Sociology is the systematic study of society and social interaction. In order to carry out their studies, sociologists identify cultural patterns and social forces and determine how they affect individuals and groups. They also develop ways to apply their findings to the real world.
These examples illustrate the ways society and culture can be studied at different
levels of analysis, from the detailed study of face-to-face interactions to the
examination of large-scale historical processes affecting entire civilizations. It is
common to divide these levels of analysis into different gradations based on the
scale of interaction involved. As discussed in later chapters, sociologists break the
study of society down into four separate levels of analysis: micro, meso, macro,
and global. The basic distinction, however, is between microsociology and macro-
sociology.
The study of cultural rules of politeness in conversation is an example of
microsociology. At the micro-level of analysis, the focus is on the social dynamics
of intimate, face-to-face interactions. Research is conducted with a specific set of
individuals such as conversational partners, family members, work associates, or
friendship groups. In the conversation study example, sociologists might try to
determine how people from different cultures interpret each other’s behavior to see
how different rules of politeness lead to misunderstandings. If the same
misunderstandings occur consistently in a number of different interactions, the
sociologists may be able to propose some generalizations about rules of politeness
that would be helpful in reducing tensions in mixed-group dynamics (e.g., during
staff meetings or international negotiations). Other examples of micro-level research
include seeing how informal networks become a key source of support and
advancement in formal bureaucracies or how loyalty to criminal gangs is
established.
Macro-sociology focuses on the properties of large-scale, society-wide social
interactions: the dynamics of institutions, classes, or whole societies. The example
above of the influence of migration on changing patterns of language usage is a
macro-level phenomenon because it refers to structures or processes of social
interaction that occur outside or beyond the intimate circle of individual social
acquaintances. These include the economic and other circumstances that lead to
migration; the educational, media, and other communication structures that help or
hinder the spread of speech patterns; the class, racial, or ethnic divisions that create
different slangs or cultures of language use; the relative isolation or integration of
different communities within a population; and so on. Other examples of macrolevel
research include examining why women are far less likely than men to reach
positions of power in society or why fundamentalist Christian religious movements
play a more prominent role in American politics than they do in Canadian politics.
In each case, the site of the analysis shifts away from the nuances and detail of micro-
level interpersonal life to the broader, macro-level systematic patterns that structure
social change and social cohesion in society.
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