Soci 201 014 08 27 2013 The sociological imagination and the sociology of sociology Sociological imagination o What is sociology Study of human study o What is sociological imagination Using the sociological imagination makes us good sociologists ability to connect the most basic intimate aspects of an individuals life to seemingly impersonal and remote forces making the familiar strange how you were born into who you are tv shows you watch sports you engage in all related to biological sex and gender all our actions are constrained constrained by typical rules who you are and what you do is influenced and constrained examples social order and disorder why is there so much social order Why do most of you come to class on time What causes people to deviate from social order Could social disorder help reinforced social When do we deviate How do we decide who gets to be labeled a disorder criminal Examples drugs and foods Pulp fiction Reveals how drugs alcohol use and food choices are socially structured as well as personal decisions Examples college attendence Why do you go to college Typical answers earn more money later in life need a degree for a job you want to learn more my parents made me too party and put off being an adult Earn more money later in life More complicated than it seems due to cost of college the use of debt to finance college cost opportunity costs and other factors Answer yes on average les likely to be true for some Need a degree Regardless of pay those with college degree tend to have jobs with more intrinsic rewards be happier and healthier People forced to go less likely learn and are drop outs and will not go far in life More time in social activites than studying Partying less learning Don t benefit August 29 2013 What is science of sociology Socio society Ology study of or science of Sociologists use careful research and the sociological imagination to make claims about society o science because or research can be replicated and conclusions are reviewed by peers before publication some use a scientific method based approach but others do not makes more difficult to fake what one is doing others who are experts in the area get to review it before it makes its way to the public eye more systematic because of peer review constant criticizes you are always criticizing other peoples work while they criticize yours social institution o sociologists study social institutions a complex group of interdependent positions that perform a social role or reproduce themselves over time a institution in a society that works to shape the behavior of the groups or people within it examples the family education religion work the economy the government can we small to very large social institutions shape every aspect of our behavior but are constantly changed by interaction doesnt control it directly one is not simply the merger of our parents we are our own people we are constrained by the social institutions around us terms change how people talk to each other changes constantly divisions and subfields in sociology o subfields o divisions 100 sections of the American sociological association sociologies of families race gender sports work music art religion medicine government etc quantitative approaches those that deal with numbers percentage of people that believe this numeric approach qualitative approach what individuals think or their approach look at tv shows to show race and gender or interview members or LGBTQ community Positivist approach that tries to follow scientific method and believes that we can make objective claims about the social world and remove ourselves What sociology is not Interpretive can never look at anything purley objectively there is always bias and own up to it and be able to talk about it Micro interviewing homeless and their encounters with the police a group that advocates for fracket how they are leveraging underground etc individual group or small group approach Macro scale studying the percentage proportion of racial groups in us very large scale approach o History and cultural anthropology focuses on individual unique events sociology focuses on comparison and uses a wider array of methods o Psychology and biology much overlap in topic of study but casual mechanisms and level of explanation differ o Sociologists tend to think what causes human behavior are groups and society the government etc o Psychology thinks all human actions come from our own head o Biology thinks most behavior is driven by genetics and environmental factors o Economics much overlap but differing views on the underlying theory of social behavior rational acts and decisions o Political science focuses on one aspect of social relations power and government structures Political sociologists The sociology of sociology Sociology fairly young discipline o Late 1800s to early 1900s Early sociological theorists wrote in response to industrial revolution mass urbanization and social dislocation of 1800s o Factories were invented and produced mass things at a scale no one has ever seen before textile factory etc o Once factories were established cities were built and mass urbanization for the first time came about Comte o First one to use sociology as a term o Three states of knowledge of society Theological Metaphysical caused by animal instincts and biology Scientific sociology would develop scientific theory of morality how people act and use that to mold and shape society o Translated and interpreted by Harriett Martineau Founder of sociology Karl Marx o Conflicts between social classes drove historical social change Terrible at predicting the future very good theories at his time but took what was happening at the time and bringing it to the future that didn t go Believed that the Class is derived from the ownership of property and the control of labor who did what and who worked for who When the form of labor changes societies changes o Labor is the transformation of nature Humans are intimately tied to our labor Changing nature what makes us uniquely human is transforming raw material to finished goods Learn to transform raw metal into swords and etc When we aren t connected we become alienated from our labor Labor power is utilized via the mode of production Means of production and relations of production How labor is used and who decides what labor gets used Capitalist mode of production Workers sell their labor power in return for a wage We now sell our time