Introduction to

SOCIOLOGY

MRS. DINA RASHIDOVNA MINGAZOVA

What is sociology?

Sociology is a study of human social life, social groups and societies.

Sociology studies

• The scope of sociology is extremely wide and is concerned with almost all aspects of social life: our everyday practices, processes of growing-up and getting older, love, marriage and family, globalization, economical relations and their impact on social life, poverty, political attitudes, crime and deviance, health issues, questions of inequality, race and gender issues, urbanization processes, media, education, religion etc.

C. Wright Mills The Sociological Imagination

(1959)

Sociological imagination: the ability to understand not only what is happening in one’s own immediate experience but also in the world and to imagine how one’s experience fits into the large picture

Sociological imagination

Coffee as a social ritual

Coffee as part of global economy

Coffee as a legal drug

Coffee-houses and history of England 17th century

Coffee and colonialism

Social change

Industrialization

Globalization

Health inequality

Health Inequalities

Health inequality

Structure of sociological knowledge

Sociology of knowledgeSociology of labourSociology of deviant behav-iourSociology of medicine

There are more then 40 “kinds” of sociology

Levels of sociological knowledge

• Macro Sociology

• Micro sociology

Per Manson, Swedish sociologist

Social Structure

Social Structure

Individual action

Social Networks

Individual freedom

Macro and micro levels of sociological

analysis• Macro-sociology focuses on the broad features of

society. The goal of macro-sociology is to examine the large-scale social phenomena that determine how social groups are organized and positioned within the social structure. (the “park” of Emile Durkheim)

• Micro-sociological level of analysis focuses on social interaction. It analyses interpersonal relationships, what people do and how they behave when they interact. (the “sea” of Max Weber)

Sociological questions

1.Factual

2.Comparative

3.Developmental

4.Theoretical

Theories and concepts in sociologySociology does not consist of just collecting facts, however important and interesting they may be.

We also want to know why things happen, and to do so we have to learn to pose theoretical questions, to enable us to interpret facts correctly in grasping the causes of whatever is the focus of a particular study. Theories involve constructing abstract interpretations which can be used to explain a wide variety of empirical situations.

Sociological Theories or Paragims

Sociological Theories

Auguste Comte (1789-1857)

Karl Marx(1818-1883)

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) Max Weber (1864-1920)

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)

George H. Mead(1863-1931)

Functionalism Structuralism Marxism Symbolic interactionism

Term “Sociology” Auguste Compte

1824

Emile Durkheim

Emile Durkheim

• A major theme pursued by Durkheim and by many other sociological authors since is that the societies exert social constraint over our actions. Durkheim argued that society has supremacy over the individual person. Society is far more than the sum of individual acts; when we analyze social structure, we are rigid and solid frameworks in which our social life exists. Social structure, according to Durkheim, constrains our activities, setting limits to what we can do as individuals. It is 'external' to us, just as the walls of the room are.

Functionalism

• Merton (American functionalist, 20 cent.) distinguishes between manifest and latent functions. Manifest functions are those known to, and intended by, the participants in a specific type of social activity. Latent functions are consequences activity of which participants are unaware (Merton, 1957). In studying the modern world we must be aware of disintegrative tendencies - function refers to aspects of social activity which tend to produce change because they threaten social cohesion.

Conflict and Consensus

Structuralism

• According to Saussure, analyzing the structures of language means looking for the rules which underlie our speech. Most of these rules are known to us only implicitly: we could not easily state what they are. The task of linguistics, in fact, is to uncover what we implicitly know, but know only on the level of being language in practice.

Power and control

Karl Marx

Karl Marx

• 1 The main dynamic of modern development is the expansion of capitalistic economic mechanisms.

• 2 Modern societies are riven with class inequalities, which are basic to their very nature.

• 3 Major divisions of power, like those affecting the differential position of men and women, derive ultimately from economic inequalities.

• 4 Modem societies as we know them today (capitalist societies) are of a transitional type - we may expect them to become radically reorganized in the future. Socialism, of one type or another, will eventually replace capitalism.

• 5 The spread of Western influence across the world is mainly a result of the expansionist tendencies of capitalist economic enterprise.

Social Change and Conflict

Power and conflict

Max Weber

Max Weber

• The main dynamic of modem development is the production of rationality.

• Class is one type of inequality among the others –, i.e. we should consider inequalities between men and women in modem societies.

• Power in the economic system can be obtained from other sources than purele economic as well. For instance, male-female inequalities cannot be explained in economic terms.

• Rationalization is bound to progress further in the future, in all fields of social life. All modern societies depend on the same model of social and economic organization

• The global impact of the West comes from its command over industrial resources, together with its military power.

Critics of functionalism

Although the type of viewpoint of Durkheim and his followers was widely accepted in the academic sociology, especially in 1960s, functionalism has also met with sharp criticism. What is the meaning of the term 'society’ if it‘s not composed of many individual actions? If we study a group of people we would not see a collective entity, but only individuals interacting with each other in various ways. 'Societycan only be understood as many individuals behaving in regular ways in relation to each other. According to the critics, as human beings we have reasons for what we are doing, and we inhabit a social world with various cultural meanings. Social phenomena should not be considered as 'things’ or ‘facts’, but rather should be viewed from the point of the symbolic meanings that we invest in them. We are not just mere products of our society, but rather its creators.

Symbolic interactionism

Virtually all interaction between human individuals involves an exchange of symbols. When we interact with others, we constantly look for 'clues' about the type of behaviors appropriate in this context and interpretations of intents. Symbolic interactionism directs our attention to the detail of interpersonal interaction, and to how that detail is used to make sense what others say and do. A complex and subtle process of symbolic interpretation shapes the interaction between the two. Sociologists influenced by symbolic interactionism usually focus on face-to-face interaction in the contexts of everyday life.

Social Action

Social Interaction

Self and Society

Society

Individual and significant

“others”

Social Interaction and Self-

representation

Social Action and Social Structure

The fields of sociological analysis

• Social Organization and Social Order: focuses on institutions and groups, their formation and change, functioning, relation to individuals and to each other.

• Social Control: focuses on the ways in which members of a society influence one another to maintain social order.

• Social Groups: how social groups are formed, structured, and how they function and change.

The fields of sociological analysis

• Social Change: focuses on the way society and institutions change over time through technical inventions, cultural diffusion and cultural conflict, and social movements, among others.

• Social Processes: explores the patterns of social change and the modes of such processes.

• Social Problems: focuses on the social conditions which cause difficulties for certain groups and the ways in which society eliminates these problems. Some of the problems may include: juvenile delinquency, crime, chronic alcoholism, suicide, drug addiction, racial prejudice, ethnic conflict, war, industrial conflict, urban poverty, prostitution, child abuse, problem of older persons, marital conflicts, etc.

Objectivity and sociological knowledge

Sociological Research

Sociological Methods

Sociology and Society

Practical use of sociology

• Understanding social situations

• Awareness of cultural differences

• Assessment of the effects of policies

• The increase of self-knowledge