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

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

3. “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

4. 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

5. 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!

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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?

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

10. Patterns of inequality exist
difference is a basis for privilege

11. 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?

12. 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

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

14. 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

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

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

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

18. 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

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

20. 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

21. “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

22. Ex. What is funny? Amos and Andy

23. 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

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

25. Systems affect how we
think
feel
and behave

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

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

30. 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

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

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

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

34. 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