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Introduction to Sociology

What is Sociology?

Why do we study Sociology?

When and how did Sociology develop?

Sociology defined:

Sociology is the systematic study of human society and social interaction

Systematic in that it employs both theoretical perspectives and research methods

Sociologists study human societies and their

social interactions to develop theories of how human behavior is shaped by group life and how group life is in turn affected by the individual

Why study Sociology?

It helps us to gain a better understanding of ourselves and our world

It helps us see how our behavior is largely shaped by the groups we belong to and the society we live in

It helps us explore the interaction between society and our personal lives

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What is a “Society?”

A large social grouping that shares the same geographical territory and is subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations

Examples?

The Sociological Imagination:

The ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society

Attributed to C. Wright Mills (1958)

This awareness helps us to understand the link between our personal experiences and the societal contexts in which they occur

(Personal troubles v. public issues)

Example:

Credit card spending

Personal problem: debt related to over-use of credit cards--low credit scores with multiple consequences

Public issue: increasing levels of credit card debt results in cascade of issues in the public realm, from lowered rates of saving, credit policies, usury laws, increased bankruptcies, etc.

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Societal levels:

High income countries: highly industrialized and technologically advanced, relatively high levels of national and personal income

Middle income countries: industrializing in urban areas, moderate income levels

Low-income countries: little industrialization and low income levels

Examples of each?

Origins of Sociology:

Early Greek philosophers (Plato, Aristotle) were concerned with developing a system of knowledge and with ideas on how they thought society ought to be like, instead of describing how society actually was

Age of Enlightenment:

Scientific thought and advances in social sciences came out of the Enlightenment (late 1600s-mid 1700s)

Age of Reason (France) Montesquieu, Rousseau, Turgot: phiosophes, emphasized experience over closed minds, sought general principles and independent thought

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More on the Enlightenment:

Women were largely excluded from public life, but did influence thought via the salon

Mary Wollstonecroft (English) influential writer on human equality & women’s right to an education

Idea of formal study of sociology did not take hold until after American and French Revolutions

Sociology & Age of Revolution,

Industrialization, & Urbanization:

Enlightenment produced an intellectual revolution (new thoughts on social change, progress)

Emphasis on common purpose, hope for progress, influenced French Revolution

Soon came the Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution:

Industrialization—the process by which societies are transformed from dependence on agriculture and handmade products to an emphasis on manufacturing and related information

First stages—Britain 1776-1850

Spread through western Europe

Massive economic, technologic and social changes

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Changes included:

Machine technology

Factory system as base for economy

New industrialist class emerged from textile, iron smelting, transportation & related industries

Well-defined social relationships (peasants working the land owned by the lord) disintegrated as people moved to industrial cities looking for work

Urbanization:

The process by which an increasing proportion of a population lives in cities, rather than in rural areas

Cities existed long before the Industrial Revolution, but with the coming of factories, they grew in size and diversity, people went from being producers of goods to consumers of goods—a new economy

But in many cases the new economy didn’t favor the worker:

That shift to being consumers was difficult for many

Wages were so low that to pay rent, entire families (including small children) had to work in factories

As these conditions became more visible, with more consequences, the germ of sociology as a discipline began to develop in social thinkers

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Development of Modern Sociology:

Early thinkers were concerned about social order and stability

Started to apply methods of natural sciences to learn about human behavior and solve social problems

Had post-Enlightenment belief in reason and humanity’s ability to perfect itself

Auguste Comte:

French, philosopher (1798-1857)

Coined the term sociology

Considered to be the founder of Sociology

Theory: societies contain social statics and social dynamics, positivism: a belief that the world can best be understood through scientific inquiry

Wanted to unlock the secrets, reorganize through consensus, order and authority

Dimensions of Positivism:

Methodological: application of scientific knowledge to both physical and social phenomena

Social and political: the use of such knowledge to predict the likely results of different policies so that the best one could be chosen

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3 stages according to Comte: Theological: explanations were based on

religion and the supernatural (kinship society, small group control)

Metaphysical: explanations were based on abstract philosophical speculation (state, law)

Scientific: explanations are based on systematic observation, experimentation, comparison & historical analysis (industry, scientists lead society)

Sociology could use social dynamics, statics to effect positive social change

Others who contributed: (besides Comte & mentor Henri de Saint-Simon)

Harriet Martineau: British, 1802-1876, translated Comte’s work and researched effects of industrialization, capitalism in UK and US

Society in America, 1962/1837, examined religion, slavery, politics, child rearing, immigration in the US, incl. gender, social discrimination, race, class

More on Martineau:

Drew heavily on Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Advocated racial and gender equality

Work earlier minimized by those who focused on her translation, but her advocacy of social progress by the spread of democracy has brought her contributions to Sociology greater recognition

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Herbert Spencer (Brit., 1820-1903):

Evolutionary perspective on social order and social change

Social Darwinism: the belief that those species of animals, including human beings, best adapted to their environments survive and prosper, whereas those poorly adapted die out

Opposed any social reform that might interfere with the natural selection process

Emile Durkheim (French, 1858-1917):

Critic of Spencer

Stressed that people are the product of their social environment, and that behavior cannot be fully understood in terms of individual biological and psychological traits.

The limits of human potential are socially, not biologically based

Durkheim’s belief:

Social facts are patterned ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that exist outside any one individual but that exert social control over each person

Recurring question: How do societies manage to hold together?

Observed that rapid social change & more specialized division of labor led to strains and breakdowns in traditional organization of society

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Breakdown leads to Anomie:

Anomie: a condition in which social control becomes ineffective as a result of the loss of shared values and a sense of purpose in society

Durkheim’s contributions to sociology are profound

Influences most schools of thought

Stability v. change: Karl Marx, German 1818-1883, stressed

the clashes in history between conflicting ideas & forces

Class conflict: the struggle between the capitalist class and the working class

Capitalist class: bourgeoisie, owns means of production

Working class: proletariat, must sell their labor because they have no other means to earn a livelihood

Marx, continued:

Links production and consumption in definition of commodities

Believed workers failed to recognize their labor is a commodity that has value, not just the value of what is produced

Critical of capitalism, emphasis on getting consumers to buy more and buy beyond their means

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Marx, continued:

Marxism used in non-sociological context (see history of communism)

Marx’s theory also used to analyze the economic, political, and social relations in both contemporary and historical societies

Social theory continues to be of interest

Max Weber:

German social scientist, 1864-1920, also studied changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution

Acknowledged that economic forces shaped society, but went beyond that and examined influence of other factors like religion (especially Protestantism), large-scale organizations/bureaucracies, also emphasized scientific methodology

Georg Simmel:

German sociologist, 1858-1918

Theory: society as a web of patterned interactions of people

Argued that the main purpose of sociology was to examine social interaction processes within groups

Dyads, triads, formal sociology (geometry of social life) and social spheres; influenced “Chicago School”

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Beginnings of Sociology in the US:

The Chicago School, 1st dept. of sociology in the US at University of Chicago, faculty under Robert Park formed the American Sociological Society (now the American Sociological Association)

Assess the effects of urbanization on social life, esp. increased crime rates, segregation, isolation of neighborhoods

More US sociologists:

Chicago School emphasized study of the group (society) over individuals, also shared communication

Jane Addams, 1860-1935, Hull House founder, best known of early women sociologists, established methodological techniques used for decades

More US sociologists:

W.E.B. DuBois, 1868-1963: founded second dept. of sociology in US at Atlanta University, researched, founded 2 journals, held regular sociology conferences, especially focused on African-American community and the double-consciousness (conflict) of being black and an American

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Modern Theoretical Perspectives:

Theory-a set of logically interrelated statements that attempts to describe, explain, and (occasionally) predict social events

Three major theoretical perspectives:

Functionalist

Conflict

Symbolic interaction

Functionalist: Also known as functionalism and

structural functionalism

Based on the assumption that society is a stable, orderly system

Characterized by social consensus (majority of members have a common set of values, beliefs, and behavioral expectations) and institutions (family, education, gov’t, religion, economy)

2 functionalists, Parsons & Merton:

Talcott Parsons (1902-1979) most influential, division of labor between a husband and wife is essential (husband does instrumental tasks, wife does expressive tasks) augmented by other institutions (school, church, government) that work to preserve the social system over time

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Second functionalist: Robert Merton (1910-2003): distinguished

between manifest and latent functions of social institutions

Manifest: intended and/or overtly recognized by the participants in a social unit (transmission of knowledge and skills between generations)

Latent: unintended function that are hidden and remain unacknowledged by participants (establishment of social relations and networks)

And, Merton noted, dysfunction:

Dysfunctions are the undesirable consequences of any element of society

Example: a dysfunction in the education system would be the transmission of gender, racial and class inequalities

Conflict Perspective:

This is the idea that groups in society are engaged in a continuous power struggle for control of scarce resources

Can be seen in politics, litigation, negotiations or family discussions about financial matters

Contributors: Max Weber, C. Wright Mills (historically, Marx & Simmel)

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Max Weber :

Weber built on work of Marx, but added power and prestige as sources of inequality and conflict beyond economic concerns

Power: the ability of a person within a social relationship to carry out his/her own will despite resistance from others

Prestige: a positive or negative social estimation of honor

Value-free (science emphasis), feared increasing bureaucracy, concept of rationalization are other contributions

C. Wright Mills:

Encouraged sociologists to get involved in social reform

Contended that value-free sociology was impossible because sociologists must make value-related choices like topics of investigation and theoretical perspectives

Believed the more important discussions in the US are related to the power elite, a clique of top corporate, military and political officials

Conflict theory divisions: Feminist approach: feminism, directs

attention to women’s experiences and the importance of gender as an element of social structure

Believes we live in a patriarchy, where masculinity is valued more than femininity

Assumes gender is socially rather than biologically created

Expectations are learned through social institutions

Many perspectives within this approach

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Symbolic interactionist perspective:

Conflict and functionalist are macro-level

Macro-level analysis examines whole societies, large-scale social structures, and social systems, doesn’t look at important social dynamics in individuals’ lives

Symbolic interactionist approaches are based on micro-level analysis--focuses on small groups rather than on large scale social structures

Chicago school

Origins of this perspective: George Herbert Mead, Herbert Bloomer

created the term, focus on interaction and symbols

Society is the sum of the interactions of individuals and groups

Interaction: immediate reciprocally oriented communication between two or more people

Symbol: anything that meaningfully represents something else

Study how people make sense of their life situations and go about activities in conjunction with others on a day-to-day basis

Mead and Cooley explored:

How personality developed from social experience

Concluded we would not have a “self” without communication with other people

In this perspective, language is essential for the development of “self” and for common understanding of social life

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Postmodern Perspectives:

Believe that existing theories have been unsuccessful in explaining social life in contemporary societies that are characterized by post-industrialization, consumerism, and global communications

Information explosion: large numbers employed in professional, information or service sector jobs

Consumer society

Global village

Comparison of Sociology with other social sciences

Anthropologists also study human behavior, but anthropologists seek to understand human existence over geographic space and evolutionary time

Psychologists systematically study behavior and mental processes, focus more on internal factors, where sociologists examine groups, organizations and social institutions and their

effects on social life

More comparisons:

Economics: focus on a single institution of society, the economy, Sociology looks at many social institutions, one of which is the economy

Political Science: studies political institutions such as the state, government, and political parties, sociologists study these within the context of other social institutions (families,

religion, education, media)

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To sum up:

Sociology overlaps with many of the social sciences

It has different theoretical perspectives

Sociologists cooperate across perspectives and across disciplines to learn more about human behavior and social life plays out in societies, to gain insight we can use in our everyday lives

20th to 21st Century Events 1914-1918 WWI

1929-(1940) Great Depression (incl. Dust Bowl)

1920s Prohibition, cars and radios,

1939-1945 WWII

1946-1991 Cold War

1950s-present TV, home electronics

1946-1964 Baby Boom

1962-1975 Vietnam War

Racial equality, feminist & environmental movements: 1960s on

1991: Soviet Union falls, Gulf War

2001 WTC/Pentagon attacks

2001-present Afghan War (2003-2011 Iraq War)