SOSYOLOJİYE GİRİŞ

Entrenched discipline of economies examine how to use limited natural sources to meet the infinite human needs rationally. The other options refer to fields such as social science in general, history, anthropology, and political science.

the economic events of theoretical economic models based on dependent and independent variables. The dependent variable tries to understand price of goods, production quantity, and wage level in the economics discipline. The facts that determine the variable that we are trying to explain are the independent variables. Independent variables are the reasons that define the dependent variable. The independent variables of the theoretical economy include relations that are located in the market structures (Erkan, 2003, p.12). For example:

Dependent Variable: What determines the price of a good?

Independent Variable: Supply and demand relations in the market.

What determines the production amount?

Supply and demand relations in the market.

What determines the wage level?

Supply and demand relations in the market.

Smith is the first critic of the mercantilist doctrine. One of the subjects he inquires is what a country’s prosperity depends on. According to the economics theory that he based on a criticism of Mercantilism, a nation’s prosperity depends on the nation’s production power, whereas Mercantilists think that a nation’s prosperity depends on the mines the nation has.

It is necessary to make a short description of Weber’s sociological method before approaching his conceptual perspective about industrial capitalism. According to him, it is necessary to look at individuals’ attitude and behaviors to understand social relations. In other words, looking at meanings of a person’s actions is needed. Weber only analyses the actions that are based on cultural motives and tries to understand societies by looking at these action types. He categorises social actions in four classes as purpose-motivated rational action, value-motivated rational action, traditional actions, and emotional actions.

Economical Inequality refers to the status of individuals and families differ depending on material resources like their assets, income, wage and salary in the society. Economic inequalities are measured by these owned material resources.

In the feudal system, marriages, which were not common between classes, were welcome at some levels. Besides marriage, a partial social movement occurred between strata. We may give an example for such a social mobility of a non-noble person: a knight or merchant could be named as a noble in some conditions. After the 12th century, distribution of nobility for more people caused the creation of the new bourgeois class through the end of the middle age. This new bourgeois class caused a change in the social structure of the Medieval Europe.

According to Marx, capitalist society is a system which is built on economical inequalities. Class positions of people are determined according to whether they own means of production. The working class forms the section of society that is devoid of the means of production and have to work in paid jobs for their livelihood needs. The capitalist class maintains its existence by exploiting the working class. It does not pay the real value (salary/fee) in consideration of workers’ labour to increase the profit rates. The working class is the main driving force that can change the inequal structure of the capitalist society with the class consciousness. The new society model in which working class reigns would be an equalitarian and classless society.

The example provided would be the working class seizing the means of production, thereby creating a classless society since ownership is not exclusive to the bourgeois.

Social exclusion is defined as people’s exclusion from economical, social, political, and cultural segments of the societies they live in. There are many dimensions of the social exclusion. Exclusion from financial sources, tools providing access to these opportunities, social and spatial exclusion from groups enabling to reach these possibilities, and exclusion from government’s public support may be given as examples for this type of situation. In this perspective, social exclusion differs from the approaches that define poverty only as the financial deprivation. The exclusion from other social segments, can not be explained by income, poverty only.

Among the personal reasons are personal traits, attitude and behaviours like an individual’s ability, responsibility, sense of discipline, and degree of frustration. In this approach, the reasons of poverty is sought in the individuals and it is presumed that he/she does not make an effort and does not attempt to get rid of poverty.

Absolute poverty is an individual’s or a family’s lack of income and consumption by failing to meet the basic biological needs like food, shelter and clothing. Absolute poverty is also expressed as livelihood poverty because it is evaluated on the requirements for minimum living necessities. Absolute poverty measurements generally delimit the poverty with financial poverty (Harlambos and Holborn, 1995, p.125). The data gathered in the research for the question above indicates a 10,395.91 Turkish Lira per month income for these basic necessities, while the minimum wage of two working adults would only provide 8506 Turkish Lira per month.

Relative poverty is an individual’s, a family’s, or a social group’s deprivation of the necessary resources to get nourishment adequately, participate in social and cultural activities (at least the common and usual ones), and live a standard life of the societies they live in. Relative poverty involves the consideration of social needs besides the basic physical needs. Additionally, an average living standard of the society is considered differently from absolute poverty (Harlambos and Holborn, 1995, p.125). Considering the fact that nutrition, shelter (housing), and clothes are considered minimum living necessities to fulfill basic biological needs, the example above does not refer to any standard of living beyond these absolute basic requirements. Therefore the correct answer is absolute poverty.

Economic sociology analyses attitude and behaviours, economic structure and relations that are the subjects of the economy considering social, cultural, and political facts, which are excluded from analyses by the discipline of economics.

Mercantilists predicate the prosperity of a nation on mines, and deposits of silver and gold that the country has instead of the power of production.

Weber categorizes social actions in four classes as purpose-motivated rational action, value-motivated rational action, traditional actions, and emotional actions. According to Weber, industrial societies are the models in which rational action templates are common.

According to Adam Smith, a nation’s prosperity depends on production power and the power relations in the development of work-sharing

Marx argues that the mode of production of a society should be looked in order to understand the society. A mode of production is made up of two elements: productive forces and relations of production.

Economical inequality refers to the status of individuals and families differ depending on material resources like their assets, income, wage and salary in the society. Economic inequalities are measured by these owned material resources.

Upward Mobility is an individual’s or a group’s move to another social position that is different from the older social position or status. Put differently, it expresses a movement of individuals or groups between social layers, which differ by prestige, reputation and income.

Inequality systems which are seen in pre-industrial societies are classified in three types as slavery, caste, and property ownership.

Social Class: Social classes are inequality types which are seen in the industrial societies. We may describe social classes as large human groups that share similar economic conditions like job, income, and ownership. Economic criteria that determine the position of social class are also related with other features like a person’s education level, status in the society, life style and power ownership. For example, a person who received a good education would have a better job, and the income that a better job brings would affect the person’s life style, power and status in the society.

• Among the personal reasons are personal
  traits, attitude and behaviours like an
  individual’s ability, responsibility, sense of
  discipline, and degree of frustration. In this
  approach, the reasons of poverty is sought
  in the individuals and it is presumed that
  he/she does not make an effort and does
  not attempt to get rid of poverty.

• Structural approach explains poverty
  within the frame of society’s economicpolitical structure. According to this approach, among the factors that affect
  poverty are: lack of economical growth,
  conflict on income distribution, features
  of labour markets, informal employment,
  low wages, insufficient employment
  opportunities, unorganized labour,
  unemployment, economic crises, shrinkage
  of public expenditures, short-course shocks,
  population pressure, migration, features of
  settlements, family structure, education,
  race, ethnic origin, and discriminations
  based on gender.