Grappling with microsociology and macrosociology

Grappling with microsociology and macrosociologyPrepared by: Ma. Anya Yasmin A. RoslinOutline of Discussion1. Micro and Macro Perspective2. Micro and Macro Debate3. The Movement Toward Micro-Macro Integration4. Integrated Social Paradigm (George Ritzer)5. Micro-Macro Model (Coleman & Liska)6. CritiqueMicro and Macro PerspectiveMacro Perspective : A study of social structure/institutions within social structure (status, roles, institutions) determines human behavior - large scale patterns of society

Ex: war, distress of third world nation, poverty and environmental deprivation. Micro and Macro Perspective2. Micro Perspective- study of social interaction- human behavior is based on individuals interpretation of a situation and the meaning they give it.-small scale patterns of social interaction

Ex. Role of women, the nature of the family and immigrationMacrosociological

MicrosociologicalConcentrate on average action and the regularities that are common to large number of social actors

Face-to-Face interaction. Focus is still on how individuals interpret the situation and interact with other individuals in these settings.Levels of AnalysisFocus of AnalysisMicro and Macro Perspective5Micro-Macro DebateMicro & Macro conceptions live next door to each other like hostile neighbours, mostly ignoring and occasionally picking on each other.

There has been major conflict between extreme microscopic and macroscopic theories

The Classic sociological theorists are either micro or macro extremistMicro-Macro DebateMARX:Interested in the coercive and alienating effect of capitalist society on individual workers

WEBER:Concerned with the plight of the individual system within the iron cage of a formally rational society

DURKHEIM: Concerned with the effect of macro-level social facts on individuals and individual social behaviourMicro-Macro DebateMACRO EXTREME 1. Parsons CULTURAL DETERMINISM

2. Dahrendorfs CONFLICT THEORY

3. Peter Balus MICROSTRUCTURALISM

B. MICRO EXTREME1. Blumers STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM2. George Homans EXCHANGE THEORY

3. ETHNOMETHODOLOGYMovement Toward Micro-Macro IntegrationA discern movement away from micro-macro extremism and towards a broad consensus on the focus of integration or linkage of micro and macro theories.

Neither micro-nor macro structure are self-contained levels of analysis, they interact with each other at all times.Movement Toward Micro-Macro IntegrationThe micro-macro integration problem revolves around the following challenge:a. The micro-researcher doing a study of a complex organization makes indirect references to macro-concepts

b. The macro-researcher studying a complex organization or movements of historical trends will make reference to micro activities but only indirectly.

Movement Toward Micro-Macro IntegrationTHE CHALLENGE: To sustain one level while demonstrating that the other is an integral part of the discussion of the findings and the theoretical propositions advanced.Movement Toward Micro-Macro Integration2 Major strands of work on Micro-Macro Integration

1. Some theorists focus on integrating micro and macro theories

2. Others are concerned with developing a theory that deals with linkage between micro-macro levels of social analysis.Movement Toward Micro-Macro IntegrationMicro-Macro Integration as Reflected in Everyday Setting

Micro and micro level of analysis are integrated in everyday setting as a routine feature of all cultural or social organization

Ex. School, Offices, Hospital, Law FirmsMovement Toward Micro-Macro IntegrationBureaucracySCHOOLOFFICESHOSPITALLAW FIRMS- Evaluate class performance & produce summary statement/grades at the end of a specified period of time- Produces reports of routine and special board meetings in w/c a group decides whether to give someone a loan, a grant, or a fellowship- Patients and clients are intertwined and a medical history or legal statement is prepared that summarizes an interview and assessment of tests and documentsMovement Toward Micro-Macro IntegrationEveryday setting, therefore, with highly organized ways of dealings with producing macro-evaluations, reports and summarizations of relentless micro-events.

In each case, the creation of accounts that integrate micro-events in such a way so as to produce macro-interpretations of experience.Integrated Sociological ParadigmVertical Depth LevelsHorizontal, Micro-Macro LevelsForms of SocialityGroupingsSocial ClassSocialStructureGlobal StructureEcologicalOrganizationsSocial PatternsUnorganized CollectiveBehaviour5. Social Roles6. Collective Attitudes7. Social SymbolsCreative CollectiveBehaviourCollective Ideas and Values10. The Collective Mind Fig 1. Intersection of Gurvitchs Horizontal and Vertical Levels of Social RealityIntegrated Sociological ParadigmGurvitch has a clear sense of both the micro-macro and objective and subjective continua but the complexity of his model makes it ineffective.

Ritzers integrated paradigm was shaped by the work of Abraham Lead and George Gurvitch.

Integrated Sociological Paradigm-According to Ritzer, micro-macro issue cannot be dealt with apart from the objective-subject continuum. All micro and macro social phenomena are also either objective or subjective.Integrated Sociological ParadigmMACROSCOPICMICROSCOPICOBJECTIVESUBJECTIVEMacro-ObjectiveEx. Society, Law, Bureaucracy, Technologyand LanguageMacro-SubjectiveEx. Culture, Norms, and Values

Micro-ObjectiveEx. Patterns of behaviour, action and interaction

Micro-SubjectiveEx. Perceptions, beliefs, the various facts of the social construction of realityFig 2. Ritzers Major Levels of Social AnalysisIntegrated Sociological ParadigmMicroscopic Macroscopic Dimension- relate to the magnitude of the social phenomena ranging from whole societies to the social acts of the individuals

Objective Subjective Dimension- refers to t whether the phenomena has a real, material existence or exists only in the realm of ideas and knowledge

Integrated Sociological ParadigmEXAMPLE OF AN INTEGRATIVE MICRO-MACRO APPROACH

Expressing America: A Critique of the global Credit Card Society

Definition of Terms:

1. Personal Troubles those problems that affect an individual and those immediately around him/her.

2. Public Issues those that affect large numbers of people, perhaps society as a whole.

- A widespread personal trouble can become a public issue and a public issue can cause many personal troubles.Integrated Sociological ParadigmCredit Card & Consumer DebtRitzer examined a wide range of personal troubles and public issues associated with credit cards.

Macro Level:A large and growing number of people are increasingly indebted to credit card companies and has become a public issue because of an accumulated consumer debt.

The role of the government played in encouraging consumer debt by its own tendency to accumulate debt. As well as credit card companies in encouraging people to go into debt --- marketing credit cards to anyone who can use it.Integrated Sociological ParadigmMicro Level

1) People have gotten themselves into debt as a result of the abuses of credit cards.Micro-to-Macro ModelMacro LevelMicro Level132(Protestant) Religious Doctrine(Capitalist) Economic System(Orientations to Economic BehaviorIndividual ValuesFig 3. Colemans Integrative ModelMicro-to-Macro ModelColeman uses Webers Protestant Ethic as an Illustration

Arrow 1 : Macro- Micro Issues

Arrow 2 : Micro-Macro Question

Arrow 3 : Micro-Macro RelationshipWeakness of the Model: Focus only on the micro-to-macro relationship (Arrow 3)Macro LevelMicro Level132(Protestant) Religious Doctrine(Capitalist) Economic System(Orientations to Economic BehaviorIndividual ValuesFig 3. Colemans Integrative ModelMicro-to-Macro ModelColemans FocusMicro-to-Macro ModelAllen Liska (1990) enhanced Colemans approach by dealing with both the micro-to-macro and the macro-to-micro problems. He uses Protestant Ethic as an example.Micro-to-Macro Model(a)(d)(b)(c)Macro LevelMicro LevelProtestantism(Religion System)Capitalism(Economic System)Individual ValuesEconomic BehaviorFig 5. Liskas Macro-to-Micro and Micro-to-Macro ModelMicro-to-Macro Model3 Schemes to describe Macro Phenomena

AGGREGATION: summation of individual properties in order to yield a group property

STRUCTURAL: involves relationships between individuals within a group

GLOBAL: involves what are usually thought of as emergent properties

CONCLUSION: Macro theorists should do more with aggregation and micro theorists do more with contextual factors.Socially Constructed Reality

Human thoughts, action and interaction; individual way and methods in making sense and creating reality; everyday lifeObjective Social reality

Large scale structure and institutions, social phenomena and processes, their influence on groups and individualsMicroMacroDifferences Between Macro and MicrosociologyView of Reality / Social Order

Subject Matter

3. Views in Social Structure and the individualDifferences Between Macro and MicrosociologySTRUCTURES: 1. social structure (systems & patterns) is a product of contingent intentional acts of freedom

2. social phenomena are explicable in terms of individuals, their properties, goals and beliefs;

3. individual units are constitutive of larger units, structures are seem of individual actsSTRUCTURES: 1. structures as sui generis; although realized through individual phenomena and experiences, are different from them, external to and coercive of the individual2. supervenience of structure: irreducibility of structures to individual who produce these structures3. structures as phenomena and others as epiphenomena

MicroMacroDifferences Between Macro and Microsociology4. CausationINDIVIDUAL: : conscious, creative agent, although at times may commit irrational acts

Not interested in causality but fine talks of metaphor of causation(b is the totality of which a is part, thus b can influence what a can do)INDIVIDUAL: actor constrained and determined by structure

True causation: cause and effect relationships to understand the social world

MicroMacroEfforts in Micro-Macro IntegrationPROBLEMS:

Differences in the definition of micro and macro levels

Even if like sounding terms are used in micro (psychological characteristics, action, behavior, etc.) macro (structures, systems, culture, etc.), sociologist differ in defining them.

View that terms micro and macro are not descriptions of empirical realities but are just analytic concepts to analyze realityFIGURATIONAL SOCIOLOGYBackground of Norbert Elias A Jew born in Germany, in a middle class familyThere was a long delayed recognition of his work (none of his books was translated in English. Few English Sociologists were fluent in German.In the 1970s and throughout the rest of his life, he received significant awards and he was involved in an effort to overcome the micro-macro distinction.ELIAS: FIGURATIONFIGURATION:

Serves as a conceptual tool to loosen the social constraint to speak and think as if individual and society were antagonistic as well as different.

Social processes involving the interweaving of people. They are not structure that are external and coercive of relationships between people. THEY ARE THOSE RELATIONSHIPS.ELIAS: FIGURATIONPEOPLE AS INDIVIDUALS at the same time are thinking of them as SOCIETIES

It applies both at the macro and micro levels and to every social phenomena between those two poles.

CAN BE APPLIED TO:Relatively Small Groups because societies are made up of interdependent peopleEx. Teachers & Students Doctors & Patients Children at a nursery schoolThey all make up relatively comprehensible figuration with each other.ELIAS: FIGURATIONHOWEVER,

2. The longer and more differentiated link of people would result in figuration that cannot be perceived directly

Ex. Inhabitants of a Village City or Nation

THUS,

Elias refuses to deal with relationship between individual and society but rather on:

Relationship between people perceived as individuals

People perceived as societiesELIAS: FIGURATIONELIAS: FIGURATIONElais argues that most Sociologists operate with a sense of HOMO CLAUS, an image of single human beings each of whom is ultimately absolutely interdependent of all other an Individual-in-himself

It should be an image of open, interdependent actors HOMO APERTI

-The Focus of hi Sociology:How and why people are bound together to form specific dynamic figurations is one of the central question perhaps even the central question of Sociology.ELIAS: FIGURATIONElias then turn to the various difficulties that have arisen in Western Civilization to discuss further the concept of figuration.

However, Elias is not arguing that:Civilization is inherently good nor bad and;To be more civilized is better nor worse

He is simply stating a sociological fact.

The History of MannersHistorical transformation of a variety of very mundane behaviors in the direction of a --- civilized behavior.

Although he begins with the Middle Ages, he makes it clear that there is not and cannot be,, such a thing as starting or ending point for development of civilization

He traced the changes in what embarrasses us, over increasing sensitivity, how we become observant of others and our sharpened understanding of others.The History of MannersBEHAVIOR AT THE TABLE- Elias examines the book of etiquette written between the 13th & 19th century regarding table manners- His basic point: the threshold of embarrassment has gradually advanced

Ex. 13th Century poem warned:a. A gnawed bone should not be put back in the dish (considered as a serious offense)b. No poking of fingers into the ears or eyes, picking of nose while eating.The History of Manners16th Century Document:a. Nothing is more improper than to lick your fingers, to touch meats and put them into your mouth with your handb. It is also improper to stir sauce with your fingers or to dip bread into it with your fork and then suck it.

The warning implicate the extent of these behaviors in the 13th to 16th century- As time goes by, people were more aware that some behavior are considered uncivilized, then there is less need to warn them.The History of MannersElias sees the change in table manners are NOT made rationally but rather the sources of change are EMOTIONS than rational thinking.

Certain form of behavior are placed under prohibition, not because they are unhealthy but because they lead to an offensive sight and disagreeable associationsThe History of Manners2. NATURAL FUNCTIONS a. The Art of Farting: If it can be purged without a noise that is best, but it is better that it be emitted with a noise than it be held back. One should make sacrifices with the buttocks pressed firmly together. Let a cough hide the explosive sound: Replace farts with coughs. (based on 14th C book used by school children.

- Nowadays, it is no longer necessary to mention the art of farting because it had come well known that the behaviors in question were uncivilized.The History of MannersThe control over impulses started at the upper echelons of the court and eventually were transmitted to those of lower status.

Further figurational changes are needed when people are moving closer together such as decrease in social stratification.

b. Blowing Ones Nose: Do not blow your nose with the same hand that you use to hold the meat - in 16th C : Nor is it seemingly, after wiping you nose, to spread out your handkerchief and peer into it as if pearls and rubies might have fallen out of your headThe History of Mannersc. Sexual Relations: In middle ages it was common that men and women spend the night together in one room, naked.(later the custom gradually changed by letting the couple lie with their clothes but nowadays wedding bed is concealed without the presence of any witness.

Sexual life is taken out of the larger society and enclosed within the nuclear family

Civilization involves a CHANGE in the way HUMAN DRIVES are controlled.SOCIAL CONSTRAINT ------- SELF RESTRAINTThe History of MannersThe process of civilization of the sex drive, seen on a large scale runs parallel to those of other drives, no matter what sociogenetic differences of detail may always be present.

Control grows stricter and the instinct is slowly but progressively suppressed from the public life of society

Civilization process in the area of sexuality does not occur in a straight line; rather, there are many forward, backward and sideways movements over time.The History of MannersAs Elias puts it:

It is cultivated in the individual from an early age as habitual self-restraint by the structure of social life. By the pressure of social institutions in general and by certain executive organs of society. Thereby, the social commands and prohibitions become increasingly part of the self.Power and CivilityIf SELF-CONSTRAINT is the key to the civilizing process then Elias concerned in POWER and CIVILITY are the CHANGES in SOCIAL CONSTRAINT that are associated with the rise in SELF-RESTRAINTPower and Civility deals more on the MACROSCOPIC level:

- The basic tissue resulting from the many single plans and actions of men can give rise to changes and patterns that NO individual person has planned or created.Lengthening Interdependency ChainsIt is the macro-structural change that is such great importance to process of civilization.

Contributes to the corresponding need for the individuals to moderate their emotions by developing the habit of connecting events in terms of chains of cause and effect

Elias introduced the concept of ROYAL MECHANISM: wherein the King with absolute status, as well as the court society emerge as stable central organs.

Elias affirms that:- The King emerges when the appropriate figurations is in place and not by chance or not by a strong ruling personality is born.

Lengthening Interdependency ChainsThe KINGs COURT

The place where changes took place that eventually affected the whole societyExample: The Nobles- they have longer chains of dependency that they found it necessary to be sensitive to others, thus to restraint their own violence, by the fact that the King is in control over the means of violence.

- The Monopoly of violence is intimately related to the ability of the King to monopolize taxation

Lengthening Interdependency ChainsThe rise of the King and the court and the transition from warrior to courtier represent the key spurt in the civilizing process.The ultimate cause of the decisive changes that ensued was the change in the entire social figuration of the time.a) changes in various relationships among groupsb) changes in the relationship among individuals in those groups.Gradual Movement toward a StateEmergence of the state is brought about by the presence of private monopoly of arms and taxes.

There is a DIRECT LINK between the growth of the King and later:The state controlling agencies in societyThe development of parallel controlling agency within the individual

As a result self-control grew more continuous and stable.

Grappling with Macro sociology and Micro sociology Thank you for listening. =)