Week 1 Part 2 SOC101 Introduction to Sociology Summer 2024 PDF

SOC101: Introduction to Sociology Week 1_part 2 Selim Reza, PhD Associate Professor of Sociology Department of Political Science and Sociology School of Humanities and Social Sciences Expansion of knowledge in a variety of fields Broad knowledge...

SOC101: Introduction to Sociology Week 1_part 2 Selim Reza, PhD Associate Professor of Sociology Department of Political Science and Sociology School of Humanities and Social Sciences Expansion of knowledge in a variety of fields Broad knowledge through appreciation for the What is GED? arts, humanities, and social sciences 1. Reshape Your Outlook on Learning Liberal arts 2. Learn Soft Skills Desired by Employers Critical and analytical thinking skills 3. Be Well-Versed in a Wide Variety of Disciplines Acceptance of cultural diversity in society 4. Learn with People From Diverse Disciplines Communicating clearly through the formation of General education courses can reshape your logical arguments outlook on learning, teach you soft skills and Intellectual problem-solving that is effective in a introduce you to a variety of disciplines and society undergoing constant change people. ✓ Connection to a foundation of education ✓ Different perspectives on your life as a human being ✓ Professional development + personal  Syllabus Why do you need to know about sociology? What is this course about? Objectives Learning outcomes and usefulness Assessments Contacting your professor (office hours/email) References (digital sources) Course schedule Class attendance BEHAVIOUR: Late arrival, sidetalking, and plagiarism Mobile phone distraction is strictly prohibited  Assessment Method Marks A) Response and participation in in-class discussions and activities 5 B) Quiz 30 (Total 4 tests: 10 marks in each quiz/the best 3 tests will be counted) Quiz-1 will be held on 31 July Quiz-2 will be held on 21 August Quiz-3 will be held on 25 September Quiz-4 will be held on 16 October C) Mid-term examination (in class: 4 September 2024) 25 D) Individual assignment (Email submission by 20 October 2024/11:59PM) 10 E) Final examination (30 October—11 November 2024, as per NSU’s official exam schedule) 30 Total 100  Structure of lecture Trigger your thoughts by presenting the key concepts Interactive discussions Peer learning and peer interactions Learning by asking questions (LAQ) Class participation or attendance? Activity in class Your wellbeing (sleep, hydration) Your enemy in class: mobile phone: FOMO Missing a lecture: your responsibility Stressed about your grade? Follow the lectures. Any questions on the syllabus? Any questions?  Understanding Sociology We live in a world today that is increasingly complex. What makes this possible? Why are the conditions of our lives so different from those of earlier times? How will our lives change in the future? To what extent are things that seem natural actually socially constructed? Does the individual matter? Understanding of social change Sociology is not a body of theories everyone agrees on. As in any complex field, the questions we raise allow for different answers. In Sociology, we compare and contrast differing theoretical traditions.  Sociology involves not only acquiring knowledge but also developing a sociological imagination. Apply sociological imagination to any behaviour. “Individual” and “society” The Sociological Imagination is a 1959 book by American sociologist C. Wright Mills published by Oxford University Press. In it, he develops the idea of sociological imagination, the means by which the relation between self and society can be understood. Not just a refreshment a) Symbolic value? b) Drug: caffeine/stimulating effects on the brain (social acceptance of alcohol vs. marijuana) psychoactive drug c) Social and economic relationships (globally): production, packaging, transport, marketing, distribution/continuous global transactions d) Past social and economic development (from Middle East to the West/late 1800s)/South America and Africa colonized by Europeans/No a natural part of the Western diet We all need to overcome our limited perspective Larger meaning of our experiences: Learn to distinguish between the personal and social levels in our own lives. Events in personal lives & events in our society: What is real? What could become real?  Sociological imagination In attempting to understand social behaviour, sociologists rely on a particular type of critical thinking. A leading sociologist, C. Wright Mills, described such thinking as the sociological imagination—an awareness of the relationship between an individual and the wider society, both today and in the past (Mills 2000a). This awareness allows all of us (not just sociologists) to comprehend the links between our immediate, personal social settings and the remote, impersonal social world that surrounds and helps to shape us. THINK OURSELVES AWAY from the familiar routines of our daily lives in order to look at them anew. C. Wright Mills called the sociological imagination, a phrase he coined in 1959 in a now-classic book (Mills, 2000; orig. 1959).  Mills tried to understand how the average person in the United States understood his or her everyday life. According to Mills, each of us lives in a very small orbit, and our worldview is limited by the social situations we encounter on a daily basis. These include the family and the small groups we are a part of, the school we attend, and even the dorm in which we live. All these things give rise to a certain limited perspective and point of view. The average person, according to Mills, doesn’t really understand his or her personal problems as part of any kind of larger framework or series of goings-on. Mills argued that we all need to overcome our limited perspective. What is necessary is a certain quality of mind that makes it possible to understand the larger meaning of our experiences. This quality of mind is the sociological imagination. “Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.”  In summary, sociological imagination is an ability to see the context which shapes your individual decision making, as well as the decisions made by others. But the reason why it is useful is because it allows us to better identify and question various aspects of society, as opposed to passively living within it. Sociology not only helps us to analyse current and existing patterns of social life, but it also helps us to see some of the possible futures open to us. Through the sociological imagination, we can see not only what is real, but also what could become real should we desire to make it that way.  Social structure The social contexts of our lives do not just consist of random assortments of events or actions, they are structured, or patterned in distinct ways. There are regularities in the ways we behave and in the relationships we have with one another. Social structure is not like a physical structure such as a building, which exists independently of human actions. Human societies are always in the process of structuration Social structure, in sociology, the distinctive, stable arrangement of institutions whereby human beings in a society interact and live together.  What sociology teaches us is that, in many ways, we are freer than we think— that the things we think are natural are actually created by human beings. Patterned interaction of people in social relationships is called social structure Coffee: a) You make the decision along with millions of other people b) You shape the market for coffee a c) You affect the lives of coffee producers (miles away from you, other side of the world) Social construction  Even though it is not simply a natural occurrence that a person starts to behave as a boy or a girl, many of us are raised to believe that the differences between men and women are purely biological. Sociologists disagree. Does this mean that sociologists want to dismiss the role of biology? No. The goal of sociology is not to try to teach you that the biological realm is a residual category with a minor role in explaining human behaviour. One purpose of sociology is to disentangle what is biological from what is socially constructed.  It is in part to try to determine how social phenomena relate to biological phenomena. Most sociologists admit that there is a place for the biological. However, many studies show that the things that the average human being thinks are biological, and thus natural, are actually socially constructed. SOCIAL ORDER How can we explain this orderly behaviour? How can we explain the existence of social order in a lecture hall or in a society? We certainly need social order to get through the day, but how can we understand it?  It is rational for individuals to act this way: Students know it is in their self- interest to sit quietly and pay, or pretend to pay, attention. Self-interest and incentives Existence of norms It is a norm of social life that when students come into a classroom, they sit and take notes and pay attention. We learn and internalize norms as young people through a process called socialization. Once we have internalized a norm, we tend to follow through with the expectations of the norm in most of our interactions. Norms are important to sociologists because they explain some of the ways in which we are inside society and, simultaneously, society is inside us. Yet another explanation for social order focuses on beliefs and values. Agency and structure: Sociologists tend to think in probabilities Structure: Constraints on individuals that result from the fact that repeated patterns of action, legitimated by ideologies, form the environment that shapes us and limits our actions Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices. The individual does matter: free will, freedom of choice, and independent action Agency and structure Social change: Another question sociologists ask is how people live in light of the social transformations of their time. Rural to urban life: romance, love, intimate relationships/arranged marriages vs. emotional attraction Industrialization in the West Any questions?