Download Introduction to SOCIOLOGY

Introduction to
SOCIOLOGY
MRS. DINA RASHIDOVNA MINGAZOVA
What is sociology?
Sociology is a study of human
social life, social groups and
societies.
Sociology studies
• The scope of sociology is extremely wide and
is concerned with almost all aspects of social
life: our everyday practices, processes of
growing-up and getting older, love, marriage
and family, globalization, economical relations
and their impact on social life, poverty,
political attitudes, crime and deviance, health
issues, questions of inequality, race and
gender issues, urbanization processes, media,
education, religion etc.
C. Wright Mills
The Sociological Imagination
(1959)
Sociological imagination: the ability to
understand not only what is happening in
one’s own immediate experience but also in
the world and to imagine how one’s
experience fits into the large picture
Sociological imagination
Coffee as a social ritual
Coffee as part of global
economy
Coffee as a legal drug
Coffee-houses and history of
England 17th century
Coffee and colonialism
Social change
Industrialization
Globalization
Health inequality
Health Inequalities
Health inequality
Structure of sociological
knowledge
There are more then 40 “kinds” of sociology
Sociology of
knowledge
Sociology of labour
Sociology of deviant
behaviour
Sociology of medicine
Levels of sociological
knowledge
• Macro Sociology
• Micro sociology
Per Manson, Swedish
sociologist
Social Structure
Social Structure
Individual action
Social Networks
Individual freedom
Macro and micro levels
of sociological analysis
• Macro-sociology focuses on the broad features
of society. The goal of macro-sociology is to
examine the large-scale social phenomena that
determine how social groups are organized
and positioned within the social structure.
(the “park” of Emile Durkheim)
• Micro-sociological level of analysis focuses on
social interaction. It analyses interpersonal
relationships, what people do and how they
behave when they interact. (the “sea” of Max
Weber)
Sociological questions
1. Factual
2. Comparative
3. Developmental
4. Theoretical
Theories and concepts in
sociology
Sociology does not consist of just collecting facts,
however important and interesting they may be.
We also want to know why things happen, and to do
so we have to learn to pose theoretical questions, to
enable us to interpret facts correctly in grasping the
causes of whatever is the focus of a particular study.
Theories involve constructing abstract
interpretations which can be used to explain a wide
variety of empirical situations.
Sociological Theories or
Paragims
Sociological Theories
Auguste Comte (1789-1857)
Karl Marx(1818-1883)
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
Max Weber (1864-1920)
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)
George H. Mead(1863-1931)
Functionalism Structuralism Marxism Symbolic interactionism
Term “Sociology”
Auguste Compte 1824
Emile Durkheim
Emile Durkheim
• A major theme pursued by Durkheim and by many
other sociological authors since is that the
societies exert social constraint over our actions.
Durkheim argued that society has supremacy over
the individual person. Society is far more than the
sum of individual acts; when we analyze social
structure, we are rigid and solid frameworks in
which our social life exists. Social structure,
according to Durkheim, constrains our activities,
setting limits to what we can do as individuals. It is
'external' to us, just as the walls of the room are.
Functionalism
• Merton (American functionalist, 20 cent.)
distinguishes between manifest and latent
functions. Manifest functions are those known to,
and intended by, the participants in a specific type
of social activity. Latent functions are
consequences activity of which participants are
unaware (Merton, 1957). In studying the modern
world we must be aware of disintegrative
tendencies - function refers to aspects of social
activity which tend to produce change because
they threaten social cohesion.
Conflict and Consensus
Structuralism
• According to Saussure, analyzing the
structures of language means looking for the
rules which underlie our speech. Most of these
rules are known to us only implicitly: we could
not easily state what they are. The task of
linguistics, in fact, is to uncover what we
implicitly know, but know only on the level of
being language in practice.
Power and control
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
• 1 The main dynamic of modern development is the expansion of
capitalistic economic mechanisms.
• 2 Modern societies are riven with class inequalities, which are basic to
their very nature.
• 3 Major divisions of power, like those affecting the differential position of
men and women, derive ultimately from economic inequalities.
• 4 Modem societies as we know them today (capitalist societies) are of a
transitional type - we may expect them to become radically reorganized in
the future. Socialism, of one type or another, will eventually replace
capitalism.
• 5 The spread of Western influence across the world is mainly a result of
the expansionist tendencies of capitalist economic enterprise.
Social Change and
Conflict
Power and conflict
Max Weber
Max Weber
• The main dynamic of modem development is the production of
rationality.
• Class is one type of inequality among the others –, i.e. we should
consider inequalities between men and women in modem societies.
• Power in the economic system can be obtained from other sources
than purele economic as well. For instance, male-female
inequalities cannot be explained in economic terms.
• Rationalization is bound to progress further in the future, in all
fields of social life. All modern societies depend on the same model
of social and economic organization
• The global impact of the West comes from its command over
industrial resources, together with its military power.
Critics of functionalism
Although the type of viewpoint of Durkheim and his followers was
widely accepted in the academic sociology, especially in 1960s,
functionalism has also met with sharp criticism. What is the
meaning of the term 'society’ if it‘s not composed of many
individual actions? If we study a group of people we would not
see a collective entity, but only individuals interacting with each
other in various ways. 'Societycan only be understood as many
individuals behaving in regular ways in relation to each other.
According to the critics, as human beings we have reasons for
what we are doing, and we inhabit a social world with various
cultural meanings. Social phenomena should not be considered as
'things’ or ‘facts’, but rather should be viewed from the point of
the symbolic meanings that we invest in them. We are not just
mere products of our society, but rather its creators.
Symbolic interactionism
Virtually all interaction between human individuals
involves an exchange of symbols. When we interact
with others, we constantly look for 'clues' about the
type of behaviors appropriate in this context and
interpretations of intents. Symbolic interactionism
directs our attention to the detail of interpersonal
interaction, and to how that detail is used to make
sense what others say and do. A complex and subtle
process of symbolic interpretation shapes the
interaction between the two. Sociologists influenced
by symbolic interactionism usually focus on face-toface interaction in the contexts of everyday life.
Social Action
Social Interaction
Self and Society
Society
Individual and significant “others”
Social Interaction and
Self-representation
Social Action and Social
Structure
The fields of sociological
analysis
• Social Organization and Social Order: focuses on
institutions and groups, their formation and change,
functioning, relation to individuals and to each other.
• Social Control: focuses on the ways in which
members of a society influence one another to
maintain social order.
• Social Groups: how social groups are formed,
structured, and how they function and change.
The fields of sociological
analysis
• Social Change: focuses on the way society and
institutions change over time through technical inventions,
cultural diffusion and cultural conflict, and social
movements, among others.
• Social Processes: explores the patterns of social change
and the modes of such processes.
• Social Problems: focuses on the social conditions which
cause difficulties for certain groups and the ways in which
society eliminates these problems. Some of the problems
may include: juvenile delinquency, crime, chronic
alcoholism, suicide, drug addiction, racial prejudice, ethnic
conflict, war, industrial conflict, urban poverty, prostitution,
child abuse, problem of older persons, marital conflicts,
etc.
Objectivity and
sociological knowledge
Sociological Research
Sociological Methods
Sociology and Society
Practical use of sociology
• Understanding social situations
• Awareness of cultural differences
• Assessment of the effects of policies
• The increase of self-knowledge