2. Western European sociology XIX-XX c. In..

Western European classical sociology researcher

Sociology term literally means "science of society" or "doctrine of society." For the first time it was used by Auguste Comte (1798-1857). In his main works - "Course of Positive Philosophy" (T. 1-6, 1830-1842) and "The system of positive politics" (T. 1-4,1851-1854) - he made ​​a rational idea of the need for a comprehensive analysis of social phenomena. What Comte paid great attention not so much the knowledge of the essence, as the phenomenon became the basis for the emergence of positivist views and concepts were further developed in the works of his followers.

Of course, a set of issues relating to sociology, occupied scientists since ancient times. Problems of social life always aroused great interest among historians, philosophers, jurists. But when clearly a trend towards differentiation of the sciences, including the public, found expression in the sociology of the objective need to define the role and the place of man in society, his social status, interaction with other people in the various communities, social groups and social organizations in the functioning civil society.

In response to questions posed by life in the XIX century were born different concepts seeking to explain the essence of what is happening with the various theoretical and methodological positions.

At different stages of development of sociological thought in the forefront one thing after another direction. Sociological Theory Comte consisted of "social statics" and "social dynamics". The main interest of the French thinker was related to the analysis of social dynamics, the main factor which he considered a mental and spiritual development. His plan consisted in an effort to assimilate the science of society "social physics" to the researcher it could also operate on specific data, facts, their relationships, as does the scientist. He formulated the law of intellectual evolution of mankind. Of particular interest is his thinking about social statics and social dynamics as the method explained by its positivist historicism.

Another concept - biological - linked with the name of Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), who considered society, by analogy with biological organisms. His genius guess was that the development process is always accompanied by differentiation of structures and functions of society. To coordinate the actions of the individual parts of society, you must perform the functions called subsequently controlled. Like Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer supported the idea of "natural selection" as applied to the social life: survive those who are most adapted to the vicissitudes of life.

However, the concept of "one-line" of evolution, social Darwinist Herbert Spencer installation have been criticized, especially by the psychological school, which in the history of sociology is presented by L. Gumplowicz (1838-1909), G. Tarde (1843-1904), G . Le Bon (1841-1931) and especially tennis F. (1855-1936), and to a certain extent JS Mill (1806-1873).

Rejecting the biological function of society, these scholars tried to overcome the limitations of evolution that ultimately led to the socio-psychological concept of sociology to the analysis of socio-psychological phenomena, and attempts to explain the role of the subjective factor in the historical process.

G. Tarde known for his theory of imitation, as the basic social relation he considered the transfer or attempt to transfer the beliefs or desires. His concept was later used in the theory of mass communications.

G. Lebon drew attention to the phenomenon of "mob" when reasonable critical principle, embodied in the person, is suppressed by irrational mass consciousness.

F. Tennis attached paramount concept of will, which determines the nature and direction of human behavior. And since it is actually identified the will and mind, then, in his opinion, the motivation for action is carried out not by the state or by God, and rationalism, which is a striking embodiment of the mind.

The geographical area in sociology represented Reclus (1830-1905) and Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904). Thus, Ratzel exaggerating the impact of natural and geographical environment on the political life of society. However, he managed to trace some patterns influence the natural conditions for the development of peoples and cultures in different geographical conditions that were used in the future geopolitics (for example, Yu Kjellén, Maullem O., E. vows, etc..).

In the XIX century there was a branch of the Marxist sociology, named for its founder, Karl Marx (1818-1883), which has existed for over a hundred years. Together with Engels (1820-1895), he formulated a set of ideas based on open their materialist conception of history, which served as the basis for the representations of the formational (multistage) the development of society. Of particular importance they attached to the structural structure of every society: the basis (the relations of production) and the superstructure (political, legal, religious and philosophical views). In addition, they developed the concept of social conflict in the form of future socialist revolutions, studied the basic classes of contemporary society - the proletariat, the bourgeoisie, the peasantry - and analyzed all forms of class struggle. A special merit of Marx was that he refused to reasoning about society in general, and gave a scientifically based picture of one society and one of progress - the capitalist.

The rapid development of social science in the XX century has given rise to many movements that adhere to the various concepts, attitudes, both general methodological positions and on private issues.

In XX century sociology went "breadth" - it gradually covers the countries of Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. Now, almost no country in the world where there would be represented the science of sociology in one form or another.

XX century - a century of development and sociology "in depth." It covered all the new areas of knowledge, opens up many frontier topics (city, health, demography) and gave a new sociological sound the problems that have been developed in other branches of human knowledge (infrastructure, communication, disaster, etc.).

In the XX century it took place and the constitution of sociological knowledge in the form of opening of special departments, faculties, the organization of scientific-research centers and organizations. Job became a sociologist claimed on the labor market.

Finally, it should be noted organizational strengthening of sociology. In XX century created the first national sociological societies and associations, which after the Second World War (1946) created the International Sociological Association, organized 14 world congresses, and promote the transformation of sociologists in one of the most notable groups in the field of social knowledge.

Since the process of production and development of sociological knowledge involving thousands of people in every country, it is clear that the diversity of the theories and concepts that have been made ​​in the light of the XX century and continue to appear in large numbers in the present time.

In a brief historical sketch difficult to see, and even to overlook all these theories and concepts. Therefore, we will focus on those that define the face of modern sociology.

Structural functionalism and adjacent theory.

The most fully set forth the basis of this concept T. Parsons (1902-1979), based their search on the ideas of Spencer and Durkheim. The basic idea is the idea

"Social order," which represents a commitment to support the balance of the system, reconcile the different elements of it, to reach an agreement between them.

These ideas for a long time dominated western sociology, sometimes under the slightly modified name - structuralism in France, that develops Foucault, Levi-Strauss and others. The basic approach of this theory is in certain parts of society, identifying their functions in such their merger, which formed the picture of society as an organic whole.

However, this theory was soon criticized, which was acknowledged by its creator - T. Parsons. The fact that structural functionalism is almost rejected the idea of ​​calling for the maintenance of "balance" within the existing system, the harmonization of interests of different subsystems, for this conclusion was based on an analysis of social and state system of the USA, which is considered the standard of T. Parsons and stability which is regarded as a great achievement.

To improve the structural functionalism was intended not for evolutionism T. Parsons in joint work with E. Shils, "the general theory of action" carried out a noticeable shift from the analysis of structures to the analysis functions. In addition, he addressed the issue of human rights and the process of trying to explain the complexity of social systems through an increasing differentiation of functions performed by the individual in the system. However, attempts to improve the idea of ​​the evolution of structural functionalism reduced to complicate the system and increase its adaptive capacity.

R. Merton (b. 1910), trying to overcome the metaphysical structural-functional approach, created a theory of social change by introducing the concept of "dysfunction", ie He said about the possibility of deviation from the accepted standard model. Thus, Merton functionalism tried to introduce the idea of ​​change, but it has limited change "average" level - the level of a particular social system.

The idea of ​​social changes gave rise to a need to find a cause-and-effect relationships, and a variety sociologists have attempted to find them, that was realized in the development and application in the analysis of several types of determinism - from biological and technological to economic (eg Rostow).

Theories of social conflict. These theories were created based on the criticism of structural functionalism. At the heart of the development, he argued CRMills (1916-1962), is a conflict, not comfort, harmony, integration. Society is always in a state of instability, because it is a constant struggle between different social groups. Moreover, relying on the ideas of Karl Marx, Max Weber, Pareto and G. Mosca, Mills argued that the supreme manifestation of this conflict is the struggle for power.

Ralf Dahrendorf (b. 1929) believes that all complex organizations based on the redistribution of power, and this happens not only in the open form.According to him, the conflicts are not economic but political. The source of the conflict is the so-called political man. Ranking conflicts (conflicts opponents of the same rank, the conflict enemies in a relationship of subordination, the conflict of the whole and parts), he gets 15 types and examines in detail the possibility of "channeling" and regulation.

American sociologist L. Coser (p. 1913) defines social conflict as an ideological phenomenon, reflecting the aspirations and feelings of social groups or individuals in the struggle for power, with the change of social status, income redistribution, soul-searching, etc.

Most representatives of this school emphasize the value conflicts that prevent the ossification of society, opening the way to innovation, becoming a source of development and improvement. However, this position denies the spontaneity of conflict and called for the opportunity and the need for regulation.

Behaviorism. The creative impulse of this theory is that it is in the first place put forward a conscious human activity, the need to study interpersonal interactions instead of reification of the social system, which took place in the framework of structural-functional approach. Another feature of this trend has been a constant support on a specific state of human relations in the framework of certain social organizations and institutions that allowed theoretical schemes saturate the "flesh and blood" surrounding social reality.

Behaviorism, there are mainly two major theories - theories of social exchange and symbolic interactionism.

The theory of social exchange. The most striking of its representatives George. Homans (b. 1910) and P. Blau (b. 1918) are based on the primacy of the person and not the system. They proclaimed as the great importance of the mental qualities of man, for in order to explain the behavior of people, you must know the mental state of individuals.

But the main thing in this theory, according to Blau, is that since people are always willing to have a remuneration (approval, respect, status and practical assistance) for many of their actions, they can get them, but to engage with other people, Although this interaction is not always equal, and meet the participants.

Symbolic interactionism. Looking out of the contradictions of the behavioral approach, representatives of this theory began to interpret behavior in terms of value, which gives a person or group in some aspects of the situation. JG Mead (1863-1931) as the founder of the theory of symbolic interactionism has focused on the study of processes of "inside" behavior as a whole.

Proponents of this approach attached great importance to linguistic symbolism. They are characterized by an idea of ​​the activity as a set of social roles, which is embodied in the form of language and other symbols that served as the basis for the name of this area as a "role theory".

The criticism of this theory is the fact that the symbolic interactionists neglected the study of biological, genetic factors, pay little attention to the problems of the unconscious, resulting in difficult knowledge "driving forces" of human behavior (motives, values, attitudes).

Phenomenological sociology. The peculiarity of this sociological theory is that it takes its origin from the philosophical concept of phenomenological direction of Husserl. On the basis of this philosophical theory arose "sociology of everyday consciousness" grounded in the writings of the Austrian philosopher A. Schutz (1899-1959).

The focus of the supporters of the phenomenological approach is not the world as a whole, like the positivists, and the man in his particular dimension. Social reality, in their opinion, is not some objective reality, which is located at the beginning of the subject and then through socialization, upbringing and education becomes its part. In phenomenologists social reality "constructed" through images and concepts expressed in the communication. Social events, according to phenomenology, only seem fair, when in fact, they represent the views of individuals about these developments. Since the opinion was to form the social world, so far the concept of "value" is the focus of phenomenological oriented sociologists.

The objective-oriented sociology value reflects some specific real-world communication. The phenomenological interpretation of the value derived entirely from the consciousness of the subject.

Social reality that occurs in the communication process consists of explanations and attributing motives of the participants of the communicative act, ie or that idea, understanding social reality depends primarily on how the semantic fields intersect participants in the interaction.

But what determines the "different interpretation" of the same Act, the actions of different people? Why did they understand the actions of others and do not understand the actions of others? Why do people rarely understand each other? Phenomenologists do not answer this question, they merely state that there are some parameters, linguistic and non-linguistic that facilitate or hinder successful communication.

Within the framework of the phenomenological concept developed two major schools - the sociology of knowledge and ethnomethodology (the latter term is constructed by analogy with the term ethnographic etnonauka - rudimentary knowledge of primitive societies).

With regard to the sociology of knowledge, it is represented by Berger (b. 1929), and T. Luckmann (b. 1927), who sought to justify the need for "legalization" symbolic universals society, for internal instability of the human body requires "the creation by man Sustainable Living Environment ".

Mr. Garfinkel (b. 1917), as one of the brightest and most consistent representatives of ethnomethodology, has formulated its software status: "Features rational behavior should be identified in the behavior." Accordingly, the main task of sociology - revealing the rationality of everyday life, which is opposed to scientific rationality. In his opinion, it is necessary to focus on the study of individual acts of social interaction, identifying it with voice communication.

Thus, modern foreign sociology represented different directions. It named only the largest of them, which generally define the face of modern sociology. It is possible the emergence of new theories and concepts, the complexity of the conceptual apparatus of sociology as a whole. Moreover, according to the famous French sociologist A. Touraine, in sociology in the 1990s, the whole process was a major change in the subject of study and research orientation. If in the 1960s, all the problems were concentrated around the concept of the social system, it now centers around the concept of actions and actors (actor).Historically, we can say that Max Weber defeated Emile Durkheim. The classical approach to sociology, in which she refers to as the science of social systems, has almost disappeared. Influence of the most powerful representatives of this tradition - Parsons and Merton - weakened. Accordingly changed and categorical apparatus: the concept of social institutions, socialization, integration is not a more central sociological concepts. Far increasingly important concept of crisis and those close to him categories - disorganization, violence and disorder.

Who is more important are the trends in sociology that are associated with the criticism of functionalism. This criticism started in the framework of the Frankfurt School in Germany. To some extent this criticism represents and structuralism in philosophy and sociology, including the Marxist structuralism 60-70-ies of XX century. From here came Michel Foucault, who is now one of the most significant figures in social thought and sociology. The main content of this field is in the discourse of power. The main categories and tasks associated with the identification of the content of the dominant ideology, radicalization of the protest, the formation of social movements and protest movements. It is important not to identify the determinants of the system in their sequence, and an understanding of the time that all concentrated in the transformation of power relations.

An increasingly popular option sociological thinking becomes a rational choice theory, proposed by the American sociologist Coleman. The notion of them also denied. The main attention is focused on the concepts and resources mobilization. This is also the case for post-Marxist direction.

In some measure of rational choice theory is shared by M. Crozier, developing rationalist tradition. He developed the theory of the social worker in the organization and stresses the importance not only of ideas, many different strategies in the study of decision-making and identify their effectiveness. In the same vein, work sociologists (J. Sapir et al.), Which link the range of concepts with the economic analysis.

But the most attractive are the ideas of man as an active social subject, under the influence of which the transformation of both the macro and microeconomic in the plan. In this regard, we present some definitions of sociology.

"Sociology - is the scientific study of human behavior and the social environment of a person, which affects the behavior" (Cr. Oak). "Sociology - the science of human behavior research methods" (Art. Moore, B. Hendry). "Sociology - the systematic study of society and social activity of the human being. As a specific discipline it is further considered as knowledge about how a real person thinks and acts in the form of social creator "(J. Meysionis).

Thus, despite the existence of a set of concepts, sociology face the end of the XX century are increasingly determined by the theory of which date back to the man, his role and activity in the modern world.