SOCY1050 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Social Constructionism, Feminist Theory, Solidarity
Lecture 1A
What is Sociology?
•The systematic study of human behaviour in a social context with the aim of understanding
the relationship between the individual and society
•Sociologists examine the connection between personal troubles/experiences and the social
relations and structures surrounding the individual
•In other words, sociology offers a framework that is underpinned by the belief that personal
troubles are public issues
Structure and agency
Sociology ‘focuses on the study of human behaviour and social interaction to understand how
societies are organised, develop and change’ (TASA)
Sociology encourages us to look beyond our own personal lives to explain how and why our lives
occur as they do, and why we act the way we do, known as the structure/agency debate
•Social structures/institutions are governments, the economy, families, religion, education,
etc – that provide the structure for the reproduction of the patterns of social relationships
that endure from one generation to the next
•Social agency is the ability of individuals and groups within society to act within social
structures/institutions to create change.
Social organisation, inequality and social change
•The discipline also explores how both individuals and collectivities construct, maintain, and
alter social organisation in various ways.
•Sociology asks about the sources and consequences of inequality in social arrangements and
institutions, and about the satisfactions and difficulties of addressing inequalities.
•Sociology examines the dynamics of social change, and sociologists are often motivated by
the desire to improve people’s lives as the sociological lens reveals trends of inequality in
society.
Key concepts
Areas studied in examining social dynamics include:
culture, values, socialisation, social construction, identity, structure/agency, cooperation, conflict,
power, exchange, inequality, deviance, modernity/ postmodernity, colonialism/postcolonialism,
social control, violence, order and social change.
Sociology originated in the Industrial Revolution but as a discipline, its value is retained with the
challenges brought on by globalisation and the post-Industrial Revolution
Case study: sociological explanation of suicide
•Suicide seems to be supremely antisocial and individual, caused by a psychological disorder
•In trying to explain suicide, we normally focus on specific factors of individuals’ personalities
and lives
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•But sociology reveals patterns which predispose some individuals to suicide more than
others, based on specific identity factors, such as ethnicity, gender, sexuality and social class
The sociological explanation of suicide
•Social solidarity refers to the degree to which group members share beliefs and values, and
the intensity and frequency of their interaction
•In the 19th century, the French sociologist Émile Durkheim examined patterns in suicide and
concluded that the degree of social solidarity explains differences in propensity to suicide
What can we take from this example?
•Sociology offers us the tools to inspect the social location of the individual and we need to
connect the individual’s behaviour or circumstances to a trend (occurs to multiple people
who share certain characteristics)
•Identity factors explain a lot about the causes of human behaviour
•Where someone grows up, which school they attended, and corporate or government
decision making will position people in a certain way in society
Three forms of structures
•Microstructures are patterns of intimate social relations (e.g. friends and family)
•Macrostructures are overarching patterns of social relations that lie outside our circle of
acquaintances (e.g. patriarchy or capitalism)
•Global structures are patterns of social relations that lie above the national level, (e.g. the
global economy or United Nations)
The sociological imagination
This is ‘the quality of mind that enables us to see the connection between personal troubles and
social structures’
Four key Perspectives
•Functionalism
•Conflict theory/ Marxism
•Symbolic interactionism (and Social Constructionism)
•Gender/Feminist theory
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Document Summary
The systematic study of human behaviour in a social context with the aim of understanding the relationship between the individual and society. Sociologists examine the connection between personal troubles/experiences and the social relations and structures surrounding the individual. In other words, sociology offers a framework that is underpinned by the belief that personal troubles are public issues. Sociology focuses on the study of human behaviour and social interaction to understand how societies are organised, develop and change" (tasa) Sociology encourages us to look beyond our own personal lives to explain how and why our lives occur as they do, and why we act the way we do, known as the structure/agency debate. Social structures/institutions are governments, the economy, families, religion, education, etc that provide the structure for the reproduction of the patterns of social relationships that endure from one generation to the next.
