Dalton ConleyIntroduction

Introduction to SociologyMonday, 1/23/12

Introduction

Conley opens with the example of why you are reading the chapter in front of you. What is he trying to do with this example?

Thinking Like a Sociologist

"making the familiar strange"

C. Wright Mills

The sociological imagination● Our lives are "ordinary" - i.e., typical of the

time period in which we live● But we are not alone - we have our time

period and experiences in common with others

Thus, the sociological imagination keeps us from being "falsely conscious" of our lives.

Pulp Fiction

What is the dialogue from Pulp Fiction meant to illustrate? What do we mean by "xenophobia" and why is this an important concept for sociologists?

The True Costs of Education

How does Conley complicate the idea that if you go to college, you'll make more money? What does he conclude? What are the alternate explanations Conley provides? (page 5)

Social Institution

"A social institution is a group of social positions, connected by social relations, performing a social role." How can we think of college as a social institution, using our classroom as an example? What does Conley mean when he states social institutions are "not monolithic"?

The Sociology of Sociology

Key figures in the founding of sociology as a discipline

Auguste Comte

19th Century, France "social physics" or "positivism" 3 epistemological stages of society: theological, metaphysical, and scientific Introduces theme of "morals"

Harriet Martineau

19th Century, England Translated Comte into English Extended theme of morals to U.S. Wrote about methods, using the social institution of marriage as an example

Karl Marx

19th Century, Germany Historial materialism Class conflict - capitalists vs workers (or owners vs proletariat)

Max Weber

19th/20th Centuries, Germany Brought ideas back in (so - challenged historical materialism) Prosestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Verstehen - "understanding" - interpretation

Emile Durkheim

19th/20th Centuries, France Division of labor What holds society together? Anomie - normlessness Positivism

The Chicago School

Helps found American sociology What is going on in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century that shapes sociological analysis?

The Sociological Self

Charles Horton Cooley - "looking-glass self" George Herbert Mead - "generalized other"

W.E.B. DuBois

First African American to receive a PhD from Harvard Double consciousness Talented tenth

Jane Addams

Urban displacement and disorder Hull House - "settlement house movement" Applied or public sociology

Structural Functionalism

"organicism" & Durkeim Parts of society = systems and organs of the human body Merton: manifest and latent functions What about the Chicago School?

Conflict Theory

Marx Inequality and competition characterize modern society

Feminist Theory

Related to conflict theory Focuses on "social construction of gender" Socialization Looking-glassgendered self?

Symbolic Interactionism

What makes this different from structural functionionalism and conflict theory? Erving Goffman - dramatugical theory

What Distinguishes Sociology from Its Cousins?

What Distinguishes Sociology from Its Cousins?

Ideographic vs. nomethetic● Abstractable patterns Supra vs individual vs infra Rational actors?