SOCI 1010 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: The Sociological Imagination, Auguste Comte, Mechanical And Organic Solidarity
13 Dec 2013
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* the systematic study of social behaviour in human societies (tepperman et al. , p. 3) * a focus on how people and societies change: introducing theory. * theory: general statement about how some parts of the social world fit together and how they work. * sociologists aim to understand the taken-for-granted nature of social life: why it is so often unthinkingly orderly, routine, and generally predictable. * c. wright mills: we must address social problems by linking an individual"s personal troubles with the way society is organized and structured. * an individual"s private troubles are rooted in widespread public issues. * the connection between our own lives biography and social change within society history. * an important binary distinction in contemporary social theory is between structure and agency. * structures: pre-existing arrangements in society that influence our behaviour. * e. g. the labour market, the family," democracy. Relationships between choices, you never have absolute choice.
