Class 2 - Introduction to Sociology and Basic Notions PDF

CLASS 2 / Part I: introduction to sociology and basic notions Ø SUMMARY: Ø The constitution of societies and basic sociological notions Ø How to understand the social world? Ø free will vs. determinism Ø structure vs. culture CLASS 2: The constitution of societies Ø Societies are always embedded in...

CLASS 2 / Part I: introduction to sociology and basic notions Ø SUMMARY: Ø The constitution of societies and basic sociological notions Ø How to understand the social world? Ø free will vs. determinism Ø structure vs. culture CLASS 2: The constitution of societies Ø Societies are always embedded in culture / cultural frameworks: Ø Culture: Ø the symbolic and learned aspects of human society; culture is not biological but instead is transmitted and shared via social interaction Ø (broad): the entire way of living of a people or a group; (narrow): the specific systems of meaning with which we weigh and consider our social world Ø cultures are often composed of subcultures and countercultures CLASS 2: The constitution of societies Ø Societies are always embedded in culture or cultural frameworks: Ø Subculture: the symbols and lifestyles of a subgroup in society, one that deviates from the “normal”, more general (dominant) culture of a society. Examples of subcultures? Ø Example: punk groups etc. Ø Counterculture: values and behaviours that go against those of mainstream society Ø Example: the hippies in the 1960s in the U.S. etc. CLASS 2: The constitution of societies Ø The framework of societal modes of existence (how are societies constituted?) Ø Social structures: Ø patterns of organization that constrain human behaviour. Ø they can be formal / institutional (school, university, government) or informal (peer pressure and trends) Ø formal and informal patterns are related to each other: example: social classes in aristocratic political regimes. CLASS 2: The constitution of societies Ø The framework of societal modes of existence: Ø Institutions Ø sets of linked social practices (such as education, marriage, or the family) that are informed by broader culture, are regularly and continuously repeated, are sanctioned and maintained by social norms, and have a major significance for the social structure CLASS 2: The constitution of societies Ø The framework of societal modes of existence: Ø Norms Ø rules that prescribe correct behaviour; they remain unofficial but commonly understood; are informed by values; sometimes, rules are made official (e.g. laws). Ø Examples: expected norms of behaviour between mother and father; between professor and student etc. CLASS 2: The constitution of societies Ø The framework of societal modes of existence: Ø Values: Ø personal principles or standards of behaviour; one’s judgment of what is important in life. Ø they are oftentimes shared ideas of what is good / bad, desirable / undesirable, or sacred / profane in a society, based on social group membership. CLASS 2: The constitution of societies Ø The framework of societal modes of existence: Culture, social structures, institutions, norms and values inform and condition the individuals’ behaviour in society. Ø This conditioning is captured by the concepts of ‘status’ and ‘role’ : Ø CLASS 2: The constitution of societies Ø The framework of societal modes of existence: Ø 1. Individuals acquire social status: Ø a position in social relations (e.g., mother, father, teacher, president) – ascribed or achieved Ø status is normatively regulated; it is assumed that when a person occupies a particular status, he or she will behave in particular ways. Ø it can also refer to a particular rank that leads to access (or a lack of access) to power. CLASS 2: The constitution of societies Ø The framework of societal modes of existence: Ø 2. In positions of status, individuals assume social roles: Ø bundles of socially defined attributes, expectations and behaviours associated with social statuses or positions (again, e.g. mother, father, teacher, president). Ø Statuses are “occupied”, roles are “played” CLASS 2: How to understand the social world? Ø 1. How society affects the individual (society’s effects)? Ø Determinism vs. free will Ø 2. What is society made of and what affects society? Ø Structure vs. culture CLASS 2: How to understand the social world? Ø 1. How society affects the individual - determinism vs. free will: Ø a. determinism: social structures and culture determine / constrain behaviour of individuals Ø Karl Marx: “it is not consciousness that determines society, but society that determines consciousness” Ø Emile Durkheim: society is made up of “social facts” which are objective and heavily constraining individuals CLASS 2: How to understand the social world? Ø 1. How society affects the individual - determinism vs. free will: Ø b. free will: individuals as free agents building up structures, institutions, organizations, and culture: Ø George Herbert Mead: the creative and free self is at the basis of social institutions; the self is made up of: Ø “me”: represents established values and attitudes Ø “I”: active, spontaneous source of creative, anticonforming activity CLASS 2: How to understand the social world? Ø 1. How society affects the individual - determinism vs. free will: Ø b. free will: individuals as free agents building up structures, institutions, organizations, and culture: Ø Erving Goffman: the self as an actor; the social as social performance; individuals often only play roles without necessarily believing in the values and norms they espouse. CLASS 2: How to understand the social world? Ø 2. What is society made of and what affects society - structure vs. culture: Ø a. structural accounts: Ø society is explained through the workings of structures which provide the framework for institutions, processes and groups Ø structural accounts need not be determinist; they can tell stories about the success of the social resistance of individuals to structural pressure Ø Structure gains its effect through coercion, negotiation and repetition CLASS 2: How to understand the social world? Ø 2. What is society made of and what affects society - structure vs. culture: Ø a. structural accounts: Ø 1. material structures: factory, labour market, class – sociologists seek to ascertain how such structures affect individual and social life Ø 2. immaterial structures: social roles as structures; sociologists seek to know how the performance of for example family or church roles (“father” or “priest”) is compelled from the outside. CLASS 2: How to understand the social world? Ø 2. What is society made of and what affects society - structure vs. culture: Ø a. cultural accounts: Ø focus is on the values, beliefs, emotions, meanings, modes of thought that are central to a society Ø culture goes beyond the individual, it is collective; yet culture is not objective, but subjective: it does not lie outside of the individual as a natural object, but inside of the individual CLASS 2: How to understand the social world? Ø 2. What is society made of and what affects society - structure vs. culture: Ø a. cultural accounts: Ø culture gains its effect through persuasion, conviction and repetition Ø as with structure, cultural accounts need not be deterministic CLASS 2: How to understand the social world? Ø Reflection point - the constitutive relation between structure and culture / process: Ø Structures determine institutions, groups, and social processes. Ø Yet social structures are not akin to structures in the natural world: they cannot work by themselves, cannot be separated from meanings CLASS 2: How to understand the social world? Ø Reflection point - the constitutive relation between structure and culture / process: Ø Structures are “solidified” cultural factors; sets of beliefs, meanings etc. which assume an objective form Ø As cultural factors become external rather than internal, they develop into organizations controlling resources (money and power) and compelling people to act in specific ways, irrespective of their beliefs CLASS 2 – Part I: introduction to sociology Ø Bibliography: Ø “Chapter 1” + “Chapter 3” Ø A Contemporary Introduction to Sociology. Culture and Society in Transition.; 3rd Edition; Routledge (2018), by Jeffrey C. Alexander, Kenneth Thompson, Laura Desfor Edles, Moshoula Capous-Desyllas (eds.)