Key Points

Coined by C. Wright Mills, this concept connects personal problems to broader social issues, understanding the interplay between an individual's life and society's history.

Social structure refers to the organized patterns of social relationships and institutions that compose society. It provides underlying regularities to human behavior, much like the framework of a building.

This is the existence of structured inequalities between groups in society, based on their access to material or symbolic rewards. It is a patterned system that tends to persist across generations.

Emile Durkheim argued that society has primacy over the individual and exerts social constraint. Social structures are external to us and limit what we can do, similar to how walls in a room define our movement.

Karl Marx emphasized that while social structures constrain individuals, humans also have agency to change them. He stated that humans make history, but not in conditions of their own choosing.

Social stratification creates unequal access to three main advantages: Life Chances (material well-being), Social Status (prestige and honor), and Political Influence (power and decision-making ability).

This perspective, associated with Durkheim, sees cooperation, competition, and conflict as universal features that fulfill essential functions for the maintenance and survival of the social system.

Associated with Marx, this view emphasizes that in unequal societies, cooperation is often enforced and contains underlying conflict. Social processes are shaped by the struggle between dominant and disadvantaged groups over resources.

Durkheim identified two types of social cohesion: Mechanical Solidarity, based on sameness in simple societies, and Organic Solidarity, based on interdependence from the division of labor in modern societies.

Marx used the term alienation to describe the loss of control workers experience over their labor and the products they create in a capitalist system. This makes cooperation feel enforced rather than voluntary.

Sociology views competition not as a natural human trait but as a dominant ideology that emerged with modern capitalism. It promotes values like efficiency and profit maximization.

The ideology of competition assumes that individuals compete on an equal basis. However, social stratification ensures that people are positioned unequally, meaning many are effectively excluded from fair competition.

Conflict is a social process involving a clash of interests, often arising from the scarcity of resources. The bases of conflict can be class, caste, gender, ethnicity, or religion.

Cooperation is not always voluntary. In many situations, it is enforced by social norms or power structures, concealing underlying conflicts, such as women forgoing property rights to maintain family harmony.

Conflict is not always openly expressed and can be hidden behind apparent cooperation. Subordinate groups may engage in covert forms of resistance while overtly complying with dominant norms.