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Macrosociology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Macrosociology is a large-scale approach to sociology, emphasizing the analysis of social systems and populations at the structural level, often at a necessarily high level of theoretical abstraction.[1] Though macrosociology does concern itself with individuals, families, and other constituent aspects of a society, it does so in relation to larger social system of which such elements are a part. The approach is also able to analyze generalized collectivities (e.g. "the city", "the church").[2]

In contrast, microsociology focuses on the individual social agency. Macrosociology, however, deals with broad societal trends that can later be applied to smaller features of society, or vice versa. To differentiate, macrosociology deals with issues such as war as a whole; 'distress of Third-World countries'; poverty on a national/international level; and environmental deprivation, whereas microsociology analyses issues such as the individual features of war (e.g. camaraderie, one's pleasure in violence, etc.); the role of women in third-world countries; poverty's effect on "the family"; and how immigration impacts a country's environment.[3]

A "society" can be considered as a collective of human populations that are politically autonomous, in which members engage in a broad range of cooperative activities.[3] The people of Germany, for example, can be deemed "a society", whereas people with German heritage as a whole, including those who populate other countries, would not be considered a society, per se.[3]

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Transcription

Voiceover: Macrosociology and microsociology are two different levels of analysis in sociology to study societies. You need a place to start when you're looking at a society, otherwise it can feel rather overwhelming. Because not only do you have the individual people making up the population you're studying, you also have the different groups that also make up your population and the communities and the cultures and the subcultures. And you have your population as a whole that you can look at. So if you can at least figure out what perspective you want to start with, it'll help you find a good foot hold to proceed. Okay, macrosociology is the large scale perspective. You're looking at big phenomena that affect your whole population, or a least a big portion of it. You're looking at social structures and institutions. You're looking at whole civilizations or societies or populations. And what are you looking for? Well, you're looking for patterns. You're trying to find the effects that the whole big picture have on the life of small groups and individuals. Your analyzing large collectives like cities for broad social trends. And you can get a lot of statistical data from these big populations. But be careful how you analyze it. Don't ask a question when you already have an answer in mind, because you might interpret the data to prove your point. But, that won't actually tell you anything about the population you're studying. Don't find the one statistical test that makes the data fit your story, let the data tell the story. Macrosociology deals with matters like war, or poverty, or the health care institution, or international stuff like the world economy. Functionalism is a social theory that comes from the macro perspective. Basically, functionalism looks at a society as a whole, and how the institutions that make up a society adapt to keep the society stable and functioning. Conflict theory is also a macroperspective. Real quick, conflict theory is the idea that societies are made up of institutions that benefit the powerful and create inequalities, and large groups of people are at odds with each other until the conflict is resolved and a new social order is created with equally distributed power. Okay, so that's the big picture perspective. Let's go to the other extreme and check out microsociology. Kind of sounds like microscope, right? With a microscope you can look at individual cells or really tiny things. Well, in microsociology you're looking at the small scale every day, face to face social interactions between individuals or maybe small groups. You're looking at families and schools and other small social interactions. Unlike macrosociology, in microsociology you don't have the same large test group. So microsociology is more of an interpretive analysis of the society. You look at a sample of your society and interpret how those individual interactions would affect the larger patterns of the society, like institutions and social structures. You can look at how the expectations of a teacher will affect a student's grades, or you can look at doctor-patient interactions, or how family dynamics affect the expression of prejudiced attitudes. So you can get an idea of microsociology in practice, you can look at symbolic interactionism, which is a social theory that is a microperspective. Symbolic interactionism focuses on the individual and the significance or meaning they give to objects, events, symbols and other things in their life. Cool, so you have macrosociology starting from the big picture and seeing how it affects the individual. And you have microsociology going the other way, looking at the individual interactions and seeing how they affect the big picture.

Theoretical strategies

There are a number of theoretical strategies within contemporary macrosociology, though four approaches, in particular, have the most influence:

  • Idealist Strategy: Attempts to explain the basic features of social life by reference to the creative capacity of the human mind. "Idealists believe that human uniqueness lies in the fact that humans attach symbolic meanings to their actions."[4]
  • Materialist Strategy: Attempts to explain the basic features of human social life in terms of the practical, material conditions of their existence, including the nature of a physical environment; the level of technology; and the organization of an economic system.[3]
  • Functionalist Strategy (or structural functionalism): Functionalism essentially states that societies are complex systems of interrelated and interdependent parts, and each part of a society significantly influences the others. Moreover, each part of society exists because it has a specific function to perform in contributing to the society as a whole. As such, societies tend toward a state of equilibrium or homeostasis, and if there is a disturbance in any part of the society then the other parts will adjust to restore the stability of the society as a whole.[3]
  • Conflict Theoretical Strategy (or conflict theory): Rejects the idea that societies tend toward some basic consensus of harmony in which the features of society work for everyone's good. Rather, the basic structure of society is determined by individuals and groups acquiring scarce resources to satisfy their own needs and wants, thus creating endless conflicts.[3]

Historical macrosociology

Historical macrosociology can be understood as an approach that uses historical knowledge to try to solve some of the problems seen in the field of macrosociology.[3] As globalization has affected the world, it has also influenced historical macrosociology, leading to the development of two distinct branches:

  • Comparative and historical sociology (CHS): a branch of historical macrosociology that bases its analysis on states, searching for "generalizations about common properties and principles of variation among instances across time and space."[5] As of recently,[when?] it has been argued that globalization poses a threat to the CHS way of thinking because it often leads to the dissolution of distinct states.[3]
  • Political Economy of the World-Systems (PEWS): a branch of historical macrosociology that bases its analysis on the systems of states, searching for "generalizations about interdependencies among a system's components and of principles of variation among systemic conditions across time and space."[3]

Historical macrosociologists include:[3]

  • Charles Tilly: developed theory of CHS, in which analysis is based on national states.
  • Immanuel Wallerstein: developed world systems theory, in which analysis is based on world capitalist systems.

Linking micro- and macro-sociology

Perhaps the most highly developed integrative effort to link micro- and macro-sociological phenomena is found in Anthony Giddens's theory of structuration, in which "social structure is defined as both constraining and enabling of human activity as well as both internal and external to the actor."[6]

Attempts to link micro and macro phenomena are evident in a growing body of empirical research. Such work appears to follow Giddens' view of the constraining and enabling nature of social structure for human activity and the need to link structure and action. "It appears safe to say that while macrosociology will always remain a central component of sociological theory and research, increasing effort will be devoted to creating workable models that link it with its microcounterpart."[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Calhoun, Craig, ed. 2002. "Macrosociology." Dictionary of the Social Sciences. New York: Oxford University Press.
  2. ^ Scott, John, and Gordon Marshall, eds. 2000. Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lenski, Gerhard. 1982. Human societies: An Introduction to Macrosociology. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-037176-8.
  4. ^ Sanderson, Stephen K. 1988. Macrosociology: An Introduction to Human Societies. Harper & Row.
  5. ^ Arrighi, Giovanni. 2000. Globalization and Historical Macrosociology. Sociology for the Twenty-First Century. pp. 117–33.
  6. ^ a b Borgatta, Edgar F. 1992. Encyclopedia of Sociology 3. Simon & Schuster Macmillan.

Further reading

This page was last edited on 31 October 2023, at 00:13
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