Category: Sociological Thinkers

  • WEBER’S  VIEWS ON ECONOMY AND RELIGION

    Max Weber’s view on economy and religion can be understood through his work “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” (1904/1930). According to him, religious ideas, beliefs and values has a major role in the economy of any society. He believed that economy is led by religion. While doing so he studied the Calvinist…

  • The limitations and Relevance of Karl Marx’s Theory of Stratification 

    Karl Marx views stratification in society from an economic perspective and according to him, struggle between classes is on the basis of economic factors and the differences arising from them. The relevance of his theory can be realized by the fact that even after more than hundred years of his death, his work is crucial to…

  • Marx and Durkheim: Exploring Their Conceptions of ‘Human’ and Analyzing Contemporary Capitalist Social Formation

    Karl Marx (1818-83), German philosopher and Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), French sociologist are among the classical thinkers of sociology. Both of them, being the product of their own times, were influenced by the French Revolution and Industrial Revolution. While Marx is called the father of the conflict school of thought, Durkheim’s work forms the basis for…

  • Peter L. Berger: Short Bio and Important Contributions in Sociology

    Peter L. Berger (1929-2017) was an Austrian-born American sociologist and a theologian. He was affiliated to different renowned universities of the world. He also founded the Institute of Culture, Religion and World Affairs, at the Boston University in 1985 (Berger, 2017). He has written extensively on sociology of knowledge, sociology of religion and modernity like…

  • Karl Marx: Biography, Works, Contributions, Criticisms, and Beliefs

    Karl Marx: Although Sociology as a discipline emerged much after Karl Marx’s death, and he had no connection to the subject matter itself, Marx has been assigned the status of a classical thinker in Sociology, and his theories continue to be examined and analyzed voraciously by sociologists and students of sociology. This article provides an…

  • Emile Durkheim’s Contributions: Theories, Explanations, Examples

    The purpose of this article is to provide a brief overview of some of the major theoretical contributions of French classical sociologist Émile Durkheim. The concepts discussed in the article are: solidarity and its different forms; the importance of sociology; crime in society; religion; and sacred and profane. Introduction: The famous French sociologist Émile Durkheim…

  • Question of agency: Interactionism, Structuralism and Male gaze

    Introduction: Contributing to the debate of structure and agency, Erving Goffman and Talcott Parsons differentiates in their perspectives but their theories do not necessarily run parallel or opposite to each other, instead there are points of confluence. I would also argue that reading their work side by side enables one to understand more comprehensively the…