Below are a few quantitative and qualitative sources (case studies and statistics) that can be used to illustrate aspects of the main perspectives within A-level sociology – Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism, Social Action Theory and Post and Late Modernism
Functionalism
- Bruce Parry: participant observation with ‘The Tribe’
- Educating Yorkshire
- Official statistics show declining family Size
- Cross national statistics – positive correlation between economic development and social development
- Official statistics – the positive correlation between truancy and crime
- The Cambridge study in delinquency and development
Marxism
- The correlation between increasing neoliberal policies and increasing global inequality
- Official statistics show a positive correlation between material deprivation and underachievement in education
- Official Statistics show an increase in childhood obesity, suggesting a link between advertising, pester power and poor child health
- Case studies of the huge economic and social costs of corporate crime: Enron, Bhopal
- Case studies of exploitation in the developing world. E.g. Ship breaking in Bangladesh
- Case studies of elite criminals not being punished for their crimes – e.g. Mark Ashley of Sports Direct
Feminism
- Official Statistics on gender equality and empowerment – no country on earth has gender equality
- Statistics on the Domestic Division of Labour show that women spend twice as long on domestic chores as men
- Official statistics on domestic violence show that ¼ women are victims in their lifetimes, more than men
- A range of qualitative evidence from the Everyday Sexism Project
- Statistics on gender and subject choice – 97% of hairdressing apprenticeships = female….
- The prevalence of pornography and prostitution and their links with sex trafficking
Social Action Theory
- Life-histories and Facebook profiles reveal complex and diverse family structures
- Rosenthal and Jacobsen’s field experiment showing the self- fulfilling prophecy
- Jock Young’s research on the drug takers
- Self-report studies demonstrating that official crime stats are socially constructed
- The fact that Gok Wan is famous
- Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Postmodernism
- Judith Stacey: The Divorce Extended Family: show complex family structures
- My Monkey-Baby
- Research studies on the importance of identity in education – e.g. Carolyn Jackson and the Ladettes
- Stan Cohen’s research on the Mods and Rockers
- The happy pierced prostitute who has a client who shoves golf-balls up his ass
- Vanilla vloggers such as Zoella
Late Modernism
- Official Statistics on growing global problems such as climate change, global crime and migration
- The increase in New Social Movements such as the Green Movement
- Jock Young – The Vertigo of Late Modernity
- The fact that many nation states have nuclear weapons
- The high global expenditure on the military
- The positive correlation between educational achievement and income – nationally and globally
