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Transcript
The Sociological Imagination Chapter 1 Jeff Manza, Lynne Haney, and Richard Arum THE BIG QUESTIONS • How can a sociological imagination help you better understand your world? • Why do social contexts matter? • Where did sociology come from, and how is it different from the other social sciences? • How can this book help you develop a sociological imagination? QUESTION 1 How can a sociological imagination help you better understand your world? Looking through a Sociological Lens Sociological imagination • Capacity to think systematically about how many things we experience as personal problems (C. Wright Mills 1959) Social networks • Ties between people, groups, and organizations Globalization • Increased flow of goods, money, ideas, and people across national borders Challenging Stereotypes Sociological imagination • Challenges our basic impulses to see aspects of life as inevitable or natural • Provides insight into stereotyping and active discrimination • Facilitates more active and effective participation in the world around us Engaging Our Sociological Imaginations Learning to ask good question • Ability to ask hard questions instead of accepting easily available answers is hallmark of sociological imagination How are these sociological questions formed? Let’s talk about an example Forming Sociological Questions • Why does the richest country in the world have so many people living in poverty—far more than other, less wealthy countries? Forming Sociological Questions Arum and Roksa (2011) • Tracked young adults’ progress through diverse colleges and universities and beyond • Revealed different college experiences and different postgraduate paths • Found slightly more than a third of students demonstrated no significant improvement on general skills test What questions would sociologists pose to understand the above findings? Forming Sociological Questions What types of questions are sociologists particularly well equipped to explore? Here are four to consider: • How do students’ lives before college shape their experiences in college? • How do the social organizations of college life shape students; experiences? • Does the experience of college benefit everyone equally? • How are students’ college paths shaped by the larger labor markets awaiting students upon graduation? Forming Sociological Questions Here are questions that directly affect YOU! • What kind of jobs are recent college graduates getting? • How are students’ college paths shaped by the larger labor markets awaiting students upon graduation? The Endless Reach of the Sociological Imagination Immanuel Wallerstein • Mapping development of a world economy Troy Duster (1990) • Political and economic ramifications of DNA research (i.e., race) Harvey Molotch and colleagues (2010) • Various aspects of popular culture Colin Jerolmack (2013) • Communication between pigeons and humans Can you think of other examples? The Endless Reach of the Sociological Imagination What about exposure to violence? • Living in a high-crime neighborhood increases stress levels and is harmful to children in many ways • See Sharkey’s research findings later in the chapter QUESTION 2 Why do social contexts matter? Individual Lives Unfold in Contexts • Immediate family, parent educational level, and income • Neighborhood and community • Education • Types of organizations available and accessed • Type of employment • Country of birth • Historical period at birth How Do Our Families Shape Our Social Development? Families as Context • Give racial, ethnic, and religious identities • Teach basic rules of society • Provide first social networks • Influence education and cognitive capacities through life-long interactions • Help in later life How Do Our Communities Shape Our Social Development? Pat Sharkey • Groundbreaking research on link between neighborhood violence and children’s school performance • Demonstrates how violence can be absorbed by and transmitted through neighborhood contexts • Highlights how children, who are perhaps the most vulnerable to such exposure, experience their effects at school as well as home How Do the Organizations and Institutions We Are a Part of Help Us Form Our Identities? Organizations and Institutions as Context • Kinds of groups joined and contacts formed create variety of opportunities • Participation in organizations shape personal and public identities available to us What do you think? Can our racial identity can change according to the kind of institutions where we are connected? How Do the Organizations and Institutions We Are a Part of Help Us Form Our Identities? Would it be the same today as then? • 1910 African American male in South • 1940s child from Detroit working-class family • 1950s woman entering adulthood Sociology as the Study of Social Contexts Sociology • Involves study of the diverse contexts within which society influences individuals • Distinguishes between social interaction and social structure QUESTION 3 Where did sociology come from, and how is it different from the other social sciences? Sociology’s Historical Context: Great Thinkers and Schools Comte (1798-1859) • Coined term sociology Veblen (1857-1929) Commons (1862-1945) • Economics and sociology Smith (1723-1790) Marx (1818-1883) • Philosophy and economic relations Durkheim (1858-1917) • Father or sociology • First European Sociology Department and major European journal of sociology University of Chicago • First U.S. Sociology Department Sociology’s Historical Context Industrialization • Growth of factories and large-scale goods production • New technologies and innovations • Immense social changes • Different approaches needed Urbanization • Growth of cities in late nineteenth century in U.S., Europe, and elsewhere • Shift from agriculture to manufacturing • Problems were markedly different • New type of political challenge, including social movements Sociology’s Family: Siblings How does sociology differ from other social sciences? • Concepts and theories cover wider range of topics • Explanations of how the external world shapes behaviors of individuals and social outcomes are broader How is Sociology Different? How we see a community or social setting is shaped by what vantage point we use. • Different levels • Different units of analysis • Wider range of connections than other social sciences Do you know ways in which sociology differs from other social sciences? Sociology’s Children What are some of the spin-off fields that originally started in sociology? • • • • • Criminology Gender Studies African American Studies Latino/a Studies Organizational or Management Studies Question 5 How can this book help you to develop a sociological imagination? Goal for this Book: • To provide background on key areas and research findings for the development of your own sociological imagination • To facilitate an understanding how individuals’ lives are embedded in social contexts that are not always of their own choosing • To develop an appreciation of how personal issues that individuals face often can be understood as larger social problems facing society • To convey the idea that sociology as a discipline is a project