by DK
However, Foucault also famously notes that where there is power there is also resistance. What he means is that people will not always go along with what they are told to do or how they are told to behave, they may take to the streets to protest or even to riot.
Who’s in charge? Even in our own homes we cannot do just what we want. We must abide by the laws of our country and by the rules of our society, such as not leaving children unattended.
world’s most powerful
Russian president Vladimir Putin has topped the Forbes Power List for three years as the most powerful person in the world. His actions have an impact on people not just in Russia but around the world. Putin’s career began in 1975 when he joined the KGB (the old Soviet Russian security service) and he became president in 2000. He presents a tough, physically strong, rather stereotypical, male image.
There are only two women in the list of the top ten most powerful people in the world.
See also: WOMEN and work | KARL MARX | Who’s to BLAME?
Sociologists are not necessarily interested in whether a god or divine being actually exists. instead, the emphasis in sociology is on how religions relate to wider society, how they shape society and are, in turn, shaped by it.
Religion is a social glue
Two of the founding figures in sociology, Durkheim and Marx, offer two quite different interpretations of the place of religion in society. Both were writing at times of great social upheaval in the 19th and early 20th centuries and pondered what religion is for and why it maintained a presence amid all the change. In his extensive study of religions, Émile Durkheim always maintained there are plenty of world religions, such as Buddhism and Jainism, that are not centred on a divine being or beings, but rather emphasize certain preferred behaviours. For Durkheim, religion acts as a form of social glue, maintaining social cohesion and binding people together, by sharing and affirming the beliefs, values, and norms of a society.
A part of something bigger
Durkheim explained that sacred objects and sacred rituals associated with religions kept their special qualities because they were imbued with significance by society. They contained no built-in powers or link to a divine being in themselves. So, when people are engaged in acts of religious worship they are not actually looking up to a divine being, a God, but rather worshipping the values of their own society. The act of worship is important as it provides what Durkheim refers to as “emotional effervescence” or an upswelling of feelings that helps people to commit to their society and feel they are part of something bigger than themselves. He recognized that people are not just rational machines but require activities and moments in their lives when they need to emotionally connect with others around them.
Religion is a painkiller
Karl Marx offered a different perspective. For him religion provides a means of dealing with the pain and suffering created by living in an alienating and exploitative capitalist society. Christianity’s promise of a better life to come provides comfort. The idea is that the problems one is facing now will be made better at some future point. That notion of comfort informs Marx’s widely known but misunderstood observation that “…religion is the opium of the people”. What he did not mean was that people were addicted to religion. In his day, the mid-1800s, opium was used as painkiller and a drug that helped people deal with the sufferings of life. If he was writing today Marx might have said that “religion is the Prozac of the masses”, Prozac being a form of medication that helps with depression. For Marx, religion is ultimately an illusory solution to humanity’s issues. Real change lies in radically transforming the present world as opposed to waiting for salvation in an afterlife that does not exist.
Though Durkheim and Marx were writing a long time ago their ideas are still relevant. Religion and ritual provide some form of structure in many people’s lives and give them the opportunity to feel part of something. Religion can also offer a sense of security and hope for the future in a difficult and uncertain world.
PROTESTANT WORK ETHIC
German theologian, Martin Luther, suggested that working hard and earning a living was a way to fulfil one’s duties to God. This idea became part of the belief system of Protestants, and is described by Max Weber in his book The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1905. Weber saw this spiritual “work ethic” as the drive to build wealth behind modern capitalist economies.
Hartford Institute for Religion Research found that more than 40% of Americans say they go to church but less than 20% actually do.
See also: Are INSTITUTIONS a good thing? | Does RELIGION still MATTER? | ÉMILE DURKHEIM
a big question facing sociologists today is whether or not religion is in decline. Are we becoming a secular society, one that is non-religious? if we are, it would be a major change in how people view society and their place in it, as well as how they address the deeper questions about the meaning of life.
Science replaces religion
Sociologists are interested in any changes in society and this includes looking at secularization, the process by which a society becomes less religious, and people start to be less attached to religious ideas. The beginning of the decline of religion in Europe can be attributed to a time in history called the Enlightenment. During this period, the 18th century, great intellectual and scientific innovations took place in Europe. The Enlightenment challenged the religious beliefs that had been the dominant way of understanding the world. Instead of referring to the Bible as a way to explain all aspects of life, now explanations came from the study of science. This undermined the authority of the church and began the process of questioning the existence of God.
The flame still burns Though church attendance has reduced, Christianity and other faiths have endured. There are also people who prefer not to belong to any particular faith but still believe in a power greater than themselves.
Do you go to church?
All the early sociologists – Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Émile Durkheim – thought that we were moving towards a secular society. This idea seems to be supported by current statistics measuring church attendance. For example, the Church of England published statistics in 2016 showing that church attendance is half what it was in the 1960s and attendances at Sunday services are now below one million people – less than 2% of the population. In the US, a Gallup poll in 2013 found that 37% of people in the US attended church, though that figure is debatable as people tend to say they attend more often than they actually do. Throughout Western Europe and North America the trend towards a more secular society and a decline in church attendance appears to be fairly conclusive.
However, just because people do not attend church does not necessarily mean that religion is withering away. While some people may declare themselves to be atheists (people who do not believe in God), others say they are agnostic, meaning that they are not so sure. People can have spiritual feelings, such as a belief that there is some power greater than themselves. This feeling may not be focused on God, as it is in Christianity, Islam, or Judaism, but could be expressed in terms of alternative beliefs (perhaps in spirituality). So, people may turn away from mainstream religion but that does not mean that they do not retain religious feelings.
Also, other religions around the world are doing very well. Islam is the second largest religion in the world and gaining adherents in many different countries.
A “low-level” belief
Australian sociologist Bryan Turner in his study of religion in contemporary society Religion and Modern Society (2011) shifted the emphasis away from the question of whether religion is disappearing from society, to look at how religion is experienced by people today. He refers to a “low-level religion” by which he means that religion still informs people’s lives but not in the way it once did, when it was a dominant “high-level” presence in people’s lives involving regular church attendance, social events, as well as guidance from religious leaders. Religion remains a significant
part of life for some, but for many it exists as a more informal, private experience.
secular “church”
The Sunday Assembly meets regularly in cities around the world. It may look like a normal church assembly, somebody stands at the front and leads the meeting, people stand and sing songs, but there are some crucial differences. It is a secular congregation, the songs are pop songs, the sermons are talks about social issues, and most significantly, it is non-religious.
There are about 488 million followers of Buddhism worldwide. It is sometimes called a philosophy rather than a religion.
See also: MAX WEBER | Social institutions
The world reached an historic milestone in 2009. For the first time ever more people are living in urban areas than in rural locations. reaching this point has been the result of various changes taking place, AT different RATES, IN DIFFERENT parts of the world.
Move to the cities
In Europe, the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century caused massive changes to society as the new factories producing textiles encouraged people to move to the cities from the countryside in order to find work. Cities such as Manchester in England, one of the main centres of the Industrial Revolution, saw the population triple between 1811 and 1851 from just over 100,000 to 300,000. In other parts of the world the process of urbanization has happened more recently but much more rapidly. The population of Lagos in Nigeria, for example, increased from 1.4 million in 1971 to somewhere near 21 million by 2016.
The population shift during the Industrial Revolution attracted the attention of German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies. Writing in the late 19th century, he speculated that the fabric of society would change considerably, if not fall apart altogether, with this move to urban living.
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
Tönnies put forward two concepts that can be used to explain the differences between rural and urban living. The first is Gemeinschaft, usually translated into English as “community”, but in the original German it carries connotations of deep human bonds, empathy, and shared values. This contrasts with Gesellschaft. Again, the English translation of "association" does not quite capture the original meaning of a more rational, functional, and anonymous way of interacting with people. Though, if you think of how people shy away from contact behind books, newspapers, or cell phones on the subway in New York or the U-Bahn in Berlin, that gives you an idea of what the concept means.
In the past, it was often assumed that one could only find communities, or Gemeinschaft, in rural locations where people lived in small villages not in large-scale, impersonal cities. However, research has proved that to be incorrect. Park and Wirth (commonly known as The Chicago School) who conducted research between 1920 to 1940 in the US city of Chicago, found that “urban villages” existed. These were small communities living in big cities that featured strong bonds between people that had traditionally been associated with rural village life. In England, Willmott and Young’s 1950s research in Bethnal Green, London, also found a thriving working-class community in an inner-city location. Built around strong women, residents enjoyed a sense of neighbourliness and would frequently step in to help each other out.
Poverty and innovation
One current area of interest for sociologists is the growth of informal settlements, or slums, in countries such as India, Brazil, and Nigeria. People seeking to escape poverty in rural areas move to the city in the hope of finding security and employment in emerging mega-cites such as Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, or Lagos. These informal settlements can be contradictory places. They may seem vast sprawling areas of poverty and overcrowding, but they have also proved to be places of invention, economic activity, and new social connections. Informal urban settlements are on the rise and slum-dwellers and civic authorities can work together to create safe, vibrant places in which people can thrive. Sociology can help this process by providing observations and analysis of the experiences of the people living there.
a right to the city
In the 1960s, French sociologist Henri Lefebvre was concerned that the modern urban environment excluded certain groups – who were users of the city – in favour of those who owned property or were influential in other ways. He wanted everyone to have a “right to the city”, meaning a say in how it was run and access to its resources.
Tokyo, Japan is ranked the largest city in the world by land area, population, and density.
See also: A sense of COMMUNITY
when the subject of community comes up in conversation it brings to mind a group of people who know each other well and probably live in the same area. today, however, there are communities that share similar interests but have never met each other – except virtually.
What do we mean by community?
The concept of community evokes an image of a group of people who share a common culture and set of values, and, most importantly of all, live in the same area. This is the form of community featured in the key sociological study Middletown: A study in contemporary American culture (which was actually based on a town called Muncie in Indiana) carried out in the 1920s by Robert and Helen Lynd. The study examined the habits and views of the inhabitants, what they aspired to, and how they passed their leisure time.
In the UK, Ray Pahl’s influential 1970s work on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, examined the nature of work in a small community. His study revealed how work is shared and how communities support an informal economy as well as more visible businesses. Both of these comprehensive studies shaped how sociologists came to understand communities.
Other types of community
Examining the subject more widely reveals that the term community can refer to other groups of people who may not be in the same physical place but who nonetheless stay in touch with each other. For example, we can talk about communities such as the gay community, the business community, or the student community, where a shared characteristic forms the basis for people’s association rather than that they live in the same place. In an online community, by contrast, physical space is non-existent and individuals connect via the internet.
Social capital
US sociologist Robert Putnam in his book Bowling Alone, published in 2000, argued that in the US there has been a decline in community involvement, with people being less likely to belong to any form of social group, and even choosing to go bowling alone. He blames television, women going out to work, a greater sense of individualism, the increasing amount of time spent at work, and de-industrialization for contributing to community decline.
Central to his thinking is the concept of “social capital”. Usually, the word capital is associated with money (as in capitalism) but what Putnam is talking about here is a wealth of social connections. Various elements build social capital, but a key component is reciprocity, where people will pay back favours that others have done for them with other good deeds. These favours can range from looking after someone else’s children, helping to shovel snow in winter, or other ways of being a good neighbour. Research has found that social capital is good for people’s health, happiness, and safety, because they are more likely to be active and have people checking in on them.
Consequently, though people may spend more time on their own these days, a sense of community can help to maintain people’s health and wellbeing.
A social life Living as part of a community can bring a variety of benefits through local involvement. However, attendance of many organizations is declining and we are even socializing less.
the roseto effect
In the middle of the 20th century the town of Roseto in Pennsylvania, USA, was found to have below average levels of heart disease. Despite a diet high in fat and high numbers of smokers, it was the close community, which meant that no one was lonely and people helped each other deal with the stresses of life, that gave people a health advantage, known as the “Roseto Effect”.
There are 25 active virtual communities that have more than 100 million users.
Max Weber was the eldest of seven children born into a German middle-class, intellectual family. Widely regarded as a brilliant student, he studied law, history, philosophy, and economics before becoming professor of economics at the University of Berlin. Regarded as one of the founders of modern sociology, he is best known for his ideas on the role of religion in the rise of capitalism. Weber died at the age of 56, while working on his multi-volume work Economics and Society.
