Sociology
INTRODUCTION: INSTITUTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS
BRUNA DE CASTRO WURTS
, B. Wurts
Is the individual more influential than the society or is the society
more influential than the individual? In the introduction chapter of ‘The
sociology book’ – Institutions and Individuals - we can see the strong
argument about both being related, about understanding that the
individual determinates the society but also the society determinates the
individual.
Until the 20th century sociologists were divided between two different
approaches: macrosociology, with thinkers such as Karl Marx, and
microsociology, with thinkers such as like Max Weber. In one hand we have
the sociologists that believed in looking at society as a whole and had their
focus on the larger societies, communities and organizations that
individuals live in. On the other hand, we find the opposite idea where they
focus on the individual experience of living within a society.
In the Institutions and Individuals fragment they put into perspective
the development of sociology – the change from the traditional study to
examine connections between individuals and society and social groups.
And because societies consist of a collection of individual people, there is
an inevitable connection between the structures of society as a whole and
the behavior of its individual members.
The text also refers for the response of sociology for the quicken
changes that society has made and still is doing. Sociology emerges in the
age of Enlightenment to study the enormous change from the feudal society
to the modern society. And wouldn’t be any different with the changes
made since that, such as technology, civil rights or racial and gender
inequalities.
In the 2000’s Zygmunt Bauman introduces the idea of “liquid
modernity”: a state of constant social change resulting from advances in
global mobility and communications. Bauman believes that the changes we
are living now began with industrialization and now has entered a mature,
“late modern”. A stage where technology has become even more
sophisticated; the nature of technological progress means this stage is
characterized by a liquid modernity —a state of constant change.
INTRODUCTION: INSTITUTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS
BRUNA DE CASTRO WURTS
, B. Wurts
Is the individual more influential than the society or is the society
more influential than the individual? In the introduction chapter of ‘The
sociology book’ – Institutions and Individuals - we can see the strong
argument about both being related, about understanding that the
individual determinates the society but also the society determinates the
individual.
Until the 20th century sociologists were divided between two different
approaches: macrosociology, with thinkers such as Karl Marx, and
microsociology, with thinkers such as like Max Weber. In one hand we have
the sociologists that believed in looking at society as a whole and had their
focus on the larger societies, communities and organizations that
individuals live in. On the other hand, we find the opposite idea where they
focus on the individual experience of living within a society.
In the Institutions and Individuals fragment they put into perspective
the development of sociology – the change from the traditional study to
examine connections between individuals and society and social groups.
And because societies consist of a collection of individual people, there is
an inevitable connection between the structures of society as a whole and
the behavior of its individual members.
The text also refers for the response of sociology for the quicken
changes that society has made and still is doing. Sociology emerges in the
age of Enlightenment to study the enormous change from the feudal society
to the modern society. And wouldn’t be any different with the changes
made since that, such as technology, civil rights or racial and gender
inequalities.
In the 2000’s Zygmunt Bauman introduces the idea of “liquid
modernity”: a state of constant social change resulting from advances in
global mobility and communications. Bauman believes that the changes we
are living now began with industrialization and now has entered a mature,
“late modern”. A stage where technology has become even more
sophisticated; the nature of technological progress means this stage is
characterized by a liquid modernity —a state of constant change.
