Introducing Sociology E-Book

John Nagle

• Herausgeber: Icon Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Graphic Guides
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 117

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Sociology is interested in the ways people shape the society they live in, and the ways society shapes them. Simply, it is the study of what modern society is and how it functions. In the series' inimitable style, Introducing Sociology traces the origins of sociology from industrialization, revolution and the Enlightenment through to globalization, neoliberalism and the fear of nationalism – introducing you to key thinkers, movements and concepts along the way. You will develop insight into the world around you, as you engage your 'sociological imagination' and explore studies of the city, theories of power and knowledge, concepts of national, racial and sexual identity, and much more.

Leseprobe

Published by Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre, 39–41 North Road, London N7 9DPEmail: [email protected] 

ISBN: 978-178578-074-5

Text copyright © 2016 Icon Books Ltd

Illustrations copyright © 2016 Icon Books Ltd

The author and illustrator have asserted their moral rights.

Editor: Kiera Jamison

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Kung Fu Sociology

No Such Thing as Society?

What Is Sociology?

The Sociological Imagination

Public Sociology

Puppets and Dangerous Giants

Origins and Birth of Sociology

Hegel and the Spirit

Auguste Comte – Sociology Finds a Name

Statics and Dynamics

Spencer and Social Evolution

Karl Marx – Conflict and Revolution

Social Conflict

Durkheim – The Discipline Develops

Solidarity

Social Facts

Crime

Suicide

Max Weber

The Ideal Type

Protestant Work Ethic and Capitalism

The Iron Cage

Structural Functionalism – Talcott Parsons

Symbolic Interactionism – Herbert Blumer

Urbanization

Microsociology – Erving Goffman

Impression Management

Emotional Labour

Contemporary Sociology – Michel Foucault

Social Constructivism

Knowledge Is Power

Social Categorization

The Prison – Discipline and Punishment

Surveillance Society

Failed Consumers

Pierre Bourdieu

Cultural Capital

Distinctions and Taste

Social Class

Postmodernism

Metanarratives

Sociology and Gender

Biological or Socially Constructed?

Gender Performance

The Gender Order

Hegemonic Masculinity

Masculinity in Transformation

Masculinity in Crisis

Homosexual Masculinity

Race and Ethnicity

Double Consciousness

Sociology and Migration

Cultural Racism

Islamophobia

Multiculturalism

Cultural Relativism

Recognition

Critiquing Multiculturalism

Essentialism vs Interculturalism

Globalization

Time-Space Compression

Time-Space Distanciation

World-System Theory

Core and Periphery

Cultural Globalization

Homogeneity

Heterogeneity

Glocalization

Risk Society

First Modernity

Second Modernity

Reacting to Risk

New Opportunities?

The Cosmopolitan Vision

Global Civil Society

INGOs

Global Social Movements

Global Change?

Social Movements

Old vs New Social Movements

Post-Materialism

New Social Movements

Lifeworld and System

Nations and Nationalism

Primordialism

Ethnic vs Civic Nationalism

Boundary Maintenance

Modernism

Imagined Communities

Ethno-Symbolism

Globalization and Nationalism

Rocking the World?

Bibiliography

About the Creators

Index

Kung Fu Sociology

In a documentary on the life and work of the leading sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002), Bourdieu explains that “sociology is a martial art”. Bourdieu is not suggesting that learning sociology will automatically qualify the student for a black belt in Kung Fu. Instead, he sees the value of sociology as helping to “unmask domination”: forms of social inequality based on class, race, gender and much more besides. Despite the existence of domination in our everyday lives, it is often disguised so that we fail to recognize it. For Bourdieu, the role of sociology is to expose the workings of domination throughout our societies.

I OFTEN SAY SOCIOLOGY IS A MARTIAL ART, A MEANS OF SELF-DEFENCE. BASICALLY, YOU USE IT TO DEFEND YOURSELF, WITHOUT HAVING THE RIGHT TO USE IT FOR UNFAIR ATTACKS.

This book is not intended to be some sort of self-help guide or instruction manual that equips the reader with the tools to transform their societies. A rather more modest proposal is suggested. By outlining key sociological thinkers, concepts and ideas, the objective is to familiarize the reader with the rich intellectual heritage of the discipline. Although, if, as Bourdieu supposed, an engagement with sociology is akin to learning a combat sport, reading this book may provide you with some of the training required to build a just and fair society.

THE TASK FOR SOCIOLOGY IS TO COME TO THE HELP OF THE INDIVIDUAL. WE HAVE TO BE IN SERVICE OF FREEDOM.

No Such Thing as Society?

In a 1987 interview, the then UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) famously stated:

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS SOCIETY.

A sociologist would both agree and disagree with Thatcher’s sentiments about society. However much humans appear to exhibit “individual” behaviour and live in a world of incredible choice, our access to choice is limited by the social groups we are members of. They may agree with Thatcher, however, that society does not exist as an unchanging and fixed set of institutions.

OUR VALUES AND OPPORTUNITIES ARE FORMED BY OUR POSITION WITHIN SOCIETY. SOCIETY IS ALSO THE SUM OF EVERYDAY INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PEOPLE SEEKING TO ATTAIN COMMON AIMS.

What Is Sociology?

Is it possible to provide a simple definition of sociology? This task appears especially difficult when we consider that the discipline of sociology is now over a century old and contains a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches. One way to consider sociology is as a methodical study of the ways that people are affected by and affect society, and the processes that are associated with groups, societies and institutions.

GOOD SOCIOLOGY IS SOCIOLOGICAL WORK THAT PRODUCES MEANINGFUL DESCRIPTIONS OF ORGANIZATIONS AND EVENTS, VALID EXPLANATIONS OF HOW THEY COME ABOUT AND PERSIST, AND REALISTIC PROPOSALS FOR THEIR IMPROVEMENT OR REMOVAL.

The aim or perspective of sociology is to reveal how social structures create both opportunities and constraints that characterize our lives.

Social structures are those relatively stable relationships between people that are shaped by institutions. Sociology maps out social structures so we can begin to see the social forces that act upon us.

By challenging the myth that human behaviour is purely individualistic or driven by biological impulses, sociology encourages us to understand the social dynamics that turn us into members of society.

THINKING SOCIOLOGICALLY MEANS RECOGNIZING HOW MY SOCIAL GROUPS HAVE A STRONG IMPACT ON MY LIFE CHOICES AND EXPERIENCES.

The Sociological Imagination

Thinking sociologically is what the American sociologist C. Wright Mills (1916-62) termed the “sociological imagination”. Mills said that when we develop a sociological imagination we begin to see how wider social forces connect with our personal biographies. For Mills, the sociological imagination is particularly powerful when we identify the society we live in, rather any personal or individual failings, as responsible for many of our problems.

MY STRUGGLE TO PAY THE RENT IS CONNECTED TO GOVERNMENT POLICIES ON MINIMUM WAGE AND EMPLOYMENT LAW.

Mills recognized that cultivating the sociological imagination is not easy. It is far too easy to blame laziness for unemployment and fecklessness for poverty. Equally, it is too easy to single out individual intelligence when a student lands a place at a top university. Yet the sociological imagination compels us to see racial, gender and socioeconomic inequalities not as facts of nature but as products of the social world.

WHY SHOULD WE GIVE BENEFITS TO PEOPLE TOO LAZY TO GET A JOB? I GOT TO UNIVERSITY AND GOT A JOB ENTIRELY ON MY OWN STEAM. NO ONE HELPED ME.

KNOW THAT MANY PERSONAL TROUBLES CANNOT BE SOLVED MERELY AS TROUBLES, BUT MUST BE UNDERSTOOD IN TERMS OF PUBLIC ISSUES.

Public Sociology

Nurturing a sociological imagination is the first step towards a public sociology. A public sociology, as the phrase suggests, is concerned with making the public into more engaged citizens. This is a sociology that is not limited to academia – it aims to lead public policy. Sociology has an ingrained public purpose. By explaining to us about how society functions, many sociologists, such as Zygmunt Bauman (b.1925), hope that we will seek to change it in some way that makes for a fairer world. By thinking sociologically, we may well see the social context of our lives that has previously been obscured, and learn that we are not simply prisoners of the social structure.

THE MORE WE GRASP HOW THE WHEELS OF THE SYSTEM ARE OPERATED, THE MORE POWER WE HAVE TO RESIST AND EVEN FREE OURSELVES FROM IT.

It can seem as though sociologists have a very pessimistic view of society. This is not necessarily true. Sociologists recognize that humans are social creatures and that when we cooperate this can lead to strong public institutions and a fair society. Yet, sociologists concede that our societies typically contain forms of inequality, stratification and discrimination, and this is not natural. Where this is the case, sociologists believe that we as individuals and members of social groups can change our conditions.

Puppets and Dangerous Giants

Peter Berger (b.1929) compares the social world to a puppet theatre. We may appear to be puppets with roles that are seemingly determined by the invisible strings of society and the puppet-master hidden from view. But, as we pick up the rules of the theatre and our prescribed parts as actors, we see the mechanisms that allow the theatre to operate.

Erving Goffman (1922-82) also recognized the potential of sociology to make individuals into “dangerous giants” with the strength to tear down the structures they are imprisoned within.

IN LEARNING THE MECHANISMS OF THE “THEATRE” LIES THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS FREEDOM.

AS GIANTS WE HAVE THE STRENGTH TO CHANGE THE WORLD WE LIVE IN, ESPECIALLY WHEN WE BEGIN TO ACT COLLECTIVELY.

Origins and Birth of Sociology

If sociology is the study of social forces, what sort of social, political and intellectual ideas and traditions gave birth to sociology? Sociology emerged within the matrix of massive social, political and intellectual change in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

WHY DO WE APPEAR TO BE LIVING IN AN ERA OF UNPRECEDENTED REVOLUTIONARY TRANSFORMATION?

I’M NOT SURE. I THINK WE NEED A SCIENCE OF SOCIETY TO EXPLAIN THIS.

Over the next 17 pages, we’ll trace the development of the field of sociology.

Let’s begin with the intellectual ideas that nourished sociology. A good starting point is the Enlightenment, an age of unprecedented intellectual advance and political awakening in the 18th century. The Enlightenment was propelled by radical thinkers who applied science and rationalism, rather than religion and superstition, to explain the world. Some of these scholars provided a formative scientific perspective on social life: a science of society should look for rational causes for social phenomena rather than theological or metaphysical ones.

THE HUMAN MIND IS A BLANK SLATE, NOT SHAPED BY GOD BUT BY EXPERIENCE!

Hegel and the Spirit

The German philosopher G.W. Hegel (1770-1831) sketched an “idealist” theory of society and history in which society is imagined as having a spirit. He envisaged the spirit not as a social force but as a manifestation of the divine, which is why, although Hegel’s thinking is revolutionary, it is not quite sociology.

THE SPIRIT OF SOCIETY AND ITS CULTURE FORMS THE SUBJECTIVE IDEAS WHICH MAKE US ACT.

Hegel mapped out history as a slow and painful transformation from local to global institutions. It is the formation of the nation-state that he saw as the important social institution, since it is here where the spirit of society and the people are contained. Hegel’s contribution to the development of sociology is that he begins to analyse the role of social institutions – religious and government – in bringing about social change and reform.

Sociology was borne out of bewildering social and political transformation shaped by the two major revolutions of the era – the French and Industrial revolutions. These twins all but dissolved existing forms of social organization in Europe. The French Revolution (1789-99), which witnessed the overthrow of a monarchical dynasty, generated new and radical ideas about the state, the role of religion in social life, and political and social reform. Driven by scientific discoveries and technological advances, the Industrial Revolution created a factory-based, capitalist economy during the 19th century.

New forms of social stratification emerged as a consequence, and the growth of the industrial city provided a new historical stage for complex forms of social organization, especially the development of socioeconomic classes.

ALL MEN ARE EQUAL AND SHOULD HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS!

Set against the turmoil of unprecedented political and social change, early sociological thinkers aimed to explain the forces that had created industrial society, and asked important questions that gave the discipline its identity. To address these questions entailed asking a range of further questions. While early sociological theorists all posed variations of the same questions, they often disagreed on the answers.

WHAT EXPLAINS DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AND WITHIN SOCIETIES?

WHAT MAKES SOCIETY CHANGE OVER HISTORY?

WHY MAY ONE SOCIETY EXPERIENCE CONFLICT WHILE ANOTHER APPEARS CHARACTERIZED BY CONSENSUS?

Auguste Comte – Sociology Finds a Name

The figure commonly credited with laying down the intellectual foundations of the discipline is Auguste Comte (1798-1857). In 1839 Comte created the word “sociology” to describe his ideas. Deeply influenced and inspired by science, Comte wished to provide a scientific explanation of society and he applied “positivism” as his main approach. Positivism is the study of observable phenomena as a means to analyse society.

Comte believed that rational thought married to the use of hard evidence could advance human understanding on how societies successfully function and why they go through historical change.

IF I APPLY LOGICAL THOUGHT TO MY OBSERVATIONS OF THE WORLD, I CAN ARRIVE AT A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF SOCIETY.

Statics and Dynamics

On the topic of how societies both function and change, Comte coined two related terms – “social statics” and “social dynamics”.

Social statics are principles concerning the connection between and coexistence of institutions that allow society to function relatively smoothly and harmoniously. Society is seen as a complex system that simultaneously operates as a cohesive and integrated structure. The key ingredient that keeps society together is institutions – such as family and religion – which function as part of a whole, rather than as isolated and individual components.

Social dynamics attends to how social institutions change over time to create social transformation. The flow of information around social institutions changes these structures in different ways, and this creates human progress.

Comte believed that healthy social systems are characterized by harmony between different types of institutions. A key institution in maintaining societal balance is the “division of labour” – how people organize production and satisfy their material needs. Language is also an important social glue. Language allows group members to communicate and pass on values and knowledge. Religion, finally, achieves a common sense of purpose for people.

ALL OF THESE INSTITUTIONS COMBINE TO FORM A SOCIAL STRUCTURE THAT MAINTAINS SOLIDARITY FOR MEMBERS OF SOCIETY.

Comte also believed that sociology would be one engine of human progress to lead us to utopia, a world in which science and rationalism would emancipate us from superstition and blind faith. Comte outlined his famous “law of three stages” of world history: three successive stages, each of which contains specific social institutions. The final stage, the “Positive”, is the emergence of what Comte coined “industrial society”.

THE POSITIVE STAGE WILL FINALLY MATURE INTO UTOPIA.