Intro to Contemporary Issues

Contemporary Issues

  • Issues that are current and unresolved and need to be resolved

  • Modern problems

  • Approached in a public manner

Benefits of Studying Contemporary Issues

  • Strengthens global citizenship

  • Stimulates discussions

  • Establishes networks

  • Teaches cultural relativism

  • Broadens our horizons

  • Develops sense of responsibility

  • Helps you to contribute ideas and knowledge for social transformation

Sociological Theories

  • Used to approach the interactions of people in society

Sociological Imagination

  • Awareness of the relationship between an individual and the society, both today and the past

UNDERSTANDING SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES AND PERSPECTIVES

STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM (MACRO)

Key Concepts

  • Manifest functions

  • Latent functions

  • Dysfunctions 

View on Individuals

  • People are socialized to perform societal functions

View on Society

  • Stable

  • Well-integrated 

Social Order

  • Maintained through cooperation and consensus

CONFLICT (MACRO)

Key Concepts

  • Inequality

  • Capitalism 

  • Stratification  

View on Individuals

  • People are shaped by power coercion and authority

View on Society

  • Characterized by tension and struggle between groups

Social Order

  • Maintained through force and coercion

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM (MICRO)

Key Concepts

  • Symbols 

  • Non-verbal communication

  • Face-to-face 

View on Individuals

  • People manipulate symbols and create their social worlds through interaction

View on Society

  • Active in influencing and affecting everyday social interaction

Social Order

  • Maintained by shared understanding of everyday behavior

LAW AND PUNISHMENT

Structural Functionalism

Public punishments reinforce the social order

Conflict Theory

Laws reinforce the positions of those in power

Symbolic Interactionism

People respect laws or disobey them based on their own experience