THE DISCIPLINE OF SOCIOLOGYLecture 1

The Sociological Imagination

Defined as: “...the ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society” (Mills, 1959)

Defining “society” social group geographical territory same political authority and cultural expectations

Importance of Global Interdependence

1. Where we live shapes the lives we lead2. Societies are increasingly interconnected3. Many social problems in Canada are

more serious elsewhere Macionis and Gerber, 2011:8

The Discipline of Sociology

• Industrial economy

• Growth of cities

• Political change

Early Thinkers

Auguste Comte (1798-1857)• coined the term sociology..and

considered the founder• He believed that societies contained:• Social Statics • Social Dynamics • Natural science applied to society• Positivism

Early Thinkers

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)

• Made Comte’s work more accessible

• She was an active sociologist studying social customs and consequences of industrialism and capitalism

Early Thinkers

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

• Believed that people are a product of the social environment

• Society are built of social facts• Anomie - a condition when social

control becomes ineffective as a result of the loss of shared values and a sense of purpose in society

• Scientific approach to studying social facts

What do these thinkers have in common?

Questioning the status quo

Karl Marx (1818-1883)Conflict (especially class conflict) was necessary– Bourgeoisie and proletariat– Capitalist system made poverty

• Capitalist class controls and exploits the masses of struggling workers

• Results in Alienation• Marx predicted that the workers would becomes aware

of its exploitation and overthrow the capitalists, creating a free and classless society

Just one more…

Max Weber (1864-1920)• Value-free sociology conducted in a scientific

manner• Verstehen – see the world as others see it• Bureaucracies and organization

Development in North America• United States

• Canada– First department

– Canadian Review of Sociology founded in 1965

Theoretical Perspectives

• Theory• Perspective

• A basic image of society that helps us think about social issues and guide social research

Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives

• Functionalist (or structural-functionalist)• Conflict • Feminist• Symbolic Interactionist

Functionalist Perspectives

• Assumption that society is a stable, orderly system

• The parts of society work together to promote solidarity and stability

• Everything in a society (institutions, customs, interactions) function to keep the society going

Types of functions

R. K. Merton (1910-2003)• Attempted to classify functions–Manifest– Latent–Dysfunctions

Conflict Perspectives• Assumption that groups in society are engaged in a

continuous power struggle for control of scarce resources

• Social patterns and relations benefit some individuals while hurting others

• Emphasize factors such as social class, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity and age

• Conflict can also lead to social change

Feminist Perspectives• Assumption that gender is necessary category to

understand and to explain inequalities in the household, paid labour force, politics, law and culture

• There is no single unified approach.• Focus on patriarchy : a hierarchical system of power

in which males possess greater economic and social privilege than females

Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives

• Assumption that society is a sum of the interactions of individuals and groups

• Focuses on micro-level of analysis• Symbolic interactionists attempt to examine people’s

day-to-day interactions and their behaviour in groups• This perspective examines:– Interaction– Symbol

• Each person has a subjective interpretation of a given situation

Theory guides our research!

• Research is the process of systematically collecting information for the purposes of testing an existing theory or generating a new one

• But not all sociologists collect research in the same manner

The Sociological Research Process

• With quantitative research, the goal is scientific objectivity, and the focus is on data that can be measured numerically

The Sociological Research Process

• With Qualitative Research, the use of interpretative description (words) rather than statistics (numbers) are used to analyze the underlying meanings and patterns of social relationships

Research Methods

• Research methods: strategies or techniques for systematically conducting research– Surveys– Secondary Analysis of Existing Data– Field Research– Experiments

Surveys

• Survey: a poll in which the researcher gathers facts or attempts to determine the relationship among facts

• Respondents: people who provide data for analysis through interviews or questionnaires

Types of Surveys

Telephone•More honest and less threatening•Greater control over the data•Problems: Some not accessible to researchers

Self AdministeredQuestionnaires

•Simple and inexpensive•Respondents are anonymous•Problems: low response rates

Interview•Personal and direct contact•Face to face Respondents•Problems: Major cost and time

Surveys

• Sampling Considerations:– Survey research involves some type of sampling– From a population (those persons we want to find

out about)– Sample• Representative Sample

• Random Sample

Secondary Analysis

• Using data that has already been gathered by someone else

• One kind: content analysis: the systematic examination of cultural artifacts or various forms of communication to extract thematic data and draw conclusions about social life

Field Research

• Field research is the study of social life in its natural setting: observing and interviewing people where they live, work and play

• Use of qualitative data• Varieties of observation:

– Participant observation– Ethnography

Experiments

• Defined: a carefully designed situation in which the researcher studies the impact of certain variables on subjects’ attitudes or behaviour.– experimental group– control group

Experiments

• Process: After persons are selected with very similar characteristics into these two groups, then:

1. Both groups are pre-tested2. Exposed to a stimulus representing the

independent variable3. Post-tested: to see if the independent variable

had an effect on the dependent variable

Ethical Issues in Sociological Research

• Elements of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association:–Participation must be voluntary–No harm to research subjects

(physically, psychologically, or personally)–To protect confidentiality and

anonymity

To summarize

• Sociology involves using different theoretical perspectives to systematically study the social world

• Different perspectives can be used to interpret the same issues/topics in different ways

• These different perspectives allow us to deconstruct the “taken-for-granted” ways of thinking