R SOC355- Final Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam ( 25 pages long!)

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Rural Sociology
• Course: R SOC355
• Professor: John Parkins

Document Summary

They came into being because they served some purpose- usually resource development, like logging industry. But now less need for these services, less jobs now. That industrial activity is done by much smaller crew of people now because of technology: demographics (age of population- aging populations. "involve patterned social behaviours or facts that extend beyond the limits and experience of any individual" p. 14. Durkheims work, things outside social facts causing behaviour of suicide- e. g. demo(cid:374)s, act of god, (cid:895) Seeing sociologically, gives up on idea that individual actions are completely our own decisions. These decisions are conditioned by groups/ categories we are apart of- they influence our behaviour. Social structures are dynamic/ they change over time, and individuals have some capacity to act within these structures: social agency: the capacity to act individually and collectively. "engaging directly in transformation by refusing to take for granted the economic and social conditions that they experience as somehow inevitable or path dependent" p. 16.