Accepted work

Emile Durkheim

Emile Durkheim's work focuses on two main themes: prioritizing the social over the individual and the
idea that society can be studied scientifically. Durkheim argues that society is made up of "social facts"
that exceed our intuitive understanding and must be investigated through observations and
measurements. The term sociology was coined by Auguste Comte in the late nineteenth century, and
Durkheim argued that sociology should be concerned with studying social facts, phenomena irreducible
to individual psychology, and oriented towards empirical research to separate it from philosophy. Social
facts are social structures, cultural norms, and values that are external to and coercive of actors.

Durkheim's concept of social facts distinguishes sociology from psychology by defining them as external
constraints rather than internal drives and general throughout society. He used the Latin term "sui
generis" to describe these facts, asserting that they have unique character and cannot be explained by
individual consciousness.

Durkheim also referred to language as a social fact, stating that it is a "thing" that must be studied
empirically, external to the individual, coercive of the individual, and can only be explained by other
social facts. This idea established sociology as an independent field of study and provided a compelling
argument for studying society as it is.

Material social facts, such as styles of architecture, forms of technology, and legal codes, are easier to
understand due to their direct observation. Nonmaterial social facts, on the other hand, often express
larger and more powerful moral forces that are both external and coercive over individuals. Durkheim
recognized that nonmaterial social facts are found in the minds of individuals and can be found in
relational realism and structural components like bureaucratic norms.

Durkheim was a sociologist of morality, believing that morality is a social fact and driven by his concern
about the moral "health" of modern society. His studies on morality were based on his belief that
morality is a social fact and his concern for the moral "health" of modern society.
Durkheim's work on morality and freedom emphasized the importance of moral bonds, which he
believed would be enslaved by ever-expanding passions. He developed the concept of collective
conscience, which refers to the general structure of shared understandings, norms, and beliefs.
Durkheim argued that primitive societies had a stronger collective conscience than modern societies.

Collective representations, such as religious symbols, myths, popular legends, and group memories,
represent collective beliefs, norms, and values and motivate conformity. These representations cannot
be reduced to individuals and can be studied more directly than collective conscience.

Social currents, which are social facts that are not crystallized, are less concrete but can be explained
intersubjectively in terms of interactions between individuals. They can be viewed as sets of meanings
shared by members of a collectivity and can only be explained intersubjectively in terms of interactions.

Durkheim traced the development of the modern relationship between individuals and society,
highlighting the moral crisis due to the increasing division of labor. In simpler societies, people shareon
experiences and values, while in modern society, everyone has a different job and specialized tasks,
leading to a loss of common experiences.

The Division of Labor by Karl Marx argues that modern society is not held together by shared moral
beliefs but by the division of labor itself. This division of labor forces people to be dependent on each
other, leading to a diminished collective conscience. Durkheim argued that primitive societies had a
stronger collective conscience, but the increasing division of labor has caused a diminution of this
conscience.

Durkheim also identified four dimensions of the collective conscience: volume, intensity, rigidity, and
content. Dynamic density refers to the number of people in a society and the amount of interaction that
occurs among them, which can be differentiated on four dimensions: volume, intensity, rigidity, and
content.

Durkheim argued that a society with mechanical solidarity is characterized by repressive law, where a
wrongdoer is punished severely for any action that offends the collective moral system. In contrast, a
society with organic solidarity is characterized by restitutive law, which requires offenders to make
restitution for their crimes.

Durkheim derived the idea that crime is normal rather than pathological, as it helps societies define and
delineate their collective conscience. He used the idea of pathology to criticize some of the "abnormal"
forms the division of labor takes in modern society, identifying three abnormal forms: anomic division of
labor, which celebrates isolated individuality and refrains from telling people what they should do; and
the repressive division of labor, which is characterized by the lack of regulation in a society that
celebrates isolated individuality and refrains from telling people what they should do.

Durkheim's theory of suicide focuses on four types of suicide: forced division of labor, justice, justice,
and suicide. Forced division of labor refers to outdated norms and expectations that force individuals,
groups, and classes into positions they are ill-suited for, while justice is held together through
differences that promote interdependence. Durkheim predicted that society would succumb to the
division of labor and break down into specialties.

Suicide is studied because it is a concrete and specific phenomenon with good data available. Durkheim
assumed that only social facts could explain why one group had a higher rate of suicide than another. He
proposed two ways to evaluate suicide rates: comparing different societies or other types of
collectivities, or looking at changes in the suicide rate in the same collectivity over time.

Durkheim's theory of suicide can be seen more clearly by examining the relation between the types of
suicide and his two underlying social facts: integration (the strength of attachment to society) and
regulation (the degree of external constraint on people). Egoistic suicide is more likely to occur in
societies or groups where the individual is not well integrated into the larger social unit, as these factors
produce distinctive social currents that cause differences in suicide rates. Altruistic suicide is more likely
to occur when social integration is too weak, as individuals commit suicide in the name of a greater
good.

Lastly, anomic suicide is more likely to occur when the regulative powers of society are disrupted,
leaving individuals dissatisfied due to little control over their passions. Rates of anomic suicide may rise
whether the disruption is positive (e.g., an economic boom) or negative (e.g., an economic depression).
Durkheim's sociology of religion focuses on the enduring essence of religion through an analysis of its
most primitive forms. He argues that the moral bond becomes a cognitive bond because categories for
understanding, such as classification, time, space, and causation, are also derived from religious rituals.
The sacred, which is set apart from the everyday form, brings out an attitude of reverence, awe, and
obligation. The rest are defined as profane, the commonplace, the utilitarian, and the mundane aspects
of life.

Durkheim's theory of religion requires three conditions: the development of a set of religious beliefs, a
set of religious rituals, and a church or a single overarching moral community. Rituals and the church are
important to Durkheim's theory of religion because they connect the representations of the social to
individual practices. The major sources of his data were studies of a clan-based Australian tribe, the
Arunta, who Durkheim considered primitive culture.

In conclusion, Durkheim's sociology of religion aims to understand the enduring essence of religion
through an analysis of its most primitive forms. He argues that the differentiation between the sacred
and profane and the elevation of some aspects of social life to the sacred level are necessary but not
sufficient conditions for the development of religion. Rituals and the church are important to Durkheim's
theory of religion because they connect the representations of the social to individual practices.

Durkheim's study of religion within a primitive culture was motivated by the belief that it provides
insight into the essential nature of religion and the existence of intellectual and moral conformity. He
argued that religion in a nonmodern society is an all-encompassing collective conscience, but as society
grows more specialized, religion becomes a narrower domain.

Durkheim divided the life of a clan into two phases: the first phase, where the clan separates into small
groups, and the second phase, where members gather for religious ceremonies. Collective energy, such
as song and dance, becomes a shared symbol, and the totem serves as an excellent example of this
collective representation.
Totemism, a religious system, is another approach to understanding the symbolic aspects of religion. It
involves sacred animals and plants being considered emblems of the clan, with totems representing the
nonmaterial force at their base, which is society. In totemism, three classes of things are connected: the
totemic symbol, the animal or plant, and the members of the clan.

Philosophy proposed two models for how humans develop concepts from sense impressions:
empiricism, which claims that our concepts are generalizations, and apriorism, which asserts that we
must be born with initial categories of understanding. Durkheim's Elementary Forms presents an
argument for the social origin of six fundamental categories of understanding: time comes from the
rhythms of social life, and space develops from the division of space occupied by society.

In totemism, classification is tied to the human group, force is derived from experiences with social
forces, imitation rituals are the origin of causality, and society itself is the representation of totality.
Durkheim's sociology of knowledge argues that concepts and even our most fundamental categories are
collective representations that society produces.

Moral education and social reform are integral components of Durkheim's philosophy. Morality involves
discipline, attachment to society, and autonomy, which are essential for modern morality. Education is
defined as the process by which individuals acquire the physical, intellectual, and moral tools needed to
function in society. Durkheim viewed the classroom as a small society and believed that its collective
effervescence could be made powerful enough to inculcate a moral attitude.

Occupational associations are essential for workers, managers, and owners in a particular industry.
Durkheim believed that any conflict occurred only because the various people involved lacked a
common morality, which was traceable to the lack of an integrative structure. A moral system with
derived rules and laws would counteract the tendency toward atomization in modern society and help
stop the decline in the significance of collective morality.

Durkheim's criticisms include his focus on social facts, his criticism of socialism, resistance to the
feminist movement, emphasis on morality, and criticism of Marxism. His ideas have inspired
microsociologists such as Erving Goffman and Harold Garfinkel, and have also figured prominently in the
development of the concept of social justice.
In conclusion, Durkheim's sociology of knowledge has had significant applications in understanding
social facts and the role of individual responsibility in shaping society. Mustafa Emirbayer and Matthew
Desmond utilize Durkheim's culture theory to analyze the symbolic structures of racial order, while also
examining contemporary phenomena like ICT, mobile phones, and social media.

Karl Marx

Karl Marx, a highly influential social theorist, lived from 1818 to 1883 in various countries and was an
active revolutionary. His theory focused on the economy, particularly exploitative class relations. Marx's
work, known as historical materialism or dialectical materialism, argued for the primacy of economic
forces as driving forward history. He believed that man's consciousness is conditioned by his material,
economic conditions, and their social being determines their consciousness.

Marx identified the clash of economic classes within economic development as the key driving dialectic
of human history. The history of all existing society is the history of class struggle, with freeman and
slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, and oppressor and oppressed
standing in constant opposition. Class was centrally defined in terms of the ownership or non-ownership
of the means of production.
A certain form of production would give rise to class formations (one exploitative, owning the means of
production, and one exploited, without ownership). The political and legal superstructure erected by the
dominant class initially supports the development of production, but as production develops into a new
mode, the old superstructure becomes a "fetter" on economic development, leading to revolutionary
pressures based on class conflict.

Marx identified capitalism as the mode of production following feudalism. However, there are
ambiguities and inconsistencies in his work, such as between younger and older Marx and his co-author,
Engels.

Capital is the primary means of production in capitalism, with the bourgeoisie or capitalist class owning
the means of production and the proletariat or working class owning their own labor. Capitalism
involves the systematic creation of profit and reinvestment in further capital to generate further profit.
Marx identified the creation of profit as lying within the exploitation of labour, and capitalists only
employed labor if they could extract surplus value from that labour.

Marx applied dialectical materialism to capitalism, seeing several dynamics leading to its downfall and
replacement by communism where exploitation would be ended. He argued that capitalism provided
the conditions for its own downfall by bringing together the exploited en masse within work, forcing
them to join together, see their common interests in ending their exploitation, and overthrow the
capitalist class.

Work within capitalism is often analyzed through the lens of exploitation and alienation. Work in
capitalism is exploitative, potentially fraught with class conflict. Strikes can be interpreted as forms of
class conflict, but Marxists argue that there are many other forms of class conflict, such as withholding
effort or taking absence days when not sick.

Alienated labor under capitalism has four main elements: workers are divorced from the products of
their labor, the process of production becomes fragmented, people become alienated from others, and
humans are alienated from their "species being" due to more work being made mindless and uncreative.
Work intensity, which refers to how hard people work, is often a key issue in everyday class conflict, as
employers want more surplus value from workers' labor. Examples of conflict about work intensity
include Pauline and Molly in an ethnographic study of a Midlands factory, where workers argue that
they cannot work faster without absences. In January 2023, Amazon workers in the UK began a strike at
the Coventry warehouse. The workers reported high work intensity, strict toilet breaks, and supervisors'
focus on minimizing idle time. The strike highlights the importance of addressing these issues to ensure
fair treatment and prevent future strikes.

Max Weber

Weber's interest areas include method problems in science, religion, sociology of religion, and political
conditions. He aimed to be between positivists and subjectivists, focusing on empirical events rather
than historical ones. Weber was a methodological individualist, arguing that individuals drive actions
and forces change over time. He studied social systems as patterns of actions and interactions,
examining the meaning behind actors' actions.

Weber was skeptical of total explanations and isms, preferring methodological collectivism. He also had
a causal understanding of society, distinguishing it from nature. He believed in sufficient and probable
causality, which involves making sufficient and probable explanations about the relationship between
social phenomena.

Weber's big questions revolved around what accelerated the economic process in Europe from the 17th
century, starting with the 15th century and continuing through the industrialization of modern society at
the end of the 18th century. He compared this to Marx's explanation of the rise of capitalism and the
death of capitalism.

Weber's analytical concepts included tools for understanding, current and interpretive understanding,
values, ideal types, stratification, action, and authority. He used ideal types to explain the development
of capitalism, such as Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism, and the rational iron cage.

Weber's pessimistic approach to change, unlike Marx's optimistic outlook, saw change as a positive
outcome, leading to socialism. In contrast, Weber saw change as sad and tragic, characterized by
bureaucracy and lack of logic and humanity.

In summary, Weber's analysis of capitalism in the West, sociology of religion, and the rational iron cage
provide valuable insights into the development of capitalism in the West.

Weber's concept of understanding is crucial in research and understanding enough to make objective
conclusions. He distinguishes between current understanding, which is directly derived from knowing
the rules of a particular behavior, and interpretive understanding, which involves understanding the
person's motive for action. This type of interpretive understanding is what Weber believes science
should work with.

Value is another key concept in Weber's philosophy. Researchers are value-charged, and their research
is influenced by their interests and cultural values. This means that there can never be an objective
scientific analysis of the cultural world. The social sciences are value-relevant and value-neutral, and
they try to be only value-neutral. Science can only state facts, not values, and value choices are
subjective. Therefore, science cannot comment on true values but must limit itself to analyzing the
effects of different actions.

To address this problem, Weber developed the concept of the Ideal Type, an instrument that reduces
the value in research. The Ideal Type is an abstract model or concept that researchers use to apply to
reality, similar to Tonnies and normal types. He uses the Ideal Type methodology to reject the idea that
science can capture reality objectively, but he sees it as possible to reduce value.
Ideal types are dangerous if they are considered empirically valid or expressions of actual forces in
reality. They can be used to measure something, but they cannot say that reality is wrong. For example,
the Gemeischaft of Geselschaft is a picture of the world, and it serves as a standard for comparison.

In summary, Weber's concepts of understanding, value, and ideal types help researchers reduce the
value in research and provide a more nuanced understanding of cultural and social life.

Social scientists construct ideal-typical concepts based on their interests and theoretical orientation to
capture essential features of social phenomena. They derive these types from historical data and
compare them with the actual world, looking for divergences and causes of deviations. Researchers
must first immerse themselves in historical reality before determining the ideal types for social action.

There are four ideal types for social action: traditional action, emotion-driven action, value-rational
action, and purpose rational action. Traditional action is characterized by habits and customs, while
emotion-driven action is driven by emotions and is unconscious. Value-rational action is based on
overriding goals or ideals, such as political or religious character, and purpose rational action is based on
rationality and efficiency assessments. Purpose rational action is the only form of action based on
rationality and strategic evaluation.

These ideal types are explanatory understanding (scientific). Weber's class analysis uses various ideal-
typical categories that must be traced back to the acting individual. Society is characterized through
conflicts based on power and resources, and not only class applies but also status and party. Class,
status, and party are overlapping elements in the layering process. Marx discusses the glass ceiling that
separates capitalists and proletariat, but Weber believes it is not just class that separates them.

In conclusion, social scientists use ideal-typical concepts to analyze social phenomena and understand
the relationship between micro and macro structures.

Class is a concept that arises not only from control over production means but also from economic
inequalities that do not directly affect real estate. Resources such as skills and competencies affect the
types of work people can obtain, and class is determined by factors such as finances, merits, and
knowledge.
Status, according to Weber, has a strong impact on an individual's life chances and mobility. Managerial
and professional occupations often have better working conditions and qualifications, making them
more sought after in the market. Weber's view of status refers to differences between social groups, and
it often varies regardless of class division.

Party is defined as a group of individuals working together due to common backgrounds, goals, or
interests. Party formations are an important aspect of power and affect layering regardless of class and
status. Both status and party can influence economic circumstances in which individuals live.

Authority structures, according to Weber, are domination and power given, and individuals can be
controlled by accepting the controlling authority. Three ideal types of legitimate authority are:
traditional authority, which is rule by others based on old customs and patterns of action; and
ecclesiastical authority, which is based on traditional actions like kings, popes, priests, and medicine
men.

Weber's concept of authority is divided into three types: charismatic authority, legal/rational authority,
and bureaucratic rationalization. Charismatic authority is based on a person's qualities and charisma,
while legal/rational authority accepts governance on a formal legal basis. This form of authority is
modern society's form of authority, and Weber fears that society would end up in an iron bridge with
rules that are not reasonable in contexts.

Rational authority, the ideal type of bureaucracy, is organized through regulations, divided between
administrative units, hierarchically organized offices, technical or legal rules, written forms of
administrative actions, and strong distinctions between system and individual resources. This type of
bureaucracy is the cleanest type, as regulations decide on the grounds.

Weber believes that social action is more than external behavior, and everything is related to action. An
action is social in that the individual attaches a subjective, introverted meaning to their behavior. In a
rational bureaucratic society, regulations govern, and actions fill up other types of opinions and
structures.
Social action must always be interpreted with regard to meaning, and Weber seeks a concept of
rationality that is free from evaluative aspects but as neutral as possible. Bureaucratic rationalization is
built into the social structure and appears to individuals as something external to them, causing
alienation.

The development of modern capitalism in the West was driven by the rise of bureaucratic rationality,
which included targeted, controlled, and planned activities built on legal authority. This led to the
development of a calculable legal system for what is allowed and what is not allowed, as well as an open
system of rules and sanctions that apply equally to everyone. This system was designed to include the
legal aspects of actions in the action calculation.

Weber used these ideal types to answer his fundamental question about why Europe became the
dominant force in the world and why certain people began to act capitalistically. He sought an
interpretive understanding by examining the connection between Protestant ethics and the spirit of
capitalism. The core of Weber's theory is that the behavior influenced by the spirit of capitalism is
developed from religion, specifically Christianity, Protestantism, and Puritanism. Calvinists contributed
to this theory, as early capitalism originated in areas of Europe that had undergone religious reform.

Weber created two ideal types to explain this: Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism, which was
the beginning of capitalism. This approach to capitalism emphasized the importance of rationality and a
calculable legal system in determining the legality of actions.

Protestant ethics, such as Jean Calvin's Creed, emphasize God-determined human destiny and the
control over ethics and behavior. This led to psychological insecurity and a focus on hard work and
asceticism. In contrast, Catholicism encourages people to spend money and live ascetically, believing
they are chosen for salvation.

The religious appreciation of restless, systematic work became a powerful means of asceticism and a
surest proof of rebirth and true faith. Avlat, or indulgences, are remissions of temporal punishment that
people must atone for sinful acts committed. The Catholic Church believes that sin leads to guilt, which
must be confessed, and punishment that must be served.
Protestantism, against Catholicism, was fueled by the sale of a letter of forgiveness (indulgence) to raise
money for the construction of St. Peter's Church in Rome. Without indulgence, the punishment would
remain, and one had to die in purgatory to atone for sin. By buying a letter of indulgence, one could
shorten the painful cleaning period in purgatory.

The spirit of capitalism, as emphasized by Benjamin Franklin, is linked to hard work and a moral and
ascetic life, with the focus on increasing money being linked to a moral and ascetic life.

Weber posited that while the ideal types of cultures are different and based on different assumptions,
they lead to the same actions. Protestant behavior is value-rational, focusing on saving and hoarding
money, while capitalist behavior is goal-rational, seeking effective means to achieve wealth. This
transition was facilitated by Protestant ethics, which led to the relentless pursuit of economic interests
and the belief that such behavior was an ethical duty. Calvinism, on the other hand, encouraged
conscientious and hard-working workers, leading to increased exploitation. Calvinism legitimized an
inequality-forming system by assuring capitalists that the unequal distribution of goods was a special
dispensation given by God.

The Puritan form was highly regulative and gradually became internally controlled, but it was eventually
abandoned by the capitalist spirit, which no longer needed ethics as a driving force for capital
accumulation. This led to capitalism continuing without petrol from Protestant ethics.

The historical course of capitalism can be explained through the act of people, with the West's peculiar
economic development based on its unique rationalization process. The reasons for modern Western
capitalism lie in its unique rationality, which is influenced by the spread of science, which makes the
world systematically calculable and predictable, creating a new worldview. In a planned economy, the
role of bureaucracy increases, and life becomes subject to calculation and planning.

The rational iron cage refers to the loss of lofty ideals and meaning in life due to increasing
rationalization under industrial capitalism. This has led to people mastering nature, developing
technology, and creating administrative bureaucratic systems for regulating social life. However, the
existential basis for life disappears, with the choice of values and ideals disappearing. This paradox and
tragedy of our time is that modern man is stuck in an iron cage of schemes, losing his humanity while
believing he has reached the highest stage of development.

Sociology, science, and politics are intertwined, with the role of the social sciences in modern society
being to interpretive understanding. Sociology cannot reach true knowledge, but must focus on
clarifying the most fundamental values in social life, such as the basic action-driving conditions. This will
form the basis for theories that will be scientifically verified, gaining sociology status as a full-fledged
science.

Critics of sociology include understanding methodological individualism and large-scale structures, lack
of theorizing macrosociology, lack of critical theory, and Weber's pessimistic sociology. There are
different species of ideal types, such as historical ideal types, general sociological ideal types, action
ideal types, and structural ideal types, which reflect the effects of social action.
Major Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology

Sociology uses theories to understand, explain, analyze, and interpret social phenomena. A theory is a
general statement about how parts of the world fit together and work. It is a set of interconnected
hypotheses that offer general explanations for natural or social phenomena. Three major theoretical
perspectives in sociology are structural functionalism, social conflict theory, and symbolic
interactionism. However, there are also theories that challenge these major ones. The terms
"perspectives" and "schools of thought" are often used interchangeably with "theory."

The Structural-Functionalist Theory

Structural-functionalist theory, also known as functionalism, is a dominant theory in anthropology and

sociology that focuses on the creation and functioning of relationships among societal parts. It sees
society as a complex system with parts working together to promote stability and solidarity. Social
structure, which are stable patterns of social behavior, is understood in terms of social function, which
are consequences for the operations of society. All social structure contributes to the operation of
society.

The theory emphasizes the persistence of shared ideas in society and the role played by each
component part in the social system. Early founding sociologists like August Comte, Emile Durkheim,
and Herbert Spencer, as well as later American sociologists like Talkot Parsons and Robert K Merton,
follow the tradition of Durkheim's writings. Modern sociologists often follow Durkheim's writings, as he
is considered the pioneering proponent of this perspective.
However, the theory was challenged by critics, particularly those who proposed the social-conflict
theory, which emphasized stability and order while neglecting the vital role of conflict and changes in
any society.

The Social Conflict Theory

Marxism, also known as Marxism, is a theory that views society as a framework of class conflicts and the
struggle for scarce resources among different groups. It posits that the most significant aspect of social
order is the domination of some group by others, and that conflicts are always present in society. Key
concepts developed in this perspective include conflict, complementation, struggle, power, inequality,
and exploitation.

However, Marxism has faced criticism for its overemphasis on inequality and division, neglecting the fact
that shared values and interdependence generate unity among members of society. It is also criticized
for its explicit political goals and for viewing society in broad terms, neglecting micro-level social
realities. Marxism influences most conflict theorists in modern sociology and is influenced by Marx's
writings.

Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionism is a theory developed by American sociologists like Charles Horton Cooley,
William I Thomas, and George Herbert Mead in the early 20th century. It views symbols as the basis of
social life, as they hold meanings and are analyzed through how we define others and ourselves. The
theory emphasizes the individual actor as the essence of social life and reality, focusing on detailed,
person-oriented processes within larger units of social life. Contemporary sociological theories have
heavily influenced sociological and anthropological thinking, including the following:

Feminism

Feminist sociology focuses on women's underprivileged status and exploitation in patriarchal societies. It
ranges from liberal feminism, which acknowledges inequalities but doesn't require structural reform, to
radical feminism, which advocates for societal change and acknowledges the need for fundamental
restructuring of the social system.
Social Exchange Theory

The theory emphasizes the benefits and costs of social interaction, such as money, goods, and status,
and suggests that people always aim to maximize benefit, but exchange processes are necessary for this.

Public Choice Theory

Collective organizations, like political parties, rationally maximize their benefits, resolving individual
differences through collective involvement, with the state playing a crucial role in balancing large-scale
interests.

Rational Choice Theory

The theory suggests that individuals will rationally make life choices to benefit themselves.

Structuralism

Structuralism is a theory that rejects objective social facts and the concept of society as an external
entity. It defines social reality based on the relations between events, rather than things and social facts.
The observable is meaningful only when related to an underlying structure or order. The equivalent in
anthropology, Claude Levi-Strauss, argues that universal principles order human behavior and thought.
However, this theory views societies as static and fails to explain variation among societies, treating
culture as a given order and failing to explain the adaptive dimensions of culture.

Post-Structuralism and Post-modernism:

Post –structuralism

Poststructuralists emphasize the role of language in constructing knowledge and identity, arguing that
humans cannot reach a universal truth due to the lack of a link between language ideas and the real
world. They deny the sociological idea that our concepts have a relationship to the real world, arguing
that attempts to arrive at a sociological truth are dangerous.
Post-modernism

Post-modernism, rooted in post-structuralism, is a cultural and aesthetic phenomenon that rejects

order, progress, and universal truth, promoting the recognition of diverse forms of reality. It celebrates
chaos, disorder, diversity, and fragmentation in modern society, asserting that there is no ultimate
reason in human life. Postmodernists argue that power has become decentralized and fragmented in
contemporary societies. Three major sociological theories are applied to health, culture, and society,
with each having its own views on medicine and society.

Structural functionalism, also known as the "medical ecological approach," views medicine and
healthcare systems as social institutions that maintain stability and order in society. These institutions,
whether scientific or traditional, exist to meet the needs of individuals and society. Symbolic
interactionist theory, also known as the "cultural interpretationist approach," focuses on the social and
cultural constructions of health, illness, and disease. It argues that illnesses and health are not just
things that exist, but are produced by complex social interactions. Health and illness are highly shaped
by the way people give meaning to them and respond to them in socio-culturally sanctioned ways.
Conflict theory, also known as the "critical" or "radical political economy" approach, emphasizes the
socio-economic inequality in power and wealth, which significantly affects health status and access to
healthcare facilities. This unequal distribution of morbidity and mortality patterns often leads to better
health for those in power, while marginalized groups suffer from disease burdens.