What is Sociology?Tuesday, January 13, 2015

SOC101- Introductory Sociology

Examining the Ordinary Step One – Description

◦ What is the object under consideration?◦ How would you describe it in detail?◦ What do you call it?

Step Two – Local Analysis◦ How is it used?◦ How is it bought and sold?◦ Who benefits from it?◦ Who suffers from it?

Step Three – Global Analysis◦ Does it exist in other countries? ◦ If so, does it exist in the same form?◦ Where, globally, is it made?◦ Does it affect life (positively or negatively) in other countries?

Step Four – Historical Analysis◦ When did it come into existence?◦ Why did it appear at that time?◦ How has it changed over time?◦ What other aspects of life have changed as the result of it?◦ What will this object be like in the future (will it even exist)?

The Sociological Perspective

Definition (drawing from Peter Berger’s Invitation to Sociology)◦The sociological perspective is the process of

seeing the general in the particular. The perspective assumes that “things are not what they seem” and attempts understand society through an empirical gaze.

C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination◦“The sociological imagination enables its

possessor to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals.”

This is also covered in your text. Read “The

Promise” link from the reading

assignment for January 13th.

This is covered in detail in your

reading assignments for

January 13th.

Schwartz, Christine R., and Hongyun Han. 2014. “The Reversal of the Gender Gap in Education and Trends in Marital Dissolution.” American Sociological Review 79: 605-629

Bearman, Peter S. and Hannah Bruckner. 2001. “Promising the Future: Virginity Pledges and First Intercourse.” American Journal of Sociology 106: 859-915.

Ramey, David M. 2013. “Immigrant Revitalization and Neighborhood Violent Crime in Established and New Destination Cities.” Social Forces 92: 597-629.

We will revisit these articles in

Lecture #3: Sociological

Investigations on Tuesday, January 20th

What Makes These Research Studies Sociological?

They employ the sociological perspective…◦ They debunk taken-

for-granted assumptions.

◦ They take into account historical and geographic context.

◦ They make go beyond the particular to find generalities.

They are empirical…◦ They are grounded in

scientific disinterestedness.

◦ They are informed by broader sociological theory.

◦ They are based on repeated observations.

◦ They draw conclusions from systematic analysis.

Ditto from the last

slide. We will revisit this slide

later.