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Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition Instructor Resources Chapter 1 An Introduction to Sociology in the Global Age The Changing Nature of the Social World--and Sociology Deeply rooted in history, sociology’s origins can be traced back to the 18 th and 19th century Industrial Revolution. Marked by dramatic social change, the “industrial age” provided opportunities for sociologists to analyze social change through the emergence of factories and the production of goods and their effects on human behavior. This behavior analysis continues through the 20th century and well into the “post-industrial age”, where increased emphasis is placed on globalization and the behavioral and economic shift from factory/blue collar work to office/white collar work. An extension of the “post-industrial age,” the “information age” is best characterized by the use of technology to exchange information, knowledge, ideas, and communication. This period emphasizes efficiency, productivity, and alternative ways to work and manufacture goods. It is essential to understand that change never stops; our society, human behavior, and social interaction continue to change. Chapter Outline I. The Nature of the Discipline a. Sociology: The systematic study of the ways in which people are affected by, and affect, the social structures and social processes that are associated with the groups, organizations, cultures, societies, and world in which they exist; thus, the scientific study of social behavior and human groups. Sociology stresses the broader social context of behavior and provides a framework for understanding the legitimacy of societal change; the motives associated with human behavior; the emergence and maintenance of social phenomenon and social structures; and the globalization of society. b. The Butterfly Effect: The idea that a relatively small change in a specific location can have far-ranging, even global effects, over both time and distance. II. The Changing Nature of the World – and Sociology a. 18th and 19th centuries – the Industrial Revolution: Sociologists focused on factories, production, and blue collar workers. b. Mid-20th century – the Post-Industrial Age: Sociologists focused on offices, bureaucracies, and white collar workers. c. Present day - the Information Age: Sociologists focus on knowledge, information, and technologies, with an emphasis on efficiency, productivity, and alternative ways to work and manufacture goods. d. (Checkpoint 1.1) III. Central Concerns for a 21st-Century Sociologist: Globalization (Figure 1.1) a. No social change today is as important as globalization – the social process of increasingly fluid global flows and the structures that expedite and impede those flows. It provides opportunities for people to move between societies and initiate population shifts, to have greater access to goods, services, and information. Negative issues such as disease, global warming, and deviant behaviors (drugs, human trafficking) flow more easily around the world under Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition IV. V. VI. Instructor Resources globalization. Globalization is arguably the most important instigator of social change and affects all aspects of the social world. b. Globalization is a central issue in sociology as well as the social world. Central Concerns for a 21st-Century Sociologist: Consumption (Checkpoint 1.2) a. Consumption - The process by which people obtain and utilize goods and services. Consumption shapes culture and can become a cultural phenomenon – the iPhone and the “app” revolution. b. As consumption increased so did the proliferation of credit cards and, predictably, credit card debt, leading in many ways to the economic collapse of 2008. Consumption and globalization are deeply intertwined. (Figure 1.2) c. The McDonaldization of Society: the process by which the rational principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of society and more societies throughout the world; leads to the creation of rational systems that have 4 defining characteristics: i. Efficiency: an emphasis on the quickest and least costly means to whatever end is desired. ii. Calculability: includes a focus on quantity as representing quality, and that tasks are done under pressure, where the quality of the job is measured not in the way it is done, but in how quickly it is done. iii. Predictability: the consuming experience is identical from one geographic setting to another. Accomplished through highly predictable rituals. iv. Control: control of both employees and of consumers is ensured by replacing unpredictable humans with machines that are simply monitored by people. v. Checkpoint 1.3 Central Concerns for a 21st-Century Sociologist: The Digital World (Figure 1.3) a. Sociologists have always been interested in the social aspects of technology - the interplay of machines, tools, skills, and procedures for the accomplishment of tasks; the digital world refers to the emergence of new technologies, particularly communication technologies. b. Sociologists have tracked the evolution of technology, from assembly lines to automated factories to the digital world (computers, cell phones, and the Internet). Sociologists are, for example, interested in social networking as it is conducted in the virtual environments of sites such as Facebook or MySpace. Sociology: Continuity and Change a. The Sociological Imagination - sociologists have a distinctive way of looking at the world. It is the ability to view the social world from many different perspectives. i. American sociologist C. Wright Mills (1916–1962) described this type of creative thinking as the ability to view one’s own society as an outsider. It demonstrates the connection between history and biography, connects personal experiences – “troubles” – to larger social patterns – “social issues.” (Figure 1.4) Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition Instructor Resources ii. The sociological imagination allows us to look beyond a limited understanding of things and people in the world, and allows for a broader vision of society. For instance, individual’s increasing consumption and accumulation of personal debt (private trouble) morphed into a near collapse of the global economy (public issue). (Figure 1.4) b. The Micro/Macro Relationship – American origins i. Micro - small scale - individuals and their thoughts and actions. Also small group interactions. ii. Macro - large scale - social phenomena such as groups, organizations, cultures, societies and the world, as well as the relationships between them i. Karl Marx (1818-1883) was interested in what workers thought and did (micro) and the capitalist economic system (macro) in which workers existed. ii. Randall Collins (2009) has sought to develop a theory of violence that links individuals skilled in violent interactions (micro) with the material resources needed by violent organizations (macro). iii. Pages 24 & 25: There is a continuum that runs from the most microscopic to the most macroscopic of social realities, with phenomena at roughly the mid-point of this continuum best thought of as meso- (middle or intermediate) realities. c. The Agency-Structure Relationship – European origins – complex continuum that resembles the micro-macro comparison. i. Agency – individual social power and capacity for creativity a. Agency is the micro level; structure is the macro level. b. Agency gives priority to the agent having power and a capacity for creativity. c. Agents both create and are constrained by social and cultural structures. ii. Structure – places greater emphasis on “structures” that are autonomous and able to sustain themselves over a long period of time without disruptions from individuals; they are long-term, often society-wide patterns of relationships, norms, values, and other social phenomena that are centered on fundamental social tasks and include the family, education, media, the state, and the economy. d. The Social Construction of Reality: This approach argues that agents (people at the micro level) create social reality through their thoughts and actions. Their reality takes on a life of its own and becomes a structure within which those who create the structure exist. It is a process of human creation that becomes invisible and relatively unquestioned the deeper it is embedded in peoples’ social practices. For example, designers (agents) create the world of fashion, which is then taken up by corporate interests, produced in factories around the world, and sold in outlets that have both a local effect and a global effect – such Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition VII. VIII. Instructor Resources as Walmart. Very few people question fashion norms-such as men wearing pants - although they choose incidental features such as pants in particular fabrics and styles. e. Social Structures and Processes i. Social structures are enduring and regular social arrangements, such as the family and the state. These change very slowly. ii. Social processes are the dynamic and ever-changing aspects of the social world, such as the patterns of consumption demonstrated at a specific historical moment. These change rapidly. iii. Globalization can be divided into structures (such as the United Nations) and a variety of specific social processes (such as the migration of people across national borders). iv. Checkpoint 1.4 Sociology’s Purpose: Science or Social Reform? (Checkpoint 1.5) a. A long-standing debate within sociology is whether the discipline is best described using scientific principles. Comte believed that society was governed by laws and it was sociology’s task to uncover these laws (positivism). He also believed it was sociology’s task to instigate social reform, arguing reform could be achieved through the implementation of scientific principles, which led to this debate. b. The scientific view states that examining the relationship between structure and process should be a purely scientific endeavor. Those supporting sociology as a science suggest it is best to understand how the social world operates before it can be changed. i. Ethnomethodology is a sociological practice focused on what people do rather than on what people think. It is a method used by sociologists to understand common forms of social behavior. c. The social reform view states that as these relationships are discovered, this knowledge should be used to solve social problems. Those supporting social reform argue that sociology is best served by pointing out social problems, then proposing ways to fix those problems through subjective analysis. i. Public sociology focuses on contemporary social issues from a sociological perspective, using sociological knowledge to propose solutions. Sociology, the Other Sciences, and Common Sense a. Sociology, with its emphasis on studying various aspects of the social world, is one of the social sciences. Sociology, generally speaking, is the broadest of these fields – it is multi-faceted as a discipline, and encompasses elements from the following disciplines: i. Anthropology: studies cultural aspects of societies around the world. ii. Communications: studies mediated and non-mediated communication across the globe. iii. Economics: examines production, distribution, and consumption of resources through markets across the globe. Ritzer, Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition Instructor Resources iv. Geography: mapping of spatial relationships on a global scale. v. Political Science: focus on nation-states, particularly the ways they relate to one another around the world, and have grown increasingly unable to control global flows. vi. Psychology: ways in which individual identities are shaped by awareness of the rest of the world. b. It is also important to understand how sociology deals with the gap between common sense and social scientific knowledge, especially when analyzing the perceptions that are widely held, such as the association between the rich and the poor in the United States. Common sense and media culture gives Americans the impression that wealth is evenly distributed; scientific data reveals that the wealthy (the top 20% of US population) actually controls 84% of the total wealth in the US. While common sense is essential to our understanding of social phenomena, it is important for us to use systematic scientific principles to understand the social world as well. (Figure 1.5)