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  • 31-10-2010 5:10pm
    #1
    Lyra Fangs
    Registered Users Posts: 632 ✭✭✭


    I have to do a sociology essay for one of my modules. Part of the question asks you to "compare Durkheim's understanding of the contribution sociology can make to the rational steering of society" to another theorist.

    Could someone please explain what "sociology's contribution to the rational steering of society" actually means?

    Thanks
    Lyra
    :confused:


Comments

  • #2
    Ostrom
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,483 ✭✭✭Ostrom


    Lyra Fangs wrote: »
    I have to do a sociology essay for one of my modules. Part of the question asks you to "compare Durkheim's understanding of the contribution sociology can make to the rational steering of society" to another theorist.

    Could someone please explain what "sociology's contribution to the rational steering of society" actually means?

    Thanks
    Lyra
    :confused:

    Sounds familiar... :)

    It would help if you gave some idea of the optional theorists to compare against. Usually a title like this is setting you up for a discussion of positivism/post positivism against later interpretivism.

    Durkheim, and others such as Spencer and Mill are usually taught as 'the positivists' - or as working toward a positive science of society (such as you see in Durkheim's Rules of Sociological Method where he discusses the concept of social facts).

    The 'rational steering of society' probably refers to the earlier (late 19th/early 20th century) belief that once general laws of social order were derived, social control via. knowledge and prediction would be possible. Again, there are many different examples through which this could be taught, so keep your lecturer happy!


  • #3
    Lyra Fangs
    Registered Users Posts: 632 ✭✭✭Lyra Fangs


    Thank you so much for your help :). You've done more in one comment than my lecturers have done all semester.

    The other theorist is Max Weber,so it comes down to positivism vs anti-positivism. Rationalisation vs disenchantment. I think anyway :P.

    My essay is going to be as simple as they come but at least I know what i'm talking about now.

    Thanks again,
    Lyra
    :D


  • #4
    Ostrom
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,483 ✭✭✭Ostrom


    Lyra Fangs wrote: »
    Thank you so much for your help :). You've done more in one comment than my lecturers have done all semester.

    The other theorist is Max Weber,so it comes down to positivism vs anti-positivism. Rationalisation vs disenchantment. I think anyway :P.

    My essay is going to be as simple as they come but at least I know what i'm talking about now.

    Thanks again,
    Lyra
    :D

    Good luck! If you can get hold of it, Alan Swingewood's Short History of Sociological Thought would be useful, as it discusses these issues with respect to each theorist.


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