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
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