Expanding the canon
SOC 131
The Big 3: Marx, Weber, and Durkheim
| Sociologist | Label | Main concepts |
|---|---|---|
| Karl Marx | Relational sociology | Class conflict; bourgeoisie vs. proletariat; alienation (in its many forms) |
| Emilé Durkheim | Structural sociology | Solidarity (mechanical vs. organic); integration and regulation; norms; anomie |
| Max Weber | Cultural sociology | Methodological individualism; social action; subjective meaning; Calvinist beliefs and the origins of capitalism |
Jane Addams: Hull House and the emergence of community-engaged sociology
- For far too long, Jane Addams (1860-1935) was marginalized from the discipline of sociology. Often recognized as one of the founders of the field of social work, the men forging American sociology at the University of Chicago in the early 20th Century regarded Addams’ work as too applied to be considered scientific sociology.
Addams (cont.)
- Addams was involved in the creation of Hull House, which was modeled after the “settlement houses” she had seen in her travels through Europe. Hull House served as a center for “social reform”; it focused mainly on the education of women, the understanding and improvement of neighborhood social conditions, and promotion of community engagement and activism.
Addams (cont.)
- Despite what the University of Chicago sociologists believed, Addams and her collaborators made important contributions to the scientific study of poverty and social action thanks to the intimate connections to the city’s poor and immigrant residents — particularly women — they gained at Hull House.
- Today sociologists increasingly see Addams as an important and ground-breaking scholar who showed the importance of community-engaged scholarship, which involved not only applying sociology to solve real problems in communities, but also encouraged the people themselves to be involved in the research and actions aimed at resolving their problems.
W.E.B. Du Bois: Race and the creation of the modern capitalist world
- Du Bois (1868-1963) spent most of his career working in what we now know as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (most notably at Atlanta University). Although a graduate of Harvard University, he was excluded from working at predominantly white colleges and universities because of the intensity of racial exclusions he faced throughout his lifetime.
Du Bois (cont.)
- Du Bois’s contributions to sociology are vast — he made a lasting impression on the fields of social psychology, community studies, data visualization, historical sociology, and political economy
- Among Du Bois’s most important contributions was his work demonstrating the tight link between capitalism and slavery, which illustrated the importance of considering race in all aspects of social life.
Du Bois (cont.)
- In his 1930 book Black Reconstruction, Du Bois demonstrated, contra Marx, that economic interests are not always the foremost driver of peoples’ actions in the world. Indeed, often status trumps economic interest in explaining peoples’ actions. DuBois used this insight to explain how it was that the “wages of whiteness” undermined the possibility for Black and white workers to find common cause, uniting in a class struggle against the former slaveholding class in the postbellum period.
Applying theory
The importance of engaging with these sociological theorists isn’t so much about remembering exactly what they said or wrote.
Instead, the value lies in trying to think with them, trying to apply the types of questions they asked to the world around us.
- What, in your opinion, are the most important questions asked by any of these theorists? (Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Addams, Du Bois, and Veblen)
- How could you use those questions to better understand our social world today?
