Week 2: The Sociological Imagination Flashcards
What is the ‘Natural Attitude’
- “Common sense” of experiencing the world
- people accept the world as it is given through experience and that people address the world realistically
What is ‘Sociology’?
The study of Social Life and Social Relationships. Sociology’s core interest lies on actions and thoughts.
How does Sociology study social life?
Through
- theories (explanations for observed realities)
- methods (techniques for collecting and making common sense of information)
- critical thinking (investigating)
What is the Social Structure?
The “Macro Level of Society”: the connections between personal and social structures
- stable arrangements of institutions whereby human beings in a society interact and live together
Microstructure
Relationships created in direct mutual interaction
(the job example: who is going to help you more in finding a job).
Macrostructure
“Overall organization of society”, the lower, middle and high class.
A form of connection outside and bigger than your family, large scale level, featuring the social groups, organizations, institutions, nation states and their respective properties and relations
(who is going to be smarter example)
Global Structure
“Macro-level phenomenon”, patterns of social relations that lie outside the nation level.
(for example: donating money to the poor, so it’ll help with famine and foreign aid (the process of giving money, food, or resources by one country)
Who was the first scholar to use the term “Sociology”?
Auguste Comte
What did Theory did Comte find?
Positivism
What is Positivism?
Philosophical theory and approach to the study of human society and social relationships that sees a social reality as compromising objective facts and views and the research process as value free (that it should not be influenced by your own beliefs) scientific research based study.
Value Free
Researchers keeping his or her values (personal, political, religious) from the research process.
Social Organism
Sociological concept where in a social structure is regarded as “living organism”
- the organizations of society, such as law, family, crime, etc., are examined as they interact with other entities of the society to meet its needs
Critical Sociology
An area of sociology that is focused on debating social issues
Karl Marx
Founder of sociology’s conflict- focused theories
Durkheim and Weber
Influenced by positivism and were more focused on understanding society and social change
Structural Functionalism
Theoretical framework in sociology that sees society as a complex system, or organism whose parts are connected and work together to promote stability and interdependence
Origins of the Sociological Perspectives:
Scientific, the Scientific Revolution
Series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period
- began in 1550
- encouraged experiment conclusions about the working society must be based on evidence
(For example, Galileo pointed his telescope in the sky to gather evidence for a particular view)
Heretic
A person believing in church practices
What is the ‘Sociological Imagination’
A way of thinking and seeing the social world by noticing connections between individual experiences
Origins of the Sociological Perspectives: The Democratic Observation
- began in 1750 with the American and French Revolution. It showed society can change in a short period of time without a rule.
- realization a,lang people that they can control themselves
Origins of the sociological perspective: Industrial Revolution
- began in England 1780
- development of new technologies and factories
- formation of the working class
Buroway: Professional Sociology
The main activities sociologists do in universities and colleges, teaching, conduction research
Buroway: Critical Sociology
Debating on social issues of the professional sociology
Buroway: Policy Sociology
Done outside university and college where putting Sociological knowledge to effect in planning courses if action followed by governments, institutions like school
- ‘ the service client ‘
Buroway: Public Sociology
Sharing Sociological knowledge to the general public
Micheal Buraway
Social Theorist
What is a Social Theorist
How societies change and develop, about methods of explaining behaviour, about power and social structure, gender and ethnicity, modernity and civilization
Milieu
A persons social environment
- a trouble is a private matter and can only be fixed by the individual
Structure
The distinct places where human beings in society interact and live together
Agency
The ability to make your own choices, you free will
Tasks rely on - and -
Skills of reasoning and quality of mind
The Power Elite
Small group of people who control an either large or small amount of power, wrath and privilege and access to decision makers in society
Advocacy scholarship
Having the knowledge and articulate the stand point of some group in society in a way that is intelligible and instructive to the members of the group as well as to support the standpoint of social relation
