SA 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Postmodernism, Total Institution, Totalitarianism

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Sociology and Anthropology
• Course: SA 150
• Professor: Ann Travers

Document Summary

Narratives: stories that reflect the lives and views of the tellers. Things happen differently depending on sex, age, class, ethnicity, race, religion, and sexual orientation. Sociologists also investigate and challenge the social patterns that other people perceive. Sociology can help students understand issues facing society today. One divisive social issues of recent years is the debate surrounding same sex marriage. It can tell us about who tends to be in favour of same sex marriage: younger people, those with more education, women more than men, french canadians more than english canadians. Sociology can tell us who is against same sex marriage: those with fundamentalist religious views vs the more liberal members of canada, people from rural rather than urban communities. Sociology can help students understand the impact that socializing influences: parents, the media, professors. Sociology gives us the means to form considered opinions on social issues: help students distinguish between a well argued, informed opinion and uninformed viewpoint.