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INSIDE or OUTSIDE?
Training Handout
Is culture within us or outside us?
The idea of culture or society being
inside the individual is mainly supported by the sociological writings
of
Max Weber.
He argued that we cannot understand
society unless we understand the meanings (Verstehen) that we put
onto our beliefs and actions.
He did not found or write the perspective
called "Symbolic Interaction" as such (Henslin p. 17), but his approach
grew into that perspective of sociology.
In contrast, Durkheim
coined the term "Social facts," to describe information of a social nature
in contrast to that of individual nature.
Here we look at such things as rates
of a specific behaviour (like weddings or suicide) rather than the individual
choices behind such behaviour (Henslin p.13).
June is a popular month for weddings,
and more people in Canada get married in that month than in
other months.
Suicide is more frequent in some
groups (by nation, by religion, by ethnic group, by marital status) than
in others.
Those rates remain quite constant
and predictable, even though the individuals who choose them can not be
predicted.
Durkheim did not deny that culture
and society, as systems of beliefs and behaviour, are carried by individuals,
but wrote that they act as if they are operating externally to
individuals.
Durkheim did not found structural
functionalism; those who did relied on his writings to get to it.
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2011.08.16
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