Introduction to Sociology Dersi 3. Ünite Sorularla Öğrenelim

What does sociology analyze?

Political sciences focus on understanding the human behaviours, actions and relations about power, potency and governance in society.’’. Sociology analyzes the past and present human relations and the forms and structures occurred that are created by these human relations.

What is a human being according to sociology?

According to sociology, a human is a being that creates him/herself by social relations. Therefore, a human being pursues his/her own interest, keeps his/her benefits as the top priority in viewing his/her needs, and acts rationally to reach his/her aims. According to this time- and place-free definition of a person, which takes insufficient account of history and society, a human being is in pursuit of his/her profit, and acts rationally to reach his/her aims in any condition, any place, and social/cultural environment.

What does the discipline of economies examine?

Entrenched discipline of economies examine how to use limited natural sources to meet the infinite human needs rationally.

What are some of the suppositions that the field of study of economy as a sub-discipline of social sciences is based on?

The field of study of economy as a sub-discipline of social sciences is based on some suppositions. The first hypothesis is that the sources are limited. The second is based on an assumption that human needs are infinite. The third presumes that people act rationally while they fulfill their needs on choice and preference.

What are the dependent and independent variables in the economics discipline?

The dependent variable tries to understand price of goods, production quantity, and wage level in the economics discipline. The facts that determine the variable that we are trying to explain are the independent variables. Independent variables are the reasons that define the dependent variable. The independent variables of the theoretical economy include relations that are located in the market structures

What does economics discipline explain?

Economics discipline explains the determining factors for the price of goods, wage level and production amount, based on the supply and demand relations in the market.

What does the term Economic Sociology try to understand?

Economic sociology tries to understand attitude and behaviours that are the subjects of the economy, economical structure, and relations by considering the social, cultural, political facts that are left out of analyses by the economy. Economic sociology analyses the social principles of production, circulation, sharing, and consumption relations. “Economic sociology is a science that explains the social principles of social life”. In other words, it is a discipline that socially examines the emergence of the economic activity and the changes in this area that assure human life.

What do Mercantilists do?

Mercantilists predicate the prosperity of a nation on mines, and deposits of silver and gold that the country has instead of the power of production.

Who are the most important sociologists that influenced the development of economic sociology?

Adam Smith (1723-1790), Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Max Weber (1864-1920), deeply influenced the development of economic sociology. Adam Smith, one of the founders of the discipline of economics, is an economics sociologist as well as an economist because he explained the economical structures by incorporating social relations. Karl Marx, who played a major role in economics history and history of sociology, analyses society with an economy-politics perspective. Sociologist Max Weber explains the economic attitude and behaviours associated with cultural structures.

What does a nation’s prosperity depend on according to Adam Smith?

According to Adam Smith, a nation’s prosperity depends on production power and the power relations in the development of work sharing.

According to Marx, what builds the infrastructure of the society?

According to Marx, the mode of production that builds the infrastructure of the society comprises productive forces and production relations. Political, legal, ideological, religious, and cultural structures constitute the superstructure of the society.

What does the term Social stratification mean?

Social stratification is a hierarchical classification of people based on some inequalities like income, sickness, power, prestige, status, age, gender, race, ethnicity and class. According to another definition, social stratum is “a human group who share similar advantages and disadvantages’’

What does the term Social Inequality mean?

Social Inequality means that individuals do not have equal status in the society. It includes the inequalities on property rights, freedom of expression and collecting, health and education, and access to goods and services.

What does the term Economic inequality refer to?

Economic inequalities is decomposition of people’s social positions depending on the materials resources like wealth, income, wage and salary.

What does the term Asset refer to?

Asset refers to a property, which can be translated to a form of money in the consequence of sales and provides profit and utility to its owner.

What does Ascribed Status express?

Ascribed Status expresses a social position of a person gained without personal effort, achieved by birth, and generally does not change. Person’s age, gender, race, ethnic origin, homeland, parents’ homelands, birthplace are given social position or status which are achieved ascriptively.

What does Achieved Status express?

Achieved Status is a social position that a person achieves by his/her own effort, ability, skill and success. A person’s status is not always ascribed to him/her completely, and most of this status is achieved by the individual’s own effort, endeavor, and success. Education and equal opportunities are important factors for individuals to gain a distinct status. A person’s knowledge, ability and talent affect his/her upward mobility in his/her job to have a successful career.

What is a caste system?

In the caste system, distinctions and inequalities are created by some characteristics like religion, lineage, ethnic connection, or race, which an individual gets by birth and believed not to change.

What are the differences between social class, slavery, caste and property ownership systems?

Fundamental differences between social class, slavery, caste and property ownership systems are:

• Social class inequalities depend on economic reasons like job, poverty, prosperity and income. Inequality thrived with the belief system of religion, law, pressure and oppression.
• Social classes are not clearly and obviously distinct from each other. Distinctions between classes are uncertain and vague.
• Social classes are not supported by legal inequalities. Everybody has equal rights before the law. Upper classes do not have legal authority on the lower classes.
• Religious and legal restrictions or limitations are not imposed for marriages between people from different social classes. Actually, most people get married to people from similar class positions.
• Modern societies are open systems. There are no religious or legal restrictions for individuals or groups that may affect moving from a class to another. Social mobility between classes is possible. Individuals’ positions in social classes do not depend on inborn and ascribed (obtained) conditions. Qualities like knowledge or skill, which are earned by education, affect social class positions. At the same time, a child’s familial social position affects her/ his life and position of class in the modern society as well

What is a capitalist society according to Marx?

According to Marx, capitalist society is a system which is built on economical inequalities. Class positions of people are determined according to whether they own means of production. Two main classes as capitalists (bourgeois) and working class (proletariat) create the capitalist society.

According to Weber, what are the factors that determine people’s positions of classes?              

According to Weber, factors that determine people’s positions of classes are people’s knowledge, skills and qualifications in the production process. Three overlapping elements of the stratification system in the modern society are class, status, and party.

What does the term Poverty mean?

Poverty is an unwelcome and unaccepted inequality type of the modern society in which productivity increases, transformations of products and services on quantity and quality are provided, and financial prosperity and progress develop quickly. The concept of absolute poverty only considers the basic physical needs, but relative poverty considers the social needs as well, and poverty is evaluated by referring to the living standards of the society.

What are the personal reasons of poverty?

Among the personal reasons are personal traits, attitude and behaviours like an individual’s ability, responsibility, sense of discipline, and degree of frustration. In this approach, the reasons of poverty is sought in the individuals and it is presumed that he/she does not make an effort and does not attempt to get rid of poverty.

What are the structural reasons of poverty?

Structural approach explains poverty within the frame of society’s economic-political structure. According to this approach, among the factors that affect poverty are: lack of economical growth, conflict on income distribution, features of labour markets, informal employment, low wages, insufficient employment opportunities, unorganized labour, unemployment, economic crises, shrinkage of public expenditures, short-course shocks, population pressure, migration, features of settlements, family structure, education, race, ethnic origin, and discriminations based on gender.