Sociology and Anthropology
Introduction to Sociology 2 (Week 2)
Ms Qhama Noveve
,What is Sociology?
It is often said that sociology is simply the ‘science of society’. But what do we mean by ‘society’? When sociolog
speak of a society, they generally mean a group of people living in a bounded territory who share common cultu
features such as language, values and basic norms of behaviour. Hence, we can discuss South African society
American society or Spanish society.
However, ‘society’ also includes institutions – such as particular types of government, education systems and fam
– and the relatively stable relationships between them. The enduring patterns formed by relationships among pe
groups and institutions form the basic social structure of a society. When we start thinking about social life thro
concepts of society, institutions and social structures, we are beginning to use a sociological imagination and to
sociologically’.
Studying sociology is not just a routine process of acquiring knowledge from books. Learning to think sociologica
cultivating our imagination in a specific way. The sociologist must be able to break free from the immediacy of th
personal circumstances to see things in a wider social context. Practising sociology depends on developing wha
American sociologist C. Wright Mills (1970), in a famous phrase, called a sociological imagination.
Adopting a sociological imagination allows us to see that events that affect the individual person actually reflect l
social issues. Divorce, for instance, may be emotionally traumatic for individuals who go through it – what Mills c
‘personal trouble’. But the level of divorce is also a significant ‘public issue’ that has an impact on pension provis
welfare benefits and housing needs.
, Social Change
We are all influenced by social contexts, but our behaviour is never determined entirely by
context. Sociology investigates the connections between what society makes of us and w
make of society and ourselves. Our activities both structure – or give shape to – the socia
around us and, at the same time, are structured by that world.
Human societies are always in the process of structuration (Giddens 1984). That is, they
reconstructed at every moment by the very ‘building blocks’ that compose them – human
like us
In recent decades, the malleable character of social structures has been dramatically
demonstrated. The end formal end of colonialism on the continent, the democratic usherin
new South Africa in 1994, in Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak was forced from office after
protesters took over Tahrir Square in the capital city, Cairo, Nazzi Germany run by Hitler m
legal to kill Jews, trans-Atlantic slave trade of Africans to the Americas was once means o
and shaped economies. Events such as these, even though not always successful, show
social structures are always ‘in process’, however solid or ‘natural’ they may feel.
Introduction to Sociology 2 (Week 2)
Ms Qhama Noveve
,What is Sociology?
It is often said that sociology is simply the ‘science of society’. But what do we mean by ‘society’? When sociolog
speak of a society, they generally mean a group of people living in a bounded territory who share common cultu
features such as language, values and basic norms of behaviour. Hence, we can discuss South African society
American society or Spanish society.
However, ‘society’ also includes institutions – such as particular types of government, education systems and fam
– and the relatively stable relationships between them. The enduring patterns formed by relationships among pe
groups and institutions form the basic social structure of a society. When we start thinking about social life thro
concepts of society, institutions and social structures, we are beginning to use a sociological imagination and to
sociologically’.
Studying sociology is not just a routine process of acquiring knowledge from books. Learning to think sociologica
cultivating our imagination in a specific way. The sociologist must be able to break free from the immediacy of th
personal circumstances to see things in a wider social context. Practising sociology depends on developing wha
American sociologist C. Wright Mills (1970), in a famous phrase, called a sociological imagination.
Adopting a sociological imagination allows us to see that events that affect the individual person actually reflect l
social issues. Divorce, for instance, may be emotionally traumatic for individuals who go through it – what Mills c
‘personal trouble’. But the level of divorce is also a significant ‘public issue’ that has an impact on pension provis
welfare benefits and housing needs.
, Social Change
We are all influenced by social contexts, but our behaviour is never determined entirely by
context. Sociology investigates the connections between what society makes of us and w
make of society and ourselves. Our activities both structure – or give shape to – the socia
around us and, at the same time, are structured by that world.
Human societies are always in the process of structuration (Giddens 1984). That is, they
reconstructed at every moment by the very ‘building blocks’ that compose them – human
like us
In recent decades, the malleable character of social structures has been dramatically
demonstrated. The end formal end of colonialism on the continent, the democratic usherin
new South Africa in 1994, in Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak was forced from office after
protesters took over Tahrir Square in the capital city, Cairo, Nazzi Germany run by Hitler m
legal to kill Jews, trans-Atlantic slave trade of Africans to the Americas was once means o
and shaped economies. Events such as these, even though not always successful, show
social structures are always ‘in process’, however solid or ‘natural’ they may feel.
