Auguste Comte

was a French philosopher who founded the discipline of sociology, coining the term.
Comte was a major influence on 19th-century thought, influencing the work of social thinkers such
as Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, and George Eliot.
The Law of Three Stages is an idea developed by Auguste Comte in his work The Course in
Positive Philosophy. It states that society as a whole, and each particular science, develops through
three mentally conceived stages: (1) the theological stage, (2) the metaphysical stage, and (3)
the positive stage.
(1) The Theological stage: people believe that all the phenomena of nature are the creation of
the divine or supernatural. Men and children failed to discover the natural causes of various
phenomena and hence attributed them to a supernatural or divine power.
a. 1A. Fetishism - Fetishism was the primary stage of the theological stage of thinking.
Throughout this stage, primitive people believe that inanimate objects have living
spirit in them, also known as animism. People worship inanimate objects like trees,
stones, a piece of wood, volcanic eruptions, etc.[1]
b. 1B. Polytheism - The explanation of things through the use of many Gods. Primitive
people believe that all natural forces are controlled by different Gods; a few
examples would be God of water, God of rain, God of fire, God of air, God of earth,
etc.[1]
c. 1C. Monotheism - Monotheism means believing in one God or God in one; attributing
all to a single, supreme deity. Primitive people believe a single theistic entity is
responsible for the existence of the universe.[1]
(2) The Metaphysical stage : Metaphysical thinking discards belief in a concrete God. The
nature of inquiry was legal and rational.
(3) The Positivity stage: The Positivity stage, also known as the scientific stage, refers to
scientific explanation based on observation, experiment, and comparison. Positive
explanations rely upon a distinct method, the scientific method, for their justification. Today
people attempt to establish cause and effect relationships. Positivism is a purely intellectual
way of looking at the world; as well, it emphasizes observation and classification of data and
facts
may not always be successive.

mile Durkheim
was a French sociologist, social psychologist and philosopher. He formally established the
academic discipline andwith Karl Marx and Max Weberis commonly cited as the principal
architect of modern social science and father of sociology.[2][3]

Functionalism
Functionalism emphasizes a societal equilibrium. If something happens to disrupt the order and the
flow of the system, society must adjust to achieve a stable state. According to Durkheim, society
should be analyzed and described in terms of functions. Society is a system of interrelated parts
where no one part can function without the other. These parts make up the whole of society. If one
part changes, it has an impact on society as a whole.

For example, the state provides public education for children. The family of the children pays taxes,
which the state uses for public education. The children who learn from public education go on to
become law-abiding and working citizens, who pay taxes to support the state.

Let's look at this example again. The state provides public education for children. But a disruption or
disequilibrium in the system occurs - perhaps the education is SUBPAR (BELOW EVERAGE), and
the children drop out and become criminals. The system adjusts to improve the education and
attempts to rehabilitate (through jail or other means) the criminals for them to become law-abiding
and taxpaying citizens.

Mechanical solidarity occurs when individuals within structural units are alike and self-sufficient.
For example, in traditional societies, people grew their own food, made their own clothes, and had
little need for extensive social contact with others because they did not have to rely on others for
daily needs.

Organic solidarity is when a large population is stratified into smaller structural units. There's a high
level of interdependence among individuals and structures, but there's still a division of people along
the lines of labor or type.

Karl Marx
was a German-born scientist, philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary
socialist.
Marx's theories about society, economics and politicscollectively understood as Marxismhold
that human societies develop through class struggle; in capitalism, this manifests itself in the conflict
between the ruling classes (known as the bourgeoisie) that control the means of production and
working classes (known as the proletariat) that enable these means by selling their labour for wages.
Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and their
operation for profit
class struggle, is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to
competing socioeconomic interests and desires between people of different classes

bourgeoisie originally and generally, "those who live in the borough", that is to say, the people of the
city (including merchants and craftsmen), as opposed to those of rural areas; in this sense, the
bourgeoisie began to grow in Europe from the 11th century and particularly during the Renaissance
of the 12th century, with the first developments of rural exodus and urbanization.
 means of production are physical, non-human inputs used for the production of economic value,
such as facilities, machinery, tools,[1] infrastructural capital and natural capital.

The means of production includes two broad categories of objects: instruments of labor (tools,
factories, infrastructure, etc.) and subjects of labor (natural resources and raw materials).

The proletariat is a term for the class of wage-earners, in a capitalist society, whose only
possession of significant material value is their labor-power (their ability to work);[1] a member of such
a class is a proletarian.

Max Weber
Weber is often cited, with mile Durkheim and Karl Marx, as among the three founders of sociology.

The three-component theory of stratification, more widely known as Weberian stratification or

the three class system, was developed by German sociologist Max Weber

Weber developed a multidimensional approach to social stratification that reflects the interplay
among wealth, prestige and power.

Weber argued that power can take a variety of forms. A persons power can be shown in the
social order through their status, in the economic order through their class, and in the
political order through their party. Thus, class, status and party are each aspects of the
distribution of power within a community.[1]
Class, status and party have not only a great deal of effect within their individual areas but also a
great deal of influence over the other areas.

Wealth: includes property such as buildings, lands, farms, houses, factories and as well as
other assets - Economic Situation

Prestige: the respect with which a person or status position is regarded by others - Status
Situation

Power: the ability of people or groups to achieve their goals despite opposition from others
Parties

Ferdinand de Saussure
There are many models of the linguistic sign. A classic model is the one by the Swiss
linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. According to him, language is made up of signs and every
sign has two sides (like a coin or a sheet of paper, both sides of which are inseparable):
 the signifier (French signifiant), the "shape" of a word, its phonic component, i.e. the
sequence of graphemes (letters), e.g., <"c">-<"a">-<"t">, or phonemes (speech sounds), e.g.
/kt/

the signified (French signifi), the ideational component, the concept or object that appears
in our minds when we hear or read the signifier e.g. a small domesticated feline

(The signified is not to be confused with the "referent". The former is a "mental concept", the
latter the "actual object" in the world)

Glocalization
Glocalization (a portmanteau of globalization and localization) is the adaptation of international
products around the particularities of a local culture in which they are sold. The process allows
integration of local markets into world markets.[1]

McDonald's restaurants' menus adopted the practice and customized its menus to suit local tastes in
various countries. This phenomenon is the relative inverse of Americanization and the suppressing
of local preferences in favor of providing goods and media whose content has been dictated by
foreign entities. Glocalization can also involve the use of culturally friendly media to encourage the
acceptance of foreign products among a local audience.

The concept comes from the Japanese word dochakuka, which means global localization. It
originally referred to the adaptation of farming techniques to local conditions.

Thomas Friedman in The World Is Flat talks about how the Internet encourages glocalization, such
as encouraging people to make websites in their native languages.

Besides the usage of Internet, television and commercials have become useful strategies that global
companies have used to help localize their products. Companies, such as McDonald's, have relied
on television and commercials in not only the Western Hemisphere but in other parts of the world to
attract a varying ranges of audiences in accordance to the demographic of the local area. For
example, they have used mascots ranging anywhere from a male clown in the Western Hemisphere
to attract younger audiences to an "attractive" female clown in Japan to attract older audiences. [21]

However, McDonald's has faced challenges in adapting to the local customs when promoting its
products through television in countries such as China. Programs and commercials air differently in
China in comparison to Western commercials. In other words, commercials are usually skipped over
in countries such as China, so McDonald's advertises its products through newspapers and
magazines.[21]

Glocalization vs Globalisation

Understanding global issues and its effect and interconnection with local matters creates a greater
understanding.

Sociology of architecture
Architecture is basically constituted of the aesthetic, the engineering and the social aspects. The
built environment which is made up of designed spaces and the activities of people are inter-related
and inseparable.

Cultural sociology[edit]

Architecture is the visual shape ("Gestalt") of society. And within that, all the various building types
(architecture of consumption, of mobility, of the political and religious, as well as factories, prisons,
cinema buildings, etc.) could become objects of architectural sociology. For example: how a specific
architecture 'expresses' the structure and principles of a given society.

The perspective of architecture as artifact would be the question of 'interactions' between

architecture and subject: how a very specific architecture suggests certain ways, movements,
perceptions.

Urban sociology primarily deals with social structures within the city: their points are for instance
processes of segregation, urbanization and the decline of cities. Recently, there is a research focus
on "differences of cities",