CH 1

Sociology 101

Chapter 1

What is sociology?

Technical definition:

1. Study of human society. ***

Explanation: The study of anything related to human society such as Animals, rocks, trees, etc.

2. Study of interactions and relations among human beings, from small & personal groups to very large groups.

   (how do they react and interact?)

   (Small: Two or more people)

   (Large: The whole world)

   Reason: In sociology, you require two or more people to be able to study their interactions.

3. Study of social institutions, cultural factors, and forces that causes order and change in society.

(Institutions have purposes and regulations).

(Forces: Social phenomena).

Ex: Economics, politics, cultural, etc. > Affects that’ll change the outcome.

By scientific: Applications of scientific method to sociological inquiries.

Ex: Observation & experiments.

What is society?

A group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share common culture.

Levels of sociological analysis:

• Micro-level: Study groups & individual interactions.

  Ex: Mother & son or Student & teacher.

  When to use: When analyzing small groups.

• Meso-level: Study middle sized categories within a population such as organization or aspect of institution or community.

  Ex: Universities, schools, etc.

  Reason: Rules, regulation, policy, purpose, etc.

  When to use: When looking at structures.

• Macro-level: Study the trends among & between large groups & societies.

  Ex: Cities, value, economy, etc.

  When to use: Society as a whole. (anything that affects people)

• Global-level: Study the whole world.

  Ex: Covid-19, stocks, global-warming, global immigration, etc.

What is culture:

1. Definition: Comprehensive way of life.

Includes:

• Knowledge

• Customs

• Laws

• Beliefs

• Material & non-material elements

2. Anything that is made by human.

• Buildings, books, pencils, clothes, etc

3. Culture is opposite to nature.

   Ex: Tree is nature. But, if you cut the tree and turn the wood into table, it becomes culture.

   Ex: A classroom Is made by humans so humans can behave in a certain way.

4. Non-material examples: (Things that you can’t touch, but it becomes a part of you)

   -Language, values, social-norms, belief, etc.

5. material examples: (Things you can see, things that has a purpose for the human to behave in a certain way)

   -Classrooms, tables, clothes, furniture, buildings, etc.

Sociological imagination:

A concept that was developed by C. Wright Mills.

Definition: The ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society.

Go beyond your imagination or yourself (ask so many questions)

-Look beyond circumstances of the individual and see the effects of culture, larger historical and social factors.

-As much as you’re shaping the culture, culture shapes you as well.

Ex: If a local Arab baby was sent to Norway to a Christian family, the baby will grow up to be a Christian Norwegian person.

On a global level: To see a nation intertwined (connected) with other nations future on levels such as

• Economic

• Political

• Environmental

• Humanitarian

How sociologists view the world:

Pattern (continuation)

• Becomes structure

Patterns ex:

Values, laws, uni courses.

It’s gonna exist even after decades.

To do one thing in relation to another.

Example:

Teaching children about beliefs in the hopes they teach their children in the future.

Sociologists study the behavior of large groups of people that live in the same society whilst facing the same pressure to identify patterns.

Social facts:

• Laws

• Morals

• Values

• Religious beliefs

• Customers

• Rituals

• Cultural rules that govern us

——————————————————————————————————————————

An individual and society are inseparable.

Person=society

Norbert Elias (German) identifies this as a term (FIGURATION)

-By using social institution, you’ll figure out the individual.

Sociology & other social sciences:

Sociology comes across to everything.

• Politics

• Culture

• Economics

• religious

• Sports

• Culture

• Crimes

• Development

• Poverty

• Cities

• Urbanization

• Technology

• Military

• Fashion

• Consumption

• Identity

• Race

• Ethnicity

*Sociology is more spread out (more broad)*

-Economics & political scientists:

Certain economics concepts. Decision making governmental.

-Geography: Focuses in places, space.

A room can affect you.

-History: Sociologists look at the past to understand the present. However, historians look at the past to understand the past.

-Anthropology: They both look at society as a whole.

Sociologists = quantitative =stats.

Qualitative = look at narratives (Written stuff)

Natural science:

Focuses on objects.

Focuses on the study of physical world.

Sociology focuses on human society.

The history of sociology:

Plato (The republic)

Al Farabi (Madina al-Fadila)

Ma Tuan-Lin (Study of Literary Remains) (Chinese)

Ibn Khaldun (Al Muqaddimah)

Topics studied by ancient philosophers & historians:

• Ideal society

• Social conflict

• Social solidarity

• Cohesion

• Power

1800s industrial rev changes:

• Increased mobility

• New employments

• Trade

• Travel

• Globalization

• Millions moved to city

• many turned away from traditional beliefs

August Comte

-Term sociology first coined**

Why study sociology:

Improve sociology

Social reforms

Improve peoples lives

Teach people how they fit into the world and how others perceive them

Not accept easy explanations

Organize themselves

Prepare us to live and work in ‘divers world’

Graduates = Transferable skills > Knowledge & skills can be applied in variety of settings and contribute to tasks.

Skills contribution to workplaces:

1. Understanding of societal systems

2. Advise, and carry out research

3. Collect, read and analyze stats

4. Recognize differences

5. Skills in preparing reports

6. Capacity of critical thinking about social issues

7. Prepares people for wide variety of careers