SOC 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Bourgeoisie, Age Of Enlightenment, Anomie
Document Summary
Sociological imagination: the ability to grasp the relationship between individual lives and the larger social forces that shape them. Relationship between private troubles and public issues. Example: a person loses his or her job unemployment. Mills coined the term the sociological imagination (1959). The ability to see the societal patterns that influence the individual as well as groups of individuals. Agency: the ability of individuals and groups to exercise free will and to make social change whether on a small or large scale. Structure: patterned social arrangements that have an effect on agency. Our choices are enabled or constrained by structure. Example: being marked with a stigmatized identity. Scientific revolution: belief in science and reason. The enlightenment: equality, liberty, and fundamental human rights. The industrial revolution: shift from agriculture to manufacturing. Urbanization: mass migration from rural farms to urban factories. These early contributors set the stage for the birth of sociology: Positivism: knowledge based on scientific reasoning and facts.
