SOCY 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: The Sociological Imagination, Parochialism, Cultural Relativism
23 May 2016
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Document Summary
The sociological imagination is the ability to see connection between the life of the individual and the larger social context. It involves the ability to see connections between things macro and micro, like biography and history or personal issues and public issues. Intended to broaden perspectives and overcoming parochialism (a limited or narrow outlook). Parochialism: limited understanding of how the world does or could operate due to actors" limited experiences in the world. Parochial: limited in understanding due to a narrow range of social experiences. Ethnocentrism: the belief that your culture"s ways of doing things are the best and that other cultures and cultural features are inferior to the extent they differ from yours. Cultural relativism: the belief that cultures should not be compared with each other and that cultural features should be evaluated on the basis of how they contribute to the success of the society.
