Essay On Sociological Perspective

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Pages: 3

There is an ongoing debate on which sociological perspective the world mostly identifies and according to Macionis and Plummer, “The sociological perspective becomes a way of thinking, a ‘form of consciousness’ that challenges familiar understandings of ourselves and of others, so that we can critically assess the truth of commonly held assumptions,” (2008, p10). There are three perspectives, Functionalism, Feminism and Marxism however it is believed that Functionalism is the sociological perspective most identified with.

Feminists believe that the important status difference is the inequality between Men and Women politically, socially and economically (Moore et al, 2008, p18) whereas Marxists believe that capitalism divides people into
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Moreover functionalism includes value consensus that reassures people’s values and places boundaries for what is considered acceptable and what is not, for example all of society condemn murder and believe in justice. This suggests that functionalism draws the norms and values of society that individuals conform to; this is evident in today’s society, which believes that ISIS must be fought against because society agrees that their actions are against the recognised values and norms. This is social affirmation in functionalism as society is affirming social values by criticising the ‘deviants’ in society as their crimes are unacceptable. Furthermore, functionalism provides social order which prevents chaos and instability through boundary formation. Functionalism also creates social solidarity as a community is formed due to shared values and norms; this provides a society with an identity. (Moore et al, 2008, pp12-13). These factors build a structured society with rules, values, order and stability that assures the survival of a