SOCI 30 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Macrosociology, Microsociology, Railways Act 1921
Week One
What is sociology?
● The systematic study of human interaction
○ Individuals, groups, organizations, and society
○ Personal issues (love, poverty, wealth, health, etc) best understood in
socio- historical context
Sociology is systematic
● Empirical research
○ Controlled, systematic observations inthe real world
○ Probabilistics
■ Laws of probability
Approaches to sociological research: methods
● Quantitative
○ Research uses numerical data and sophisticated techniquest (statistics)
for analysis
■ Example of comparing health or census data from various
countries
● Qualitative
○ Research based on non-numerical information that describes social life
■ Example of Judith Stacey comparing white Pentecostals with
secular egalitarians
What is macrosociology?
● Big picture: study of broad patterns of social life
○ Quantitative Methods
○ Large-scale analyses of social systems, structures, trends, patterns or
(regional, national) populations
● Disease epidemics, economic crises, human trafficking m suicide rates, crime
rates, divorce, marriage,
● Can focus on smaller groups, but relates them to a larger social structure
What is microsociology?
● Studies small scale, everyday social interactions
● Typically qualitative methods
● Observe, participate with, and/or interview people in the social worlds
● Families, classrooms, hospitals, on social media sites, etc
How do they complement each other?
● Studies how we create and reproduce larger, social systems division patterns
etc on the ground level that microsociologists study more abstractly
What is the sociological imagination?
● The ability to see the influence of the social, cultural and historical processes
on our private lives
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Personal issues (love, poverty, wealth, health, etc) best understood in socio- historical context. Research uses numerical data and sophisticated techniquest (statistics) for analysis. Example of comparing health or census data from various countries. Research based on non-numerical information that describes social life. Example of judith stacey comparing white pentecostals with secular egalitarians. Big picture: study of broad patterns of social life. Large-scale analyses of social systems, structures, trends, patterns or (regional, national) populations. Disease epidemics, economic crises, human trafficking m suicide rates, crime rates, divorce, marriage, Can focus on smaller groups, but relates them to a larger social structure. Observe, participate with, and/or interview people in the social worlds. Families, classrooms, hospitals, on social media sites, etc. Studies how we create and reproduce larger, social systems division patterns etc on the ground level that microsociologists study more abstractly. The ability to see the influence of the social, cultural and historical processes on our private lives.
