism and conflict theory.

Functionalism

Functionalism is characterized by utilitarianism and is associated to actions which must support the established orders in society. Functionalism can be considered as a theoretical current that emerged in England in the 1930s in the social arena, especially in sociology and social anthropology. Functionalism studies society regardless of its history. It tries to understand society in a way that as every element of society is articulated with others to form a whole society and exercising a function within that society. The functionalist school is more widespread; it has become naturalized and is studied as a paradigm of science communication. In a simple way, it can be said that functionalism in the society is conceived as a set of interconnected parts between them. None of them, therefore, can be understood isolated from the other, but only in its context (Jackson, 2011, 26).

Functionalism tries to understand the society with the help of its functions and the interaction of its various organs. Functionalist approaches in sociology are based on the autonomy and emergence of social relationships. Practices of social action, values and subjectivities are therefore considered in terms of their contribution to the receipt of an imaginary system or logic institutions. This is accompanied by the idea that it is primarily non-intentional consequences of action, which is due to the reproduction of social structure pattern (Ortner, 2009, 16).

Feminism

Feminism is the theory that implies that men and women should be treated equally from all facets of life i.e. politically, economically and socially. The term is most often associated to many different movements over the last two decades that have acted to execute this vision of equality by embracing it in law and throughout the culture. Feminism is the struggle for a new human ...