Understanding Socio Imagination
What is sociology?
- The systematic study of human groups in their interaction
- Interested in understanding social forces/external realities shape our behaviour
What is conflict theory?
Society is grounded upon inequality and competition over scarce resources that ultimately result in conflict, which often inspires social change
What is Post-Colonial Theory?
- Focus on the political and cultural effects of colonialism
- PCT suggests a focus on events that happened after formal colonialism ended in the early 1960s
Who are the contemporary feminist theorists?
- Dorothy Smith: a Second Wave feminist
- Betty Friedan: Second Wave
- bell hooks: Third Wave
What is Marx's class consciousness?
- An awareness on the part of the working class
- Recognition of domination and oppression and the collective action that arise in response
What is the difference between quantiative and qualitative sociology?
- Quant is positivist in nature, qual is anti-positivist in nature
- Quant is measurable beahviour, qual is non-measurable subjective behaviours
- Quant eg: rates of poverty over time, qual eg: experiences of living in poverty
Define Base and Superstructure
- Base: Material and economic foundation for society, made up of the forces and relations of production
- Superstructure: All things that society values and aspires to once its material needs are met, includes religion, politics and law
What is Post-Structuralism and who is developed it?
- Concerned with how knowledge is socially produced
- Made by Foucault
What are the rules of the sociological method?
Sociology is a distinct field of study
Although the social sciences are distinct from the natural sciences, the methods of the latter can be applied to the former
The social field is also distinct from the psychological realm
What is the sociological perspective?
The unique way in which sociologists see our world and can dissect the dynamic relationships between individuals and the larger social network in which we all live
What are the differences between the macro and micro approaches?
*Bonus*: Who are the main macro and micro sociologists?
- Macrosociology refers to attempting to understand society as a whole (eg. churches, universities, corporations), while microsociology refers to attempting to understand individual or small group dynamics (eg. partners in marriage, two people who went on a date)
- Macro sociologists: Marx, Durkheim, Weber
- Micro sociologists: Mead, Cooley, Blumer
Who is Emile Durkheim and what is he mainly known for?
- Functionalist theorist
- Known for division of labour social fact, anomie, social solidarity (mechanical and organic), collective conscience, social integration
Define the First, Second, and Third Wave Feminists
- First wave feminist: Feminists differ in their explanations of women’s oppression and the nature of gender and in their ideas about women’s emancipation
- Second wave feminist: characterized by understanding “women” as a coherent social group with a common experience as women
Third wave feminist: believed that what is needed to attention to the multiplicity of women’s voices
True or false: Durkheim found that those who were Catholic, Jewish, female, and/or married had higher rates of suicide
False!
Durkheim found that those who were Protestant, male, wealthy, unmarried had higher rates of suicide
What is the differences between mechanic and organic solidarity?
- MS is a typified by feelings of likeness, rooted in everyone doing/feeling the same thing; characteristic of small, traditional societies (small farming villages). Eg. son becoming a farmer bc his father was a farmer, and so was his father
- OS refers to a type of solidarity in which each person is interdependent with others, forming a complex web of cooperative associations. Eg. going to a bakery to buy bread from a baker, going to a mechanic to get your car fixed
What is the sociological imagination?
- Developing an appreciation of how individual challenges are influenced by larger social forces; the ability to understand the dynamic relationship between individuals and larger society
- Personal troubles result from individual challenges
Who is Charles H. Cooley and what is he known for?
- A prominent Symbolic Interactionist
- Sympathetic introspection: putting yourself into someone else’s shoes and seeing the world as s/he does
- Looking-glass self: we develop our self image through the cues we receive from others
- Self-fulfilling prophecy: interalize impressions and as a result become the kind of person we believe others see us as
- also one of christina's favs theorists
Who is Antonio Gramsci and what is he known for?
- A key Western Marxist who diverged from Marx in his analysis of how the ruling class ruled; also helped form communist party of Italy 1921
- Hegemony: a process that is constantly negotiated and renegotiated
What was the enlightenment period known for?
- Challenging years of Christain teachings
- Philosophoes advocated critical thinking and practical knowledge and built on the natural sciences
- Reorganization of societies
- Economic and political upheaval; American and french revolution, industrial revolution rise of capitalism, urbanization, secularization
What does it mean to think about "what is familiar and see it as strange"
*Bonus*: Who is the theorist behind this?
- Seeing the general in the particular is the ability to look at seemingly unique events (particular) and then recognizing the larger (general) features involved
- Peter Berger
What are the historical development periods of sociology?
1. The scientific revolution: 1650-1800
2. The political revolution: renaissance to enlightenment
3. The industrial revolution: around 1750
What is Symbolic Interactionism and what are Ritzer's principles of SI?
People act towards things based on the meaning those things have for them; and these meanings are derived from social interaction and modified through interpretation
Humans have the capacity of thought
Human thinking is shaped by social interaction
People learning meanings and symbols in social settings
Meanings and symbols enable people to carry on uniquely human action and interactions
Meanings and symbols change dependent upon interpretation
Unique ability to interact with self
Culmination of interaction and patterns of action make up society
- also christina's fav theory/topic of discussion
What is Edward Said's Orientalism and what are the three types?
- Orientalism: A Western style of thought that creates a false opposition between the Orient (East) and the Occident (West)
- Academic Orientalism: Knowledge produced by academics, government experts
- Imaginative Orientalism: Representations including art, novel, poems, images that make a distinction between the Orient and the accident
- Institutional Orientalism: Institutions created by Europeans such that they could gain authority over, alter and rule the Orient
What is the law of 3 stages?
1. Theological - Spanned time of our early ancestors to middle ages where human thought was characterized by emphasis on super naturalism
2. Metaphysical - Renaissance and enlightenment
3. Positive - Emerged during Auguste Comte’s time, emphasized understanding the world through the scientific lens/methods
What were some of the Conservative beliefs around the Enlightenment period?
Society exists on its own
Society produces the individual
Individuals simply fill positions
Smallest unit of social analysis is the family
Parts of society are interrelated and interdependent
Change is a threat
Social institutions are beneficial
Modern social changes create fear and anxiety
Emphasis on seemingly irrational factors
Return to social hierarchies and healthy competition