Key Concepts in the Social Sciences CM1013
Book: Sociology. A Global Introduction.
Fifth Edition. By John J. Macionis &
Kenneth Plummer
Lectures by BG Zerebecki
Summary by: Angie Quevedo 2022
,KEY CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
CHAPTER 1: THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
Sociology: the systematic, sceptical and critical study of the social.
- A form of consciousness, a way of thinking, a critical way of seeing the social.
- Challenging the obvious, questioning the world as it is taken for granted, and de-
familiarizing the familiar.
Sociological perspective (Berger): way of seeing the general in the particular.
- Seeing the strange in the familiar.
- Often challenges common sense by revealing that human behavior is not as
individualistic as we may think.
- Sociologists can identify general patterns of social life by looking at concrete specific
examples of social life, while acknowledging that each individual is unique (e.g., rich vs
poor)
Social integration: how we bond, connect and tie into society.
Sociologists are, overall, the critical citizen in society.
Benefits of the sociological perspective:
1. Form of consciousness.
2. Enables us to assess both the opportunities and the constraints that characterize our lives.
(The more we understand the game, the more effective players we will be)
3. It helps us to be active participants in our society.
4. It enables us to recognize human differences and human suffering and to confront the
challenges of living in a diverse world.
Problems with the sociological perspective:
1. Sociology is part of a changing world
circumstances change).
2. Sociologists are part of what they study. (Subject-object problem)
- Ethnocentric: bound to a particular cultural view.
3. Sociological knowledge becomes part of society. (Sociologists create ideas that can shape
the ways in which societies work)
Social change and the Great Transformation 1:
The origins of Western sociology:
Enlightenment (XVII & XVIII): movement that emphasizes science and reason as guides to help
see the world more clearly.
This view highlighted (amongst other things), the ideas of;
- Secularism: separation from religion
- Rationality: reason over emotion
- Empiricism: studying the world as it is
- Universalism: looking for patterns
- Progress: human condition can be improved
,Auguste Comte: founder of sociology and of positivism in the social sciences --> Term sociology
was introduced in 1839.
Three distinct stages to comprehend the world:
- Theological: thoughts about the world were guided by religion.
- Metaphysical: understand society as a natural, rather than a supernatural,
phenomenon.
- Scientific: understand society propelled by scientists.
Positivism: a means to understand the world based on science.
Change, transformation, and sociology:
1. The growth of modern capitalism (Industrialization): from small scale manufacturing to
factories.
2. The growth of cities: factories caused urbanization.
3. Political change: people in industrial cities entertained new ideas about democracy and
individual liberties.
4. Change of communities: move from Gemeinschaft (traditional family structure) to
Gesellschaft (associations mostly based on self-interest)
- Gemeinschaft: traditional ties that bond people of a community together.
- Gesellschaft: most people live among strangers and ignore those they pass on the
street.
Social change and the Great Transformation 2: the digital-information-network-cyborg
society.
Digital age: computerization of life; shift from analogue to digital.
Cyborg age: humans are more and more becoming adapted to and compelled to live with
technologies.
Information age: rapid growth of production and availability of all kinds of data and
information.
Network society: ways in which new ways of communicating and relating have developed.
Virtual age: mediated nature of reality.
Sociology and the new information order:
Sociology is changing its nature, doing so in two ways:
- New topics (e.g., from digital dating to digital democracies)
- New methods
, CHAPTER 2: THINKING SOCIOLOGICALLY, THINKING GLOBALLY
Theory: systematic explanation for the observations that relate to a particular aspect of life.
Theoretical perspective: basic image that guides thinking and research.
The classical, traditional perspectives of sociology:
Macro-level perspectives: focus on broad social structures that characterize society as a whole.
Functionalism: framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose
parts work together and interconnect often to promote solidarity and stability.
- Social structure: relatively stable patterns of social behavior.
- Social functions: consequences for the operation of society.
o Manifest functions: recognized and intended consequences of any social
pattern. (e.g., higher education --> provide people with info and skills they
need to perform jobs)
o Latent functions: consequences that are largely unrecognized and unintended.
- The structural-functional perspective organizes sociological observations by identifying
various structures of society and investigating the function of each one.
- Social dysfunctions:
society.
Conflict perspective: framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of differences
and inequalities that generate conflict and change.
-Spotlight ongoing differences and conflict between dominant and disadvantaged
categories of people.
-Not just to understand society but to reduce social inequality.
Micro-level perspectives: a focus on the emerging meanings of social interaction in specific
situation.
Social action: framework for the ways in which people (or actors) orientate themselves to each
other, and how they do so on the basis of meaning.
- Emphasizes how human meanings and action shape society.
- Helps to correct bias inherent in all macro-level approaches to understand society;
helps to convey how individuals experience society and how they do things together.
- Symbolic interactionism: theoretical framework that envisages society as the product
of the everyday interaction of people doing things together.
- Dramaturgical analysis (GOFFMAN): we resemble actors on stage as we play out our
various roles before others.
- Social exchange analysis: social interaction amounts to a negotiation in which
individuals are guided by what they stand to gain and lose from others.
Sociological thinking involves the action-structure debate.
Contemporary perspectives in sociology: multiple perspectives, other voices and the
postmodern:
A multi-paradigmatic discipline in a global world.
Conversational analysis: thorough analysis of the details of conversation.
Semiotics: study of signs and the meanings associated with them.
Essentialism: belief in essences that are similar.
Book: Sociology. A Global Introduction.
Fifth Edition. By John J. Macionis &
Kenneth Plummer
Lectures by BG Zerebecki
Summary by: Angie Quevedo 2022
,KEY CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
CHAPTER 1: THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
Sociology: the systematic, sceptical and critical study of the social.
- A form of consciousness, a way of thinking, a critical way of seeing the social.
- Challenging the obvious, questioning the world as it is taken for granted, and de-
familiarizing the familiar.
Sociological perspective (Berger): way of seeing the general in the particular.
- Seeing the strange in the familiar.
- Often challenges common sense by revealing that human behavior is not as
individualistic as we may think.
- Sociologists can identify general patterns of social life by looking at concrete specific
examples of social life, while acknowledging that each individual is unique (e.g., rich vs
poor)
Social integration: how we bond, connect and tie into society.
Sociologists are, overall, the critical citizen in society.
Benefits of the sociological perspective:
1. Form of consciousness.
2. Enables us to assess both the opportunities and the constraints that characterize our lives.
(The more we understand the game, the more effective players we will be)
3. It helps us to be active participants in our society.
4. It enables us to recognize human differences and human suffering and to confront the
challenges of living in a diverse world.
Problems with the sociological perspective:
1. Sociology is part of a changing world
circumstances change).
2. Sociologists are part of what they study. (Subject-object problem)
- Ethnocentric: bound to a particular cultural view.
3. Sociological knowledge becomes part of society. (Sociologists create ideas that can shape
the ways in which societies work)
Social change and the Great Transformation 1:
The origins of Western sociology:
Enlightenment (XVII & XVIII): movement that emphasizes science and reason as guides to help
see the world more clearly.
This view highlighted (amongst other things), the ideas of;
- Secularism: separation from religion
- Rationality: reason over emotion
- Empiricism: studying the world as it is
- Universalism: looking for patterns
- Progress: human condition can be improved
,Auguste Comte: founder of sociology and of positivism in the social sciences --> Term sociology
was introduced in 1839.
Three distinct stages to comprehend the world:
- Theological: thoughts about the world were guided by religion.
- Metaphysical: understand society as a natural, rather than a supernatural,
phenomenon.
- Scientific: understand society propelled by scientists.
Positivism: a means to understand the world based on science.
Change, transformation, and sociology:
1. The growth of modern capitalism (Industrialization): from small scale manufacturing to
factories.
2. The growth of cities: factories caused urbanization.
3. Political change: people in industrial cities entertained new ideas about democracy and
individual liberties.
4. Change of communities: move from Gemeinschaft (traditional family structure) to
Gesellschaft (associations mostly based on self-interest)
- Gemeinschaft: traditional ties that bond people of a community together.
- Gesellschaft: most people live among strangers and ignore those they pass on the
street.
Social change and the Great Transformation 2: the digital-information-network-cyborg
society.
Digital age: computerization of life; shift from analogue to digital.
Cyborg age: humans are more and more becoming adapted to and compelled to live with
technologies.
Information age: rapid growth of production and availability of all kinds of data and
information.
Network society: ways in which new ways of communicating and relating have developed.
Virtual age: mediated nature of reality.
Sociology and the new information order:
Sociology is changing its nature, doing so in two ways:
- New topics (e.g., from digital dating to digital democracies)
- New methods
, CHAPTER 2: THINKING SOCIOLOGICALLY, THINKING GLOBALLY
Theory: systematic explanation for the observations that relate to a particular aspect of life.
Theoretical perspective: basic image that guides thinking and research.
The classical, traditional perspectives of sociology:
Macro-level perspectives: focus on broad social structures that characterize society as a whole.
Functionalism: framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose
parts work together and interconnect often to promote solidarity and stability.
- Social structure: relatively stable patterns of social behavior.
- Social functions: consequences for the operation of society.
o Manifest functions: recognized and intended consequences of any social
pattern. (e.g., higher education --> provide people with info and skills they
need to perform jobs)
o Latent functions: consequences that are largely unrecognized and unintended.
- The structural-functional perspective organizes sociological observations by identifying
various structures of society and investigating the function of each one.
- Social dysfunctions:
society.
Conflict perspective: framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of differences
and inequalities that generate conflict and change.
-Spotlight ongoing differences and conflict between dominant and disadvantaged
categories of people.
-Not just to understand society but to reduce social inequality.
Micro-level perspectives: a focus on the emerging meanings of social interaction in specific
situation.
Social action: framework for the ways in which people (or actors) orientate themselves to each
other, and how they do so on the basis of meaning.
- Emphasizes how human meanings and action shape society.
- Helps to correct bias inherent in all macro-level approaches to understand society;
helps to convey how individuals experience society and how they do things together.
- Symbolic interactionism: theoretical framework that envisages society as the product
of the everyday interaction of people doing things together.
- Dramaturgical analysis (GOFFMAN): we resemble actors on stage as we play out our
various roles before others.
- Social exchange analysis: social interaction amounts to a negotiation in which
individuals are guided by what they stand to gain and lose from others.
Sociological thinking involves the action-structure debate.
Contemporary perspectives in sociology: multiple perspectives, other voices and the
postmodern:
A multi-paradigmatic discipline in a global world.
Conversational analysis: thorough analysis of the details of conversation.
Semiotics: study of signs and the meanings associated with them.
Essentialism: belief in essences that are similar.
