Notes from the lectures and powerpoints from the second part of the course 'Introduction to Sociology', held during the second block of the first semester. Lecturer: Christian Broer
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY Week 1, Lecture 1 – 30/10/2018
How do people attune their efforts to one another: Competition and Coordination
Both De Swaan and Macionis deal with the question on how and why people cooperate. They have
two different perspectives:
- De Swaan talks about the natural world in which there is a struggle for survival. It is then
necessary to cooperate in order to survive. Cooperation is indispensable. Here De Swaan
explains cooperation by evolution. The biology of cooperation.
- Macionis instead starts with the individual. Eeryone wants a sense of belonging therefore
we want to cooperate. We want to Identify with and interact with one another.
De Swaan starts from this broad interdependency and then zooms in. Different aspects to
cooperation:
Family ties (and how to use biology)
Genetic predisposition to cooperate and care. It is a general outline, a potential. This aspect is very
visible and pronounced when we look at procreation.
Variation within limits.
Reciprocity
Do ut des.
Gift exchange.
Widening circles of cooperation: family -> tribe -> state -> multi-state -> world
- Out-group
- In-group: strong sense of belonging
Brexit and the USA are examples of an attempt to centralize the country while making a sharper
distinction with the rest of the world.
Cooperation and conflict
Globalization and Localization
Macionis made a distinction between primary and secondary groups. How do these groups can
come about?
State leaders will try to appeal as “father”/”mother” figures. Emotions. So, symbolically some
aspects of primary groups.
Milgram experiments
, Milgram, a Jew social-psychologist, conducted an experiment on obedience to authority and
cooperation from obedience of authority. He observed that 50% of the total of people who
participated cooperated with what the authority told them to do for the sake of the study and
science.
Obedience. Trust in science. Props: small hints that this is science so it can’t be wrong. Struggle.
We obey and care
Empathy across mammalians. It is a biological predisposition.
Cooperation changes across space and time.
Social Organization
Shift from a favour or religious duty to a collective arrangement with a consequent collective right.
Tendency of individualization -> individual duty: we are obliged to take care of ourselves and we
are responsible of taking care of ourselves.
“Urban encounters limited: The importance of built-in boundaries in contacts between people
with intellectual or psychiatric disabilities and their neighbours” - Bredewold et al
Divers of cooperation: social organization of care: policy and implementation.
They looked at empirical cases about the relationships between people with disabilities and non.
Role of the state policy not on paper but how they are implemented.
Research design used: mixed methods, interaction, experience, integrated, societal and scientific
relevance.
There is a general trend of DEINSITUTIONALIZATION. Deinstitutionalization policy: closing total
institutions like asylums which seem to dehumanize participants.
The research looked at potential for meaningful relationships and care on a local level. Is it
possible?
Local care and support based on weak ties.
The conclusion of the study is that there is hardly any contact between the two groups. If there is
is, a lot of it is negative: harassment or exploitation. Breaching rules of interaction, privacy,
moderation, normality. Staring.
However, there are also situations of positive contact i.e. conviviality. Like walking the dog: you
have a very confined and limited space. Boundaries and situational rules, no lasting care.
Take-away points
Necessity (interdependencies)
Biological predisposition of cooperation and conflict
Biological predisposition variation: Elias talked about ‘open humans’ who are in need of
cooperation, learning and culture
Social organization of cooperation and conflict
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