Review of Sociology

Summary

1. Sociology is the scientific study of society. It studies social problems, as well as other areas of social life such as social interactions, social groups, social inequalities, and social institutions.
2. According to C. Wright Mills, the sociological imagination involves the ability to connect our individual lives to larger social forces. It allows us to see how social problems are public issues rather than personal troubles, and how social problems require structural solutions.
3. Social forces such as cultural ideas, our social identities, and our access to social institutions shape our lives and the choices we make, and can constrain the very choices we have available to us. The sociological imagination supports a blame-the-system view over a blame-the-victim view.
4. There is an array of foundational sociological concepts that guide our understanding of social problems. Social institutions, established patterns of interaction that guide our behavior, and culture, shared norms, practices, and beliefs, constitute the social structure, how society is organized. We all experience socialization, the learning of our culture including worldviews and social identities. Our social identities are tied to social hierarchies and thus to systems of power, systemic privilege or oppression, which according to intersectionality can interact to produce unique experiences in our lives.
5. People differ in their relationship to privilege and power, based on their social location – one's location in social hierarchies. Social problems are manifestations of this inequality, which is is both personal and structural. Thus, different social groups experience social problems in unique ways. Additionally, the social locations of scholars matter because they influence what questions scholars ask, how they gather their data, and how they interpret the results. According to Du Bois and Collins, scientists who belong to groups that experience oppression are more likely to be able to describe and explain the systems that contribute to structural inequality.
6. Several theoretical perspectives in sociology exist, with three classical paradigms. Structural functionalism emphasizes the functions that social institutions or social phenomena serve to ensure the ongoing stability of society. Conflict theory highlights the conflict or power differentials among different social groups and how social institutions perpetuate inequality. Symbolic interactionism focuses on how individuals construct and interpret shared meanings during social interactions and how those shape their understandings of themselves and their lives. The functionalist and conflict perspectives fall under macrosociology (the macro level of analysis) and the interactionist perspective falls under microsociology (the micro level).
7. Contemporary sociological theoretical perspectives are numerous. Examples include feminist theory, which focuses on gender oppression and all oppression more broadly, racial formation theory, which emphasizes how race is an ongoing social construction tied to systemic racism, and queer theory, which questions rigid gender and sexual identity categories and embraces fluidity and liberation.
8. A research framework or approach or knowledge organizes the questions the social scientist might ask, the ways the research is designed, the kinds of information the scientist considers valid, and the use of the research outcomes. In the scientific method, researchers start with a measurable hypothesis and collects data to prove or disprove the hypothesis. In the interpretive framework, the researcher has a set of core questions but allows participant behavior or interviews to reveal themes or answers. In Indigenous frameworks, researchers emphasize interdependence and connection, using energy, spirit, and stories in addition to physical evidence or sociological information to learn things.
9. Each of the sociological research methods we covered has its strengths, from survey studies, which help us understand trends over time and can be generalized to the larger population, to participant observation studies, which give us detailed understandings of social life, to in-depth interview studies, which offer deep knowledge of how people experience or understand social phenomena. However, each method also has disadvantages, such as how surveys are expensive and may not fully capture the truth, how participant observation is open to researcher interpretation and can't be generalized, and how in-depth interviews are time-consuming and rely on strongly skilled interviewers.
10. Social problems sociologists often engage in research so that they and others can take effective action. Action research involves taking action as part of the research process. Humanitarian approaches help improve human lives and community-based approaches or participatory action have the benefit of collaborations with community partners. The goal of both approaches is social change.

  

Questions

1. What's an example of a 'private trouble' you've experienced or heard of someone experiencing, and how may it be tied to or reflect a structural problem in society?
2. Exactly how were you socialized into your culture(s), including cultural ideals or values, norms, and traditions?
3. Identify 4-5 of your social identities (related to social class, race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, or disability) – for which do you have power/privilege, and for which do you experience oppression? How might the systems of power attached to each of those identities interact for you?
4. Which one of the three classical sociological theoretical perspectives most appeals to you so far, and why does it?
5. How does one of the contemporary sociological theoretical perspectives align with one or more of the classical perspectives?
6. Find a news article or clip that describes why a current social problem exists – do you see any of the theoretical perspectives in this chapter being applied to explain the social problem?
7. Considering the various approaches to knowledge, do you think that social scientists can truly use objectivity in their scientific process, and why or why not?
8. Which type of sociological research method sounds most interesting to you, and why?
9. Some politicians argue that we're creating conflict by focusing on our differences, whereas others argue that by understanding the causes and consequences of our differences, we can begin to create a more just world – which position do you take, and why?

  

Action Steps

1. Strengthen your sociological imagination: Apply a sociological imagination to your own life and the lives of those around you to better understand them. In other words, connect your individual lives and choices to larger social forces and reframe seemingly personal problems as social problems. When these issues come up in conversation, explain how our lives are connected to larger social forces to help others develop a sociological imagination.
2. Use your power: Consider how power/privilege and oppression operate in your life based on your combination of social identities, identify how you could use your power to help address social problems (either that you face yourself or that others face), and use that power when opportunities arise.