SOC212H1 Chapter 7: The Social Disorganization Perspective
22 Apr 2015
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Document Summary
Idea that pathology" can exists at the social level is characteristic of the social disorganization perspective. Sociological positivism emerged when thinkers from various backgrounds (philosophy, theology, political science, and natural science) began to look for regularities in social life, just as natural science had sought in plant and animal life. These early sociologists were motivated by historical changes that had led to increasingly obvious concentrations of deviance among people in certain social classes and groups. The predominate view was that the urban masses were ignorant, undisciplined, irreligious and especially if touched by radical economic beliefs, a danger to the society in which they lived. A variety of people took up the challenge to understand the sources of urban squalor and to do something about them. These included: religious (frequently evangelical) do-gooders who saw moral uplift of lower classes as a spiritual duty.
