Intro to Sociology 110 - Lecture notes 1-10 PDF

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9/21/16 Sociology → the way of understanding social life by doing systematic research. 9/23/16 Sociology is not the study of people, it is not a method of doing research Sociology starts with questioning and commonsense explanations for why we do things. Begins with a ‘radical’ thesis that the way we do things is NOT optimal or natural or anything… Reality is a product of life, and that is abstract and arbitrary things come to be treated as concrete and real. Starts by questioning these categories and the things that we take for granted (race, family, gender, leisure, etc…) When we question, we make what is familiar to most people strange. Take the common → make it odd Sneezing → inherently low key behavior that everyone says ‘bless you’ (I recognize you are a human being/respect) Cultural anthropology more often takes the goal of making the strange become familiar Sociology focuses on modern developed societies and studies what seems natural but IS NOT. Sociological Imagination → connects our own biographies with history There are many “others” or “outsiders” within our own society whose behavior may be thought of as strange. We study institutions, they are the engines of social constructs. -the family -the legal system -the university Nacirema Tribe We are the Nacirema tribe → American backwards

9/26/16 Sociological Imagination → Being puzzled by how people do things in other places and finding commonality with your own personal ways. How to construct reality → taken for granted, seems natural Sociology itself is an institution Set of roles and positions and etc.

NEEDS A COMMUNITY Other institutions had to be in place for this all to start Societies needed to be ‘disenchanted’ Politics, education and religion had to align to allow for the social scientific community to emerge

Approach to Research questions Positivism v. interpretivism Levels of theory Macro v micro Key of society Conflict v. cooperation Hobbes was a social philosopher ● Fan of the monarchy ● Thought it was needed ● Without it, we would all be killing each other ● Deal is → freedom for security Rousseau ● Loss of freedom through private property ● Human nature is malleable ● Society changed our nature and made us petty Auguste Comte ● Coined the term sociology ● Wanted to call it ‘social physics’ ● Aim is to generalize laws possible to explain things ● Moving through 3 phases → theological, metaphysical, and scientific Emile Durkheim ● Lineage to be as scientific as possible ● Late 19th and 20th century Karl Marx ● Not a sociologist, an economist ● Social classes are important Major division between Durkheim and Marx -Conflict v. Cooperation

Conflict v. Cooperation ● Splits into 2 theories ● We come together and cooperate Marx says ● At human nature, we were bad and the fundamental feature is that we are bad, we have conflicts Societies evolve from one form to another, like organism move from less to more complex Individual happiness is not as important as societal order Max Weber ● Advanced Marx’s approach ● Broadens conflict beyond economic groups ○ Other social divisions matter as well ○ History is a messy conflict with many fronts ● Not a natural science CHECK THE SLIDES ON CANVAS Different philosophies - epistemologies Positivism v. Interpretivism ● How does college fit in this? ● Trying to get a more positivism look on society 10/3/16

Which of the following would be a macro level positivist and conflict based approach? Analyzing data on uprisings and revolutions in Latin America as caused by growing economic inequality in life. The Sociology of culture: Culture → beliefs, traditions, knowledge Ethnocentrism → elevate your own culture to the level of good, better than others Enemy of sociological imagination Does culture divide or unite us? Karl Marx took a very conflict view of culture, the dominant ideas of an era create

Culture is a weapon and a struggle for power… Struggle for power was in materialistic terms, owning property, who owns the property, the extension, the workers, are like potatoes in the sack Dominated through cultures that dominant us/punish us → 1984 Became Mass Culture Theory Rebelling against 1950’s idea about consumption, the rebellion, counter culture MASS CULTURE THEORY Became consolidated over time, owned by a few people, milking it forever, not to last, nothing of real quality Creates people into robots Weberian Sociology Status groups were due to style of life Multiple lines of fragmentation Veblen Felt out of place in academia Not a Marxist, but a conflict theorist highly critical of the wealthy Private property became the basis of esteem, it gets deeper away from equality Conspicuous leisure Time not used for work is unworthy Demonstrates wealth We mistake waste for femininity Tied to being ‘useless but expensive’ Example of Veblen’s concept of ‘conspicuous leisure’ - Talking about your knowledge of poetry (you have tons of time to do what you want) We are all socialized into a world that was not of our own creation Just because something is common, it does not mean that it is ‘natural’ We upend all these thoughts Family → primary unit of socialization Class-based differences may be worth noting Culture capital ● Children from money learn more elaborated codes ● Less money kids learn more restricted codes’ You end up going to school, those who do better tend to be in higher social classes Different levels of school → public or private Friends tend to reinforce message taught by family, even though they are separate entities We are all exposed quite a bit to the media, mass media refers to any media that reaches the

masses of people Hegemony refers to the impact the media has on culture Being cultivated is a form of cultural capital → suppress sociological imaginations We are shaped, shaped through our everyday ongoing socializations These roles provides a way to describe theory Ascribed status → we are born with Achieved status → we earn it through individual effort or have imposed on us by others Social construction of reality Exist only because they were made Three main approaches to thinking about social interaction 1. Symbolic interactionism a. Micro level theory based on idea that people act in accordance to shared meanings b. George Herbert Mead 2. Goffman’s Dramaturgical Theory a. Social life as a theatrical performance in which we are all actors on stages 3. Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis a. Micro level approaches to how reality is fragile and needs upkeep

A symbolic interactionist would say that fully socialized people differ from children in having developed: A ‘generalized other’ Three levels - micro level, meso level, macro level Micro - small groups Meso - networks, organizations Macro - Societies, world-regions Most sociology takes place in the meso level range of thinking We all belong to social groups Group dynamics, micro-macro dynamics A node is a social actor, while a tie is a set of stories that explain our relationship to the other members of our network Simmel said if you want to understand people, there is a key element in determining the form of social relations in a group is the size of the group. Balance theory, the way that people operate is that people are always seeking a state in which

their triadic relationships are balanced. There is a general rule that a friend of a friend is a friend 4 Rules 1. A friend of a friend is a friend 2. A friend of an enemy is an enemy 3. An enemy of a friend is an enemy 4. An enemy of an enemy is a friend

Networks and Deviance Balance theory, homophily, and tie strength suggest a social macro-structure The structure of our ties matter independently regardless of what the ties are holding together Social Capital The information and knowledge of people and connections that help people enter new networks and gain power in them High amounts of social capital in a community generally means that the community is tightly knit and can come together to face challenges and make improvements What is Deviance? Any transgression of socially established norms Minor transgressions of these norms can be described as informal Formal deviance is breaking laws Things that are considered deviant were not considered in the past and in other places, minus a few things Deviance is socially constructed Normative compliance is the act of abiding by society’s norms or simply following the rules of group life Social Control is a set of mechanisms that create normative compliance in individuals Informal social sanctions → stare, or clear throat or something of that nature Best way to get people who do not get along to like each other, give them a common enemy Mechanical solidarity → based on the sameness of society’s parts or members Or Organic solidarity → based on the interdependence of specialized parts or members Too much deviance is a reflection of society not structured correctly Suicide is the best deviant act, legit anti-social, they kill themselves because they have lost connection

Merton’s strain theory states that deviance occurs when a society does not give all its members equal ability to achieve socially acceptable goals 4 types of deviance → Conformity, ritualism, innovation, retreatism, rebellion 1. Labeling theory - DEVIANCE Stigma is a negative label applied toward people → changes the way people feel Broken windows theory → people will commit violence more often if the social context suggests that they can do it and get away with it Things to keep in mind Deviance is socially constructed, connected with larger institutions, cooperation based views say it is functional, but too much will reflect badly on society, micro-level approaches state how this operates Stratification A system of inequality that has become institutionalized Social mobility is the movement between positions within the system, when people move up or down the mobility SES refers to someone’s position in a capitalist system Structural mobility → inevitable from economic change Exchange mobility → people trade positions, the number stays the same, some move up some move down ETHNOCENTRISM...