LECTURE 2

Classic Readings in Sociology

C. Wright MillsThe Promise of SociologyThe Sociological Imagination

Peter L. BergerInvitation to SociologySocial Construction of Reality

C. Wright Mills

Born 1916, Died 1962Context of History of Major Social Change

Wrote about how Individuals Struggle to Understand the Troubles in their Personal Lives

How Can Sociology Help?By Showing the Relationships Between Social Structures, Historical Forces, and Personal Problems

C. Wright Mills

This is What He Calls the Promise of Sociology

But How is That Promise to be Realized?

Requires a Particular “Mindset”A Way of Looking at the World

C. Wright Mills

It Requires What Mill’s Calls aSociological Imagination

So What Does He Mean by This?

Once Again the Main Issue is one of Relationships

C. Wright MillsBut What Kind of Relationships?

The Relationships, or Interplay, Between:

Individuals and SocietyBiography and HistorySelf and the World

Grasping the Character of These Relationships is the Aim of the Sociological Imagination

The Sociological Imagination

“The first fruit of this imagination -- and the first lesson of the social science that embodies it -- is the idea that the individual can understand his own experience and gauge his own fate only by locating himself within his period, that he can [only] know his chances in life by becoming aware of those of all individuals in his circumstances.” p.2

The Sociological Imagination

“The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society.” p.3

We see this Imagination in the Questions Addressed by the Classical Sociologists

Classical Questions1. What is the structure of a society as a

whole?

What are its essential components and how are they related to one another?

How does this society differ from other societies?

How does this society endure and change, and which parts relate to stability or change?

Classical Questions

2. Where does this society stand in history?

What are the mechanisms through which it is changing? How does it relate to the development of humanity as a whole?

And in this period -- what are its essential features? How does it differ from other periods? What are its characteristic ways of history-making?

Classical Questions

3. What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this period?

And what varieties are coming to prevail? In what ways are they selected and formed, liberated and repressed, made sensitive and blunted? What kinds of “human nature” are revealed in the conduct and character we observe?

Mills’ Main Question

All These Questions are Inspired by the Sociological Imagination

But for Mills the “most fruitful” way to frame these questions is in terms of

Troubles and Issues

Troubles and Issues

Troubles Belong to the Private Milieu

Issues Belong to the Social Structure

So the Main Sociological Problem is Elucidating the Relations between Troubles & Issues

TroublesTroubles occur within the character of the individual and within the range of his/her relations with others; they have to do with the self and with those limited areas of social life of which s/he is directly and personally aware.

The resolution of troubles lie with the individual as a biographical entity and within the scope of his/her immediate milieu.

Issues

Issues have to do with matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his/her inner life.

Issues

They have to do with the organization of many such milieu into the institutions of an historical society as a whole, with the ways in which various milieu overlap and interpenetrate to form the larger structure of social and historical life.

Socio-Historical Individuals

Leads to an urge to know the social and historical meaning of the individual in the society and in the period of history in which s/he has their quality and being.

What’s Going On?

“That, in brief, is why it is by means of the sociological imagination that men [and women] now hope to grasp what is going on in the world.”

President Obama

“He was excellent in explaining the link between the global economy and average Americans’ kitchen table issues.”

Individuals/Families and History/Society

Can you Relate your own Biography to History/Society?

Peter L. Berger

Writing in the Context of Challenges to Authority -- 60s-70s

Counter Culture

Civil Rights

New Feminist Movement

Vietnam War

Major Concepts

Questioning Authority Often Involves Questioning Reality

Debunking

Social Construction of Reality

Debunking

“It can be said that the first wisdom of sociology is this -- things are not what they seem.”

Culture Shock at Home

Being a Stranger in a Familiar World

Facades & Reality

We live in a world of facades

Need to See Through Facades

Need to “see through the game” and “look behind the scenes”

But Facades are also part of Reality

Example: “The Free Market”

What is it? Role of Government?

Formal vs. Actual

Documents vs. Process -- Regulations Vs Enforcement

Theory vs. Practice

Sociological Probing, Questioning, Debunking

Probing Political Power

When a sociologist concerns her or himself with the question of power, s/he will “look behind” the official mechanisms that are supposed to regulate power in the community. This does not necessarily mean that s/he will regard the official mechanisms as totally ineffective or their legal definition as totally illusionary.

Behind the Scenes Power

BUT, at the very least the sociologist will insist that there is another level of reality that must be investigated with respect to any system of power.

In some cases a sociologist may conclude that to look for real power in the publicly recognized places is quite delusional.

Congress or Boardroom? Golf Course?

Relating Berger with Mills

Individualism“Why Should I Pay for Someone Else?”

Health Care ProvisionCosts; Security; National Strength

Education ProvisionCompetitiveness; Functionality; Productiveness

Berger’s Legacy

Sociology Debunks Taken-for-Granted Reality -- Critique

Sociology shows how reality is CONSTRUCTED in particular social, historical, and cultural contexts

Reality is what we Make It BeBut all Realities Not Equally Durable

Economic Meltdown; Soviet Communism

Summary Week 1

Sociology is Science of Society

Science is Diverse in MethodsDisunity of ScienceNot Always Concerned with LawsPositivist, Interpretive, Critical ApproachesQuantitative and Qualitative Methods

The Social Primarily Refers to Relations

Summary Week 1

Centrality of Relations as Object of StudyMarx - Production RelationsDurkheim - Moral RelationsWeber - Meaningful RelationsMills - Relations between Micro and MacroBerger - Social Construction of Reality

In Interaction -- RelationsDebunking Taken-for-Granted Reality

Next Up

What Does it Mean to be Human?

Human Nature, Society, and Culture

The Social Self

Self in Social Interaction