1. Introduction to Sociology

2. What is the role of the individual in society?
What is the role of the family in society?
How would your answer change for people living…
100 years ago?
1,000 years ago?
10,000 years ago?

3. What are some of the basic rules and societal expectations at school?
For Students?
For teachers?
For parents?

4. What does it mean to “see the “strange in the familiar?”
Watch Crash Course
What is your personal definition of sociology?
“Human society and social behavior”
What does it mean to “see the “strange in the familiar?”
What does it mean to “see the general in the particular?”

5. Create a Society
Working with a group (2-3) you will create your ideal society
Create a system of governance
Democracy, Autocracy, Theocracy, etc…
How is power divided
Who makes decisions?
What major laws will be present in your society?
Concerning individuals
Concerning groups
Economic system
What work will your people do?
How will they find jobs?
How will you take care of people who can’t work?
How will healthcare be handled?

6. Sociology Other Fields
Psychology – Behavior of thinking organisms
Economics – Study of choices people make to satisfy their needs and wants
History – Study of past events
Anthropology – Comparative study of past and present cultures
Which of these fields should be required in school?

7. History of Sociology
Sociology as a scientific discipline emerged in the 19th century
Industrial Revolution
Urbanization
Problems in urbanized society
Poor sanitation
Unemployment and poor working conditions
Lack of quality housing

8. August Compte Compte was a French philosopher working in the mid 1800s
He focused on two major ideas
Social Order
Social Change
Believed scientific principles could be used to understand society

9. Herbert Spencer Spencer was an Englishman who inherited a fortune
He retired from work to study sociology
Spencer studied the works of Charles Darwin and used biological principles to study society

10. Social Darwinism
Spencer saw social change and unrest to be natural and part of a process towards stability
He was against fixing social problems
They would die out over time as society eliminated the weak
Coined the term “survival of the fittest”
Only the fittest societies and individuals would survive
This idea lost credibility following the second world war when modern scientific understanding disproved its biological claims

11. What would a social Darwinist believe about the following?
Free market capitalism
Government provided healthcare
Social welfare programs
Communism
High School education

12. Karl Marx Karl Marx was a German academic and writer
He believed society was defined by class conflict
Bourgeoisie– Wealthy factory owners
Proletariat – Workers who own nothing and sell their labor
Marx argued that conflict arose between these classes and would result in a workers’ revoultion

13. Emile Durkheim
Durkheim believed that many different parts worked together to make society work
He explored the “function” or effect of each of these parts
He particularly studied the function of religion and its effect on creating unity and cohesion
Restricted his study to things that were directly observable

14. Max Weber
Weber studied individual groups instead of society as a whole
He coined the term “verstehen” or understanding the meaning people place on actions
Seeing the world through someone else’s eyes
Ideal Type – The essential characteristics of a thing
School – students, teachers, classrooms, library, athletic facilities

15. Crash Course – Major Sociological Paradigms
What is the difference between micro / macro
What are the three major paradigms

16. Modern Perspectives
There are three major theoretical perspectives on sociology today
What is a theoretical perspective?

17. Functionalist Perspective
Functionalists view society as a set of interrelated parts working together to produce stability
Functionalists view most things as functioning to make society work
Schools
Family
Some things produce dysfunction
What are some examples?

18. Functions Functions can be Manifest or Latent
A manifest function is the intended consequence
A latent function is an unintended secondary effect
Ex. Automobiles enabled people to get to work faster, Automobiles helped create youth culture
Give two examples of a manifest and latent function

19. Conflict Perspective
View society through the lens of competition and conflict
All conflicts are based on the economic problem of scarcity
Men and women
Various racial group interactions
Labor and ownership

20. Interactionist
How individuals interact in a society as opposed to the big picture
Symbols – Interactionists pay close attention to symbols and the values given to them
American flag
Hand shake
Salute

21. Which perspective would be best for studying each of the following?
Labor strike

22. Children in a refugee camp

23. Family at crosswalk

24. For each perspective state which sociologist would value this perspective and why
You will use the sociological decision making process to study an issue at school
1. Choose a topic (problem or function at school)
2. Gather information – What is this problem, what does it focus on, What are positives and negatives?
3. Identifying options
Which of the three perspectives would work best to study the issue?
4. Make predictions about consequences
How would each theory view this issue?
Take action
How would your theory apply a solution to the problem?

25. What are some