Sociology

SOCIOLOGY

Everybody has a label : legitimately recognized by society as part of it. It says something about our religion, gender, culture, our age.

What is sociology ?

• Social groups, interaction, social link, behavior of people, social change, social groups, causes, feeling, perception of world.  
• Sociology studies the group not the individual (psychology).

What is sociology ?

Sociology is evidence based : to call something a study you have to generate evidence. You have to conduct research to generate evidence. Might be observation (way of looking at society that is systematic, has a procedure), focus groups, narrative analysis, experiment (field experiment). Then becomes data that you analyse.

What is the purpose of sociology ? 

• You could inform educational policy, informe the gov, inform politics to develop the correct policies, develop training programs to educate teachers.
• policies, politics culture, ethnicity, gender, the work place, HR (organizational dev), medical sociology, teaching.
• Behavior is about interaction, communication, it has a social meaning (not knowing that meaning can be quite disconcerting, misunderstood).

Rather than asking why did that child fail, it is asked : why is it that this group of boys from working class do not success the same way ? Causes of this failure.

What you see as a sociologist depends on what you think as a sociologist, your view of society ? Feminist (Gender dynamic, how many time women or men speaks, occupy the speaking space, nb of men in the classroom), ethnologist (ethnic origins) => generate a perspective which reinforce a theoretical view point. Use theories as lenses (marxist lenses for ex). Unit of analysis is the group.

Singleness : how the single identity. Solo identities, unmarried or un-partnered (65% of Caribbean women do not have a partner in the UK, 23% for asian). Y is it incredibly large in the African-Caribbean community ? Canada has the same issue according to African Canadian women. Most of this women want actually to be married. Research in order to see the themes presented. Qualitative researcher (teacher).

A theory is like a law : that you can experience your see the effect on society, it is consistent. Sociologist say that there are social laws at work that underpin society. The social actor (us) is subject to the social laws => structural view. Top down approach : society shapes people. Another branch do say that they do not agree and we can make our own choice => social action view : people shape society, they have choice, they are deciding the shape of society through their actions -> this is called the bottom-up approach => interaction of people informs society. The issue at stake is determinism: are we free to make our actions ?  Social action think we are free.

Structural view gives us a macro view of society. By doing do it g-focuses on systems, the underlying, the causes of relationships. Feminist for ex (the early one) they claim that the system is patriarcal, and that system is operating on people. Marxist do see a capitalistic system -> Where are systems of domination ? Functionalism : everything of society has a purpose, and is here to make the system run : It has its origins in the works of Emile Durkheim, who was especially interested in how social order is possible or how society remains relatively stable.

Structural view : says what people do is predictable.

Structural theory :

• Marxism
• Feminism
• Functionalism

Two first are conflict theories (inequality) ans telles there is a problem, It is problematic. And the last one is a consensus theory (not a problem, it works, society will work better if people know there place in society, if they agree their position, everything is integrated and work nicely together, biological analogy).

We all of us has been socialized and that allows us to live in society, from a functional stand point that is socialisation that allows us to live in society. Education is part of socialisation => you will survive and you will belong. For a functionalist socialization is really good, this is past on in a efficient way and that keeps the child in his place. The marxist would say that the process of socialization marginalize the working class; feminist will say this is how we know how to be women, how to be men.

Social action : small scale research, micro. Here social behavior is unpredictable.

• Symbolic interactionism : everything in society has a meaning given to it. The object symbolizes something, it has been given meaning by people. EX : Dementia, Alzheimer => loose the meaning of things and the action they might be leading seems totally horrible for others : they have loose the meaning according to others. Bulgaria : say yes by taking head from side to side and nodding is to say no.
• Dramaturgical model: the social actor is very manipulative. Completely opposite to structural theory. Erving Goffman -> we have so much power that we are all manipulating each others. Social reality is very fragile. EX : people saying I’ll be there for you, and when you need they are not. Manipulate people so that people have a certain view of you. World is not predictable at all. All have a lot of power.
• Ethnomethodology: identifies the method by which we socially interact. Exaggerate the idea that society is really fragile. EX : bus stop, going home, a complete stranger kiss you on the lips -> you are shocked => the fact that we are shocked important social indicator because we would never believe this could happen. You believed that your personal space had barriers. Stability and culture is fragile, can change in an instant.
• Etc.

Is sociology a science ?

• Positivists: absolutely sociology is a science. They are sociologist who claim that sociology can be a science. They say they need to join in the enlightenment project, they thought they needed to conduct research and prove that sociology can be a science, to gain in credibility. Scientist do observe only one variable to see its impact on one particular aspect (ceteris paribus). Ex : experiment on teacher to see how the behavior of teacher would have an impact on how the pupil behave / Ex : Milgram (psychologist experiment -> most people will press it for the person to die / some people say I can do this) -> scientist are seen as credible people, because they say, this is in the interest of science, so people would obey to this authority.
• Interpretivists : absolutely not. How can we have a science of people, they are complex, they are different. People cannot been reread with science. People have meanings, we need the context to social behavior. Weber is a bit on this side. Weber says that understanding the social actor is more important than identify the trends (mot en allemand). EX: guard conducting torture on the jews, Y doing that ? People are so complex and have # levels of understanding that you cannot treat them as if they were the same. When somebody does something, they are carrying with them different systems to motivate there’ action, you cannot know what motivation they have.

What is a science ? It has a way of silencing people (« God said »). Impacted us a significant way. Assumptions. It a credible knowledge claim. It represents the shift pos what we understand by culture. One of the aspect of developing society is secularization, rationality. Enlightenment : science behind things and not only religion. Dark knowledge : knowledge based on what you cannot see -> can you see God ?

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