Lecture One Handout - Introduction to Sociology (SOCI 1001) - 2024-2025

GREEN HIGHTLIGHT = RED WORD IN PPT YELLOW = APPEAR IN PPT AND I THINK IT IS NEEDED NO HIGHTLIGHT = USELESS OR NOT MENTIONED IN PPT...

GREEN HIGHTLIGHT = RED WORD IN PPT YELLOW = APPEAR IN PPT AND I THINK IT IS NEEDED NO HIGHTLIGHT = USELESS OR NOT MENTIONED IN PPT BLUE = MO IN PPT GEH IMPRTANT THE UNIVERSITY Of HONG KONG Department of Sociology Introduction to Sociology (SOCI 1001) First Semester 2024-2025 Prof. Travis Kong 5 Sept 2024 Introduction: What is Sociology? “What they need… is a quality of mind that will help them to [see] what is going on in the world and … what may be happening within themselves. It is this quality… that… may be called the sociological imagination.” (Mills, 1959: 3-5) Glossary: sociological imagination; structural-functionalism; social-conflict; social action and social interaction; the gender perspective Key problems: What is sociology? How to study society in a sociological way? What are the key sociological perspectives? What are the major issues of sociologists? What is the relevance of sociology in our lives? What is Sociology? 1. Social science, in particular, sociology, is the systematic study of human social lives, groups, and societies. Sociology takes a broader view of why we are as we are, and why we act as we do: How did this world come about? Why are our conditions of life so different from those of our parents and grandparents? What directions will change take in the future? 其他附屬學科：⼈類學、⼼理學、經濟學、政治學 Other affiliated disciplines: anthropology, psychology, economics, politics, etc. 2. How does sociology deal with social change and the rise of modernity? What is modern society? Society with reason? Industrial society, capitalist society, urban society, information society, consumer society, etc.? Nowadays, post-industrial society, post- capitalist society, post-colonial society, digital society, post-human society, etc. How can you explain it? What might lie in the future? Where are we heading - post-modernity, globalisation, planetary computerisation, chaos, etc.? Contour: What are the big features of these changes? Cause: How can you explain them? Comings: Where might it all be headed? (Utopian vs Dystopian view) 烏托邦與反烏托邦的觀點） -1- 3. What are the contemporary issues? 當代的問題是什麼？ What is distinct about social life in the context of modernity or post-modernity? What happens to class, gender, or race? What happens to work and love? What happens to shopping, selling, media, and new technology? What happens to the idea of the human being? How can sociology show the pleasure and pain of modern societies? The personal troubles linked to the public issues? The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society. 社會學想像⼒使我們能夠掌握歷史和傳記以及兩者在社會中的關係。 The world is divided into two parts Biography History Individual experiences Social structure Private troubles Public issues The sociological imagination allows us:  To be able to think about ourselves beyond the familiar routines of our daily lives, in order to look at them anew (de-familiarize the familiar).  To understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life, and the external career of a variety of individuals. Sociological imagination has the following key areas (Kidd 1999): Questioning Challenging Radical Debunking The art of mistrust Imaginative Theoretical and empirical 4. What is sociology? Opening definition 意識 Sociology as imagination - as consciousness - as ways of thinking that deals with social phenomena: Challenging the taken for granted and questioning the social Sensing the social prison whilst seeing people as historical actors Locating dramatic and rapid social changes Sensing the social suffering and the social divisions - of race, class, age, gender, sexuality, body, and so forth - that organize them 認識論 Epistemology: The foundations of knowledge Evidence: Research techniques, issues of sampling, validity, reliability, etc. Examples: How has sociology been done? A mapping of the major sociological theories and a sense of the key concepts. A triple life of social theory: Content: Who are the main theorists and how do they develop their theories and concepts? Conditions: Where, when, and why did the theory develop? Consequences: What are the consequences of this theory being told? Has it had any impact? -2- 5. Four major sociological perspectives The structural-functional perspective [The social as structure, function, and institution] Society as a complex system like human body whose various parts work together to produce stability and solidarity 產⽣穩定和團結 The task of sociology is to investigate the relationship that parts of society have with each other and to society as a whole. 研究社會各部分之間以及與整個社會的關係 This approach also emphasizes the importance of moral consensus in maintaining order and stability in society A common critique of this approach is that it unduly stresses factors that lead to social cohesion at the expense of those producing division and conflict. Early key figures: Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, Robert Merton The social-conflict perspective [The social as conflict of interest: power, war, and struggle] Sees society as composed of distinct groups pursuing their own interests, conflicts are always present and certain group benefit more than others. Emphasizes the importance of divisions in society (along class, age, gender, body, status, education, race, etc.), and thus focuses on power, inequality and struggle. Early key figures: Karl Marx, Fredrick Engels, Du Bois, Ralf Dahrendorf Social action/symbolic interaction perspective [The social explained as everyday drama] Pays greater attention to the action and interaction of members of society in forming structures. The role of sociology is to grasp the meaning of social action and interaction rather than in explaining what forces external to people cause them to act the way they do. Early key figures: Max Weber, George Herbert Mead, Erving Goffman, George Homans, Peter Blau. The gender/feminist perspective [The social as gendered] Examines the gendered nature of virtually all social and institutional relations Challenges women’s unequal status and subordinate roles (e.g., economic and political participation, education attainment) and their confinement in the household Slogan: “The personal is political” Early key figures: Harriet Martineau, Jane Addams, Ann Oakley, Arlie Hochschild * In subsequent lectures, you will know more contemporary scholars in these perspectives. 6. Theoretical dilemma/issues in sociological thoughts Human action versus social structure:  To what extent are we creative human actors, actively controlling the conditions of our own lives? Are we the result of general social forces outside of our control? Consensus versus conflict:  Is our society always in a state of inherent order and harmony or is it plagued with division, tensions, and struggles? The problem of gender:  All the major figures in the past developments of sociological theory were men and their writings of human individual appeared to be ‘neutral’. Shall we build ‘gender’ as a general category into our analysis? Are there fundamental differences that separate women and men, in terms of their identities and social behaviour, in all cultures? -3-  The shaping of the modern world:  What are the determining influences that shape social development in the modern era? 7. Latest development: The question of the west Connell’s southern theory (2007: 44-46) challenges the ‘northernness’ of general theory: ‘the claim of universality’ ‘reading from the center’ of West European and North American metropoles ‘gestures of exclusion’ ‘grant erasure’ of non-metropolitan worlds and experiences Connell (2015) proposes three possible ways of theory building: ‘pyramidal model’ in which Southern experiences are merely fit (or even forced) into Northern framework; ‘mosaic epistemology’ in which separate knowledge systems (North and South) sit beside each other like tiles in a mosaic, each based on specific culture or historical experience and each having its own claims to validity ‘solidarity-based epistemology’ in which different formations of knowledge are respected but enter into educational relations with each other 8. Three dimensions of sociology (Scientific) Sociology as a tool for technical control:  Sociology is treated as similar to the natural sciences which aim at controlling Nature. In natural sciences the subject matter is physical material, in sociology it is the human being (and our activities). In this technical sense, we are concerned with how sociological knowledge informs public policies. (Interpretative) Sociology as way of understanding:  Sociology aims at delineating the underlying meanings of human activities. It is claimed that any human action is inherently meaningful, but can nevertheless seem irrational or non-sense to strangers. Sociology makes sense of these non-sense activities with a particular emphasis on cultural differences. (Critical) Sociology as way of emancipation:  It is claimed that many existing social institutions are inherently unjust. These institutions can persist because they are taken-for-granted as “natural”. Since they appear to be natural the suffering created by them seems to be inevitable. However, in a sociological sense, they are merely human artefacts. In other words, the social injustices these institutions inherited are not unchangeable. The aim of critical sociology is to uncover this “truth” and to show the “reality” behind these institutions. 9. The application of sociology  Understanding social situations  Awareness of cultural differences  Assessment of the effects of policies  Increase of self-knowledge 10. “Embedded sociologists” (Nyseth et al 2011): Sociologists who work largely outside the academia but apply sociological imagination, knowledge and research skills in the non-academic sectors such as NGOs, government and business. -4- Questions to think about: How is society constructed? How does society “work”, “operate”, or “function”? Why are some groups in society more powerful than other groups? What causes social change? Is society normally in orderly balance or in conflict? What is the relationship of the individual to society? What is the primary purpose of sociological study? Is sociology or social science a science? References Key reference texts: Giddens and Sutton, Ch.1; Croteau and Hoynes, Ch. 1; Schaefer, Ch. 1; Haralabmos and Holborn, Introduction; Henslin, Ch. 1; Macionis, Ch. 1 Other suggested readings: Berger, P.L. (1963). Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Chapter 2 ‘Sociology as a Form of Consciousness’. Connell, R. (2007). Southern Theory: The Global Dynamics of Knowledge in Social Science. Cambridge: Polity. Connell, R. (2015). ‘Meeting at the Edge of Fear: Theory on a World Scale’, Feminist Theory, 16 (1): 49-66. Davies, T. (2002). ‘Can Sociology Shape Social Policy?’ Sociology Review 12 (1): 20-23. Ford, D. (1998). ‘Smoking and Social Policy,’ Sociology Review 8 (2): 2-5. Garrod, J. (2002). ‘What is Sociology?’ Sociology Review 12 (1): 2-3. Kidd, W. (1999), ‘The Importance of the Sociological Imagination’, Sociology Review 9 (1):20-21. Mills, C. W. (1959). The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press, Chapter 1 ‘The Promise’. Nyseth, H., Shannon S., Heise, K., and Mcelrath, S.M. (2011). ‘Embedded Sociologists’, Contexts, 10 (2): 44-50. Pilcher, J. 2004. ‘The Uses of Sociology,’ Sociology Review 14 (1): 2-4. -5-