Remaining Lecture Notes on Durkheim & New Family Activity

Sorry I ran out of time this morning, but I had intended to finish Durkheim and move on to Section III: Radical Theory and Chapter 5. So, I'll post my remaining remarks on this blog:

A. Gender Relations

1. As the point I made about suicide and marriage (marriage being good for men but bad for women in terms of suicide) suggests, Durkheim accepted the notion that there were fundamental physical and mental differences between the sexes that were natural, biologically based, which meant that men and women were suited to different tasks in social life.

2. "Women's domestic role was "natural" and functional in the logic of progressive specialization, as well as being important to the moral health of society." (p. 112)

3. Durkheim also appears to have bought into the stereotype of women as closer to nature, men more rational and intellectual. And in this respect, if one of the marks of social progress is control of nature, then it is a sign of progress that men control women!!

4. I believe it is undeniable that Durkheim made some significant contributions to sociology and explored some important issues regarding the transition to modern society, but on the gender issue I fully concur with the authors' assessment: "Like so many classical sociologists, Durkheim's sociological imagination seems to have deserted him when it comes to the question of gender." (p. 114)

B. Finally, the authors rightly challenge the simple application of the conservative label to Durkheim. True, he was interested in restoring order and stability to society, but he was not advocating a form of sociological totalitarianism. Individual rights (at least for men) needed to be protected. Furthermore, they suggest the issues and problems Durkheim dealt with a century ago are still very much with us. (see p. 117)

1. In this context, read carefully the bracketed portion of the xerox handout (pp. 146-147)which I believe very accurately characterizes Durkheim's ultimate position on what was necessary for modern society to achieve a harmonious social order.

Section III: Radical Theory

A. The authors open this section by drawing a clear contrast between the conservative theories we've been discussing and radical theory which will be the focus of the next couple chapters. The whole of p. 119 gets at both the general and some specific differences between conservative and radical theory. (I planned to quote and comment on most of that in class.)

So, that brings us up to the beginning of Chapter 5 where we will begin on Tuesday (3/11) after we hear from the families about overlooked concepts or ideas.

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FAMILY ACTIVITY: Midterm Questions

For this second family activity, as I mentioned in class today, I want to give you a shot at making up some questions for our upcoming midterm exam (3/20). I want each of the families to come up with THREE short-answer questions on anything we have covered since the beginning of the term. Use class (or blog) lecture notes as your guide, as well as xerox handouts which I used to supplement the text. DO NOT MAKE UP QUESTIONS ON PORTIONS OF THE TEXT OR BOLD-PRINT TERMS THAT I DID NOT REFER TO IN CLASS (OR ON THE BLOG). I'll give the families a chance to brainstorm some questions next week. You'll have to come to some consensus on which three you want to present. You'll need to have these written up, along with answers, by TUESDAY 3/18. I will make every effort to accept at least one question from each family. For each additional question I accept you will earn a bonus point, so if I accept all three each participating family member may earn two bonus points. This activity is worth 5 points.