1. An Introduction to Sociology in the Global Age
Chapter 1
An Introduction to Sociology in the Global Age
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Sociology
The systematic study of the ways in which people are affected by, and affect, the social structures and social processes that are associated with the groups, organizations, cultures, societies, and world in which they exist
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3. The Changing Nature of the World –and Sociology
18th and 19th centuries: Industrial Revolution
Sociologists focused on factories, production, and blue collar workers.
Mid-20th century: Post-Industrial Age
Sociologists focused on offices, bureaucracies, and white collar workers.
Present day: The Information Age
Sociologists focus on knowledge, information, and technologies.
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4. Central Concerns for a 21st-Century Sociologist: Globalization
No social change today is as important as globalization.
Globalization is a central issue in sociology as well as the social world.
Globalization is defined by increasingly fluid global flows and the structures that expedite and impede these flows.
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5. Central Concerns for a 21st-Century Sociologist: Globalization
Positives
Greater access to goods, services, and information throughout the world
Negatives
Undesirable things (diseases, illegal drugs) flow more easily around the world.
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6. Central Concerns for a 21st-Century Sociologist: Consumption
The process by which people obtain and utilize goods and services
As consumption increased so did the proliferation of credit cards and, predictably, credit card debt.
Consumption and globalization are deeply intertwined.
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7. Central Concerns for a 21st-Century Sociologist: The Digital World
Sociologists have always been interested in the social aspects of technology.
Technology: the interplay of machines, tools, skills, and procedures for the accomplishment of tasks
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8. Central Concerns for a 21st-Century Sociologist: The Digital World
Sociologists have tracked the evolution of technology, from assembly lines to automated factories to the digital world (computers, cell phones, and the Internet).
Social networking and multitasking
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9. Globalization, Consumption, the Digital World and You
College students have fellow students and professors from other parts of the world.
You shop on the Internet.
An increasing portion of your education is obtained through the Internet.
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10. Sociology: Continuity and Change
The Sociological Imagination says that sociologists have a distinctive way of looking at the world.
C. Wright Mills (1959) argued that sociologists have a unique perspective.
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11. The Sociological Imagination
Private Troubles and Public Issues
Increasing levels of consumption and debt (private trouble) morphed into a near collapse of the global economy (public issue).
Will fleeting electronic social relationships (via Facebook and Twitter) lead all types of social relationships in the future?
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12. The Sociological Imagination: The Micro Relationship
Micro-small scale
Individual thoughts and actions
Macro-large scale
Groups, organizations, cultures, society, and the world
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13. The Sociological Imagination: The Micro Relationship
Karl Marx ( ) was interested in what workers thought and did (micro) and the capitalist economic system (macro).
Randall Collins (2009) has sought to develop a theory of violence that deals with individuals skilled in violent interactions (micro) and material resources used by violent organizations (macro).
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14. The Sociological Imagination: The Agency-Structure Relationship
Agency is the micro level; structure is the macro level.
Agency gives priority to the agent having power and a capacity for creativity.
Agents both create and are constrained by social and cultural structures.
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15. The Social Construction of Reality
This approach argues that agents (people at the micro level) create social reality.
For example, designers (agents) create the world of fashion.
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Structure and Process
Social structures are enduring and regular social arrangements (a shopping mall).
These change very slowly.
Social processes are aspects of the social world (shopping).
These change rapidly.
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17. Sociology’s Purpose: Science or Social Reform?
The scientific view states that examining the relationship between structure and process should be a purely scientific endeavor.
The social reform view states that as these relationships are discovered, this knowledge should be used to solve social problems.
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18. Sociology, the Other Sciences, and Common Sense
Sociology, with its emphasis on studying various aspects of the social world, is one of the social sciences.
Sociology, generally speaking, is the broadest of these fields.
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19. The Other Sciences and Globalization
Anthropology: studies cultural aspects of societies around the world
Communications: studies mediated and nonmediated communication across the globe
Economics: examines production, distribution, and consumption of resources through markets across the globe
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20. The Other Sciences and Globalization
Geography: mapping of spatial relationships on a global scale
Political Science: nation-states
Psychology: ways in which individual identities are shaped by awareness of the rest of the world
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