Sociological Imagination: An Introduction Chapter 1 Sociological Imagination: An Introduction

What Is Sociology? Sociology is the study of human society. Society is a very broad field, so while sociologists are interested in society at large, many sociologists study just a small segment of society. Some examples of subfields within this discipline include the sociology of sports, religion, music, medicine, pop culture, and so on. If you are interested in seeing more examples, you can visit www.asanet.org, the American Sociological Association’s website, and look at their chapters. There you’ll get an idea of the kinds of things that interest contemporary sociologists! Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Times_Square_Panorama.jpg

The Sociological Imagination Coined by C. Wright Mills, this tool helps us to: connect our personal experiences to society at large and greater historical forces. “make the familiar strange,” or to question habits or customs that seem “natural” to us. C. Wright Mills wrote The Sociological Imagination in 1959. In Mills’s opinion, we can’t begin to understand our personal lives without thinking about the social context.

What Is a Social Institution? Social institutions are networks of structures in society that work to socialize the groups of people within them. Examples include: the legal system the labor market the educational system the military the family We generally think of institutions as stable entities that “just are,” but the reality is that these institutions are purposefully structured. Additionally, when we think of institutions, we tend to think that they “have always been this way,” but in fact, institutions change over time, reflecting the values of a society.

What Is Social Identity? The way individuals define themselves in relationship to groups they are a part of (or in relationship to groups they choose not to be a part of). The different groups that you belong to help you tell others about your identity. You might say you are a daughter or son or a parent (your family is one of your groups). You might say you are a student (your school could be another group). You might also identify yourself by saying which groups you are not in (you’re not a college drop-out, for instance).

The History of Sociology Auguste Comte — society is better understood by determining the logic or scientific laws governing human behavior, called social physics or positivism. Harriet Martineau — first to translate Comte’s written works to English; one of the earliest feminist social scientists Sociology is a relatively new field of academic study; much of the early work in sociology was done as recently as the nineteenth century. Karl Marx — theory of historical materialism, which identifies class conflict as the primary cause of social change

The History of Sociology Max Weber — emphasis on subjectivity became a foundation of interpretive sociology Émile Durkheim — founder of positivist sociology; developed the theory that division of labor helps to determine how social cohesion is maintained, or not maintained, in that society Georg Simmel — formal sociology, or a sociology of pure numbers (for instance, how a group of two is different than a group of three)

The History of Sociology Functionalism, conflict theory, feminist theory, symbolic interactionism, postmodernism, and midrange theory are all modern sociological theories. Each of these theories might look at the same kinds of social phenomena, but they might look for different things (for example, we could ask what the function of education is; if education is the result of conflict or if it causes conflict; what symbolic relationships are present in education, etc.) Having different theories is like having different pairs of glasses – you have one pair for reading, one for driving, one for seeing in the distance, sunglasses, safety glasses, and so on. Looking through the different pairs will help you see the same thing in different ways!

American Sociology . Early American sociology became prominent at the University of Chicago, so the perspective that emerged became known as the “Chicago School.” Chicago thinkers include: Charles Horton Cooley George Herbert Mead W. I. Thomas W.E.B. DuBois Jane Addams The Chicago School focused on empirical research, with the belief that people’s behaviors and personalities are shaped by their social and physical environments.

Sociology and Its Cousins Sociology focuses on making comparisons across cases to find patterns and create hypotheses about how societies work now or how they worked in the past. Sociology looks at how individuals interact with one another as well as at how groups, small and large, interact with one another. Sociology is a field within the social sciences, which are interested in different aspects of societies and social life. However, sociology is a very unique field.

Sociology and Its Cousins Distinctions are important, but a lot of overlap exists between the work done in different academic disciplines. History and anthropology – cultural anthropology in particular – tend to focus more on particular circumstances. Political science focuses on one aspect of social relations – power. Psychology and biology examine things on a more micro level than sociology does, and economics is an entirely quantitative discipline.

Divisions within Sociology Microsociology understands local interactional contexts, focusing on face-to-face encounters and gathering data through participant observations and in-depth interviews. Macrosociology looks at social dynamics across whole societies or large parts of them and often relies on statistical analysis to do so. For example, a sociologist might be interested in knowing how an individual makes the decision to go to college. It would be helpful to sit down with that person and talk. This would be a micro-level analysis, or an example of microsociology. On the other hand, if a sociologist wanted to know how a number of people made the decision to go to college last year, it would be impossible to sit down with each person and ask, so looking at statistical data would be more efficient. This would be an example of a macro-level study, or macrosociology.

Concept Quiz 1. Which of the following is an example of using one’s sociological imagination? being in unfamiliar surroundings and imagining being in a more comfortable place creating different hypotheses to explain an individual’s behavior creating a story to explain unfamiliar social customs being puzzled by how people in another country greet one another and then thinking about how people in your own country greet one another and why they do it the way they do Answer: D

Concept Quiz 2. Social identity is _______. a construct that no longer has meaning in the postmodern era a collection of social roles that a person might fill a way that individuals define themselves in relation to groups they are a part of or groups they choose not to be a part of determined by the social group into which a person is born Answer: C

Concept Quiz 3. The Chicago School of American Sociology emphasized the importance of ____________. the social and moral consequences of the division of labor the environment in shaping people’s behavior and personalities heavy statistical research none of the above Answer: B

Concept Quiz 4. Sociology is distinct from other academic disciplines in its attempt to _____. embrace quantitative and qualitative research ask probing questions about how societies function detect patterns in how different societies handle or respond to similar phenomena examine human interaction on the micro level Answer: C

Concept Quiz 5. Which of the following is an example of a study that might be undertaken by a macrosociologist? assessing how people choose where to sit on a public bus observing customers’ responses to being greeted upon entering a store conducting a statistical analysis of when professional men and women choose to start families examining how men and women react to riding in an elevator with an infant Answer: C

Discussion Questions 1. Had you ever heard of sociology before? Yes No

Discussion Questions 2. Have you ever taken a sociology class before? Yes No

Part I: Using Your Sociological Imagination You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company Part I: Using Your Sociological Imagination

Infographic, Income Returns on Schooling Figure 1.1 Income Returns on Schooling You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company Figure 1.1 Income Returns on Schooling

College campus bulletin boards are covered with advertisements like this promoting Web sites that generate diplomas. Why are these fake diplomas not worth it? You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Two Centuries of Sociology You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Two Centuries of Sociology You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Two Centuries of Sociology You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Two Centuries of Sociology You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Two Centuries of Sociology You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Two Centuries of Sociology You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Two Centuries of Sociology You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Two Centuries of Sociology You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Chapter 1: Sociological Imagination: An Introduction