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CM1013 Key Concepts in the Social Sciences summary
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KEY CONCEPT INTO SOCIAL SCIENCELECTURE WEEK 1
The sociological perspective
Sociology
Why sociology Sociology is the one social science which embraces the whole range of
human activities and this makes it a very wide field of study
It is “the systematic study of human society” society is the way it is, but why…
- At the heart of the discipline is a distinctive point of view called the sociological
perspective = “seeing the general in the particular”
The sociological perspective: seeing the strange in the familiar
You’re curious, you want to see and question what is going on around you
- Seeing general patterns in the behavior of particular individuals
- The general categories which we fall into shape out particular life experiences
how are your life experiences shaped by the general categories into which you
happen to fall (or have been placed) into?
- Looking sociologically requires us to give up the familiar idea that human behavior is
simply a matter of what people decide to do in favor of the initially strange notion
that society guides our thoughts and deeds
Seeing personal choice in social context
- Human behavior is not as individualistic as we may think it is to be seen in a social
context
- Why do people resist the idea that they act in socially patterned ways?
- Structure/agency to what degree do we have agency or are we caught within a
structure
Benefits of the sociological perspective:
- Challenging the familiar understandings of ourselves and others: the “taken for
granted”
- Assess the opportunities and constraints in our live be critical
- Empowers to be active participants in society
- Recognize human and cultural differences
Problems with the sociological perspective:
- The changing world sociology has to change with the changing world, evolve
- We are part of what we study we are the society/in the society we are studying
ourselves to a certain degree tend to be ethnocentric/bias – what we do is normal
and what others do is not the way that we organize here is the normal way
- Our knowledge influences society
ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT
- Social Change and sociology sociology is the consequence of changing society
- What striking transformations took place in 18th and 19th century Europe that drove
the development of sociology?
, Rise of a factory-based economy: rural to industrial society drove the economy
and the rise of population in these big cities cities were full and badly organized
Explosive growth of cities
New ideas about democracy and political rights how can we change the current
situation
Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft (Tönnies) in which he introduced the idea that the
old rural communities were breaking apart weaker ties when people go to the
cities individualization and democratization
Science and sociology
Auguste Comte (1798-1857) – founding father of sociology
- A French social thinker who coined the term “sociology” in 1838 to describe a new
way of looking at the world
- Positivism: understanding the world based on science (or scientific laws) the way
in which scientists understand the world based on empirical research
Prior to the development of sociology, how did people answer questions that they had
concerning the operation of society? why are things the way they are? RELIGION –
things are like this because God created it it is the nature, tradition Comte criticized
this view
Comte saw sociology as the product of three stages of historical development in our
understanding of the world:
- Theological stage – God’s will
- Metaphysical stage – natural phenomenon
- Scientific stage – positivism – understanding the world based on science (we are in
that stage now)
SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY
Theory – a statement of how and why specific facts are related
- The job of sociological theory is to explain social behavior in the real world
understand how specific social phenomena are related to each other
- Sociologists conduct research to test and refine their theories this research is done
in the real world (empirical)
Basic questions in building theory:
- What issues should we study?
- How should we connect the facts?
- What are the underlining assumptions that inform our theories? e.g. assume
continuity that doesn’t change within a society we need a certain perspective
metatheoretical perspective that inform sociological thinking
Theoretical Approach – a basic image of society that guides thinking and research it
serves as a roadmap
THREE MAJOR THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON HOW SOCIETY IS SHAPED
, - (structural) functionalist if you follow this perspective, underlying your ideas
about society your idea is that everything has a function, nothing happens just
because it happens
- Conflict conflict and struggle are the basis of society society is the way it is
because there is constant conflict and struggle over positions
- Social action human social action and its meaning shapes society society is a
construction of human social action and the meanings that humans have within these
actions
The (structural) functional perspective
Functionalism – a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system
whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability Why is there
stability/solidarity in society? focuses on the social structure that underlies human
behavior
- Focus on social structure any relatively stable pattern of social behavior
- These patterns have social functions the consequences of a social pattern for the
operation of society as a whole this approach looks for each structure’s social
patterns and their function to keep society going, at least in its present form
(raindance = community spirit, the function is to promote the stability in tribal
society)
Is there social structure in this classroom? they sit in the back of the classroom because
they are a group + social distance
Social structure is everywhere family/workplace
Robert K. Merton (1910-2003)
Expanded our understanding of social function
- Pointed out that any social structure probably has many functions
- Distinguished between manifest (people are not aware of it) functions and latent
(unintended function, priveling men over women, education) functions
The conflict perspective
- A framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that
generates conflict and change
- Highlights how the following factors are linked to inequality: class, race, ethnicity,
gender, age correlation, issues of power, money, inequalities in societies
- A (social-) conflict approach is used to look at ongoing conflict between dominant
and disadvantaged categories of people
The social action perspective
Structural-functional and conflict approaches share a macro-level orientation – broad
focuses on social structures that shape society as a whole
Micro-level orientation – a close-up focus on social interaction in specific situations it
looks at social interactions and the way that we can see patterns within these social
interactions
, Observe how people behave in an elevator
- How is your behavior structured inside an elevator?
- The elevator experiment in Candid Camera: how does someone behave when all
others act differently? – group pressure
The social action perspective - a micro theory that focuses on how actors assemble social
meanings people’s actions shape society
Symbolic-interaction approach
- A framework for building theory that sees society as the product of the everyday
interactions of individuals
- How do millions of people weave their lives together into the ‘drama of society’?
people try to remain individuals within their framework
society as the product of everyday life
Society as the product of everyday life
- Society is the reality people construct for themselves as they interact with one
another
- Through the human process of finding meaning in our surroundings, we define our
identities, bodies and feelings, and come to “socially construct” the world around us
The presentation itself in everyday life, it makes you aware how you are shaping
your identity SEE SUMMARY PAGE 43)
The importance of a global perspective
Global perspective – a study of the larger world and each society’s place in it
What is the importance of a global perspective for sociology?
- Sociology shows that our place in society profoundly affects our life experiences
we have different starting points the global perspective makes you aware of the
differences and the impact of these differences
Q. How would your life be different if you would have been born and raised in a low-income
country instead of a middle- or high-income nation?
- There are large differences for example in education
Benefits of global thinking:
- Societies are increasingly interconnected: economic and cultural globalization, fueled
by technology by thinking globally we are aware of the fact that we are aren’t a
society which is isolated, but that is increasingly connected to other societies by
economic and cultural transactions that have been made possible by technology and
mediated technologies
- Perspective on human and societal problems it makes us aware how problems are
usually global
- Thinking globally helps us learn more about ourselves international comparative
research
So, by doing that comparison: in an increasingly interconnected world, we can
understand ourselves to the extent that we understand others
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