SOC433H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Great Man Theory, Social Constructionism, Sociality
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Lecture 6
Social constructionism
• The classical tradition
o Marks and Engels (1846): the idea of the ruling class are in every epoch of the ruling
ideas
▪ Ideas are embedded in material relationships
▪ Ideas about how the world operates are in part about the society
▪ Basic ideas about goodness, evil etc. have a basis in materialism and cannot be
separated from this
o Durkheim (1903): we must not say that an action shocks the common conscious because
it is a criminal rather that it is a criminal because it is criminal, but rather that it is
criminal because it shocks the common conscious
▪ Also stated that if the corresponding sentiments are abolished, the most harmful
act to society will not only be tolerated, but even honored and proposed as an
example.”
o Thomas and Thomas (1928): if men define situation as real, they are real in their
consequences
How is fact making socially constructed?
• Isn’t the fact making that scientists do asocial, pre-social, or otherwise beyond the scope of social
constructionism? Well, no…
• Gender studies start to question the biological line that we assume seperates boys and girl
• Emily Martin shows that the language used to describe biological processes is itself deeply
gendered and cultural
o Describing sperm as active
o The egg is described a passive
▪ The egg is not thought of as moving but passively transported to the sperm
o Even though this is not actually true when looking at biological processes
o Despite the reality that both eggs and sperm are equally active
▪ Eggs have their own magnetism that pull the sperm towards them
o Then martin analyses other biological processes that have a cultural valience to them
o Menstruation (negative in nature, considered as a form of failure)
o How we talk about science reaffirms how we talk about science, politics and norms in
society
o Main point: woven deeply into the seemingly descriptive, “objective” language that
scientists use to describe “the facts” of natural processes we find politics, culture, and
society.
• Science is a social enterprise
o Distinguishing sociology of science approach from great man theory
▪ Great man theory: Suggesting that science is done by great men who have big
ideas in isolation of others
▪ Even when researchers are working in isolation they still are relying heavily on a
social context
▪ They way in which they have been trained and the way in which they make their
claims all depends on social context
o A whole set of social and political processes have to be put in place for these theory to
gain attention
• Science requires human activity and coordination
o It is something that is built and produced and not just something that is discovered
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