Allan Johnson “The Forest, the Trees, and the One Thing”

Why practice sociology? To understand the world To understand why suffering occurs To be part of the solution To understand connections between things

“Criminal lawyers and judges study crime Economists study economics Political scientists study politics Anthropologists, psychologists, historians, divorce lawyers study families But this doesn’t mean they’re practicing sociology Nor, when a TV show talks about something social, does this mean the show in question is talking about sociology

Explaining itself A lot of sociology doesn’t attempt to explain how it is sociological You could read several years of sociology and still not know why something is sociological You might come away thinking it is “social studies…” But this is not correct

We need a systematic way to figure things out Sociology is more than just common sense It proposes a perpsective in which we can understand the world and understand how to solve problems Any kind of problem!

The author considers corporations in order to deal with diversity - varied mix of people in the world workforce is changing - more female, more non-European

Difference means more than variety it is a basis for inclusion/exclusion rewarding some more and some less treating some with respect and others not

Imagine you had lots of different people in one room… Black, white, Chinese, Japanese, Muslim, Jew, African, Indigenous How would this socially work? Would everyone be an individual? Would any pattern emerge socially?

You can imagine if you just threw random people into a room, some social pattern would emerge

Patterns of inequality exist difference is a basis for privilege

People are reluctant to talk about privilege, especially those who belong to privileged groups Ex. Racism - whites often don’t say anything, or react angrily and defensively Men often react the same way about sexism Why?

People tend to think of things in terms of individuals It affects how we see the world People often think social problems come down to individual character flaws This is especially true in the United States

Because of this individualistic perspective a member of a privileged group often hears a personal accusation when the issue of privilege is brought up

If individualism is correct… We can ONLY change the world by changing one person at a time This means if we want to improve society we’d have to employ a lot of psychologists and police officers to make society better

Where does this individualism come from in the U.S.? Enlightenment Psychology - William James, Sigmund Freud

Proof of this dominance “self-help” books personality choices for leaders if enough people “heal themselves”, the world will be better

A forest is more than individual trees A sociologist says that society is more than just individual people

The One Thing We are always participating in something larger than ourselves We need to understand what it is we are participating in, and how we participate in it This is what sociology is

We participate in social systems Ex. Schools, corporations, families, societies

People participate in systems without being part of the systems themselves Ex. Position - father You can imagine what being a father means What kind of work fathers do in China and in the US What they “feel” like they “must do” Important to remember however that people aren’t systems, and systems aren’t people

“The U.S. is a racist society that privileges whites over other racial groups” statement describes the U.S as a system Not a personal attack on anyone social system defines your experience you have choices about how to participate in the system

Ex. What is funny? Amos and Andy

Monopoly - game as a social system has positions, a material reality - board, dice, properties, and ideas and sets of relationships goal - to win - get the most money

Greedy behavior is presented as the path of least resistance the system (game) encourages this system is external, it is not ours to shape

Systems affect how we think feel and behave

You can behave in a nearly infinite number of ways However, systems narrow the range of possibilities People follow the path of least resistance given their position Ex. Laughing at a racist joke

Individualistic models don’t work Every human interaction is related to a social context Individual perspective is too narrow, it misses most of what is going on

Suicide men more likely than women white more likely than black Protestant more likely than Catholic Why? Groups occupy different positions in a social system

Social systems and social life can be horrible or wonderful but the people who participate in these might be neither Ex. Sweatshops, migrant workers

Johnson argues that the biggest barrier to ending social oppression is- defensive resistance on the part of the privileged Awareness absolves personal guilt, but also challenges you to consider your behavior

Personal solutions can’t solve social problems Ex. Economic insecurity Most blame personal actions, not systemic causes

Sociology looks at social life in relation to systems AND how people participate in these systems

Social systems aren’t idle things they are constantly being created and recreated as people act

People occupy a social location- their place in a social system Ex. Teacher, Father, Half Black, Male, Homosexual, Bartender, High School Degree, Older, From the West Coast, Christian, Republican