Sociology: Theory and Method - Coursework Example

Introduction to Sociology AFFILIATION: Introduction to Sociology Sociology: Theory and Method Every society is dependent on people that comprise of both men and women who are responsible for every activity that is done by them; without people society has no existence. In the 19th century, sociologists started studying relationships between society and people’ interaction with it; it is studied under separate discipline known as “Sociology” (Bau, 2009). Sociology is described both as a discipline and a practice that requires various attempts by sociologists to attend this field; they have to study people’s activities to note what they are doing on daily basis. According to UNESCO (2010), people prefer to assemble so that they can form families, tribes, groups, organizations, nations and communities which can even go beyond boundaries at national level. The word ‘sociology’ was coined by a French philosopher “Auguste Comte” in 1839 who is recognized worldwide as father of sociology. The term “Sociology” is basically combination of Latin word ‘Socius’ which means ‘society’ with Greek work ‘Logus’ which means ‘knowledge’ or ‘science’ (Dunn, 2010). According to Auguste Comte, sociology is defined as ‘science of society’; it is the study of societies, groups and social life of humans and it is a discipline that focuses on understanding human behavior as part of social life. Harriet Martineau contributed to sociology by introducing first and thorough sociological treaty on social life of American people and did comparison among social stratifications of America and Europe by the name “Society in America”. Likewise, Herbert Spencer introduced the idea of evolution which was introduced before Darwin coined the phrase ‘phrase of the fittest’. Emile Durkheim did a lot of work in field of sociology by establishing it as a vital part of academic discipline. A German philosopher Karl Marx made major contribution in sociology by working on conflict theory; he lived during Industrial Revolution era when societal changes were taking place at an increasing rate and concept of capitalism emerged from his work which is the economic system that formed basis of private organizations and sector. When sociologists are studying human behavior, they have to select one of the four research methods i.e. ethnography (participant’s behavior is observed), survey (developing questionnaires and then asking questions about certain topics), experimental designs (controlled conditions to create similar scenario) and comparative and historical research (comparing among variables across time and space) they have to make sure that they follow research method that is shown in following figure: Source: Giddens (2010) Culture and Society Culture has been defined as the complete ways of leading life; it is much more than material goods like clothes, food, water, housing and etc. as it is something that is acquired with the passage of time. Hence, the core characteristics of ‘culture’ is that it is acquired and it is not innate or instinctive for individuals and groups and it is learned by the process of socialization i.e. by the interaction between the people living in a society. Likewise, society is a system of interrelationships in between people and it can range from a family to a nation and even state; societies are defined by the cultures, norms and authority power that they share. All members belonging to one particular society have one shared identity are they are subject to same system of authority. The relationship between society and culture determines the shared identity which implies having a shared culture that binds the members of society together. It there is no shared norm or value along with absence of system of material goods, then society’s continuation is vulnerable to get demolished. There is a lot of variation in culture among societies on the basis of food, religions, beliefs and even ideologies. When cultures are studied, there are two approaches that are used i.e. ethnocentrism (looking at various cultures with inferior view other than our own culture) and cultural relativism (describing various cultures in relevance to their terms). Within cultures, there are subcultures that have variation from mainstream like age, ethnic group, race, gender, religion and etc. Therefore, there is a lot of variation in societies on the basis of culture. Socialization, the life course and aging The process of Socialization has been highlighted by G. H. Meads who understood this phenomenon by studying from symbolic integrationist perspective. He focused mainly of primary socialization that is part of the process which takes place with infants and children of young age as they interact with people in their surroundings and start identifying their roles and behavioral patterns. With the help of socialization, people acquire their personality and identity and learn society’s way of life; therefore, society’s culture is internalized. The values and norms of society are carried on by socialization process which develops connections among generations throughout their lives. There are various factors of socialization that are known as agents of socialization which has influence on people in terms of socialization. The foremost agent of primary socialization is family, followed by schools, peer groups and mass media; while workplace is the secondary socialization as new role is defined during this interaction process. The stages of life course of a human comprise of childhood, teenager, young adulthood, midlife and later life; all of these are differentiation social stages of human life. Social gerontology is the study of elder people and aging; the number of old population in USA has increased significantly in the last couple of years. As people get older, they have to get adapted to changing social roles that aged people have to go through and they need to identify what responses to these changes are good and functional for society as a whole. Social Interaction and Everyday Life in the Age of the Internet Social interaction should be viewed from microsociological perspective that focus on study of small and everyday interactions that help people to develop better understanding about people, society and various social structures. Erving Goffman emphasized the need of changing thinking patters from broad areas to narrow ones by viewing society as being equal from every perspective and he added that self-identity is constructed by interaction with other people. Identity is a process that is on an ongoing basis undergoing construction, maintenance and revision. The most common form of communication is nonverbal communication which is the exchange of information without speaking such as facial expressions, gestures, emails, online communication, personal space, using props and settings and presentation of self. Goffman wrote ‘The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life’ to explain his perspective on social interaction that people encounter in their everyday life. He developed analogy with theater that people play different roles with audience, they inhabit sets and stages and use scripts and props. As people interact, they have to make sure that they create right impression in people’ minds and they need to learn impression management; they have to focus on themselves such as communication, gestures, dress, eating habits, personality and etc. to ensure that they have control on positive impressions. Communication is largely dependent on shared cultural understanding because people perceive things according to their own set of beliefs about interaction; ethnomethodology is the study of people that how they make sense of everyday interactions. Therefore, social interaction at micro level needs to be studied as it helps in determining how the society is structured and restructured everyday via interactions. Groups, Networks, and Organizations Society is comprised of people who cannot live in isolation and they prefer to interact with each other; every human being is a social creature. Groups are defined as more than collection of people who are in similar place (social aggregate) such as classes are composed of students and even as a collection of people who have some common characteristic like gender and race (social category). In other words, social group constitutes people who have membership feeling, have interaction with each other and share common set of social norms. Basically, there are three categories of groups; in and out groups (us and them), primary (closest and permanent forms of association) and secondary groups (large and temporary forms of association) and reference groups (provide social standards). Social networks comprise all direct and indirect links that people have within the society and they create linkages between people and society. Every group has access to networks that are either more or less helpful which worsens inequality in society. Likewise, online social networking offers some benefits as it allows people to remain in touch with each other when they are even living in far off places. Organization is defined as a group that develops association for the purpose of achieving goals or fulfilling some action; it has identifiable membership. In sociology, the main approaches used for studying organization are informal networks, bureaucracy theories, oligarchy, feminist organizational theory and dysfunction theory. The knowledge, status and networks gained by people during participation and membership of organizations and groups is known as social capital; it contributes to developing feeling of well-being that is viable addition to economic success. Marx developed conflict theory on the basis of inequality that exists in society because of unequal distribution of social capital. Conformity, Deviance, and Crime In our society, there are some basic rules that are known as norms which are drawn from beliefs and values of members of the society. It is found by many studies that people follow most significant norms. Some of the norms are coded as lawful ones and others which are less formal and less influential are common norms. Deviant behavior is defined as not conforming to norms or rules of any community or society. The most important factor to be studied is that who has the power authority and whose rules or norms are being broken. Most of the time deviance and crime are used interchangeably; they are distinct from each other. For instance, chewing a gum in school is not against the law and it is not a crime, its deviance from rules of school. Deviance can occur both at individual and group level; there are even deviant subcultures that range from homeless people to religious cults to punks. When an important norm is broken, there is a response for it known as sanction which can be positive or negative; sanctions are enacted formally and informally as well. The three views of deviance are biological, sociological and psychological; biological and psychological perspectives locate deviance in individuals while sociological perspective views deviance as part of the act. When crime is committed at higher positions such as illegal, fraud, manipulation of huge amount of data and etc., it is known as white collar crime. There are various punishment laws that vary across every country and state; the aim of penalties is to set moral for those who are planning to commit any form of crime. Politics and Economic Life The macro economic factors that make up the society comprise of government, politics and economy. Government is the political tool of every state or territory that comprise of programs, officials and policies along with structures of their operations. Politics is the way in which power is used for affecting government’s content and direction and economy comprises of set of institutions that is organizing and structuring goods and services production and distribution. Basically, state is a structure in which a political body such as government is operating in one particular territory that has a legal system and military force is present when needed. The most modern of state is nation-state which has all characteristics of state along with shared sense of peoplehood i.e. citizenship. Democracy states are most commonly found where there is no king or queen; nation-state is run by its members. Works plays an important role in every economy and has most significant impact on every individual’s life; their position in offices and workplaces help them in enhancing their social status in the society and both paid and unpaid work provide meaning to life. The work in modern societies comprise of characteristics such as high division of labor, more attention to industrial work and industrial conflicts have taken the forms of collective bargaining and strikes. The economies worldwide have changed and they have become capitalist economies that are characterized by deskilling of workers, rise in service work and white color people, reduction in manufacturing and manual labor work and more reliance on part-time work. Weber emphasized on rationalization process by studying application of economic logic to every activity of human as a result of the development of bureaucratic society (Dholakia & Wilcox, 2010). Urbanization, Population and the environment In ancient times, majority of population lived in rural towns and communities and there is little or no connection in the cities. The population in now shifting from rural towns and communities to urbanized cities which is known as urbanization. As of 2010, more than 80% of USA population is living in urban cities. The socializations have studied the changing trends of urbanization and it gave rise two perspectives i.e. urban ecology and urbanism as way of life. According to urban ecology, cities are viewed as places that are similar to natural environments that have been organized in ways that form social equilibrium. On the other hand, urbanism as a way of life states that urban life is totally different from social life; urban interaction is about meeting needs than enhancing relationships and in cities people avoid intruding in others personal space. There has been a decline in rural population as there is reduction in farming and other rural industries, poverty rate is high, few opportunities for amenities and few government services are present and it is hard to attract new industries in rural areas. After World War II, there has been a significant increase in suburban development; suburb is an area developed just outside the city mainly for residential communities. With the help of both direct and indirect assistance from government, most of the population is moving out of large cities. With the growth in urban population, there is lack of proper housing, water supply is inadequate and unsafe, rise in pollution level and lack of proper sanitation. As a result of changing social climate, many developments took place in field of sociology; some problems were observed in worldwide industrialization, immigration, urbanization and changes in intellectual climate and they initiated the need of finding explanations that were impacting social, economic and political sectors in United States and Europe (Dholokia & Wilcox, 2010). Globalization in a changing world Globalization is the process by which world is becoming interconnected and interdependent and it happens at all levels i.e. individual, group and organization. As a result of globalization, the social changes that have been observed are emergence on nation-state as prominent form of political body, tolerance for those who have different lifestyles, dominant position of free market and improved rationality in public sphere. There are many social changes that are happening globally and various paths have been defined to bring social change. The social movement is defined as collective effort to make changes happen or even prevent change from happening; new social movements are identity oriented rather than goal oriented. There are three main outcomes that make up globalization such as economic impact (Multinational organizations and integrated financial markets), communication flow has become efficient and information exchange is quick and political impact (decline in communist regimes and increasing importance of international coalitions). Because of globalization, it is important for societies to focus on their identity development and there is significant shift in work and home life. The consequences of globalization are growing trend of globalization and industrialization, global warming, increased production of bioengineered foods, rise in nuclear power and pollution. References Baú, V. (2009). Media and Communication for Gender and Development. Southern African Gender & Media Diversity Journal, 6, 170-174. Dholakia, N., & Wilcox, C. (2010). Existence and Experience in Social Media Spaces. Retrieved September 28, 2012 from http://www.cba.uri.edu/research/workingpapers/documents/2011/WP6_2011.pdf Dunn, R. (2010). The three sociological Paradigms/Perspectives. Retrieved September 28, 2012 from http://cnx.org/content/m33962/latest/ Giddens, A. (2010). Essentials of Sociology. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. UNESCO (2010). The power of culture for development. Retrieved September 28, 2012 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001893/189382e.pdf Read More