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Introduction to SOCIOLOGY. MRS. DINA RASHIDOVNA MINGAZOVA. What is sociology?. Sociology is a study of human social life, social groups and societies. Sociology studies.
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Introduction to SOCIOLOGY MRS. DINA RASHIDOVNA MINGAZOVA
What is sociology? Sociology is a study of human social life, social groups and societies.
Sociology studies • The scope of sociology is extremely wide and is concerned with almost all aspects of social life: our everyday practices, processes of growing-up and getting older, love, marriage and family, globalization, economical relations and their impact on social life, poverty, political attitudes, crime and deviance, health issues, questions of inequality, race and gender issues, urbanization processes, media, education, religion etc.
C. Wright Mills The Sociological Imagination (1959) Sociological imagination: the ability to understand not only what is happening in one’s own immediate experience but also in the world and to imagine how one’s experience fits into the large picture
Structure of sociological knowledge There are more then 40 “kinds” of sociology
Levels of sociological knowledge • Macro Sociology • Micro sociology
Macro and micro levels of sociological analysis • Macro-sociology focuses on the broad features of society. The goal of macro-sociology is to examine the large-scale social phenomena that determine how social groups are organized and positioned within the social structure. (the “park” of Emile Durkheim) • Micro-sociological level of analysis focuses on social interaction. It analyses interpersonal relationships, what people do and how they behave when they interact. (the “sea” of Max Weber)
Sociological questions • Factual • Comparative • Developmental • Theoretical
Theories and concepts in sociology Sociology does not consist of just collecting facts, however important and interesting they may be. We also want to know why things happen, and to do so we have to learn to pose theoretical questions, to enable us to interpret facts correctly in grasping the causes of whatever is the focus of a particular study. Theories involve constructing abstract interpretations which can be used to explain a wide variety of empirical situations.
Sociological Theories Auguste Comte (1789-1857) Karl Marx(1818-1883) Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) Max Weber (1864-1920) Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) George H. Mead(1863-1931) Functionalism Structuralism Marxism Symbolic interactionism
Emile Durkheim • A major theme pursued by Durkheim and by many other sociological authors since is that the societies exert social constraint over our actions. Durkheim argued that society has supremacy over the individual person. Society is far more than the sum of individual acts; when we analyze social structure, we are rigid and solid frameworks in which our social life exists. Social structure, according to Durkheim, constrains our activities, setting limits to what we can do as individuals. It is 'external' to us, just as the walls of the room are.
Functionalism • Merton (American functionalist, 20 cent.) distinguishes between manifest and latent functions. Manifest functions are those known to, and intended by, the participants in a specific type of social activity. Latent functions are consequences activity of which participants are unaware (Merton, 1957). In studying the modern world we must be aware of disintegrative tendencies - function refers to aspects of social activity which tend to produce change because they threaten social cohesion.
Structuralism • According to Saussure, analyzing the structures of language means looking for the rules which underlie our speech. Most of these rules are known to us only implicitly: we could not easily state what they are. The task of linguistics, in fact, is to uncover what we implicitly know, but know only on the level of being language in practice.
Karl Marx • 1 Themaindynamicofmoderndevelopmentistheexpansionofcapitalisticeconomicmechanisms. • 2 Modernsocietiesarerivenwithclassinequalities, whicharebasictotheirverynature. • 3 Majordivisionsofpower, likethoseaffectingthedifferentialpositionofmenandwomen, deriveultimatelyfromeconomicinequalities. • 4 Modemsocietiesasweknowthemtoday (capitalistsocieties) areofatransitionaltype - wemayexpectthemtobecomeradicallyreorganizedinthefuture. Socialism, ofonetypeoranother, willeventuallyreplacecapitalism. • 5 ThespreadofWesterninfluenceacrosstheworldismainlyaresultoftheexpansionisttendenciesofcapitalisteconomicenterprise.
Max Weber • Themaindynamicofmodemdevelopmentistheproduction of rationality. • Classisonetypeofinequalityamong theothers–, i.e.we should consider inequalitiesbetweenmenandwomeninmodemsocieties. • Powerintheeconomicsystemcan be obtainedfromothersources than purele economic as well. Forinstance, male-femaleinequalitiescannotbeexplainedineconomicterms. • Rationalizationisboundtoprogressfurtherinthefuture, inallfields of sociallife. Allmodernsocietiesdependonthesamemodel ofsocialandeconomicorganization • TheglobalimpactoftheWestcomesfromitscommandoverindustrialresources, togetherwithitsmilitarypower.
Critics of functionalism Although the type of viewpoint of Durkheim and his followers was widely accepted in the academic sociology, especially in 1960s, functionalism has also met with sharp criticism. What is the meaning of the term 'society’ if it‘s not composed of many individual actions? If we study a group of people we would not see a collective entity, but only individuals interacting with each other in various ways. 'Societycan only be understood as many individuals behaving in regular ways in relation to each other. According to the critics, as human beings we have reasons for what we are doing, and we inhabit a social world with various cultural meanings. Social phenomenashould not be considered as 'things’ or ‘facts’, but rather should be viewed from the point of the symbolic meanings that we invest in them. We are not just mere products of our society, but rather its creators.
Symbolic interactionism Virtually all interaction between human individualsinvolves an exchange of symbols. When we interact with others, we constantly look for 'clues' about the type of behaviors appropriate in this context and interpretations of intents. Symbolic interactionism directs our attention to the detail of interpersonal interaction, and to how that detail is used to make sense what others say and do. A complex and subtle process of symbolic interpretation shapes the interaction between the two. Sociologists influenced by symbolic interactionism usually focus on face-to-face interaction in the contexts of everyday life.
