Introduction to Sociology

• Sociology is the study of society and human interconnectedness.
• It examines social constructions and the processes through which they emerge.
• Social constructs include things like the value of money, national identities, and boundaries.

Social Sciences and Humanities

• Economics studies the economy and economic behavior.
• Anthropology focuses on culture.
• History examines the past and how societies change.
• Psychology studies human behavior and the mind.
• Political science deals with the state and interactions between states.
• Linguistics explores language.

Sub-Disciplines of Sociology

• Economic sociology studies the economy and its relationship to society.
• Cultural sociology examines culture and its relationship to society.
• Historical sociology studies the past and its relationship to contemporary society.
• Political sociology studies the state and its relationship to society.
• Social construction examines language and its relationship to society.
• There are 53 sections in the American Sociological Association.

The Sociological Imagination

• C. Wright Mills’ "The Sociological Imagination" connects individual lives to societal history.
• Each person lives a biography within a society and contributes to its shaping.
• Karl Marx stated that men make their own history, but not under self-selected circumstances.
• It emphasizes the co-constitution of individuals and the societies they are embedded in.
• People create societies, which in turn create people.
• Using the sociological imagination involves understanding the relationship between personal troubles and public issues.

Personal Troubles vs. Public Issues

• Social forces are societal-level mechanisms influencing individual character and life trajectories.
• Social forces are ideology/culture and social structure.
• Social forces influence individual character.
• Shared symbolic representation influences how the world is perceived and judged.
• This can influence choices about behavior.
• Stable patterns of social relations reinforced by social institutions is a form of social structure.
• A particular pattern of social structure can influence individual behavior.

How to Become Batman: Applying Ideology

• People often mistake observations of the social world for confirmation of ideological beliefs, rather than seeing how belief produces "evidence."
• Bobbi Gibb applied to run the Boston Marathon in 1966 but was denied entry because women were thought to be not physiologically able to run a marathon.
• Gender and physical ability is a social construction.
• She was disallowed because organizers feared liability if she collapsed; by the current day, 250,000 women have completed the Boston Marathon.

Ideology and Culture

• Ideology (or culture) is a social force influencing the character of society by influencing people's behavior.
• Behavior is experienced uniquely but is socially influenced.
• Ideology influences the array of choices people think they have and makes behavior meaningful.
• It also provides the framework for individual feelings, thoughts, and judgments.
• One situation or behavior can be made meaningful in different ways.
• The "squeaky wheel gets the grease" vs "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down".

Social Structure

• Beliefs, values, and world views shape behavior, but people are likely to engage in specific behaviors regardless.
• Social structure refers to stable patterns of social relations that make certain behaviors seem easy or natural.
• A person's position within social structure, like ideology/culture, influences their behavior.

How to Become Batman: Applying Social Structure

• Social structure constitutes a society's stable patterns of social relations.
• The effects of structural organization of social institutions are often not recognizable, or are naturalized.

Public Policy and Social Structure: Public Education

• In educational segregation, students with disabilities are segregated from able-bodied peers, and networks remain segregated.
• In mainstreaming, students with disabilities are integrated with able-bodied peers and embedded in an integrated social structure.

Social Construction

• Social forces like ideology and social structure produce social constructions.
• Social constructions are elements of reality whose truth comes from the social.
• It is tempting to dismiss them as "not real," but they are as real as the law of gravity.

Social Reproduction and Social Change

• Social reproduction occurs when the same societal configuration is reproduced over time.
• Social reproduction occurs when people's behavior aligns with existing expectations of ideology and social structure.
• Social change occurs when a society's structural configuration transforms over time.
• Social change can be caused by the introduction of new technologies, changes in population makeup, social movements, and political revolution.

Social Forces and Agency

• Social forces like ideology and social structure explain how society influences individuals.
• Society and individuals are co-constituted.
• Individuals influence society.

Agency

• Sociology studies the effects of social forces on behavior, but shouldn't reduce individual behavior to these forces.
• Individuals always make decisions with "agency."
• Agency is always a part of both societal reproduction and social change.

Complicated Relationship

• Sociology excels at explaining patterns in groups due to the complicated relationship between ideology, structure, and agency.
• Most people behave in ways consistent with ideology and structure most of the time.
• Sociologists observe general trends with many exceptions, and these patterns are observable at the level of large groups.