48-110 (Foundations of Social Life) - Lesson Objectives: 1. Identify the main theoretical approaches used in Sociology and Criminology; 2. Relate the main premise, level of analysis, and key ideas of each theoretical approach; 3. Recognize aspects of theoretical approaches in popular culture examples; 4. Connect these theoretical approaches to subsequent courses in the program.

2. Social theories are…
•Frameworks used to explain social stuff
•Roadmaps that give us direction

3. FUNCTIONALISM
CONFLICT THEORY
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
FEMINIST THEORY

4. LEVEL OF ANALYSIS / PATTERNS OF SOCIAL RELATIONS

5. The trick to ‘getting’ theory is to see, reflect on
and critique how it applies to your own world.
Barron (2012) explains how the ideas
of classical sociological theory can be
understood, and applied to, everyday
activities like listening to music, reading
magazines, playing video games, or
watching TV.

6. Level: Macro
Key Figure: Emile Durkheim
Key Concept: Functions
Main Premise: Societies are complex systems of
interrelated and interdependent parts. Each part
performs a vital function in maintaining stability.

7. • Likened society to a biological being
• Emphasized social solidarity
• Distinguished between mechanical
solidarity (based on sameness) and
organic solidarity (based on difference)

8. In the dystopian future
world of The Hunger
Games, teenagers from
12 districts are forced to
fight to the death in the
annual Hunger Games,
their battle turned into
televised entertainment.

9. District 1: Luxury
District 2: Masonry
District 3: Technology
District 4: Fishing
District 5: Electricity
District 6: Transportation
District 7: Lumber
District 8: Textiles
District 9: Grain
District 10: Livestock
District 11: Agriculture
District 12: Coal

10. • Durkheim argued that even crime serves a
social function
• Functionalist criminologists argue that
deviance and crime have positive
functions for society
• But they may also have dysfunctions

11. • Societies teach people to value material
success
• Not enough legitimate opportunities for
everyone to succeed
• Result is strain
• Some people respond to strain by
committing crime

12. To deal with strain,
Walter stops conforming
to society and innovates
by manufacturing and
selling meth.
[clip]

13. Disorganized communities weaken social stability
and lead to crime
Disorganized communities are characterized by:
•Poverty
•Homelessness
•Unemployment
•Racial and ethnic diversity
•Corruption

14. Q: What do Gotham City, Star(ling) City and
Hell’s Kitchen all have in common?

15. • Crime results from weak bonds to
conventional social institutions such as
families and schools
• People who are not vested in society are
more likely to commit crime

16. The Outsiders (1967) is
narrated by 14-year old
Ponyboy Curtis, who lives
with his two brothers, Darry
and Sodapop, and considers
the rest of the gang –
Johnny, Dallas, Two-Bit and
Steve – his family.

17. Level: Macro
Key Figure: Karl Marx
Key Concept: Inequality
Main Premise: Societies are inherently unequal
based on power differences related to class, race,
gender, and age.

18. • Marx focused on the exploitive relations
between the ruling class and the working
class in capitalist society
• Ruling class are the owners of factories
• Working class are the factory workers

19. “We buy things we don’t need
with money we don’t have to
impress people we don’t like.”
The formation of fight
club is the expression
of the frustrations of
the working class.
[clip]

20. • Connection between power and crime

21. Level: Micro
Key Figure: Max Weber, Mead, Cooley
Key Concept: Meaning
Main Premise: Societies are the product of
everyday interaction and interpretation. The focus
is on symbolic meanings that people develop and
rely upon in the process of social interaction.

22. • We develop a sense of self and our place in
society by taking the role of the other
Jake Sully is able to see Pandora
from Neytiri’s point of view. He
takes the role of the other and
begins to empathize with the
Na’vi people and their unique
relationship to Pandora.

23. • Deviant and criminal roles are learned in the
course of social interaction
• Sutherland argued that criminal behaviour is
learned by interacting with close friends and
family members who teach us how to
commit various crimes and also about the
values, motives, and rationalizations we
need to adopt in order to justify breaking the
law

25. • Deviance results not only from the actions of
the deviant but also from the response of
others, who define some actions as deviant
and other actions as normal
• Constant labeling might lead to internalizing
the deviant behaviour

26. “If the world’s only going to see a fox as
shifty and untrustworthy, there’s no point
in trying to be anything else.”

27. MEDICALIZATION OF DEVIANCE
MORAL PANIC
[clip]

28. Level: Micro and Macro
Key Figure: Many
Key Concept: Patriarchy
Main Premise: Societies are characterized by
patriarchy – male domination and female
subordination. Feminists often highlight patriarchal
ideology and encourage female empowerment.

29. • Social organization where men have power
over women
• System that privileges men and masculinity
over women and femininity
• Patriarchy occurs at many levels

30. Atwood drew inspiration
from accounts of how
women are actually
treated around the
world.

31. Women are diverse and complicated
[clip]

32. • Changes over time in the distribution of
power between men and women 
offending and victimization
• Criminology is dominated by men
• Gender differences in criminality and
victimization
• Gender inequality in criminal justice
• Female as deviant

33. OITNB is based on the memoirs of
Piper Kerman who, after serving 13
months for drug trafficking and
money laundering, became an
activist for female prisoners, mostly
women of colour, currently
incarcerated in the US.

34. Wentworth focuses on Bea
Smith, who is imprisoned for the
attempted murder of her
abusive husband.
•Abuse of solitary confinement
•Drug smuggling and abuse
•Limited programs and privileges
•No onsite contact with children