SOCY 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Auguste Comte, Welterweight
Sociology Lecture 1
Objectives
• Be able to explain what sociology is.
• Have a sociological understand as to why you enrolled.
• Understand social structure and agency
Other Things
• Sociology: The scientific study of human social life, groups, and societies and the study
of people in groups.
• Auguste Comte ois the ter soiolog i 1838.
• Social Structure: Refers to the patterns and arrangements and interactions in the social
contexts of our lives.
o The way society is organized into different relationships (regular and predictable)
o Is somewhat influenced by agency.
• Agency: Shapes our social structure
Read C. Wright Mills Sociological Imagination?
Consider how he would apply the sociological imagination to two issues: unemployment and
obesity
Notes for Reading 08/24
• Social imagination enables the individual to understand how their current life and
career is affected by the past.
• It eales hi to take ito aout ho idiiduals, i the welter of their daily
eperiee, ofte eoe falsel osious of their soial positios.
• First lesson: an individual can understand his own experiences, decide his/her own fate,
and locate themselves during their current time period by observing the world around
him.
o Based on all of this, the individual contributes to the shaping of society.
o We do ot ko the liits of hua ature therefore e do ot ko liits
of man.
• Three Questions:
o What is the structure of this particular society as a whole?
o Where does this society stand in human history?
o What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this period?
• Ueployet: he oe perso is ueployed that’s their o prole, ut he
a multitude of people are unemployed it becomes a social issue.
o Social imagination applied to unemployment: people who are unemployed will
reflect back on their life and how they managed it according to society.
• Ex. Marriage. The couple has person troubles and while the chances of a divorce
happening within the first 4 years of marriage are 250/1000, this is an indication of
structural issues (institutions of marriage, family and other things affect it).
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