Dalton ConleyIntroduction
Introduction to SociologyMonday, 1/23/12
Introduction
Conley opens with the example of why you are reading the chapter in front of you. What is he trying to do with this example?
Thinking Like a Sociologist
"making the familiar strange"
C. Wright Mills
The sociological imagination● Our lives are "ordinary" - i.e., typical of the
time period in which we live● But we are not alone - we have our time
period and experiences in common with others
Thus, the sociological imagination keeps us from being "falsely conscious" of our lives.
Pulp Fiction
What is the dialogue from Pulp Fiction meant to illustrate? What do we mean by "xenophobia" and why is this an important concept for sociologists?
The True Costs of Education
How does Conley complicate the idea that if you go to college, you'll make more money? What does he conclude? What are the alternate explanations Conley provides? (page 5)
Social Institution
"A social institution is a group of social positions, connected by social relations, performing a social role." How can we think of college as a social institution, using our classroom as an example? What does Conley mean when he states social institutions are "not monolithic"?
The Sociology of Sociology
Key figures in the founding of sociology as a discipline
Auguste Comte
19th Century, France "social physics" or "positivism" 3 epistemological stages of society: theological, metaphysical, and scientific Introduces theme of "morals"
Harriet Martineau
19th Century, England Translated Comte into English Extended theme of morals to U.S. Wrote about methods, using the social institution of marriage as an example
Karl Marx
19th Century, Germany Historial materialism Class conflict - capitalists vs workers (or owners vs proletariat)
Max Weber
19th/20th Centuries, Germany Brought ideas back in (so - challenged historical materialism) Prosestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Verstehen - "understanding" - interpretation
Emile Durkheim
19th/20th Centuries, France Division of labor What holds society together? Anomie - normlessness Positivism
The Chicago School
Helps found American sociology What is going on in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century that shapes sociological analysis?
The Sociological Self
Charles Horton Cooley - "looking-glass self" George Herbert Mead - "generalized other"
W.E.B. DuBois
First African American to receive a PhD from Harvard Double consciousness Talented tenth
Jane Addams
Urban displacement and disorder Hull House - "settlement house movement" Applied or public sociology
Structural Functionalism
"organicism" & Durkeim Parts of society = systems and organs of the human body Merton: manifest and latent functions What about the Chicago School?
Conflict Theory
Marx Inequality and competition characterize modern society
Feminist Theory
Related to conflict theory Focuses on "social construction of gender" Socialization Looking-glassgendered self?
Symbolic Interactionism
What makes this different from structural functionionalism and conflict theory? Erving Goffman - dramatugical theory
What Distinguishes Sociology from Its Cousins?
What Distinguishes Sociology from Its Cousins?
Ideographic vs. nomethetic● Abstractable patterns Supra vs individual vs infra Rational actors?