CLASS 1

INTRODUCING SOCIOLOGY

Prof. dr. Jannick Demanet

Academic year: 2022-2023
CONTENTS

1) The sociological imagination

2) Origins of sociology
3) A short tour of theory
1. THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
 1. SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
Sociology
The systematic study of social interaction, social groups
and institutions, and society
Individuals are shaped by the social
The social is shaped by interacting people

p. 5
 1. SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

Sociology sees
The general in the particular
Patterns  generalisation

p. 4
 1. SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

Sociology sees
The strange in the familiar
Uncover how society is socially constructed

p. 5
 1. SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

Sociological imagination (C.W. Mills)

1) Individual events - biography
2) Social environment
3) History

p. 21
 1. SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

Layers of social reality

Levels of analysis
Cosmic (?)
Ranked hierarchically
World and globe

Social and cultural

Interactional

Individual
p. 5
 1. SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

Psychological reasons for suicide

1) Depression
2) Psychosis
3) Impulsive
World and globe
4) Crying out for help
5) Philosophical desire to die Social and cultural

6) Made mistake Interactional

https:// Individual
!!! www.therapyroute.com/article/suicide-hot
 1. SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

World and globe

Social and cultural

Interactional

Individual
!!!
 1. SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
Integration
Egoistic Altruistic

Regulation World and globe

Anomic Fatalistic
Social and cultural

Interactional

Individual
p. 6-8, !!! (book
 1. SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

World and globe

Social and cultural

Interactional

Individual
!!!
II. ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY
 II. ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY

Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

Three stages of understanding society
1) Theological stage
2) Metaphysical stage
3) Scientific stage  Positivism

p. 16-17
 II. ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY

Societal background
1) Industrial economy
Birth of capitalism
Home manufacturing to factory
2) Growth of cities
‘Pull’ of the factories
‘Push’ of the countryside
3) Political change
Divine legitimation
p. 17-18 Individual liberty and rights
 II. ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY
Societal background
4) Social revolution
The decline of community
Gemeinschaft  Gesellshaft
Kinship, virtue, loyalty  instrumental, self-
interest
Collectivism  individualism

 
p. 19
III. A SHORT TOUR OF THEORY
 III. A SHORT TOUR OF THEORY

What is a sociological theory?

General frameworks of explanation linking
phenomena in the social world
From observation to understanding
Sociography vs Sociology
Distinction (Merton) Theory
Grand theory
Middle-range theory Facts

p. 34, !!!
 III. A SHORT TOUR OF THEORY

Differences across perspectives Structure

1) Macro vs micro
Macro Micro
Groups, society as whole
Interactions Culture

2) Structure vs. culture

Forms, patterned arrangements
Meanings, beliefs, values, …

!!!
 III. A SHORT TOUR OF THEORY

Classical perspectives
1) Functionalism
Organic view of society (Spencer)
Society as system
Components with a function

p. 36-38
 III. A SHORT TOUR OF THEORY

1) Functionalism
Structural-functionalism (Parsons)

p. 38, !!!
 III. A SHORT TOUR OF THEORY

1) Functionalism
Functions (Merton)
Manifest functions
Latent functions
Dysfunctions

p. 38
 III. A SHORT TOUR OF THEORY

1) Functionalism
Critique
Society as ‘normal’
Emphasis on order and cohesion
Where are social problems?
What about change?

p. 38
 III. A SHORT TOUR OF THEORY

2) Conflict perspective
Society is a struggle
Dominant
Legitimation, reproduction
Oppressed
Equal rights
Class, gender, ethnicity, age, …
Inequality  conflict, change
p. 39
 III. A SHORT TOUR OF THEORY

2) Conflict perspective
Role of the sociologist
Value-free researcher (Weber)
Critical sociologist (Marx)
Critique
Neglect of order, cohesion
Objective science and activism?

p. 39
 III. A SHORT TOUR OF THEORY

3) Social action perspectives

Functionalism & conflict perspective
Very structural
What about people’s view/motivations?
Sociology of social action (Weber)
Macro (<-> book (!!)  see later)
What about the micro?
Symbolic interactionism
Meanings originate/change through interaction
The study of everyday life
p. 42-43
 I. SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

The Big Debate

Society or the individual
Determinism or voluntarism
Structure or agency
People construct society together
Society determines individual action, belief, …
“We make our own prison…”

p. 59
SO…

Scientific study of the social

Sociological imagination
Originated in changing society
Economy, cities, political, community
Sociology and theory
Macro & Micro, Structure & Culture
Functionalism, conflict theory, action perspectives
CHAPTERS NOT TO BE STUDIED

The Chinese exception (p. 8)

Methods and research: what sociologists do (p. 8)
Social change and the Great Transformation 2 (p. 22)
An example: the case of a feminist sociology and the missing
voice of women (p. 45)
And other voices: postmodernism and a multi-paradigmatic
sociology (p. 46)
Thinking globally (p. 48)