Bauman & May – introduction: crafting the sociological lens

Sociology

framing the social world + methods for understanding and expressing

social phenomena

social phenomena

• just as real in consequences as natural phenomena

• do not exist outside of the social world

• result of collective meaning making

• can be incorrectly understoof as natural / inevitable = normalised = difficult to question / change

sociology starts from the premise that…

ind are inherently interdependent - forger by social relations = personal troubles connected to public issues

relational way of understanding the world - forged by interaction (relations, social structures, culture)

thinking sociologically

defamiliarization (escape from common sense)

familiarize

use a relational perspective

What do sociologists do?

• question taken for granted social phenomena

• try to understand how they become taken for granted

• contribute to their deconstruction (showing how they are: produced, reproduced)

relationship between cost + benefit in sociology

human action = allocation of scerse resources + how these might be used to an advantage

common sence

tactic knowledge - own world

rests on routine + own field (ppl and exp we know)

doing sociology

empirical research and methods

argumentation

theory

rules of responsible communication

modes of justification

statements supported by evidence

rules of responsible speech

relate to other works on the same topic