Chapter 1- Lecture Flashcards
What is sociology?
Sociology is the systematic study of human groups and their interactions.
What is the sociological perspective?
Refers to 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 some examples of what we can use the sociological perspective to understand?
- Drinking and driving
- Texting and driving
- How we handle technology
How can we use the sociological perspective with regards to technology (what are some of the questions we can ask)?
- How we handle our technology in society
- Is technology the boss of us now
- Social inability to handle our technology
- Robbing us of our autonomy
Whose idea is the sociological imagination?
Charles Wright Mills
What is the sociological imagination?
Developing an appreciation of how individual challenges are influenced by larger social forces.
What are personal troubles? Examples?
- Result from individual challenges
- Antidepressant use in Canada
What are social issues?
Caused by larger social factors
What does quality of mind refer to?
One’s ability to look beyond personal circumstance and into social context
What is the trick with personal troubles and social issues?
The trick is in understanding how these personal troubles may indeed be due to larger social issues.
What does the sociological imagine refer to?
Peoples “private troubles” that are related to “public issues”
What are the three components of the sociological imagination?
1) Biography
2) History
3) Social Structure
What is biography?
The nature of “human nature” in a society; what kind of people are in a particular society, an individual’s personal story
-Are your problems related to the person you were born as?
What is history?
How a society came to be and how it is changing and how history is being made in it, the historical background that affects who you are, how you grew up
-international vs. Canadian students
What is social structure?
How various institutional orders in a society operate, which ones are dominant, how they are held together, how they might be changing, a network of relatively stable opportunities and constraints influencing our individual behaviours
- things that keep our society glued together
- Institutions
- Ex. university, religions, medical reality (one health region), prisons, politics (government)
What does the sociological imagine bring about?
Awareness of all people in all ranks of society and with all sorts of problems and that using a sociological imagination can lead to social change.
What is the system of socioeconomic stratification (e.g., the class structure), social institutions, or, other patterned relations between large social groups that is the structure of social network ties between individuals or organizations?
Social structure
What is domestic violence rising with economic downturn and a drop in divorce rates an example of?
How personal troubles can be related to larger social issues
What is social organization based on established patterns of social interaction between different relationships (such as those between parents and children, teachers and students, employers and employees), that is regulated through accepted norms and shared values?
Social structure
What does agency refer to ?
The idea that each of us has, to some extent, the ability to alter our socially constructed lives
-Capacity to make decisions for yourself
What is structure?
The relatively stable opportunities and constraints influencing our individual behaviours.
-Ex. married by a priest or pastor (What are you responding to? A world that values religious control.)
What are the five factors of the sociological imagination that produce our perception of ourselves and others?
- Minority Status (not always based on numbers; based on who holds power)
- Gender (gender and sex are different)
- Socioeconomic Status (ascribed status –> what you were born into; advantage or disadvantage / achieved status –> help you create the life you have or want)
- Family Structure (standard North American family –> advantage; broken family –> stigma; predict the life you will lead)
- Urban-Rural Differences (geographic difference: Northern Saskatchewan harder to live in that Central and Southern Saskatchewan [worse internet for example])
Who was the most influential player in the Scientific Revolution of 1650-1800?
Auguste Comte
Who is the “father of sociology”?
Auguste Comte
What did Auguste Comte believe?
Hard science should be applied to the social world.
Which sociologist described the Law of 3 Stages?
Auguste Comte
Name and describe the law of three stages?
1) Theological- religious outlook, the world is an expression of God (everything is the will of God)
2) Metaphysical- a period of questioning and challenging (wonder about influence of religion; part of Enlightenment)
3) Positive- rules of observation, experimentation, and logic
What is quantitative sociology?
- Tends to be positivist in nature
- Measurable behaviour
- Ex. crime rates over time
What is qualitative sociology?
- Anti-positivist in nature
- Non-measurable subjective behaviour
- Ex. experiences of living in poverty
Who were the four main sociologists of the political revolution?
- Machiavelli
- Descartes
- Locke
- Rousseau
What is Machiavelli known for?
- human behaviour motivated by self-interest
- wrote about how everyone could be a prince
- desire for personal gain and survival
Who said, “I think therefore I am”? What does this mean?
- Descartes
- We are all masters of our own destiny
- Reaction to how nobles would construct everyone’s lives
What did Locke believe?
Knowledge is the result of experience
Who believed in tabula rasa or “blank slate”?
John Locke
How did John Locke believe that we could build a better society?
Through our collective knowledge
Who believed that we could achieve more working together than we can apart?
Rousseau
Who came up with the notion of the social contract?
Rousseau
What is the social contract?
We give up some of our personal autonomy and work together for collective benefit to achieve more.
What does Monty Python show us?
- How people organize to protect themselves from others
- Enlightenment: we are more than just people who can be governed by royalty
What is the industrial revolution often associated with (2 things)?
- technological advancement
- profound social changes
What was the industrial revolution?
Move from an agricultural society based on local food production for local consumption to regional and national distribution networks.
-Agriculture to urban and capitalist
What did the industrial revolution result in?
New social problems
-Overcrowding
What is macrosociology?
Refers to attempting to understand society as a whole (top down, big pig, broad)
Who are the 3 macrosociologists?
Marx, Durkheim, and Weber
What is microsociology?
Refers to attempting individual or small group dynamics (smaller groups, small, intimate relationships)
Who are the 3 microsociologists?
Mead, Cooley, and Blumer
What are the four features which define Canadian Sociology?
- Geography and Regionalism
- Political Economy
- Canadianization Movement
- Radical Nature
What is geography and regionalism?
- ability to survive over time (the elements)
- role of regionalism: French and English; Western Canada and Eastern Canada (carbon pricing issue, for example)
What did Clement believe about the political economy and Canadian sociology?
Interest in interactions of politics, government, and the social and cultural constitution of markets, institutions, and actors
What was the Canadianization movement influenced by?
American sociology
What is the radical nature of Canadian sociology?
- Greater focus on macrosociology as well as feminist ideas
- Identify vulnerable people
- Welcoming place
What is sociology in a global perspective?
Looking beyond our own boundaries to consider the dynamic forces of globalization
-Connecting local realities to global collective consciousness
What is globalization?
A worldwide process involving the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services
What is a defining feature of the global economy?
Capitalism
