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Summary sociology
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Summary of 72 pages for the course Psychology at UVT (slides and book)
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Course: introduction to sociologyLecture 1: introduction. Chapters 1, 2 and 3
Why sociology?
• Understand what sociology entails
• Develop a sociological view
• Learn to look at contemporary society with this sociological view
What is sociology?
Sociology is the systematic, sceptical and critical view of the social. It studies the way people do things
together. It is thus a form of consciousness, a way of thinking, a critical way to see the social. It
challenges the obvious, questioning the world as it is taken for granted, and a way to see the general in
the particular. Sociologists recognize that society acts differently on various categories of people and
illustrate the general impact of society on the actions and thoughts of particular group of people.
Methods and research: what sociologist do
First, sociologists are researchers: they document the nature of social times we live in and provide data
about the human world. The second task is that of the theorists: they aim to foster deeper
understanding of what is going on and provide a way for sociological knowledge to be cumulative. The
third role is the sociologist as critic, having a critical attitude towards social life and interrogate taken for
granted facts. Next comes the sociologist as an educator and teacher, providing governments with
information that helps planning the rules of society. They are also dialogists, creating dialogues across
multiple voices of society. The sociologist at the end is a critical citizen of society that help criate critical,
socially aware citizens.
The sociologist as critical citizen: sociology in everyday life
Sociology and social marginality
Social marginality is something we all experience. For some categories it is part of everyday life. The
more acute people’s social marginality, the more likely they are to be aware of their surroundings and to
see the world form a different perspective. To an extent, sociology is an outsider discipline.
Sociology and social crisis
Periods of massive social change or social crisis throw everyone a little off balance and this stimulates a
sociological vision. Also, sociological thinking often foster social change. The more we learn about the
system, the more we wish to change it in some ways.
Benefits of the sociological perspective
1. It becomes a way of thinking, a form of consciousness that challenges familiar understandings of
ourselves and others
2. It enables us to assess both the opportunities and the constrains that characterize our lives
3. It helps us to be active participants of society
,4. It enables us to recognize human differences and human suffering and to confront the challenges of
living in a diverse world. It encourages us to see the many forms of poverty that occur.
Some opening problems with the sociological perspective
1. Sociology is part of a changing world. Society can change just as quickly as we study it. A finding that
is right one day can be proven wrong the next day.
2. Sociologists are part of what they study, so sociology remains ethnocentric, bound to a particular
cultural view. Sociologists have to be reflexive and see themselves as part of what they study.
3. Sociological knowledge becomes part of society. Their work is recursive, it feeds back on to itself.
There is an odd cycle of knowledge at work in society and sociology, being part of this, has an
impact on society.
Social change and the great transformation
Sociology can be seen as a product of the Enlightenment, which highlighted the following ideas:
1. Rationality and reason
2. Empiricism, we need facts
3. Science, scientific revolution
4. Universalism, the search for general laws
5. Progress, human condition can be improved
6. Individualism as the starting point for knowledge
7. Toleration, especially for religions
8. Freedom
9. Human nature was uniform: rational, individual and free
10. Secularism, the enlightenment was opposed to the church
Sociology vs psychology: differences with psychology
Type of problem
• PSY states problem mostly at individual level
• SOC states problem mostly at societal level
Type of explanation
• PSY gives individual explanation (psyche)
• SOC gives social explanation
Example from Durkheim
• Suicide
• Most individual act imaginable
• Strongly influenced by society (by integration and regulation) – lect 03
,Society?
Margaret thatcher: there is not such a thing as society: there are men and women, and there are
families.
But… we seem to behave in the same kind of way. Or are we being ourselves?
What does sociology do?
…explores systematically human society…
…explores human patterns of thinking, feeling and social action…
…tries to see the particular in the general…
(everything is always different, but also a lot is the same)
Pros and cons
• Debunking: Not everything what we think is true…
• Understanding: Better understanding of the situation we’re in (and why)
• Empowering : Shows disadvantage for certain groups, Which can be mobilizing…
• Recognition: Everything always changes
• Sociologists are people too: Distance and closeness
Sociology becomes part of the public debate
Durkheim: the individual in mass society
“…Man is double. There are two beings in him: an individual being which has its foundation in the
organism and the circle of whose activities is therefore strictly limited, and a social being which
represents the highest reality in the intellectual and moral order that we can know by observation—I
mean society…. In so far as he belongs to society, the individual transcends himself, both when he thinks
and when he acts.” From The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
, ‘’Men’s characteristic privilege is that the bond he accepts is not physical but moral: that is, social. He is
governed not by a material environment brutally imposed on him, but by a conscience superior to his
own.’’
What is sociology?
Analyze and study society
- Investigate, describe, and explain the way people live together
Everything that happens in society raise questions for sociologists. Examples:
- Why is it impossible for the supporters of competing football clubs to behave decently towards each
other, while they can do this when watching together a match of the national team?
- What is the influence of social media on face-to-face communication, for example in the family or at
work?
- Why didn’t we talk much about emotions in the past, and why is this less an issue nowadays? (see
Ophra Winfrey, dr. Phill).
- Why are the employees of department A willing to work with the employees in department B, but not
with the people from department C?
Do not only look at the figures, but also to the story behind tables or figures
• Interaction between people
• Looking for general elements in social behaviour
• Categorize individuals
• Looking for similarities and differences between these categories
• Open door? Trivial knowledge? We already know that?!
• Solving riddles or dilemma’s
• Example: why collective goods, when everybody strives for their own pleasures?
• Improve society and social interaction
• Malleble society
Sociology: many definition, the most straightforward is, ‘’science of society’’
A. is a Science
B. deals with Social/societal problems
-Social problems vs personal troubles (Mills). Social problems are
• Delinquency • Terrorism • Migration • Self-enrichment • Poverty • Divorce • Extreme-right voting…
Sociological vs social problems
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