SOCI 1001H Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Sociological Inquiry, The Sociological Imagination
13 Apr 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Exploring what sociology is about: sociology as a way of knowing". Vs. direct knowledge; conventional wisdom; aesthetics/art; religious knowledge. Differs based on its methods and perspective: the sociological perspective. Two key assumptions: social beings and social patterns. Seeing the general in the particular (uncovering surface reality: example of first sociological study: emile durkheim on suicide. Seeing the strange in the familiar (the taken-for-granted world) The value of a comparative approach (historically and cross-culturally) Linking history, social structure and biography: key concepts for beginning sociology. All sociological inquiry is based on discerning and explaining the patterns that underlie social life. Men, protestants and unmarried people = higher suicide rates. Women, jews/catholics and married people = lower suicide rates. Low social integration vs. high social integration. Refers to the enduring, orderly and patterned relationships between elements of a society.
