Understanding Sociology

Sociology

• It is the systematic study of social behavior and human groups
• It focuses on social relationships, their impact on individuals, and how societies evolve

Theoretical Tool

• Sociology offers a unique perspective on society
• It fosters critical thinking about social phenomena and human behavior

Broad Perspective

• It involves looking at the general in the particular and recognizing the strange in the familiar

Sociological Perspective

• It aids in identifying general patterns in social experiences
• Individual experiences can vary based on social categories such as gender, age, or ethnicity

Applying Sociology

• Requires stepping back to view things from a different angle
• Contradicts common sense ideas, necessitating the distinction between common sense and scientific understanding

Common Sense

• It is immediate and based on personal experiences, lacking systematization

Scientific Knowledge

• Subject to inquiry, representation, and community validation

Sociological Imagination

• Helps realize seemingly individual issues are linked to broader societal matters

Understanding a Cafe

• Symbolic value
• Socially accepted drug
• Network of social and economic relationships
• Process of social and economic development
• Process of globalization

Benefits of Sociological Perspective

• Challenges assumptions about ourselves and others
• It evaluates life opportunities and limitations
• It encourages active participation in society
• It recognizes human differences and challenges in a diverse world

Challenges of Sociological Perspective

• Sociology is part of an ever-changing world

Sociology as Part of Society

• Sociologists are part of their study subject
• Sociological knowledge becomes part of society, causing an impact

Sociology's Limitation

• Sociology can be ethnocentric and limited by cultural outlook

Hidden Curriculum

• Communication style used by educators toward students

Origin of Sociology

• It is linked to the 18th-century Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution and Capitalism

• Led to the transformation of Western society from agricultural to industrial

Changes Due to Revolution

• Changes in labor, rural exodus, politics, and religion

Sociology of Education

• Dialectical relationship between school and society is bidirectional

School as Social Institution

• Interrelated with other institutions

Schools Transformable

• Students and teachers are social products influencing social change and enabling critical thinking

Welfare State's Role

• Promotes equal citizenship through education and scholarships

Social Structure

• Refers to the order of social institutions and their relationships

Key Questions

• Who makes decisions and holds the power

Elements of Social Structure

• Institutions: Organized sets of roles with specific purposes

Institutional Orders

• Spheres: Institutions and practices that interact across various domains

Social Stratification

• The hierarchical division of society into ordered layers

Institutions and Social Groups

• Elements of social structure that relate to each other and individuals

Social Classes

• Large-scale groups arising in capitalist societies

Classes Based on

• Ownership, credentials, job position, and living condition

Social Mobility

• Movement between social positions or classes which can be upward or downward

Perspectives on Social Structure

• Relational: Focuses on social relations between individuals, groups, and institutions

Cultural Perspective

• Emphasizes norms, beliefs, and values shaping social action

Social Change

• Transformations in living conditions, structure, and values of human groups

Systemic vs. Whole Changes

• Changes can occur within the system or transform the entire social structure

Factors of Change

• Alterations in elements, interrelations, functions, boundaries, or environment of the social system

Multicausal Nature

• Changes can be driven by multiple factors

Factors of Social Change

• Cultural factors, physical environment, political organization, agency, and social movements

Globalization

• Refers to economic and political processes driving global interconnectedness of phenomena

Technology

• Mediates and accelerates these processes

Reinforcement in Ties

• Strengthening social and economic ties aided by transportation and communication

Consolidation Post-WWII

• Established international institutions after WWII following the collapse of the URSS

Educational Challenges

• Generating adaptive individuals and transferring knowledge for equality

Learning Society

• Knowledge extends beyond educational institutions

Globalization Impacts on Education

• Homogenization of educational criteria, commodification of education, and emphasis on economic subjects
• Promotion of entrepreneurship, and focus on convergence between education and employment
• Education is measured by performance and efficiency

Other Factors

• Competitiveness, individualism, and technological divide are key

Social Structure of Canary Islands

• Economy primarily based on tourism, resulting in low-skilled jobs and demographic challenges

The definition of Culture

• The ways of life, beliefs, behavior, customs, and materials that form a people's way of life

Generational Transmission

• Culture is given from one generation to the next through socialization and continues overtime through reproductions

Element of social structure

• Interaction among individuals with expectations and standards of their place

Types of Standards

• Laws and rules
• Beliefs are positive for a good purpose
• Habits are based on activity

Socialization Definition

• Process where people get and learn the culture of their surroundings

Purpose of Process

• A human being grows physically and mentally by being in the environment that gives them culture

Main Goal

• Getting culture and turning it into personality while adapting into a social scenario

Four Stages

• Elementary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Resocialization

Forms of Socializing

• Aiming a goal that is independent but objective through the behaviors of people which are based upon how they feel, act ,and think which can be equal such as gender

Relatives Socializing

• Passes on language from a code based on a social class, shares the social culture, behavior codes, and views

Learning Steps

• Acquiring behavior and mindsets that are written into people's minds as they have adapted

The Inner Self

• Only when we get our inner person complete with what is outside of ourselves, do we socially become the same as others

Social Control

• Control that forces a power onto the people around

Sex and Socialization

• Women are not born but are made by society

Social Construction

• Gender is a social construct that is a system

Family Concept

• The view of family has slowly changed over the years as society evolved

Age Roles

• Ancient Rome considered the family to be an organized political body not as a private institution
• Medieval times lacked strong family love and little intimacy
• 19th century starting the study of sociology the family then became the basic social body

Family Type Changing

• Varies based on the type of society

Earlier Civilizations

• The family is used to be absorbed by parentage
• Parentage was equivalent to the tribe
• Daily living as a group

Old Cultures

• Goal was continuation of the family blood line and not based upon feelings
• Male was dominant, and blood line was only from the male side

Pre-Modern Times

• Marriage wasn't necessary because of love
• Differences in relationships were based more upon male and female
• Sex was seen as immoral
• God was the order for things

Modern Times

• Changes came with the increase in factories
• Family relation liberalization
• Ties were more intimate
• Based more on feelings

Post-Modern Era

• Changes that came in the 21st century

The Shift in Relationship

• Used to be based on family and relationship, now it depends on gender, generation, place.
• Sex role and domestic jobs for woman
• Relationships important no matter the area

Destructive Family Roles

• Currently the common for is atomic
• Change of a few behaviors
• Increase of women in the work place
• Increase in individuals

Family Historical Evolution

• Changes in decrease of marriages in Spain and the time women are educated and work
• Legally same sex marriages and easy divorces with decreased population

Evolution of Spanish Familes

• Less historical intense change compared to the rest of the modern areas
• 60's process of change and a democratic change

Main Factors Breaking Family Structures

• Increased woman in the work place
• Low birth rates
• Woman gaining more power
• Option to have children out of wedlock

Feminist Movements

• Questions how couples share their life and domestic duties

Social Institute Growth

• Changes and values
• Civilized marriage
• Children out of wedlock

Family Diversity

• More transitions such as low birth and death rates and increase in divorce
• Modern family consist of multi parenting, single parenting

Post-Modern Families

• Free relations
• Individual and marriage pact

Family as a Group

• How is the group put together with patterned behaviors that satisfy the needs of a family with a structure and morals

Roles of the Family

• Satisfaction of needs, structure, moral codes as a business for education

Family Transformation

• Losing old standards leading to the main push to gain more humanization where people feel safe

Change in view

• Shifting of male and female partners where personal wants come first
• Family loses value

Causes of Transformation

• Less impact from social rules due to increase of personal wants and freedom with legal divorce

System of Education

• Main goal for school is to push to have the family be a part of the school and the learning process where it makes equal chance to have everyone be involved

Types of Groups

• Parent Teachers association, information to the parent and student, where questions during the meeting come up and a decision is made