Sociology: Chapter 1
Sociological Imagination
-1959 -C. Wright Mills -The application of imaginative thought to the asking and answering of sociological imagination. Someone using the sociological imagination "thinks himself away" from the familiar routines of daily life.
Bureaucracy
-A type of organization marked by a clear hierarchy of authority and the existence of written rules or procedure and staffed by officials. Divided into jobs based on specific functions.
Social Facts
-According to Émile Durkheim, the aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals. Durkheim believed that social facts could be studied scientifically. -Examples: State of the economy or the influence of religion.
Organic Solidarity
-According to Émile Durkheim, the social cohesion that results from the various parts of a society functioning as an integrated whole. -Example: Specialized institutions, religion, family, and educational system must function as a whole. The continuation of society depends on cooperation between the various aspects of society.
W.E.B Du Bois
-African American, first of the race to get a degree from Harvard University. -Double Consciousness: a way of talking about identity through the lends of the experiences of African Americans. -One's sense of self and one's identity are greatly influenced by historical experiences and social circumstances. -Focused on race relations in the United States. -"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line" -First to trace the problems faced by African Americans to their social and economic underpinnings, a connections that most sociologists now widely accept. -Connected social analysis to social reform. -One of the founding members of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Capitalism
-An economic system based on the private ownership of wealth, which is invested and reinvested in order to produce profit. -Those who own capital, such as factories, machines, and large sums of money-form a ruling class. -The working class must find employment provided by the owners of capital.
Social Construction
-An idea or practice that a group of people agree exists. It is maintained over time by people taking its existence for granted. -It is all depends on a specific space and time. Social construction may change depending on the historical and demographic trends.
Functionalism
-Auguste Comte (1798-1857) influenced Émile Durkheim (1858-1917) which influenced functionalism
Functionalism Term
-Comte -Theoretical perspective -Social events can best be explained in terms of the functions they perform-that is, the contributions they make to the continuity of a society.
According to Émile Durkheim, what makes sociology a social science? Why?
-Durkheim believes that sociology must study social facts, aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals, such as the state of the economy of the influence of religion. -Society is far more than the sum of individual acts, it is figuring how the reason a person acts based on their sociological constraints opposed to only looking a the physical world. -Sociology is a social science if it develops methodological principles to guide research, and use social facts to analyze social life as objects or events in nature.
Harriet Marineau
-England -"First Woman Sociologist" -Active proponent of women's rights and the abolition of slavery -Introduced sociology to England through her translation of Comte's founding treatise of the field, Positive Philosophy. -Society in America, a book that depicts a systematic study of American society. -When one studies a society, one must focus on all its aspects, including key political, religious, and social institutions. -Analysis of society must include all its members, a point that drew attention to the conspicuous absence of women's lives from the sociology of that time. -Help turn a sociological eye on previously ignored issues and institutions such as marriage, children, domestic and religious life, and race relations. -Like Comte, sociologists should do more than just observe, they should help out society.
Émile Durkheim
-Establish sociology as a science basis -The main dynamic of modern development is the division of labor as a basis for social cohesion and organic solidarity. -Durkheim believed that sociology must study social facts as things, just as science would analyze the natural world. His study of suicide led him to stress the important influence of social factors, qualities of a society external to the individual, on a person's actions. Durkheim argued that society exerts social constraint over our actions. -According to Durkheim, processes of change in the modern world are so rapid and intense that they give rise to major social difficulties, which he linked to anomie.
How does the concept of social structure help sociologists better understand social phenomena?
-First, social structure gives humans a rational way to act. -Second, norms create a social order to explain social phenomena. -Third, beliefs and values guide the human to making social decisions. -Sociologists tend to think in probabilities. They look at the probabilities that people will end up in certain living situation on the basis of characteristics. De-emphasizing to some extent the power of the individual.
Latent Functions
-Functional consequences that are not intended or recognized by the members of a social system in which they occur.
Symbolic Interactionism Term
-George Herbert Mead -Theoretical approach -The roles of symbols and language as core elements of all human interaction.
Symbolic Interactionism
-George Herbert Mead influenced Symbolic Interactionism, Max Weber has a liking to the theme of Symbolic Interactionism .
Max Weber
-German -Influence by Marx, rejected the materialist conceptions of history and saw class conflict as less significant. -The main dynamic of modern development is the rationalization of social and economic life. -Weber focused on why Western societies developed so differently from other societies. He also emphasized the importance of cultural ideas and values on social change. -Believed Bureaucracy as an inevitable feature of our era, since it involved the rule of experts, who make decisions without consulting those whose lives are affected by them.
Karl Marx
-German economic, political, and social theorist -The main dynamic of modern development is the expansion of capitalism. Rather than being cohesive, society is divided by class differences. -Marx believed that we must study the divisions within a society that are derived from the economic inequalities of capitalism. -"All human history thus far is the history of class struggle." -It is not the ideas or values human beings hold that are the main sources of social change, it is prompted primarily by economic influences (materialist conception of history)
Describe three ways that sociology can help us in our lives.
-It gives a better understanding of the reasoning behind people's behaviors in a group setting. -Gives us a sense of awareness of cultural differences. -It helps in assessments of the results of policy initiatives -It may provide us with self-enlightenment-increased self-understanding. The more we know about our behavior and how society works would produce a better chance to influence our future.
Marxism Term
-Karl Marx -A theoretical approach in which the body of thought is deriving its main elements form the ideas of Karl Marx. -Combination of sociological analysis and political reform. -A program of radical political change.
Materialist Conception of History
-Karl Marx -Material, or economic, factors have a prime role in determining historical change. -The main sources of social change are not ideas or values but are prompted primarily by economic influences.
Marxism
-Karl Marx (1818-1883) influenced Marxism
How are macro and micro analyses of society connected?
-Marco is the study of large-scale groups, organizations, or social systems where as micro is the study of human behavior in contexts of face-to-face imagination. -Macro is essential in understanding micro-sociology because macro. affects daily life and micro influences all social organization.
Rationalism
-Max Weber -Modes of precise calculation and organization, involving abstract rules and procedures, increasingly come to dominate the social world. -The organization of social, economic, and cultural life according to principles of efficiency, on the basis of technical knowledge.
Symbol
-One item used to stand for or represent another -Symbolic thought frees us from being limited in our experience to what we actually see, hear, or feel.
Power
-Pervasive element in all human relationships -The ability of individuals or the members of a group to achieve aims or further the interests they hold. -Many conflicts in society are struggles over power, because how much power an individual or group is able to achieve governs how far they are able to put their wishes into practice. -Marxism
How do rational choice theorists explain human behavior?
-Rational choice theorists explain human behavior as motivated by self-interest. It is not having to do with values but self-interest under existing conditions.
Ideologies
-Shared ideas or beliefs that see to justify the interests of dominant groups. -Systematic and ingrained inequalities -The concept of ideology connects closely with that of power, since ideological systems serve to legitimize the power that groups hold.
How does sociology help us to disentangle biological from sociological phenomena?
-Social Construction, Social Order, Agency and Structure, and Social Change. -What is natural is the anatomy of a child, yet what is socially constructed is the way the child acts, depending on how society views them.
What is the sociological imagination, according to C. Wright Mills?
-Sociological imagination is the application of imaginative thought to the asking and answering of sociological questions. -He states that each of us lives in a very small orbit, and our worldview is limited by the social situation we encounter on an everyday basis. He suggests that we all need to overcome our limited perspective and conserve a certain quality of mind that makes it possible to understand the larger meaning our our experiences.
What skills and perspective do sociologists bring to their work?
-Sociology develops a social conscious. They are able to take sides on practical issues, and it would be zoological to ban them from drawing their expertise in doing so. Personal views are set aside to explore the influences that shape the lives of others.
What are the differences between symbolic interactions and functionalist approaches to the analysis of society?
-Symbolic interactions claim that language allows us to become self-conscious beings-aware of our own individuality. Symbolic thought frees us from being limited in our experience to what are actually see, hear, or feel. Since we are all self-conscious beings, we learn to look at ourselves as if from the outside-as others see us. When we interact with others, we constantly look for clues to what type of behavior is appropriate in the context and how to interpret what others are up to. Although, SI concentrates on things that are small in scope, functionalism focuses in dealing with larger-scale structures and processes. (Micro sociology) -To study the function of a social activity is to analyze its contributions to the continuation of society as a whole. Functionalism emphasizes the importance of moral consensus in maintaining order and stability in society, it exists when most people share the same values. Functionalists view situations as a whole which in most cases does not tie to every individual's needs and purposes. (Marcrosociology)
According to Karl Marx, what are the differences between the two classes that make up a capitalist society?
-The capitalist are the beings who own capital, such as factories, machines, and large sums of money. They are the ruling class. Then there are the working class, the blue-collars, who do not own the means of their livelihood but must find employment provided by the owners of capital. -Conflict is inevitable for the ruling class is meant to exploit the working class and the working class seek to overcome this exploitation.
Social Constraint
-The conditioning influence on our behavior of the groups and societies of which we are members. Émile Durkheim believed social constraint as one of the distinctive properties of social facts. -Social structure influence social constraints by individuals withholding certain activities that may limit what they can do.
Manifest Functions
-The functions of a type of social activity that are known to and intended by the individuals involved in at the activity.
Socialization
-The social process through which children develop an awareness of social norms and values and achieve a distinct sense of self. No individuals are immune from the reactions of others around them, which influence and modify their behavior at all phases of the life course.
Division of Labor
-The specialization of work tasks by means of which different occupations are combine within a production system. -All societies have at least some rudimentary form of division of labor, especially between the tasks allocated to men and those performed by women.
Micro-sociology
-The study of human behavior in contexts of face-to-face interaction.
Macro-sociology
-The study of large scale groups, organizations, or social systems.
Social Structure
-The underlying regularities or patterns in how people behave and in their relationships with one another
What role does theory play in sociological research?
-Theories are more narrowly focused and attempt to explain particular social conditions or types of events -Theories in sociological research is not just one but many to signify that human beings are complex. One theory would not be able to study humans as a whole, only certain aspects.
Feminist Theory
-Theory -Emphasized the centrality of gender in analyzing the social world and particularly the uniqueness of the experience of women. -Share the desire to explain gender inequalities in society and to work to overcome them.
Rational Choice Approach
-Theory -Individual's behavior is purposive -A single variable to explain society would be self-interest.
Postmodernism
-Theory -The belief that society is not longer governed by history or progress. -Pluralistic and diverse, with no "grand narrative" guiding its development.
Anomie
-Émile Durkheim -Social norms lose their hold over individual behavior. -A feeling of aimlessness or despair provoked by modern social life.
