1.1 What is the Sociological Imagination, and Why Is It Worth Acquiring? The Sociological Imagination ● Researchers have puzzled over how we are connected to each other and the broader societies in which we live. ○ A sociological imagination is the capacity to think systematically about how things we experience as personal p  roblems are really social i ssues that are shared. ■ EXAMPLE: debt from student loans, competing demands from divorced parents, inability to form a rewarding romantic relationship ● C. Wright Mills (1916-1962) coined the term in 1959. ○ “The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society”. ○ Recognize the extent to which our individual lives are strongly shaped by where, when, and to whom we were born and the range of experiences in life. ■ At each stage in life, we are both individuals and members of a social world. ■ Opportunities and potentials are always influenced by the inequalities and injustices we encounter. ● The sociological imagination helps us to ask hard questions and seek answers about the social worlds we inhabit. ○ Provide tools to navigate those worlds more effectively in pursuit of the goals we have for ourselves. Looking Through a Sociological Lens 1.1.1 Discuss how a Sociological Imagination helps to Challenge Stereotypes ● Challenges some very basic impulses all of us have. ● Helps us to understand that a diversity of intimate relationships is possible and to question our assumptions about a particular form of marriage being natural as opposed to social in origin. ● Quick to identify differences across groups of people as inherent characteristics of members of these groups. ○ Men and women, rich and poor, whites and other races, people of different religions. ● Making faulty generalizations about individuals based on what we think we know about the groups they are members of is what is known as a stereotype. ○ Sociological imagination challenges this by raising questions. ○ Sociology gives us tools to understand and think critically and creatively about everyday assumptions (such as stereotyped thinking) that others make. ■ Things we take for granted are more complicated than they appear. ■ Making the world more complicated is a challenge. Engaging Our Sociological Imaginations: From Personal Puzzles to Sociological Questions 1.1.2 Explain the Process for forming Sociological Questions ● Whenever we try to make sense of something in the social world around us, we are beginning to think sociologically. ● A sociological imagination requires that we start to ask deeper and more meaningful questions about the everyday world around us. ○ Does not allow us to settle for simple answers in understanding human beings and the societies they inhabit. ● One situation that often triggers our sociological imagination occurs when we see that some kind of widely shared assumption we have long taken for granted is incorrect. ● Common sense ideas are often very useful. ○ Innumerable pearls of wisdom are found in commonsense aphorisms, which are short phrases stating a truth or opinion. ■ EXAMPLE: look before you leap, a rising tide lifts all boats, birds of a feather flock together ○ Provides a useful guide to being human. ○ Important to seize opportunities before they disappear. ● Common sense and stereotypes are not helpful and that deeper understanding requires us to question our assumptions. Sociological Questions: A Detailed Example 1.1.3 Identify Types of Questions Sociologists are Particularly Well Equipped to Explore ● Students’ experiences varied widely. ○ Some work harder than others. ○ Backgrounds vary. ○ Party schools and their consequences. ○ Male to female ratio, dating life. ● Sociological questions range from the basic units of human life (individuals’ relations with others) to the groups and organizations we are a part of, all the way up to a now rapidly changing global economy that is impacting all of our social relationships. The Endless Reach of the Sociological Imagination 1.1.4 Discuss the Wide Range of Topics/Areas of Life Sociologists Study ● Harvey Molotch: sociology of the toilet, common household products are invented. ● Colin Jerolmack: relationship between humans and pigeons across the world. ● Eric Klinenberg: why so many people died in certain neighbourhoods in Chicago during a heat wave in 1995. ● Kathleen Gerson: conflicting relationship expectations of young men/women in 21st C. ● Jeff Goodwin: how and why revolutions occurred in some places, but not others. ● Steven Lukes: how sociological ideas can better inform complex moral debates. 1.2 What Are Social Contexts, and Why Do They Matter? Social Contexts: From Individuals to Societies ● The influence of society on individuals is referred to as the social context. ● Sociological imagination is the idea that individuals lives unfold in contexts. ○ Social environments include economic and cultural conditions in which individuals grow up and live. ■ Immediately identify a variety of factors that are going to influence a baby’s life: - Immediate family (past and present), parents’ education level, wealth, income. - Neighbourhood and community. - Education (including quality of schools). - Types of organizations (churches, clubs, or groups) they join or have access to. - Type of employment. ■ Broader contexts that play an important role: - Country they are born into (rich, poor or rapidly developing). - Period of history they are born in. Families and Communities 1.2.1 Analyze How Families and Communities Shape the Social Development of Children ● Our families shape who we are in a variety of ways (giving us racial, ethnic, and religious identities; teaching us the basic rules of society; exposing us to certain networks of people; financial resources; emotional and cognitive capacities). ● Our environment impacts the way we see life and our life in the future. Identities and Groups 1.2.2 Explain how our Identities Impact our Opportunities in Life ● Our identities provide another important type of social context in which individual lives unfold. ● As we move through life, we may be able to change some of these identities. ○ Some may be benign or neutral and some may be positive or beneficial. Schools and Organizations 1.2.3 Discuss how the Schools and Organizations we Participate in Shape our Lives and Identities ● Education is such an important element of our development that it is hardly surprising that the quality and types of schools we attend will have a huge impact on our lives. Social and Historical Contexts 1.2.4 Analyze the Ways in which the Social and Economic Context we are Born into Shapes the Opportunities Available to Us ● Sociological imagination connects individual biographies to history. ○ The social, economic and historical contexts we are born into matter enormously for what we likely can achieve and do. ● Consider poverty not an individual problem but a social one. Sociology as the Study of Social Contexts 1.2.5 Explain the Distinction between Social Interaction and Social Structure ● Sociology is the study of the diverse contexts within which individuals’ lives unfold and the social world is created. ○ The social world has two key components: ■ Social interaction refers to the way people act together, including how they modify and alter their behaviour in response to the presence of others (governed by a set of norms). ● EXAMPLE: Facebook and professional website profiles. ■ Social structure describes the many diverse ways in which the rules and norms of everyday life become enduring patterns that shape and govern social interactions. ● Social hierarchies in society. ● Norms and institutions of society. 1.3 Where Did Sociology Come From, and How Is It Different From Other Social Sciences? The Birth of Sociology 1.3.1 Discuss the Origins of Sociology as a Discipline ● The term sociology w  as first used by French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1859) in 1839. ○ Sociology would eventually become the ultimate science of social life, with other disciplines contributing pieces that sociology would integrate into a coherent science of society. ● Father of sociology Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) founded the first European sociology department at the University of Bordeaux in 1895. ● Max Weber (1864-1920) established identity for sociology as a discipline in country. ● Became a popular and widely acknowledged field of study from the 1920s onward. Sociology and the Industrial Revolution 1.3.2 Explain the Roles of Industrialization and Urbanization in the Development of Sociology ● Two critical developments spurred the social sciences in general and sociology in particular: the very rapid period of industrialization (the growth of factories and large-scale good production) and increasing urbanization (the growth of cities). ○ Spread of factory labour created jobs concentrated in urban areas. ● The social changes enabled by industrialization were immense. ○ Natural and biological sciences seemed unable to fully explain what was occurring. Sociology’s Siblings 1.3.3 Compare and Contrast Sociology with the Other Social Sciences ● Sociology’s concepts and theories cover a wider range of topics than other disciplines. ● Sociology’s explanation of how the external world shapes the behaviours of individuals and social outcomes are broader than those of other disciplines and encompass different units of analysis. ○ Sociologists move from individuals t o groups t o institutions to global society. ● Sociologists don’t define themselves according to a specific arena of life. ○ Political scientists are primarily concerned with topics that involve governments and the policies they produce. ○ Economists are mainly concerned with the individual’s economic behaviour and the performance of the national economy. ○ Psychologists are interested in understanding the workings of the human mind. ● Interdisciplinary research is an increasingly central part of learning about any topic in sociology or the social sciences. Sociology’s Children 1.3.4 Identify some of the Spin-Off Fields that Originally Started in Sociology ● Sociology has long served as an important incubator for new arenas of investigation. ● Sociology will remain a foundational discipline for many of these interdisciplinary social sciences.