SOC102H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter Ch1 Intro to Soc: The Communist Manifesto, Jon Porter, Scientific Revolution
Chapter 1 – Intro to Soc
Summary
• Motivation for Sociology is the idea and desire to improve the social world by
using adopted scientific methods to test ideas
• Sociology came out of the Industrial Revolution in part because of the
massive social changes occurring as a result of the time. This resulted in
ideas and theories to improve social issues created by the IR.
• Issues with human behavior are partly caused by patterns in social relations
and surround and influence people.
Suicide ( Emile Durkheim!)
• Canada ranks 14th in the world (105 countries) with an average of 13 per
100,000 people.
• Suicide may be an antisocial and nonsocial act, but as ED suggested it is not
merely an individual act as a result of psychological issues.
• EDs data showed suicide rates are strongly influenced by society
• ED argues that suicide varies due to differences in degrees of social solidarity
in different groups. – ED will argue the more social solidarity that exists, the
more people are anchored to the social world the less likely they are to
commit suicide. Groups with low solidarity have a higher rate.
i) Example – ED showed married adults are ½ as likely as unmarried to
commit suicide, due to marriage promotes soild social ties and a moral
element.
ii) Women are less likely to commit suicide due to more involvement in
family social relations.
iii) Jews less likwly than Christians due to the bond Jews have form centuries
of persecution makes them a tightly knit group, with great support.
iv) Seniors more than the young because seniors tend to live along ,
unemployed and smaller circle of friends.
• Suicide in Canada has risen since the s. Reasons? For
consideration according to Brym…..
i. Religious attendance is down for young Canadians.
Compare this to the s where more than ½ of CDNs
attended services , whereas today the figure is less than
1/3 and even less at 1/6 for those born after 1960
ii. Unemployment is higher today than in the s. youth
unemployment is twice that of an adult ( 28% vs 14%
respectively)
iii. Divorce. x increase since the s. Out of wedlock
births ; are though t to cause less frequent intimate
social interaction and have less adult supervision
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
iv. Bullying and alienation of groups of different sexual
orientations and/or genders. High proportion of youth
suicides are done by sexual minorities
Social Structures – relatively stable patterns of social relations.
i. There are 3 levels of Social Structures. Microstructures, Macrostructures and
global structures.
ii. Microstructures – patterns of intimate social relations, formed from fact to
face interaction ( Families, friend circles work). Micro = small . so anything
that involves small intimate anything is Micro
iii. Macrostructures – social interactions outside of ones social relations,
outside of intimate and casual acquaintances. Examples of Macro are class
relations and patriarchy the systematic inequality of men over women
iv. Global Structures – Examples – )nternational Orgs, worldwide travel and
communications and economic relations ( globalization)
More on Structures…
• Micro – understand the strength of weak ties in microstructural settings.
IE the job hunt.
• Macro – Understand the the structure of patriarchy in everyday life (
unequal work at home, little social assistance for families etc..)
The Social Imagination - C. Wright Mills in the s. The S) is seeing the
connection between personal issues and the social structures. CWM argues… READ
page 10, it quotes CWMs argument
• The SI is recent, about 2 centuries old
• Ancient and medieval times may of written about society but the
believed God and nature controlled society, thus relying on
speculation rather than evidence.
• The SI was born when 3 revolutions pushed people to think about
society in new ways. The revolutions were the Scientific (1550), the
Democratic ( 1750) and the Industrial ( 1780).
The Scientific Revolution - 1550
• Often linked to Copernicus (earth around the sun) and Newton ( motion).
The start of using observations to prove or aid in the proving of theories.;
Using evidence to make a case for a POV.
• Descartes and (obbs called for a science of society in the mid th century.
The Democratic Revolution - 1750
• 400 years ago, God ordained the social order. The richest were closer to God,
and deserved more privilege. Kings and Queens rules because of Gods will.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• The American 1775-83) and French (1789-99 revs helped undermine that
ideal.
• People could trigger change, people could replace undesired rulers.
• Society could be change by human interaction; no longer a God thing.
• New science (soc) could help with social problems. Improve the masses.
• DR is responsible for the birth of SOC.
The Industrial Revolution - 1780
• Masses moved to from rural to urban, working long hours in dangerous
fields.
• Faith in religion was fading.
• Due to conditions of life and work and increased poverty people would
strike, crime rose and people would revolt.
• Scholars discovered a new laboratory – a social laboratory. All 3 gave birth
to the sociological imagination
Auguste Comte
• The term Sociology coined by Auguste Comte in 1838. His goal was to see the
social world as it WAS and as he or other imagined it should be.
• Comte was inspired by Copernicus, Galileo, Khaldun, Plato and Aristotle.
• He wanted to test his ideas through careful observation of the real world.
• He was a conservative thinker, motivated by strong opposition to change in
society (French)
• Shocked at witnessing the democratic forces resultant from the Fr. Rev. ,
industrialization and growth of cites. These changes were destroying many
things he valued particularly respect for authority.
• Urged slow change and to preserve traditional society.
Theories, Research and Values
For examples of THEORY and RESEARCH see box 1.1 on page 13
• To formulate a theory, one must decided which probs are important enough
and how parts of SOC fit together.
• Values ( ideas of right and wrong, good/bad) help sociologists formulate
theories, thus at time are rejected because the are motivated by a sociologist
values
• Marx, Weber and Durkheim started 3 of the major traditions in SOC ( a 4th,
Feminist theory as come about in recent decades is correct some
deficiencies)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
