SOCY 101 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Social Integration, Rationality, Statistical Process Control
30 May 2017
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The ubiquity of disagreements and conflicts is enough evidence that rationality is not the foundation of society. Define and distinguish between substantive and functional rationality. Use these concepts to illustrate collins" point on the non-rational foundations of society. Functional: efficiently determining how to achieve a desired goal; the means to an end. Following the procedures, coolly calculating how a result may be achieved most efficiently. Considers the ends themselves, does not take into account the nature of outcomes. Subject to value and an appeal to ethical norms. A bureaucracy consists of a network of specialists, who are concerned only with the most efficient means to achieve a particular goal. Procedures may be functionally rational, they lead to substantively irrational outcomes. The building block of society is nonrational solidarity. We think we are being rational, but the outcomes aren"t always what we think ex: war on drugs, thought we were helping get drugs out, but brought more drugs in.
