soiciology
SOCI 1125
Week 2 ( September 2021)
Some update about the textbook.
Please make sure to purchase Version 2018 onward of the textbook
Today’s objectives
Explain what the sociological perspective is.
Understand the sociological imagination and sociological analysis
3. Understand the historical development of sociology
Sociology is the systematic study of human groups and their interactions
Sociological Perspective refers to the unique way in which sociologists see our world and can dissect the dynamic relationships between individuals and the larger social network in which we all live
What Is Sociology?
C. Wright Mills
The Sociological Imagination
The ability to understand the dynamic relationship between individual lives and the larger society
Personal troubles result from individual challenges
Social issues are caused by larger social factors
The “trick” is in understanding how these personal troubles may indeed be due to larger social issues
Sociological imagination: a quality of the mind that allows us to understand the relationship between our particular situation in life and what is happening at a social level.
Peter Burger
Seeing the general in the particular is the ability to look at seemingly unique events (particular) and then recognizing the larger (general) features involved
Think about what is familiar and consider how it may actually be strange
Group Discussion
Applying sociological imagination try to reflect on “paper toilet buying” at beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic?
could you see strange in familiar in this social phenomenon?
5 Minutes Break
What makes you, you?
Minority status, Gender, Socioeconomic status, Family structure, Urban –Rural difference
Ascribed Status – social standings imposed by culture
Achieved Status – social standings earned through effort
All these factors are exapmles of social structures which influence your life
Structure Vs Agency?!!!
Agency refers to the idea that each of us has, to some extent, the ability to alter our socially constructed lives
Structure is the network of relatively stable opportunities and constraints influencing our individual behaviours
Structure Vs Agency?!!!
What brought you here ( Being student in sociology class at KPU. )?
In your group discussion talk about structural factor as well as agency which led you to become KPU student .
People have been thinking like sociologists long before sociology became a separate academic discipline
Ancient Greek philosophers: Physis vs Nomos
Ibne Khaldun: distinction between sedentary life of cities and the nomadic life of pastoral peoples
Disenchantment of the world: Rationalism and Empiricism
The historical development of sociology:
1- The Scientific Revolution
2-The Political Revolution
3- The Industrial Revolution
1-The Scientific Revolution: from 17th century
After emergence of Renaissance ( 15th -17th Century) Newton, Galileo and Copernicus discovery of physical forces that governs natural world, challenged the totalitarian dominance of Church over the knowledge production in middle ages era.
Scientific revolution changed the focus of knowledge from intuiting the intention and mysterious forces of gods and spiritual forces to systematically calculate and predict the physical and social phenomenon by means of reason and observation.
The Earth is not the center of world anymore, neither is the God!
Geocentric model of Universe( supported by church)
Heliocentric model of Universe(Copernicus)
Scientific revolution
The Scientific Revolution and the Birth of sociology
Auguste Comte (the “father” of sociology)
hard science should be applied to the social world.
Law of Three Stages:
Theological - Religious outlook, the world is an expression of God
Metaphysical - A period of questioning and challenging (including the teachings of the Church)
Positive - Rules of observation, experimentation and logic
Positivism and Anti-Positivism
Comte named the scientific study of social patterns positivism or “social physics”
Positivism is a theoretical approach that considers all understanding to be based on science
There exists an objective knowable reality
Singular explanation
Value-free
Anti-Positivism is a theoretical approach that considers knowledge and understanding to be the result of human subjectivity.
Rejects each of the positivist assumptions
2-The Political Revolution: Renaissance to the Enlightenment( 18th century onward)
European societies underwent radical change as old ideas (like feudalism or the “divine right of kings” were being challenged
•“Social Contract theory”
•“Society” as a concept
•Revolutionary theories about democracy, self-rule, and the right of all (white, male, land-owning) peoples to participate in their own governance
3-The Industrial Revolution around 1750
Often associated with technological advancement
Moved from an agricultural society based on local food production for local consumption to regional and national distribution networks which results in
Mass production
Assembly Lines
Mass urbanization
Industrial/mechanized Warfare
Globalization & its consequences
results in new features of social problems which did not exist before
Disenchantment of the world: Rationalism and Empiricism
Scientific revolution changed the focus of knowledge from intuiting the intention and mysterious forces of gods and spiritual forces to systematically calculate and predict the physical and social phenomenon by means of reason and observation.
Political revolution by introducing modern democracy and the modern human rights put the individual citizens( instead of king or church or God) in center of political system. ( humanism).
Technological revolution brought about massive, fast development and intensified the modern human confidence on power of his Reason to govern nature and society.
Sociology was born as the science of governing and knowing the disenchantment social life via reason and observation!
Level of analysis in Sociology: Macro and Micro Approaches
Macrosociology refers to attempting to understand society as a whole. Macrosociology examines large-scale social structures to determine how they impact groups and individuals
Marx, Durkheim and Weber
Microsociology refers to attempting to understand individual or small group dynamics to see how they impact larger institutions in society
Mead, Cooley and Blumer
Next week we are going to explore Macrosociology