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Social Sciences en Politieke en Sociale Wetenschappen
Introduction To Sociology
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1- THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
Sociology: the systematic, sceptical and critical study of the social
The study of the social being – the way ppl do things together
Not just an everyday study --> look the scientific method to look into society
I- WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?
Sociology: not easy to define
= the systematic study of social interaction, social groups and institutions, and society
Is the systematical, sceptical and critical of the social
The way ppl do things together
o Individuals are shaped by the social
o The social is shaped by interacting ppl
Ppl interact with each other so they make something larger
Not one science that can explain the behaviour: biology
With all the sciences we can try explain society
Sociology can explain diff things (boys want to play with a doll,..)
The social sees:
the general in the particular – Peter Berger
PATTERNS --> GENERALISATION
Identifying general patterns of social life by looking at concrete specific examples of social life
--> Each individual is unique sociologists recognise that society acts diff on various categories of ppl
Ex: inequality btw gender in diff parts of the wolrd, rich/poor,…
The strange in the familiar (strange that boys have short hair)
--> uncover how society is constructed (food for cats)
The sociological insight provides deeper insights that may not be readily apparent
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,Important to analyse how society is constructued and see the different habits ppl have dev due to
their social environment
Giving up the familiar idea that human behaviour is simply a matter of what ppl decide to do
and accepting the initially strange notion that society guides our thoughts and deeds
P Berger: “the first wisdom of sociology is this: things are not what they seem”
The sociological imagination – C. Wright Mills (p.21)
Argued that it is the society that is responsible for our problems
1. Individual events-biography
2. Social environment
Very contemporary (now)
Development going on in sociology (chances of females going to university today and
3. History
♦ Diff levels of analysis- the architecture of social life: the layers of reality
1- Individual: the psychic world of human subjectivity and biological working of genetics (suicide)1
“the inner world”
Some take their life due to their personal financial status or because they feel loneliness, depression, the
philosophical desire to die, ...
2– social and interactional: face-to-face (therapy)
The awareness of communicating with human in specific places
Some take their lives because other people bully them or persuade them in another way to take their own lives.
3- social and cultural (Durkeim- communities, societies,..)
We can’t change the social and cultural by ourselves because it has a lot
of symbolic meanings over and above us
Isolated: ppl need human interaction but lack this interaction
State of normessness: anomy: ppl need to be guided
Too much integration: willing to die for your community, religion,…
Total institutional: fatalist: ppl don’t want to be locked up
4-world and globe the interconnectedness of the social and cultural across the
world
Also contains economics, communication and politics on a global scale
2
,5-cosmic: the widest presence in the universe.
We have to be aware of the complexity of our humanly constructed (social) world
Thin line between psychology (individual) and sociology (interaction)
Durkheim(macro): took a topic that was a psi topic: suicide and showed that there were social
influences – showed that social forces help shape even the apparently most isolated act of self-
destruction
Collect data to show that some social groups are more likely to commit suicide (boys,
wealthy, protestants, unmarried)
Boys: more autonomy --> lower social integration
Society guides our actions and life choices
4-crying out for help
5-philosophical desire to die
6- made mistake
Theoretical explanation:
-integration(= how the bonded, connected and tied into society)
--> ppl need to feel integrated
Egoistic-altruistic (terrorist)
Durkheim found that low suicide rates characterized categories of people with strong social ties and
high suicide rates were found among those who were more socially isolated and individualistic
-regulation:
Anomic (if you are not regulated- if you always get what you want) -fatalistic (too much
regulation)
2kind of desires –biological, in nature (hungry) --> limited
-cultural (be rich, have friends, ... ) --> can be met by society
Need to be stopped by society with rules
Imitation is very important to explain suicide (13reasons why)
3
, II-ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY
Sociologists: not the first talking about sociology (Plato, Aristotle,..)
19th century: originated when there was a problem, massive change --> attention
Change: French revolution, industrial revolution
Before: ppl were focused on the ideal society but nobody attempted to analyse society as it really
was
Sociology as the product of the Enlightenment
Rationality and reason are the key way of knowledge
Empirism: we need fatcs and observation to prove stuff – science
Individualism, freedom, freedom of religion
…
August Comte (founder of sociology and positivism): theory of human understanding society
19th century: during the French and industrial revolution
→experienced the way those revolution changed the social
Theory of stages of understanding
1 theological stage--> referring to religion, nature forces
From the earliest era till the medieval period
Ppl regarded the soial structure as an expression of God’s will
God has created everything and so all thoughts were guided by religion
2 metaphysical stage --> referring to substances out there (soul, astrology)
Since the renaissance
Started to question god’s total involvement in the human world
The concept of god could be seen as an astral influence
Theological: stars and planets are gods
Metaphysical: stars for horoscope- explain things that we can’t understand
3 scientific stage --> POSITIVISM- meant to understand the world based on sciences
--> based on empirical observation to make laws of society
Looking for cause and effect
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