So far, this section has treated sociology as though all sociologists agree with each other. In reality, sociologists have developed different, competing theories, known as perspectives, about how society works and why. You will meet these perspectives applied to specific topics, such as education, the media and crime, elsewhere on histpology.co.uk.
Some perspectives, broadly described as consensus perspectives, see society as generally based on shared norms and values that most people agree with. Other perspectives, broadly described as conflict perspectives, see society as based on inequality and competition between different groups. A third approach focuses on small-scale, everyday interaction rather than on society as a whole.
| Perspective | View on society | Key thinker or study | Main criticism |
| Functionalism | Society is like a body made up of interconnected parts (institutions), each performing a function that helps maintain order and value consensus. | Émile Durkheim; study of Suicide (1897) | Critics argue it overstates agreement in society and pays too little attention to conflict and inequality. |
| Marxism | Society is divided by social class into a small ruling class that owns wealth and a larger working class, with conflict between them driving social change. | Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848) | Critics argue it overstates the importance of social class and underplays other divisions, such as gender and ethnicity. |
| Feminism | Society is structured by gender inequality, with women historically disadvantaged compared to men across areas such as work, the family and politics. | Feminist sociologists from the 1960s and 1970s onwards, building on earlier feminist writing | Critics note that feminism is not one single view; different strands (for example liberal and radical feminism) disagree on the causes of and solutions to gender inequality. |
| Interactionism | Society is built up from countless small, everyday interactions between individuals, who constantly interpret and respond to the meanings of each other’s actions. | George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self and Society (1934) | Critics argue it focuses too closely on small-scale interaction and struggles to explain large-scale patterns of inequality. |
Notice that each perspective is associated with a real thinker or piece of research, not just a label. As you move on to later topics, you will be expected to name specific thinkers and studies when you write about any perspective, rather than describing perspectives only in general terms.
| Key Takeaways |
| A perspective is a theory about how society works; sociologists do not all share the same one. |
| Consensus perspectives (e.g. functionalism) emphasise shared norms and values; conflict perspectives (e.g. Marxism, feminism) emphasise inequality and competition. |
| Interactionism focuses on small-scale, everyday interaction rather than society as a whole. |
| Every perspective should be linked to a named thinker or study, for example Durkheim for functionalism or Marx for Marxism. |
| Check your understanding |
| 1. Name one consensus perspective and one conflict perspective, and explain the basic difference between them. You could: use the functionalism and Marxism rows in the Perspectives box above as your starting point. |
| 2. Explain what makes interactionism different from both functionalism and Marxism. You should: refer to the difference in scale: small-scale everyday interaction versus explanations of society as a whole. |
| 3. Looking back over this whole document, explain in your own words what “the sociological imagination” means. You should: refer to both personal troubles and public issues, and use one example (Mills’ own or one of your own) to illustrate the connection between the individual and society. |
This section has introduced the basic vocabulary of sociology: society, culture, norms, values, socialisation, social control and a first glimpse of sociological perspectives. Mills’ idea of the sociological imagination, connecting personal experience to public issues, sits behind almost everything studied in A-level Sociology. Keep returning to it as new topics are introduced.
