Week 2: Developing the Sociological Imagination

Age of Enlightenment (~1650-1800)

an era crucial to the development of sociology, sought to study/explain the world using rational-scientific methods rather than supernatural

Agency

individual social power and the capacity for action

ex: what we as individuals do within the structural constraints

Anomie

French for “rootlessness” or “normlessness,” the aimlessness or despair that arises during times of great social change, linked to suicide

Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

French philospher often cited as the founder of sociology and doctrine of positivism, influenced by French utopian socialist Henri Saint-Simon (1760-1825), sought scientific laws that govern human behavior (what he first called “social physics”)

Conflict theory

perspective that holds conflict between competing interests as the basic, animating force of society; people: Thomas Hobbes, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Max Weber, C. Wright Mills

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917): The Sociologist Par Excellence

French sociologist and father of the “functionalist” school; sought to understand what holds society together; key works: The Division of Labor in Society and Suicide

Functionalism

perspective that assumes various social institutions and processes in society exist to serve some important or necessary function to keep society running; people: Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, Herbert Spencer, August Comte

Jane Addams (1860-1935)

associated with foundation of social work in US, involved in the settlement movement: opens and operates Chicago’s Hull House, dealt with American problems like immigration/resettlement, urbanization, and assimilation

Karl Marx (1818-1883): The Relevant Rebel

German-born historian, philosopher, economist, political theorist, and revolutionary; notable works: The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital; his and Engels ideas founded the Marxist academic school and political program; saw class conflict as key to all social conditions and actions (“conflict theory”); his ideas were adapted and perverted by 20th century authoritarian regimes (ex: Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam)

“the history… of society is the history of class struggles”

Levels of Analysis: micro

includes small scale interactions between individuals and groups

ex: the minute, individual experiences and interactions of everyday life

Levels of Analysis: meso

focuses on the institutional level that mediates micro and macro levels

ex: families, organizations/firms, CWRU

Levels of Analysis: macro

includes large scale social processes that are often more abstract

ex: economy, culture

Max Weber (1864-1920): The Deep and Despondent Thinker

German-born early critic of Marx, believed Marx’s view of society was overly-deterministic; proponent of Verstehen; major works: Economy and Society, “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”

Positivism

emphasizes the scientific method and objectively observable behavior of individuals

Positivist Sociology

holds that the social world can be described and predicted by certain relationships; the methodological and theoretical view that society can and should be studied using the objective, empirical methods of the natural sciences

Social Institution

a complex, large-scale system of interrelated roles that, accepted by a group of people, regulates behavior and social expectations

ex: governments, families, universities, and organized religion

Social Structure

enduring and regular social arrangements that emerge from persistent patterns of human interactions and relationships; often hidden from view but is deeply embedded and implicated in all we do

ex: family, the state, law, markets/capitalism

Symbolic Interactionism

micro-level perspective in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people’s actions; examples of people who believe this: Herbet Mead, Charles Horton Cooley, Erving Goffman

Verstehen

German for “understanding,” the object of inquiry for interpretative sociology; we must study how social actors understand their actions and the social world through experience

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)

a man who was foundational to early empirical sociology (along with Durkheim), dealt with the social construct of race; said “the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line"

what are the factors of the sociological imagination?

biography + social structure + history

how do the 3 factors of the sociological imagination model (biography, social structure, history) change how we view ourselves?

this intersection requires us to “think beyond ourselves” and see how each of us, as individuals, are profoundly shaped by social structure and history

biography examples

family background, individual choices, and experiences

history examples

colonalism, African diaspora, slavery, Jim Crow segregation

social structure examples

class, race, culture, and/or gender hierarchy, laws, markets

social institutions:

how is Princeton University more than just a physical space, buildings, land?

sociologically, what makes it Princeton is the idea of it, brand/status, with ritual/meaning: Ivy League, liberal arts, chalkboards (no whiteboards), freshmen run at Fitzrandolph Gate

how did the decline of religious authority and belief influenced sociology? how did that have influence on future sociologists?

the decline of religion ushered the necessity of a secular basis for morality, and sociology emerged as the “science of morality,” which had deep influence on sociologist Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

who are the big 3 classical theorists? the seminal trio of classical sociologists?

karl marx, max weber, and emile durkheim

“The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”

a major work by Max Weber that argues that the values of the Protestant Reformation made northern Europe fertile ground for capitalism

Suicide

a key work by Emile Durkheim found that, to a great extent, suicide was predictable based on whether someone was integrated into group life and lived according to routine; indicated of positivist sociology

sociological perspectives (aka Grand Theory)

perspectives akin to lenses through which we can view the social world; 3 central perspectives: functionalism, conflict theory (ex: Marxism), symbolic interactionism

what was the example of agency in the 20th century did he use?

A monk’s self-immolation in peaceful protest in Saigon, Vietnam