SOC100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Social Forces, Emily Stowe, Proletariat
14 Jun 2018
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CHAPTER 1 - SEEING AND ACTING THROUGH THE LENS OF SOCIOLOGY
Overview:
- What is sociology?
- “There is more than what first meets the eye”
- Sociology vs other disciplines → just because things appear some way, it is not
necessarily explained through that; there is something going on in a deeper level.
And so, sociology is trying to understand people in this context; so in a deeper
context. Understanding people beyond what is seen in the context
- Sociology is about thinking abt whether or not stuff occurring in society is true
- Basic sense: study of human interaction
- Any time two people get together and do something, that is sociology (so
basically just 2 people interacting)
- Engaging in understanding, how people interact in groups, how groups interact with one
another, and how you interact in the social arrangements you find yourself in
- The use of research as evidence for the basis of statements
- Eg: “people are poor because they are lazy” → so sociology is gathering
evidence to see the legitimacy of this statement.
- The idea that there is MORE TO HUMAN INTERACTIONS THAN
WHAT FIRST MEETS THE EYE
- TLDR: sociology is the study of the interactions of people, and gathering evidence to see
the legitimacy of opinions and statements. Does not mean that sociologists do not have an
opinion, HOWEVER everything is EVIDENCE-BASED, and so that means that if you
have an opinion, you have to gather evidence to support your opinion/bias.
- Rooted in empathy
- Trying to understand their decisions
- Sociologists study interconnections between:
- Society
- What defines society? Not homogeneous; just a combination of different
people → definition is UNAGREEABLE
- We study society in different types of ways
- We study in these two different levels; but we also study in the
meso-level → the middle ground; main manifestations of the
broader social norms
- So the meso-level is the relationship between individuals
and the institutions, how they manifest, work, etc
- Macro-level
- Broader social forces → eg life chances, norms, social
institutions
- Micro-level
- Individual experiences and personal choices
- Why are you a student?
- (from broad to specific); societal norms → life chances → family or friends →
personal choice
- The broadest social force is because of societal norms; because you have to go to
university to get a job, or else you will fail. We have been told that since we have
been little. So this is at the macro-level
- So when does your personal choice come in? And is not indoctrinated by outer
forces?
- Personal experiences are always shaped by outer forces → so what is the
relationship between macro and micro level?
- **to what degree, are you you**
- Are you truly free to make your own choices?
- Are you simply the consequence of the societal circumstances
around you → this is reflected within you (so how you act and
everything; perhaps you just reflect the ideals and values derived
from your experiences, which are then derived from societal
norms. And so; there are always restricting factors that brings in
the question of whether you are actually you)
- Societal norms: society has a specific way, a cookie cutter type of person that it
wants you to be. And you are always conditioned to be that type of person all the
time, AND IT IS ALL BECAUSE OF SOCIETY.
- Life chances: are the circumstances you are born into. So you were born into this
circumstance - born into a rich family, poor family, etc. You are born into a
specific circumstance; you didn’t choose your race, gender, sex, or your family.
You just showed up, and now you have to learn to exist within these frameworks
and COPE with these circumstances in a way that is meaningful to you
- And so bringing back the question of being yourself, if you are not truly you, and
just a reflection of society, then how do we determine who we are?
- You dress a certain way; you behave, believe, act and dress in a way that
conforms with the standards of
- Problem of sociology: to what degree are you yourself? Where do you begin and
end? In a society with all of these internal and external forces, where do you
begin to be yourself, and end to be yourself and let societal forces take over?
- You cannot fully eliminate one over the other; you are always resisting
→ you resist the process of indoctrination, but at the same time you act
in a way that goes WITH the societal “indoctrination”
- TLDR: SO BASICALLY, why are you a student? Because of societal norms, life
chances, family and friends, and personal choices. You have all these external
and internal forces, which are reflected within you. With that in mind, then to
what degree are you, you?
- Sociological imagination
- Mills (1959) : biography (micro), and history (macro)
- For the purposes of both thinking and doing
- In order to do sociology, you have to have this imagination that thinks about the
relationship between the biological (micro) and the history of society and
everything (macro)
- History of society: trends, popular culture, etc
- The ability to perceive the interconnections between individual experiences and
larger sociocultural forces
- If you just assume that there are no outer or inner influences, and you have been
able to make personal choices since your first breath → can then affect your
research.
- “To eliminate society war, poverty, crime.. [we must] establish reliable
knowledge on the basis of which to act” (Fletcher, 1971, p.36)
- If you want to eliminate war, poverty and crime, then you have to
establish reliable knowledge, such as research, that could prove a proper
method of eliminating it.
- Eg note taking, by research, could improve grades and knowledge.
- Why is eating lunch at school normative?
- Normative, norms, normalization → all basically the same lmao (why did
something become normal?)
- 1990s, school lunch programs started, and thus eating lunch at school became
normal. But how come? Why did this happen? Why do people come to school
with no food?
- ⅛ kids were coming to school hungry. Could be because the parents were
poor, there was a loss of jobs, and such they could not afford to feed their
children anymore. There was a recession around the 1990s, and so
poverty! If kids are coming to school hungry, then they will not want to
learn, they will become unruly, there will be disciplinary problems. And
as such, school programs were made to feed children
- So there were many different forces that were acted upon this, in order for
programs to be made and normalized. (political and social forces → kids are
unfed, which means disruptive classes, and so complaints by teachers go to the
school board, which makes a new policy)
- Sociology is then
- Systematic study of society
- Using sociological imagination
- Goal: objectivity
- By searching for patterns of behaviour
- Origins of sociology
- Precursors of sociology → eg: Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406)
- But basically, in societies he lived in, when resources such as food and shelter
were in place (in society, not for everybody lol just generally) once it was
stabilized and taken care of, then the richer people would begin to abuse and take
advantage of those with fewer things.
Document Summary
Chapter 1 - seeing and acting through the lens of sociology. There is more than what first meets the eye . Sociology vs other disciplines just because things appear some way, it is not necessarily explained through that; there is something going on in a deeper level. And so, sociology is trying to understand people in this context; so in a deeper context. Understanding people beyond what is seen in the context. Sociology is about thinking abt whether or not stuff occurring in society is true. Any time two people get together and do something, that is sociology (so basically just 2 people interacting) Engaging in understanding, how people interact in groups, how groups interact with one another, and how you interact in the social arrangements you find yourself in. The use of research as evidence for the basis of statements.
