z

z
z
z
z

UCSP
 Culture, Society and Politics as Conceptual Tools
z

 Culture, society and politics are concepts. They exist in the

realm of ideas and thoughts. As such, they cannot be seen
or touched and yet the influence the way we see and
experience our individual and collective social beings.
 Concepts are created and have been used to have firm
grasp of a phenomenon. Just like any other words,
concepts are initially invented as icons to capture
phenomena and in the process assist the users/inventors
to describe facets of social experience in relation to the
phenomena concerned.
 z

 What is interesting about concepts is that as

conceptual tools, they allow us to form other
concepts, or relate concepts to each other or
even deconstruct old ones and replace them
with something new.
 Students as Social Beings
z
 The way we live our lives—or should we say, the way we are
being steered to live our lives- presupposes omnipotent
forces shaping the very fabric of our existence. The
categories that we posses as individuals—labels that are
ascribed or given to us individually and collectively—are
testament to the operation of these forces which leave us
unsuspecting of their intrusive and punitive implications in
our lives. Our categories as male/female, rich/poor, or
tall/short and even the problematic effect of the color of our
skin are evidences of the operation of these social forces.
 Identity
z

 Identity is the distinctive

characteristic that
defines an individual or
is shared by those
belonging to a particular
group. People may have
multiple identities as
depending on the groups
to which they belong.
 The Scope of Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science
z

 A. The Holistic Study of Humanity: Anthropology

 Definition and Scope of Anthropology

 Anthropology is derived from two Greek words anthropos and logos,

which intensively studies human and the respective cultures where they
were born and actively belong to.

 It is considered the father or even grandfather of all social and

behavioral sciences like sociology, economics and psychology, to name
a few. The discipline had its humble beginnings with early European
explorers and their accounts which produced initial impressions about
the native peoples they encountered In their explorations.
z

 The father of American

anthropology, Franz Boaz, a
physicist, strongly believed
that the same method and
strategy could be applied in
measuring culture and
human behavior while
conducting research among
humans including
uniqueness of their cultures.
 Two American anthropologists
z
Alfred Kroeber and William
Henry Morgan, became
prominent in their field since
their specialization included
the championing of
indigenous rights like
traditional cultural
preservation and ancestral
domain of the American Indian
tribes they intensively studied.
 Historical
z
Beginnings
Ruth Benedict became a specialist in
anthropology and folklore and authored the
famous book Patterns of Culture.
 The field of anthropology offers several topics
for relevant research and discussion in various
academic fields since its distinct way of data
gathering from their respondents applies
participant observation which is central to
ethnography. Bronislaw Malinowski is the
founding father of this strategy.
 The Study of the Social World: Sociology
z
 Sociology and the Sociological Perspective

 Sociology is the study of society, social institutions, and social

relationships. Sociology is interested in describing and explaining
human behavior, especially as it occurs within a social context
(Merriam- Webster).

 Studying sociology is practical and useful. A social beings, we gain

understanding of how the social world operates and of our place in it.
C.Wright Mills (1959) calls it sociological imagination which he
defined as “the vivid awareness of the relationship between private
experience and the wider society.”
 z
 Sociology’s point of view is distinct from other sciences.
Peter Berger explains that the perspective of sociology
enables us to see “general patterns in particular events”
(Macionis, 2010). This means finding general patterns in
particular events. The first systematic study on suicide
provides a good example. Emile Durkheim’s pioneering
study on suicide in the 1800s revealed that there are
categories of people who are more likely to commit suicide.
 Early zThinkers

 August Comte (1798-1857) is the person who “invented”

sociology in 1842, by bringing together the Greek word
socius or “companion” and the Latin word logy or “study”. He
originally used “social physics” as a term for sociology. Its
aim was to discover the social laws that govern the
development of society. Comte suggested that there were
three stages in the development of societies, namely the
theological stage, the metaphysical stage, and the positive
stage.
 z
 The founding mother of sociology is Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), an
English writer and reformist. In her accounts in her book How to
Observe Morals and Manners (1838), the deep sociological insights we
call now ethnographic narratives are fully expressed.

 Karl Marx (1818-1883), a German philosopher and revolutionary

further contributed to the development of sociology. Marx introduced
the materialist analysis of history which discounts metaphysical
explanation for historical development. Before Marx, scholars explain
social change through divine intervention and the theory of “great men”.
z
z
 z

 Marx is the forerunner of the conflict theory. He wrote

the Communist Manifesto a book that is focused on
the misery of the lower class (working class) caused
by the existing social order. He reiterated that political
revolution was vital in the evolutionary process of the
society, the only means to achieve improvement of
social conditions.
 z
 Emile Durkheim (1864-1920) a French sociologist who put forward the
idea that individuals are more products rather than the creator of
society; the society itself is external to the individual. In his book
Suicide, Durkheim proved that social forces strongly impact on people’s
lives and that seemingly personal event is not personal after all.

 Max Weber (1864-1920) Weber stressed the role of rationalization in

the development of society. For Weber, rationalization refers essentially
to the disenchantment of the world. As science began to replace
religion, people also adopted a scientific or rational attitude to the world.
People refused to believe in myths and superstitious beliefs.
 C. ThezStudy of Politics: Political Science

 Guide Questions: 1. Why is there a need for politics? 2. Can we exist

without politics?

 Political Science is part of the social sciences that deals with the
study of politics, power, and government. In turn, politics refers to “ the
process of making collective decisions in a community, society, or
group through application of influence and power” (Ethridge and
Handelman 2010, p.8). Political Science studies how even the most
private and personal decisions of individuals are influence by collective
decisions of a community. “The personal is political.”
 Politics
z
 Generally, politics is associated with how power is gained and
employed to develop authority and influence on social affairs. It can
also be used to promulgate guiding rules to govern the state. It is also
a tactic for upholding collaboration among members of a community,
whether from civil or political organizations.

 Concept of Politics

 Politics is allied with government which is considered as the ultimate

authority. It is the primary role of the government to rule the society by
stipulating and transmitting the basic laws that will supervise the
freedom of the people. Each form of government possesses power to
attain order that should lead toward social justice.
 Politics as Science
z
 Science is commonly defined as the knowledge derived from
experiment and observation systematically done. Policy-making and
government decisions should be done through proper research, social
investigation, analysis, validation, planning, execution and evaluation.
Thus, politics is a science.

 Theoretical Foundations of Culture, Society and Politics

 Humans seek explanations about why things happen. Each person has
ideas about the nature of existence, motion, and relationships. Our
ideas come from everywhere- from experiences, conversations,
materials we read, media we access, our teachers, family friends and
foes—all these are sources of ideas.
 A. What is a Theory?
z
Theory explains how some aspect of human behavior or performance
is organized. It thus enables us to

 make predictions about that behavior.

 The components of theory are concepts (ideally well defined) and

principles.

 A concept is a symbolic representation of an actual thing - tree, chair,

table, computer, distance, etc.

 Construct is the word for concepts with no physical referent -

democracy, learning, freedom, etc. Language enables
conceptualization.
 A principle
z expresses the relationship between two or more
concepts or constructs. In the process of theory
development, one derives principles based on one’s
examining/questioning how things/concepts are related.
 Concepts and principles serve two important functions:
1) They help us to understand or explain what is going on
around us.
 2) They help us predict future events (Can be causal or
correlational)
 z
 Theories are crucial to science because
they provide a logical framework for
making sense out of scientific
observations. In sociology, a theory is a
set of general assumptions about the
nature of society.
z