Why Sociological Research and Theory Focus on Issues of Identity - Essay Example

An Empirical Study on Why Sociological Research and Theory Focus on Issues of Identity Sociology Richard Jenkins could not have posed the perfect imperfect perspective when he said contemporary sociology "can and should be challenged." (Jenkins, 2002a) Here Jenkins spoke and wrote on three significant senses that he acknowledged is shared by other critics and which dwelt on how general theory and empirical research "have become too weakly connected to each other." Jenkins continued with how sociologists "routinely fail" and lastly, how sociological aspiration has been "particularly threatened in the recent years." (2002b) These thoughts laid down the premise for important questions Jenkins asked thereafter: "What is the distinctive realm of human experience and existence How are we to understand that human world better How can sociology contribute to that understanding" (2002c, p.2) Here thus is where this study takes off while attempting to edge closer and deeper on said thoughts and questions. A move expected to provide answers as to why sociological research and theory focus on issues of identity. Why The world is out there. And so should we be as THE world's people. Should be all out there with our varying cultures and our changing communities. Sociological research and theory. Why focus then on issues of identity Interestingly enough, sociological research has been likened by sociologist Willam B. Sanders (1979) to detective work.(cited by Zanden, 1990). As discussed further, Professor James W. Vander Zanden (1990a) presented this as both tackling a problem, is faced with initial perplexity and assumptions, then comes the search for evidence, perceptive reasoning, false leads and eventually, or ideally really, the final sense of victory. In contrast yet the justification as well, Zanden continued, (1990b), "detectives undertake to identify and locate criminals and collect evidence to convict them in a court of law. Sociologists develop concepts and theories to explain people's behavior. Even though their goals may differ, detectives and sociologists attempt to answer two types of question: "Why did something happen" and "Under what circumstances is it likely to happen again" In brief, both attempt to explain and predict." Theory on the other hand is defined as "an interrelated set of assumptions that explains observed patterns" in a study of sociologists David Brinkerhoff and Lynn White. (988) Theories according to Webster are "coherent group of general propositions used as principles of explanation for a class of phenomena." (1997, p 815) In grasping both comes thereafter the issue of identity issues. Simply put, one needs to know the proper approach and yet even before that, how to do it, when to do it right and why it is best to do it right. The late Professor C. Wright Mills (1959a) aptly addressed this when he said, "Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both. The history that now affects every man is world history." Very true. Identity issues do confront every single citizen of this world no matter the creed, race or religion. From social identity issues, to political and gender issues, all these help shape and unshape a nation and the many communities, societies in it. For anybody and everybody to achieve triumph or come close to overcoming these issues hounding the world and its populace, imperative then to understand how these personal battles have become public issues. Sociological imagination as Mills labeled it (Mills 1959b) and explained as the ability to see our lives, concerns, problems and hopes entwined within the largest social and historical context in which we live. (Zanden 1990c, p.7) And from thereon comes government policies, formulated and designed to address the specific public issues that have become more than social issues. Ours is a "human-made world," as yet another renowned sociologists Zygmunt Bauman and Tim May pointed out in their joint collaboration, Thinking Sociologically. (2001a) A human-made world that "that bears the imprint of human activity, that would not exist at all but for the actions of human beings." (Bauman, May 2001b) If we are to study and try to understand why people behave as such, why communities react as such and why societies are shaped as such, imperative and important then to begin with the study and understanding of the issues surrounding the people, the communities and the societies. Sociological research with all of its given methodology forms part a puzzle with theories comprising the smaller bits and pieces of it. To complete the puzzle are the issues on identity which in effect lays down the over-all scenario of what society is and where sociology comes in. Take one piece of the puzzle and the picture will never be complete. It may not crumble yet it cannot be completed. It may appear to be able to stand on its own and is still a picture nonetheless, yet a gaping hole is visible that opens the door for more questions. Which brings us back to Jenkins and his discussion, "Understanding change." Here he spoke extensively about the subject vis a vis its integral place in the human world, the interactions of individuals and the institutions. Here he spoke about collectivity as he did with an extensive discussion on the "Ontology of Collectivity." (2002d, p.63 - 81) In the end, it brought Jenkins to his renewed realization as to why sociology matters, what in it that really matters and for us, the subjects of sociology, to make it matter. (2002e, p.139-150) Professor Mills has since addressed this particularly in the opening lines of his book, The Sociological Imagination (1959c). "Nowadays men often feel that their private lives are a series of traps. They sense that within their everyday worlds, they cannot overcome the troubles and in this feeling, they are often quite correct: What ordinary men are directly aware of and what they try to do are bounded by their private orbits in which they live; their visions and their powers are limited to the close-up scenes of job, family, neighborhood; in other millieux, they move vicariously and remain spectators. And the more trapped they seem to feel." (1959d, p.1) The world and the people in it constantly change. And so do the many societies in it. People revolve and evolve. Lives alter and falter. Communities shape and form anew as these changes take place. It was once said, the only thing permanent in this world is change itself. (Annonymous) Jenkins in quoting Mills and other experts on the field had this to say: "More than forty years ago, C. Wright Mills famously diagnosed sociology as a suffering from confusion, distortion, bureaucratisation, and shoddy craftsmanship. A decade or so later, Alvin Gouldner, no less famously, hailed a ' coming crisis' in sociology, arguing for a radical theoretical and political reflexitivity appropriate to a historical moment - it was the end of the 1960s - when 'new sentiments and old theories' were out of kilter of each other. At the same time Stanislav Andreski fired off a barrage of broadsides aimed at everything from the obscure language of sociological writing, to the methodological pretensions of sociological research, to ideology masquerading as theory." (2002e, p.1) What does it tell us then Once again, it validates the need for a constant re-evaluation of the issues surrounding an individual, the group he/she is in, and in a larger perspective, the community where he/she belongs. "The problems of our time - which now include the problem of man's very own nature - cannot be stated adequately without consistent practice of the view that history is the shank of social study, and recognition of the need to develop further a psychology of man that sociologically grounded and historically relevant. Without use of history and without an historical sense of psychological matters, the social scientist cannot adequately state the kinds of problems that ought onw to be the orienting points of his studies." (Mills, 19593, p.143) While the methods of sociological research has long been established and the ground rules so to speak tested and proven through the years since sociology first came to view and be viewed as a social science, while the theories has since been pursued, surrounding issues on identity would need a much greater focus. Methods and theories would fall short in achieving the answers desired if one falls short in understanding and having a clearer grasp of what is out there. Identity issues up for reflection and action will make these methods and theories work. Identity issues duly considered and understood will define the process of sociological experience and research. Yet it is also important that one does not lose himself/herself in the process of that experience and the system of discovery. Mills speaking on the "Philosophies of Science" identified this when he wrote of the problems of one getting overwhelmed by the facts. "..how to anchor ideas to facts but not to sink the ideas. The problem is first, what to verify and second, how to verify it." (Mills 1959f, p.123) Faced with the question why sociological research and theory focus on issues of identity, this could very well be the appropriate guide. It speaks of "how to anchor ideas to facts but not to sink the ideas." When confronted with identity issues, knowing what to do is of immense help to the sociological research. "Anchor the ideas" and not sink it. Have these ideas complete the process and not muddle it. Have these ideas complement the study and not confuse it. Issues of identity lay down the groundwork on how the research will progress. The "how" is most significant for again, it will set the tone of the entire study. Focus therefore is essential, crucial even, for it will dictate the speed and direction of the process. As Mills said, "Social science may be confused, but its confusion should be exploited rather than bemoaned. It may be sick, but recognition of this fact can and should be taken as a call for diagnosis and perhaps as a sign of coming health." (1959g, p.132) Here again we are confronted with the reality that the attempt to unravel the mysteries of human behavior is faced with challenges. Knowing the issues of identity as subjects of a sociological research and focus of a theory will make that confrontation less daunting. It will make the job easier, so to speak, and establish a direction. It will have the potential hurdles less overwhelming. The question again, "Why does sociological research and theory focus on issues of identity" The answer on its simplest form - Because the issues of identity define how the research should be pursued, where it is best pursued and what in it is better pursued. Knowing the issues of identity is equal to knowing what the right answers are to the research and where to find those right answers. Knowing the issues of identity lays down the groundwork for all the other works. Focus on the issues of identity will enable the researcher/s not to get lost in the process and get overwhelmed by the situation. Focus on the issues of identity will technically and simply make the job easier and get it right. Albeit on the context of "Intellectual Craftsmanship," Mills wrote: "Do not study merely one small milieu after another; study the social structures in which milieux are organized. In terms of these studies of larger structures, select the mileux you need to study in detail, and study them in such a way as to understand the interplay of milieux with structure. Proceed in a similar way in so far as the span of time is concerned. Do not be merely a journalist, however precise a one. Know that journalism can be a great intellectual endeavor, but know also that yours is greater! So do not merely report minute researches into static knife-edge moments, or very short-term runs of time. Take as your time- span the course of human history and locate within it the weeks, years, epochs you examine." (1959h, p.225) There is more to one single fact. There is more to an individual's problem. There is more to what society can offer. There is more to what a community should really stand for. There is more to one's identity issue. And so much for to someone's battle that as Mills said, "must be understood in terms of public issues and in terms of the problems of history-making." (1959i, p 226) "Within that range the life of the individual and the making of societies occur; and and within that range the sociological imagination has its chance to make a difference in the quality of human life in our time." (Mills 1959j) Again, ours is a 'human-made world' as so distinctly pointed out by Bauman and May (2001b), thereby putting us back to the very core of every sociological research. Us, the subjects, focus of the sociological research and theories. Us, the targets, of a process that aims to understand and put meaning on the many Whys of the 'human-made world.' Yet what comprises "us" What defines "us" in one's pursuit of understanding The answer The issues of identity. The very same issues of identity that make or unmake one's sociological research. And the very same us with the issues of identity that caused the formation of a theory and birth of so much more. And Jenkins identified society and culture as the ones that make up that human-made world, albeit with "sufficiently serious limitations and shortcomings" thus the need for a "robust alternative." (2002f, p.3) "Real embodied humans are placed right at the heart of what sociology is interested in. This in turn means that humans' distinctive sphere of experience and power is evoked as a concrete, tangible, three-dimensional reality (which isn't to suggest that we don't need abstraction to talk about it and understand it)...The human world is more than just the object of our disciplinary gaze." (Jenkins 2002g, p 3 - 4)) This evokes the need for a greater understanding of the world out there and the individuals comprising that world. Which again, will lead us back to the surrounding issues hounding an individual, surrounding issues that make up the identity of an individual. Political, social and/or gender issues, it is all out there that has continuously changed the society and the conduct of studies on it and in it. Theory after theory. Research after research. The study of social life, its challenges and development, and the over-all social experience for that matter is but a continuing struggle. There is no precise "social blueprint" even if previous studies were written extensively on it as such discussed by Zanden (1990d, p. 62 - 81) This is so for ours is a constant world of change with a society and the many communities in it knowingly or unknowingly confronted by the daily realms of life and living. To re-echo the words of Jenkins, the human world should be understood as integral part of the natural world. And it is a "collective" world too, he would note, as he laid down the "intimately connected features of the everyday human world." (2002h, p 5) In Jenkins' words: "Enchantment, the human refusal to accept physical appearances as the sum total of the human world, which is manifest in many aspects of everyday life, from religion to literature; the mutualities of group identification, the construction of membership the basis of we-ness, inclusion and similarity, on the one hand, and they-ness, exclusion and difference on the other; learned and shared symbolic universes, which include all the repertoires of verbal and non-verbal communication, as the foundations of intersubjectivity and knowledge; the qualitative geometry of relationships which ensures that when three people to relate to each other the fundamental nature of the situation differs from where there are two participants; and, the 'stabilisation' of the present as a collective working time-space which provide humans with secure horizons within which to go about their daily lives." (2002i, p.6) Here it is manifested how helpful it is to have that knowledge of what comprise an individual and the life of that individual. "Difficult" is an understatement to say for that one attempt to conduct a sociological research or even try to find meaning to a theory with very little knowledge on hand. For even with the most extensive in facts to back you up, the methodological process of one's study and the questions posed by theories will prove to be a very daunting task. Jenkins in establishing the "Foundations of Sociology" began with an extensive look into the definition of sociological field of vision. (2002i, p.3) Of the roots of sociology and its uses. (2002j, p.15 - 17) It further delved into what he termed is "sociological sense" and the more common sense. (2002k, p.27) It likewise made a comprehensive look into the necessity of theory. (2002l, p.31) The attempt to make any study will fail to meet the demands of the comprehensive need for understanding if not backed by a clearer grasp not only of the subject but the issues surrounding the subject. The process employed to gain grounds in that study will meet unnecessary challenges that could have otherwise been confronted and dealt with if equipped with a clearer understanding of the issues surrounding the subject. Why does sociological research and theory focus on issues of identity Because there is no other better way to do it. Because that is the right way to do any of it. Because issues of identity define what sociological research is and theories are. Because understanding of these issues lay the groundwork for the process of the research. But again, WHY The answer in the work of Bauman and May (2001c) as they defined "Sociology" as one that "..not only encompasses a disciplined set of practices, but also represents a considerable body of knowledge that has been accumulated over the course of its history." And because ours is a 'human-made world' (Bauman, May 2001d) and the 'us' in it have issues to resolve and issues that had caused us to evolved. In the world of Mills, "No social study that does not come back to the problems of biography, of history and of their intersections within a society has completed its intellectual journey." (1959k, p.6) In the word of Jenkins, "we are our own subject matter." (2002m, p.12) Bauman, Z and May, T. (Second Edition) (2001), Thinking Sociologically, USA: Blackwell Publishing Brinkerhoff, D and White, L (Second Edition) (1985) Sociology, USA: West Publishing Company Jenkins, R. (2002) Foundations of Sociology: Towards a Better Understanding of the Human World, USA: Palgrave Macmillan Mills, C.W. (Fortieth Anniversary Edition) (1959) The Sociological Imagination, USA: Oxford University Press Zanden, J.W. (Second Edition) (1990) The Social Experience: An Introduction to Sociology, USA: Mc-Graw Hill, Inc Read More