The emergence of the discipline
SOC 131
The distinctiveness of sociology
At the beginning of our assigned reading, we are offered an example of the ways that individual behaviors are influenced by social forces external to us. In the example of panic buying before a storm, such external social forces include things like the behaviors (and suggestions) of other people close to us, the rumors circulating in our communities, and the news reports with hear through various media.
In the language of Mark Granovetter, people resort to something like panic buying after taking “cues from [their] social network, [their] surroundings, and the social setting”
This explanation is designed to illustrate to us how sociological explanation differs from the other social sciences like psychology, economics, and political science.
Together with some of the people sitting around you, think through this example and discuss how/why it shows the distinctivenss of sociological explanation of human behavior.
- To really clarify this distinctiveness, can you imagine how panic buying of the type described in the text would be explained by the fields of economics or psychology?
Introducing the sociological imagination
This idea – the sociological imagination – is at the very heart of sociology. The mid-20th Century American sociologist C. Wright Mills coined the term. By it, he meant the capacity that we have as individuals to recognize the way that our lives (what he termed our individual biographies) are influenced and impacted by external social forces.
In its illustration of the sociological imagination the text uses the example of how people come to get their names.
- What are the arguments made about names?
- How convincing do you find these arguments?
Understanding a changing world: the 19th Century origins of sociology
The origin story of the academic field of sociology traces its roots to European efforts to explain societal changes resulting from the Industrial Revolution.
Questions for you:
- What were the important social changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution?
- Are there any other important social phenomena emerging/occurring at the time that these European male theorists might have overlooked?
The “big 3” classical theorists
| Sociologist | Label | Main concepts |
|---|---|---|
| Karl Marx | Relational sociology | Class conflict; bourgeoisie vs. proletariat; alienation (in its many forms) |
| Emilé Durkheim | Structural sociology | Solidarity (mechanical vs. organic); integration and regulation; norms; anomie |
| Max Weber | Cultural sociology | Methodological individualism; social action; subjective meaning; Calvinist beliefs and the origins of capitalism |
Contemporary relevance
| Sociologist | Questions for our time |
|---|---|
| Karl Marx | What’s the value in seeing our lives “relationally”? How important is control over our own work? Does alienation continue to be a problem in our contemporary world? |
| Emilé Durkheim | How do the relationships you have with other people influence you? What are the norms of behavior in the various groups of which you are a part? |
| Max Weber | In what ways does culture impact our actions in the world today? Has religion become less important in the modern world? |
