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lOMoARcPSD|11700591Summary 2012/2013 book " Sociology, a global introduction"
by Macionis & Plummer
Inleiding Sociologie voor Bestuurskundigen (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam)
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SOCIOLOGY, A GLOBAL INTRODUCTION
by Macionis & Plummer (2008)
Chapter 1: The sociological imagination.
What is sociology?
Sociology = the systematic study of human society. Sociology becomes a form of consciousness, a way of
thinking, a critical way of seeing the social.
Peter Berger characterized the sociological perspective as seeing the general in the particular, meaning
that sociologist can identify general patterns of social life by looking at concrete specific examples of
social life. Furthermore, society acts differently on various categories of people.
The sociological perspective amount to seeing the strange in the familiar, meaning seeing general
patterns in the behavior of particular individuals. Peter Berger says “the first wisdom of sociology is this:
things are not what they seem.” Zygmunt Bauman calls this “de-familiarize the familiar.” Observing
sociologically requires giving up the familiar idea that human behavior is a matter of what people decide
to do. Instead, society guides our thoughts and deeds. So, the general categories which we fall into
shape out particular life experience.
The sociological perspective challenges common sense by identifying that human behavior is not as
individualistic as we may think. Humans act in socially patterned ways.
Example: Emile Durkheim showed that an intensely individual act like suicide was socially shaped. He
revealed that some categories of people were more likely than other to commit suicide. These
differences were related to social integration.
The sociological perspective in everyday life.
Periods of massive social change or social crisis throw everyone a little off balance. This stimulates the
sociological vision.
Benefits of the sociological perspective:
1. The sociological perspective becomes a way of thinking, a form of consciousness that challenges
familiar understandings of ourselves and others, so that we can critically asses the truth of
commonly held assumptions. So: it challenges the taken for granted.
2. The sociological perspective enables us to asses both the opportunities and the constraints that
characterize our lives.
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3. The sociological perspective empowers us to be active participants in our society. Wright Mills
claimed that developing the sociological imagination would help people to become more active
participants.
4. The sociological perspective helps us to recognize human differences and human suffering and to
confront the challenges of living in a diverse world.
Problems with the sociological perspective:
1. Sociology is part of a changing world. Note: society can change just as quick as it is being studied.
2. Sociologists are part of what they study. Therefore, much sociology remains ethnocentric =
bound to a particular cultural view.
3. Sociological knowledge becomes part of society, it influences society.
C. Wright Mills: the sociological imagination.
C. Wright Mills: the sociological imagination.
Wright Mills (1916-1962) saw sociology as an escape from the traps of our lives because it can show us that
Wright Mills (1916-1962) saw sociology a
society is responsible for many of our problems. The live of an individual and the history of a society needs to
be understood in order to understand either. Sociological imagination = a quality of mind that will help to
see what change
Social is going onand
in the world
the an what
origins of may be happening within individuals themselves.
sociology.
Sociology was in many ways the product of the Enlightenment. Peter Hamilton has suggested hallmarks
of the Enlightenment mind: reason became key, empiricism, science, universalism, progress,
individualism, toleration, freedom, uniformity of human nature, secularism.
August Comte coined the term sociology in 1838 to describe a new way of looking at the world.
Augusts Comte: weathering a storm of change.
Comte (1798-1857) grew up in the wake of the French Revolution, which made him aware of the state of
society. Comte believed, people would be able to build for themselves a better future. His new discipline
(sociology) was divided into two parts: social statics = how society is held together, and social dynamics =
Comte
how sorted
society human efforts to comprehend the world into three distinct stages:
changes.
1. Theological stage (medieval period in Europe), thoughts about the world were guided by
religion. Society was an expression of God’s will.
2. Metaphysical stage (Renaissance), people came to understand society as natural rather than a
supernatural phenomenon.
3. Scientific stage, Comte was proponent of positivism = a means to understand the world based
on science.
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Science = a logical system that bases knowledge on direct, systematical observation.
Scientific sociology = the study of society based on systematic observation of social behavior.
Empirical evidence = information we can verify with our senses.
Sociology was born out of the massive social transformations of the past two centuries: the French
Revolution (18th century) and the Industrial Revolution (19th century). There were four major changes:
1. Rise of a factory-based economy: large scale manufacturing, new sources of energy, large
amount of industrial workforce.
2. Explosive growth of cities: enclosurement movement (pull: factories attracted workers from
countryside, push: countryside industrialized making it hard for framers to compete with
landowners).
3. New ideas about democracy and political rights: growing belief in individual liberty and
individual rights.
4. Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft (Ferdinand Toennies): progressive loss of Gemeinschaft (human
community) and societies become rootless and impersonal as people came to base everything on
Gesellschaft (self-interest).
Sociologists look to the future.
August Comte and Ferdinant Toennies feared that people would be uprooted from long-established local
communities and overpowered by change.
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