1. How do we use sociology to study social problems? With…
Theory: statement of how 2+ facts are related
We can USE theory to understand how things remain “orderly,” why there is change, why there is inequality, etc.!
We use both macro- (society as a whole) and micro-level (face-to-face interactions) theories
“Theory” is often dry and removed from our daily life, but in sociology, theory can actually be USED to understand our lives!!!
What is a paradigm??? Fancy word you can use with your friends, family, parents (to show them that school is worth something!!!):
Fancy word for model or way of thinking about things.
SOCIOLOGY has 3 major (and many smaller) theoretical paradigms
Two of these are “macro” and two are “micro”:
Macro: broad focus on social structures that shape society as a whole
Micro: close up focus on social interaction in specific situations

2. Structural-Functional Paradigm:
Macro level of analysis
Like the human body or a machine, society is a joint effort of many institutions working together for the solidarity and stability of the whole (Herbert Spencer)
Social structures (family, education, religion, government, work, medicine) have social “functions,” meaning they contribute to the operation of society as a whole
*do organs of the body exercise, see what happens when lose a kidney
Various parts of society have functions or positive effects that maintain the stability of the whole- body has a structure with parts that function all work to keep the stystem stable: religion functions to integrate people into societies (all socieites have religoion), family trains you to be a member of dominant society. Stability and equilibrium are good- change is seen as disruption, so functionalists support the status quo
Institutions are: major spheres of social life or systems, organized to meet basic human needs- family, education, government, military, religion
What does the family do? (reproduction, support, socializations into roles, stability)
What does the economy do? (framework for production of goods and services, employment contributing to family formation, etc.)
Talk about Spencer organ analogy
According to Robert Merton, Functions come in manifest (obvious or intended) and latent (hidden or unintended) forms:
Manifest functions are those that are stated goals of social behavior while latent functions (that may be dysfunctions) are the unintended consequences of behavior
Ask question: what are the manifest and latent function of grades in college? To measure learning and allow for assessment, and to create stress, focusing on the test rather than learning, physical harm, etc. So these are dysfunctions, right?

3. “Order” and “Change” in Functionalism:
Order is maintained by group consensus, shared values, and rituals that promote social solidarity
With slow change, institutions adapt to restore order
Social problems may arise when rapid social change results in social disorganization or social dysfunction
*do rope exercise- bring rope
For social disorganization, we have no norms to guide our behavior:
Example: internet change- how long Napster with no formal norms/sanctions (laws) to stop- talk more about norms (or folkways, typical ways of doing) later, but condition of no norms or rules for behavior is “anomie” that caused a lag in prosecution for illegal downloads
*explain education? DO AS EXAMPLE?
WJW and underclass

4. Dramatic representation:

5. For Example:
Functionalism and gangs: How would a functionalist explain the “function” of gangs?
OR, are gangs a “dysfunction”?
Manifest vs. latent functions?
G angs have been classically viewed as a by-product of social disorganization, the weakness of traditional institutions, like the schools, to replace the lost primary networks of the traditional world (Thomas and Znaniecki 1916). For Fredric Thrasher, the "father" of gang research, gangs were not about race, but about space, the disorganization of "interstitial eras" of the city. The Chicago School, of which Thrasher was a part, beleived the industrial economy and the American Dream would assimilate all ethnic groups, sooner or later, and dissolve their gangs.
But race would profoundly shape the history and contours of Chicago's gangs. While other ethnic groups were on the ladder of assimilation, African Americans were crowded into the south side "Black Belt." As WWI brought more and more African Americans into Chicago to find work, tensions rose. In 1919 a race riot broke out spear-headed by Irish gangs or "social athletic clubs." In the following years, African Americans would stay segregated, while European ethnic groups did not. Violence met attempts by Black families to move out of apartheid conditions into white areas.
In the 1920s, Prohibition meant Italians and Sicilians would sieze control of the bootlegging industry and replace the Irish on top of the rackets. The Irish ran the legal politics and the Italians the illegal one and they worked together just fine. Al Capone replaced Johnny Torrio as the head of a network of neighborhood gangs which later became what is called the "Outfit." Chicago had the nation's highest rates of violence as reformers attempted to destroy the bootleggers but failed.
Mexican immigration which also began in the labor needs of WWI, continued until the depression, when large scale deportations crippled the Mexican community. Mexican immigration would resume in the labor shortage years of WWII and after. In those post WWII years, Puerto Ricans would migrate to Chicago in large numbers for the first time.
In the 1950s, the spaces of the city began to be more sharply contested as the number African Americans had grown so large that a second ghetto, Lawndale on the west side, joined the southside Black Belt. Rather than promote integration as had occured with white ethnic groups, the Chicago Democratic Party, loed by former gang member Richard J. Daley, planned for continuing segregation. To block westward movement of African Americans into Daley's home ward, Bridgeport, an expressway and an 18 tower housing project served as a wall of segregation.
By the 1950s, most white ethnic gangs had faded away, their members finding jobs through patronage in teh Democratic machine, often as police. The Outfit had found a niche in Chicago's political life. African American gangs, however, would organize at first as gangs always did, but were faced by barriers to mobility. The 1960s would see both an involvement of Black and Latin gangs in the underground economy and the civil rights movement.
As the gangs joined into the political and social turmoil of the times, many gangs formed legitimate social and economic organizations, including a variety of educational programs (Short 1976), The Vicelords ran alternative schools and started businesses in Lawndale (Dawley 1992). The Blackstone Rangers built a controversial job training program with educational components (Fry 1973). But by the late 1960s public policy turned 180 degrees as mayor Daley and State Attorney Hanrahan declared “war” on gangs (Chicago Police Department 1969). The ensuing repression sent gang members flooding into the prisons and the era of experimentation was dead
Even in the midst of the war boom, Chicago's industrial economy was in decline (Abu-Lughod 1999) and less educated minority males had more difficulties finding good jobs. Combined with the jailing of Chicago's gang leaders, these conditions led Chicago's gangs to re-organize. Leaders like David Barksdale, who founded the Black Disciples, and Larry Hoover who founded the Black Gangsters, united their gangs (The Black Gangster Disciple Nation) and rebuilt them as business enterprises.
David Barksdale .
The prison experience reified gang membership on the streets as well as behind bars. Most major Chicago gangs have been run from prison since the 1970s. The prison with its visible walls and the ghetto with its invisible ones served the same purposes: control of a dangerous, but economically marginal, population.
As the industrial world drifted into memory, the crack epidemic created unprecedented business opportunities for the gangs. Larry Hoove initiated what he called the "new concept" which basically brought a business model to the BGDN. Other gangs followed suit and the business of drugs became the business of gangs.
In the recent period, gentrification, economic development, and the destruction of housing projects have displaced gangs and transformed the nature of urban space. The Puerto Rican community, which had been displaced from the near west side to Lincoln Park, was pushed out again by gentrification. As Puerto Ricans re-concentrated a third time in Humboldt Park, once again the gentrifyers were stalking.
Chicago is undergoing massive spatial disruption, as gentrification and the tearing down of the CHA housing projects are displacing thousands and families and gangs as well. The displacement of gangs has contributed to violence as new turfs are fought over and gangs are de-stabilized. The impact of gentrification and community policing may be contributing to the re-segregation of Chicago and indirectly responsible for persisting high rates of violence.
Chicago is still a dual city: one mainly white city located in areas close to the new economy with residents who have high levels of formal education and with moderate to high levels of income.
The other city is moving to the south and west. It is mainly Black, Latino, and poor. The ghetto has not disappeared in Chicago, but has persisted.
Chicago is a gang city: from the immigrant gangs and their racist social athletic clubs, to the early African American and Mexican gangs; to Al Capone and the corruption of the Democratic machine; to the youth gangs of the forties and fifties; to the "super-gangs" who organized in the sixties on the streets and behind bars and are still here (and there). Chicago's gangs have institutionalized. They are a permanent part ot the city, its history, and its future.
There is an untold story which needs to be heard. That is what the Chicago Gang History Project is all about.

6. Conflict Paradigm: Macro-level of analysis
Views society as in constant conflict and struggle over scarce social and economic resources resulting in inequality
Asks “who benefits from this situation”
Views society as divided between the “haves” and the “have nots”
The “haves” construct society and social institutions to maintain their advantage
DO THIS WAY: still have stand
Marxist: 3 owners, 10 surplus, rest labor
Labor: who gets the profits from your work?, what do you do?. How long do you work?
Owners: same questions
SO why don’t laborers revolt? Surplus labor.
Therefore, become alienated from your work and can’t revolt because have divided all of the different laboring groups in society (further divided by race or immigration status), so CONFLICT is based on SOCIAL CLASS between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat
Marx sees as “myth of the meritocracy”: According to a conflict perspective, poverty exists because the ideology that legitimates stratification and the majority of us as poor is meritocracy- that if we just work hard enough, we all have a chance to get ahead and that wherever you are is what you earned
1) NOT what you’ve earned- but benefit of social location (being born white, rich, male, able bodied)
2) people in middle class think not raise income taxes because they might get rich and sees those on welfare as a threat to their ideological system; same thing with skirmishes among the poor- as with between minority and poor white laborers (rely on being one group below you)
Weber:
Is this the only type of power? Workers and owners? Also have wealth, prestige, and power, so things like education, job title, and authority, so try:
Add president of general in the military, president of Kirkwood, owner, and president of the US
Have authority and power even if you don’t own?
Yes, so say that class is a part of it, but so is power, prestige, and social status/wealth
Marx had an economic theory so didn’t look at education, gender, race, power, military so weber more multidimensional
*LAST BULLET: “haves” construct society to maintain their advantage in social class, race/ethnic inequality, gender, age, etc. are associated with inequalities in the distribution of scarce resources like money, power, education, and social prestige

7. “Order” and “Change” in the Conflict Perspective
Order is the result of power and coercion by those in charge
Struggle and competition for economic and social resources creates change
Social problems result from conflicting values, and largely from oppression on the basis of class, race, gender, sexuality, religion, age, ability, etc.
Tracking and educational inequality:
And education as a function of social reproduction where elite structure and reward certain behaviors within schooling (cultural capital) possessed by the wealthy but not the poor so that they can perpetuate their standing
Another example of conflict thinking that you can come up with? One from your own life?
*education as tool of social and racial reproduction

8. Dramatic Representation- Marx

9. Other types of Conflict:
Feminist Theory: Fills the holes left by Marx to understand inequality between men and women
Multicultural theory: Examine society in terms of racial and ethnic inequality
Marx only looks at those involved in production, excluding housewives- feminist theory looks at “women’s work” and influence in patriarchal society

10. For Example:
Conflict/Multicultural theory: How would conflict (and/or multicultural) theorists explain gangs?
G angs have been classically viewed as a by-product of social disorganization, the weakness of traditional institutions, like the schools, to replace the lost primary networks of the traditional world (Thomas and Znaniecki 1916). For Fredric Thrasher, the "father" of gang research, gangs were not about race, but about space, the disorganization of "interstitial eras" of the city. The Chicago School, of which Thrasher was a part, beleived the industrial economy and the American Dream would assimilate all ethnic groups, sooner or later, and dissolve their gangs.
But race would profoundly shape the history and contours of Chicago's gangs. While other ethnic groups were on the ladder of assimilation, African Americans were crowded into the south side "Black Belt." As WWI brought more and more African Americans into Chicago to find work, tensions rose. In 1919 a race riot broke out spear-headed by Irish gangs or "social athletic clubs." In the following years, African Americans would stay segregated, while European ethnic groups did not. Violence met attempts by Black families to move out of apartheid conditions into white areas.
In the 1920s, Prohibition meant Italians and Sicilians would sieze control of the bootlegging industry and replace the Irish on top of the rackets. The Irish ran the legal politics and the Italians the illegal one and they worked together just fine. Al Capone replaced Johnny Torrio as the head of a network of neighborhood gangs which later became what is called the "Outfit." Chicago had the nation's highest rates of violence as reformers attempted to destroy the bootleggers but failed.
Mexican immigration which also began in the labor needs of WWI, continued until the depression, when large scale deportations crippled the Mexican community. Mexican immigration would resume in the labor shortage years of WWII and after. In those post WWII years, Puerto Ricans would migrate to Chicago in large numbers for the first time.
In the 1950s, the spaces of the city began to be more sharply contested as the number African Americans had grown so large that a second ghetto, Lawndale on the west side, joined the southside Black Belt. Rather than promote integration as had occured with white ethnic groups, the Chicago Democratic Party, loed by former gang member Richard J. Daley, planned for continuing segregation. To block westward movement of African Americans into Daley's home ward, Bridgeport, an expressway and an 18 tower housing project served as a wall of segregation.
By the 1950s, most white ethnic gangs had faded away, their members finding jobs through patronage in teh Democratic machine, often as police. The Outfit had found a niche in Chicago's political life. African American gangs, however, would organize at first as gangs always did, but were faced by barriers to mobility. The 1960s would see both an involvement of Black and Latin gangs in the underground economy and the civil rights movement.
As the gangs joined into the political and social turmoil of the times, many gangs formed legitimate social and economic organizations, including a variety of educational programs (Short 1976), The Vicelords ran alternative schools and started businesses in Lawndale (Dawley 1992). The Blackstone Rangers built a controversial job training program with educational components (Fry 1973). But by the late 1960s public policy turned 180 degrees as mayor Daley and State Attorney Hanrahan declared “war” on gangs (Chicago Police Department 1969). The ensuing repression sent gang members flooding into the prisons and the era of experimentation was dead
Even in the midst of the war boom, Chicago's industrial economy was in decline (Abu-Lughod 1999) and less educated minority males had more difficulties finding good jobs. Combined with the jailing of Chicago's gang leaders, these conditions led Chicago's gangs to re-organize. Leaders like David Barksdale, who founded the Black Disciples, and Larry Hoover who founded the Black Gangsters, united their gangs (The Black Gangster Disciple Nation) and rebuilt them as business enterprises.
David Barksdale .
The prison experience reified gang membership on the streets as well as behind bars. Most major Chicago gangs have been run from prison since the 1970s. The prison with its visible walls and the ghetto with its invisible ones served the same purposes: control of a dangerous, but economically marginal, population.
As the industrial world drifted into memory, the crack epidemic created unprecedented business opportunities for the gangs. Larry Hoove initiated what he called the "new concept" which basically brought a business model to the BGDN. Other gangs followed suit and the business of drugs became the business of gangs.
In the recent period, gentrification, economic development, and the destruction of housing projects have displaced gangs and transformed the nature of urban space. The Puerto Rican community, which had been displaced from the near west side to Lincoln Park, was pushed out again by gentrification. As Puerto Ricans re-concentrated a third time in Humboldt Park, once again the gentrifyers were stalking.
Chicago is undergoing massive spatial disruption, as gentrification and the tearing down of the CHA housing projects are displacing thousands and families and gangs as well. The displacement of gangs has contributed to violence as new turfs are fought over and gangs are de-stabilized. The impact of gentrification and community policing may be contributing to the re-segregation of Chicago and indirectly responsible for persisting high rates of violence.
Chicago is still a dual city: one mainly white city located in areas close to the new economy with residents who have high levels of formal education and with moderate to high levels of income.
The other city is moving to the south and west. It is mainly Black, Latino, and poor. The ghetto has not disappeared in Chicago, but has persisted.
Chicago is a gang city: from the immigrant gangs and their racist social athletic clubs, to the early African American and Mexican gangs; to Al Capone and the corruption of the Democratic machine; to the youth gangs of the forties and fifties; to the "super-gangs" who organized in the sixties on the streets and behind bars and are still here (and there). Chicago's gangs have institutionalized. They are a permanent part ot the city, its history, and its future.
There is an untold story which needs to be heard. That is what the Chicago Gang History Project is all about.

11. Interactionist Perspective:
Micro level interactions
Individual behavior is based on the symbols and shared meanings we learn- in other words, on what we “believe” not just what is objectively true
So…society is “socially constructed” through human interaction, and symbols change through these interactions
We learn these symbols during interactions with other individuals and groups
What does micro mean again?
Evolution of the construction of race and gender
Evolution of transgender and bathrooms
Do you interact with men and women differently? SI
What do you do when you’re not sure?
Example- how do you treat me differently or vice versa because of the roles of “teacher” and “student” that we have created? Are we “creating” society right now in the way our interactions are structured- in me talking and you listening unless questioning or called on?
how would this be different if we met on the street? Would you treat me
any differently because of my age? Gender?
How do our interactions, based on meanings and structure, perpetuate and create the world we live in- bottom line.
Subjective symbols so that one persons’ reality is not necessarily the same as another.
What is the micro-level again?
close up focus on patterns of social interaction in different situations
Example: see police officer- how do you feel?
some safer, some scared will be interrogated or harmed because of the color of their skin
therefore, your social location can change or dictate your reality as it is socially constructed and reproduced over time
through your interactions with others
Interested in seeing how meanings, symbols, etc. are socially constructed- or how we as a society attach meaning to things:
-race (biological or social construction?): has it changed?
-Irish seen as a different racial group
-tattoos, meaning?
Interactionist looking at divorce rate from book: see that marriage used to be lifelong, sacred, now the ideas and the meaning of marriage is changing- more egalitarian institution representing compatibility and more disposable- as we view marriage more as a next but reverseable step, divorce rates increase

12. “Order” for Symbolic Interactionists:
Social interaction and shared beliefs (subjective) create order
Change results from changing belief systems and ever-changing interactions
Labels of father daughter
Rules about behavior
Values related to those labels that construct interactions
Formal sanctions against violating (incest)
IRISH as changing race example
How treat homeless? AIDS? Elderly? (Revered or as bad drivers and useless- this has CHANGED over time)

13. For Example:
Symbolic Interactionists: How would symbolic interactionism help us explain gang persistence and reproduction?
Tattoos, graffiti, and hand signs
Graffiti: To the gang member, graffiti is a marking of territorial boundaries and serves as a warning and a challenge to rival gangs. Gangs will place graffiti on any available space (wall, street signs, restroom walls, etc.). The purpose of graffiti is to glorify the gang
Hand Signs: Hand signs are used by gangs to communicate gang affiliations and to challenge rival gang members. This is commonly referred to as "throwing signs." Occasionally members of one gang (GANG A) will flash the hand sign of a rival gang (GANG B) in hopes that a person will respond as a member of Gang B to reveal their true gang affiliation. This is known as "false flagging" and normally results in gang violence directed at the rival gang member.
Tattoos: Tattoos may be viewed as an extension of graffiti, used to identify the wearer as a member of a particular gang. Like graffiti, tattoos will usually include the initials, name or symbols of a particular gang. There is really no rule as to the size, number, or complexity of a gang member's tattoos. While some may be done professionally, most are homemade and a large majority are received in detention centers. Tattoos may be found anywhere on the body; People Nation sets will normally tattoo the left side of the body, while Folk Nation sets tattoo the right side. Younger gang members often attempt to conceal their tattoos from family and authorities.

14. Education and these theories:
How can we use conflict theory to explain educational inequality?
How would a functionalist explain the patterns in schooling we’ve read about?
How would a symbolic interactionist help us understand educational inequality?

15. How do you choose???
Theoretical approach may change somewhat depending on the type of question or problem you are studying
Use more than one approach to achieve the best picture of the problem or issue
For instance, what if want to understand educational differences by race? Functionalism not the best, right, because can’t really explain this. But conflict (differences in educational resources- schools- associated with class, and differences in student family resources- parent education and wealth) and symbolic interactionists (differences in how teachers treat students based on expectations) can
Use a variety of approaches, as example above, to explain- or make up one of your own if it hasn’t been done yet!!!

17. To practice what we’ve learned…
Write down your answers to the following questions (choices are conflict, functionalism, or symbolic interactionism):
The______approach sees society as a complex system of interrelated parts that work together.
The______approach sees society as divided by inequality and disruption
The______approach is a theoretical framework that sees society as the product of individuals interacting with one another.
*photo page 49 of Macionis and cut up to use as CAT at the end of the lecture

18. So how do we get information on Social Problems anyway?
Through research:
Surveys: Gather information through questionnaire or interview
Field research or participant observation
Experiment: Investigate cause and effect in a controlled setting
Secondary analysis: Use someone else’s data!
Surveys use a sample of a larger population in order to be able to generalize to that population
Where you actually go out into the “field” to observe things- learn more about how people interpret their world, but perhaps less generalizable
-explain perkins example
-list one of their own: observing Kirkwood classes and watching patterns of interaction
Example of experiment- explain zimbardo
-explain as an issue of ethics (like tea room), but also as an issue of a flawed social institution and how the various theories working together can help explain how the structure of prisons leads to the pathology of inmates within prison (and perhaps even when they get out)- so it’s not all just the prisoners being bad
Secondary uses data that has been already collected through survey or using content analysis (text that has been transcribed) to explain cross-sectional or longitudinal relationships and patterns in society