Lecture 2 Flashcards
What is society?
A large group of people who live
together in an organized way
-All the people in a country, or in
several similar countries, can be
referred to as a society
persistent social interaction
(Check notes: think we had a discussion here)
What do sociologists study?
● Social inequality
● Social institutions
● Social change
What is social inequality?
- The gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged.
- Gaps exist in terms of rights, opportunities, rewards and
privileges. - Inequality is based on these differential experiences.
What are Social institutions?
Family, education, religion, economy, and government.
- Social institutions are defined as the norms, values, and rules
of conduct structuring human interactions.
What do we research on institutions and why?
– Function/dysfunction
– The way institutions facilitate social change
– That institutions are standardized ways of doing things, as actions become
regularized, patterned, and reproduced
– How institutions are contradictory, at times helping society run smoothly, at
other times reproducing social inequality within societies, but always potential
sites of social change
What is Social change (explain with an example)?
- Ex. secularization: process of a religion losing its authority
over individuals and in social life in general. - Sociologists wonder why religion has lost some of its influence in modern societies.
Explain social change with Religiosity: (how we can measure it)
how religious an individual or society is.
● How do we measure this?
● Canada’s religiosity is on the decline but religiosity is on the rise in many
parts of the world.
● Religion’s changing role in Canadian society is one example of social
change that sociologists focus on in their research.
● How does social change in one institution impact other social institutions?
● How does religiosity impacts health outcomes
What is sociology as a martial art?
Bourdieu refers to sociology as “a martial art, a means of self-defense.”
What are the three main things sociologists do?
- Sociologists look into large
patterns that shape individual lives - Sociology is a systematic and
evidence-based study inquiry into
the social world - Sociologists hope to provide
people with better understanding
of the world around them so they
can have a better lives
What are four major concepts we think of when we say sociology:
Social facts
social action
Social Relations
Martial Arts
What does the sociological eye see? (two things)
Assessing critically the familiar
Generalizing from the particular
What is the sociological imagination? (according to C. Wright Mills)
“The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society.
That is its task and its promise”
Who is C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)? (what did he think)
Influences : World War II, New Left in (Britain) and events like the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
Critical views of Western capitalism and Soviet Totalitarianism
Intellectuals have a key role to play in politics.
People who live in affluent societies and experience material well-being still share a
feeling of unease. Why is it so ?
According to the sociological Imagination, what are:
Troubles
Resolution
issues
- Troubles – occur within the character of the Individual
- Resolution – within the milieu (social environment) of the individual
- Issues – public matter
Check notes (Cherished values within society are being threatened)
Explain trouble vs issue with unemployment
- Troubles - One person who is unemployed in a town of 10000
- Issues - 2.800 million people are unemployed in a nation of 67.7 million
- If the economy is arranged in a cycle of boom and boost (the capitalist economy)
there can be no personal solution to the individual troubles of the unemployed
Values that are collectively cherished by a society influence behaviour.
Explain these:
Well-being
Crisis
What happens when all their values are involved?
Indifference
Uneasiness and anxiety
Well-being: When people cherish some set of values and do not feel any threat to them
Crisis: People cherish values but feel them to be threatened —either as a personal trouble or as a public issue.
If all their values seem involved they feel the total threat of panic.
Indifference: people are neither aware of any cherished values nor experience any threat
Uneasiness and anxiety: People are unaware of any cherished values, but still are very much aware of a threat
Explain the importance of cherished values?
If we can achieve these values (happy)
If cannot: crisis
In relation to values, what did people feel in the 1950’s? (role of sociologist here)
Uneasiness and anxiety
- Ppl didn’t know where it was coming from
- Role of sociologist to connect the uneasiness to larger social issues
How can the sociological imagination be applied to climate change?
- Most people can only imagine their impacts on the planet in the
form of individualized consumer actions – troubles - The application of a sociological imagination to reframe the
questions we ask about climate change
Explain Risk Society:
the manner in which modern society organizes in response to risk
Constantly worried about a future catastrophe
New risks in modernity and lack of trust in institutions
Summarize the idea of risk society today?
We live in a world full of risks
- We don’t fully understand, and it causes stress
What is the treadmill of production?
constant search for economic growth leads to advanced economies being stuck on a “treadmill,”
- Conflict between economic growth and quality of environment
How is society impacted by treadmill of production?
It reproduces inequalities
Why are we not responding more effectively to climate change?
● Lack of information is the limiting factor in public non-response
● People don’t care about the environment, future generations or
people living in poor nations
● Relationships between oil companies executives and federal
governments shape climate policy
- Media frames things certain ways
How can we respond to climate crisis?
- Our individual choices are a product of culture and values
- We don’t hold government or cooperation’s accountable
What did Durkheim think about the individual?
The individual is to society what a cell
is to the organism of which it is a part
What is collective conscious?
The set of shared beliefs, ideas, and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society.
What are social facts?
social facts are values, cultural norms, and social structures that transcend the individual and can exercise social control
The fibers and linkages—that bond
individuals together are the subject of
sociology
What does Durkheim mean when he says “Society is a field of force”
subject to the same laws of motion as
any other physical matter
* These laws are available for
investigation through scientific inquiry
