Sociology 1020 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Lightning, Social Forces, Academic Freedom

• School: Western University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: Sociology 1020
• Professor: Scott Schaffer

Document Summary

Yet there is another excitement of discovery beckoning in his investigations. It is not the excitement of coming upon the totally unfamiliar, but rather the excitement of finding the familiar becoming transformed in its meaning. The fascination of sociology lies in the fact that its perspective makes us see in a new light the very world in which we have lived all our lives. A trouble is a private matter : sociology doesn"t do individualistic explanations: Identifies patterns in social phenomena: seeks to understand, causes, processes that produce them, meanings of those phenomena, consequences, whether or not (and how) they can (or should) be changed. Interactions and interrelations what we look at. Institutions and the collective what we look at: sociology as lens on the social world levels of analysis, macro: institutions, collectives, meso: interactions and interrelations, micro: individuals and small groups as they are structured by society.