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Ideal Type
Ideal type (german: Idealtypus), also known as pure type, is a typological term most closely associated with sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920). For Weber, the conduct of social science depends upon the construction of abstract, hypothetical concepts. The "ideal type" is therefore a subjective element in social theory and research, and one of the subjective elements distinguishing sociology from natural science. Meaning An ideal type is formed from characteristics and elements of the given phenomena, but it is not meant to correspond to all of the characteristics of any one particular case. It is not meant to refer to perfect things, moral ideals nor to statistical averages but rather to stress certain elements common to most cases of the given phenomenon. It is also important to pay attention that in using the word "ideal" Max Weber refers to the world of ideas (german: Gedankenbilder, "mental images") and not to perfection; these "ideal types" are idea-constructs that hel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Typification
Typification is a process of creating standard (''typical'') social construction based on standard assumptions. Discrimination based on typification is called typism. See also * Ideal type * Normal type *Typology Typology is the study of types or the systematic classification of the types of something according to their common characteristics. Typology is the act of finding, counting and classification facts with the help of eyes, other senses and logic. Ty ... References External linksTypification at Sociology Index Sociological terminology {{socio-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abstraction
Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or "concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" is the outcome of this process—a concept that acts as a common noun for all subordinate concepts and connects any related concepts as a ''group'', ''field'', or ''category''. Suzanne K. Langer (1953), ''Feeling and Form: a theory of art developed from Philosophy in a New Key'' p. 90: " Sculptural form is a powerful abstraction from actual objects and the three-dimensional space which we construe ... through touch and sight." Conceptual abstractions may be formed by filtering the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, selecting only those aspects which are relevant for a particular purpose. For example, abstracting a leather soccer ball to the more general idea of a ball selects only the information on gen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sociological Terminology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order and social change. While some sociologists conduct research that may be applied directly to social policy and welfare, others focus primarily on refining the theoretical understanding of social processes and phenomenological method. Subject matter can range from micro-level analyses of society (i.e. of individual interaction and agency) to macro-level analyses (i.e. of social systems and social structure). Traditional focuses of sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, sexuality, gender, and deviance. As all spheres of human activity are affected by the interplay between social structure and individual agenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Verstehen
''Verstehen'' (, ), in the context of German philosophy and social sciences in general, has been used since the late 19th century – in English as in German – with the particular sense of the "interpretive or participatory" examination of social phenomena. The term is closely associated with the work of the German sociologist Max Weber, whose antipositivism established an alternative to prior sociological positivism and economic determinism, rooted in the analysis of social action. In anthropology, ''Verstehen'' has come to mean a systematic interpretive process in which an outside observer of a culture attempts to relate to it and understand others. ''Verstehen'' is now seen as a concept and a method central to a rejection of positivist social science (although Weber appeared to think that the two could be united). ''Verstehen'' refers to understanding the meaning of action from the actor's point of view. It is entering into the shoes of the other, and adopting this research ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tripartite Classification Of Authority
Max Weber distinguished three ideal types of legitimate political leadership, domination and authority. He wrote about these three types of domination in both his essay ''The Three Types of Legitimate Rule'' which was published in his masterwork ''Economy and Society'' (see Weber 1922/1978:215-216), and in his classic speech "Politics as a Vocation" (see Weber 1919/2015:137-138). # charismatic authority (''character'', ''heroism'', ''leadership'', ''religious''), # traditional authority (''patriarchs, patrimonialism, feudalism'') and # rational-legal authority (''modern law and state, bureaucracy''). These three types are ideal types and rarely appear in their pure form. According to Weber, authority is power accepted as legitimate by those subjected to it. These three forms of authority are said to appear in an "hierarchical development order". States progress from ''charismatic authority'', to ''traditional authority'', and finally reach the ''state of rational-legal authori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Three Types Of Legitimate Rule
"The Three Types of Legitimate Rule" (''Die drei reinen Typen der legitimen Herrschaft'') is an essay written by Max Weber, a German economist and sociologist, explaining his tripartite classification of authority. Originally published in the journal ''Preussische Jahrbücher'' 187, 1-2, 1922, an English translation, translated by Hans Gerth, was published in the journal ''Berkeley Publications in Society and Institutions'' 4(1): 1-11, 1958. Weber also refers to the three types of legitimate rule in his famous essay "Politics as a Vocation."Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters, Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society, Palgrave Books 2015, pp. 137-138 According to Weber, beliefs in the legitimacy of a political system go beyond philosophy and they directly contribute to the state system stability and authority.Reinhard Bendix, ''Max Weber: an intellectual portrait'', University of California Press, 1977, p.294 All rulers have an explanation for their superiority, an explanation that is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Structure And Agency
In the social sciences there is a standing debate over the primacy of structure or agency in shaping human behaviour. ''Structure'' is the recurrent patterned arrangements which influence or limit the choices and opportunities available. '' Agency'' is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices. The structure versus agency debate may be understood as an issue of socialization against autonomy in determining whether an individual acts as a free agent or in a manner dictated by social structure. Structure, socialization and autonomy The debate over the primacy of structure or of agency relates to an issue at the heart of both classical and contemporary sociological theory: the question of social ontology: "What is the social world made of?" "What is a cause of the social world, and what is an effect?" "Do social structures determine an individual's behaviour or does human agency?" Structural functionalists such as Émile Durkheim see stru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Action
In sociology, social action, also known as Weberian social action, is an act which takes into account the actions and reactions of individuals (or ' agents'). According to Max Weber, "Action is 'social' insofar as its subjective meaning takes account of the behavior of others and is thereby oriented in its course." Max Weber The basic concept was primarily developed in the non-positivist theory of Max Weber to observe how human behaviors relate to cause and effect in the social realm. For Weber, sociology is the study of society and behavior and must therefore look at the heart of interaction. The theory of social action, more than structural functionalist positions, accepts and assumes that humans vary their actions according to social contexts and how it will affect other people; when a potential reaction is not desirable, the action is modified accordingly. Action can mean either a basic action (one that has a meaning) or an advanced social action, which not only has a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reification (fallacy)
Reification (also known as concretism, hypostatization, or the fallacy of misplaced concreteness) is a fallacy of ambiguity, when an abstraction (abstract belief or hypothetical construct) is treated as if it were a concrete real event or physical entity. In other words, it is the error of treating something that is not concrete, such as an idea, as a concrete thing. A common case of reification is the confusion of a model with reality: " the map is not the territory". Reification is part of normal usage of natural language (just like metonymy for instance), as well as of literature, where a reified abstraction is intended as a figure of speech, and actually understood as such. But the use of reification in logical reasoning or rhetoric is misleading and usually regarded as a fallacy. Etymology From Latin ''res'' ("thing") and -''fication'', a suffix related to ''facere'' ("to make"). Thus ''reification'' can be loosely translated as "thing-making"; the turning of something abstra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morphological Analysis (problem-solving)
Morphological analysis is the analysis of morphology in various fields * Morphological analysis (problem-solving) or general morphological analysis, a method for exploring all possible solutions to a multi-dimensional, non-quantified problem * Analysis of morphology (linguistics), the internal structure of words. Morphological parsing is conducted by computers to extract morphological information from a given wordform. * Analysis of morphology (biology), the form and structure of organisms and their specific features * Mathematical morphology Mathematical morphology (MM) is a theory and technique for the analysis and processing of geometrical structures, based on set theory, lattice theory, topology, and random functions. MM is most commonly applied to digital images, but it can be em ..., a theory and technique for analysis and processing of images and geometrical structures * Morphological dictionary, in computational linguistics, a linguistic resource that contains corresp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antipositivism
In social science, antipositivism (also interpretivism, negativism or antinaturalism) is a theoretical stance that proposes that the social realm cannot be studied with the methods of investigation utilized within the natural sciences, and that investigation of the social realm requires a different epistemology. Fundamental to that antipositivist epistemology is the belief that the concepts and language that researchers use in their research shape their perceptions of the social world they are investigating and defining. Interpretivism (anti-positivism) developed among researchers dissatisfied with post-positivism, the theories of which they considered too general and ill-suited to reflect the nuance and variability found in human interaction. Because the values and beliefs of researchers cannot fully be removed from their inquiry, interpretivists believe research ''on'' human beings ''by'' human beings cannot yield objective results. Thus, rather than seeking an objective persp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social System
In sociology, a social system is the patterned network of relationships constituting a coherent whole that exist between individuals, groups, and institutions. It is the formal structure of role and status that can form in a small, stable group. An individual may belong to multiple social systems at once; examples of social systems include nuclear family units, communities, cities, nations, college campuses, corporations, and industries. The organization and definition of groups within a social system depend on various shared properties such as location, socioeconomic status, race, religion, societal function, or other distinguishable features. Notable theorists The study of social systems is integral to the fields of sociology and public policy. Social systems have been studied for as long as sociology has existed. Talcott Parsons Talcott Parsons was the first to formulate a systematic theory of social systems, which he did as a part of his AGIL paradigm. He defined a so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
