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Sociology: Chapters 1 (Vocabulary Flashcards)

What is sociology?

  • Systematic/scientific study of human society and social behavior.

  • Becker (1986): sociology is the study of people doing things together.

  • Covers from large-scale institutions to small groups; analyzes how humans affect and are affected by society.

The Sociological Perspective

  • Look at the world through a sociological lens; question taken-for-granted assumptions.

  • Everyday knowledge vs scientific knowledge; two roles: everyday actor vs social analyst.

  • Practical knowledge is everyday and intuitive; scientific knowledge is systematic and coherent.

Beginner's Mind

  • Bernard McGrane (1994): unlearn what you think you know; approach the world without preconceptions.

  • Mindfulness helps reduce habitual thinking; enables new ways of seeing social life.

The Sociological Imagination (Mills)

  • Intersection of biography and history; micro (self) and macro (societal) levels.

  • Personal troubles vs public issues; unemployment as an example of structural forces.

  • Encourages viewing how larger social forces shape individual lives and how individual lives can influence society.

Levels of Analysis: Micro vs Macro

  • Micro: face-to-face interactions, everyday behavior.

  • Macro: large-scale social structures and processes.

  • Most sociologists operate on a continuum between micro and macro.

Major Theoretical Traditions (macro focus)

  • Structural Functionalism: society as a stable, ordered system; each structure has a function (manifest) and may have unintended consequences (latent).

    • Key figures: Durkheim, Parsons, Merton.

    • Strength: integrates social institutions; weakness: limited insight into inequality and change.

  • Conflict Theory: social inequality as a central feature; focus on power, coercion, and change; rooted in Marx.

    • Strength: explains inequality and social change; weakness: can underplay consensus and stability.

  • Weberian Theory: rationalization, bureaucracy, and the shift from traditional to modern life; emphasis on meaning and individual action via empathic understanding.

    • Key concept: iron cage of rationalization; contributes to studies of capitalism and modern life.

Symbolic Interactionism (micro focus)

  • Focus on everyday interactions and the meanings that arise from them.

  • Key figures: Mead and the Chicago School; emphasizes how social order and change are constructed through communication and interpretation.

Other Theoretical Traditions

  • Feminist Theory: gender inequality; intersectionality of gender with race, class, sexuality; key scholars include Butler, Hooks, MacKinnon, Roxane Gay.

  • Queer Theory: sexuality as a social construct; challenges fixed categories and binaries.

  • Critical Race Theory: race, racism, and power; emphasizes institutional racism and intersectionality.

  • Postmodernism and Midrange Theory: responses to changes in the social world and to sociology itself; critiques of grand narratives.

Roots and Founders (early roots)

  • Auguste Comte (1798–1857): positivism; coined sociology as a science of society.

  • Harriet Martineau (1802–1876): translated Comte; early sociologist; critiqued American society.

  • Herbert Spencer (1820–1903): social Darwinism; society as an organism; evolution of social systems.

  • Charles Darwin: theory of evolution influencing social thought (often linked to social Darwinism historically).

  • Emile Durkheim (1858–1917): established sociology as a scientific discipline; key ideas on solidarity (mechanical vs organic); suicide as a social fact; role of religion in social life.

  • Karl Marx (1818–1883): conflict theory; capitalism, class struggle, alienation, and the potential for revolutionary change; concept of praxis.

  • Max Weber (1864–1920): rationalization, bureaucracy, Protestant Ethic; iron cage; empathic understanding; links to modern capitalism.

Non-Western and Critical Perspectives

  • Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406): early sociological insights on social cohesion and the social foundations of civilization; often overlooked in Western histories.

  • Non-Western scholars (e.g., Sarkar, Rizal, Yanagida) contributed sociological insights in their contexts; calls for postcolonial/local theories.

The Classical Macro Theories (origins)

  • Structural Functionalism (Durkheim and successors): order and interdependence of social parts; dysfunction and change.

  • Conflict Theory (Marx and successors): power, inequality, and social change via class struggle.

  • Weberian Theory: rationalization and modernization; the role of meanings and bureaucracy in social life.

Key Concepts and Terms

  • functionalism, structural functionalism, solidarity, mechanical and organic solidarity

  • anomie, praxis, ideology, false consciousness, class consciousness

  • capitalism, means of production, proletariat, bourgeoisie

  • bureaucracy, rationalization, iron cage, empathic understanding

  • macro sociology, micro sociology, levels of analysis, continuum

  • sociological imagination, beginner's mind, culture shock

  • social facts, social institutions, role, socialization

  • manifest vs latent functions, power, inequality, race, gender

Why sociology matters

  • It helps explain how personal experiences are shaped by larger social forces.

  • Encourages viewing familiar life from multiple perspectives and developing a sociological lens for everyday life.

  • Teaches systemic thinking about social life and how to effect change.

Quick references (examples from text)

  • Unemployment during COVID-19 as both a personal trouble and a public issue ( Mills’ sociological imagination )

  • Micro analysis: conversations in households (DeFrancisco’s sounds of silence study) and the Chicago School’s urban fieldwork.

  • Macro analysis: workplace segregation and the glass ceiling/escalator concepts (Williams)