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Understanding Society through Sociology

Explore the study of society, social structures, and institutions affecting human behavior. Learn to analyze, question, and challenge beliefs with a sociological perspective.

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Understanding Society through Sociology

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  1. The Sociological Perspective

  2. What is Sociology? • Study of Society…what does that mean? • It examines the ways in which the forms of social structure & social categories & various social institutions affect human attitudes, actions, and opportunities. • Sociology enables us to understand the structure and dynamics of society, and their intricate connections to patterns of human behavior and individual life changes.

  3. Why Care About Understanding Society? • We are products of society and society is a product of us • Understand why and how we came to be like we are • Our position within the social structure (society) determines how we will act, think, and what resources we have • Our place in society is the intersection of many social relationships • Gender, race, class, age, geography, sexuality

  4. Examining the present with the past • “[Humans] make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past.” - Karl Marx • To understand the present social arrangement in society, sociologists must also look into the past

  5. How sociologists study society • Sociologists look to explain how and why things happen. In every question a sociologist asks and every answer they give you will find an explanation of the how and why • Keep this in mind over the semester!

  6. Critical Thinking is Required • Sociology is a critical, analytical, and empirical discipline and sociological thinking is a process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating

  7. Beliefs vs. Sociological Analysis • As social beings, we see the social world through our own lens of experience and belief system and often make judgments based on our personal beliefs • To remain objective, sociology helps us see how that lens was formed and be honest about our assumptions • What we see with sociological analyses often challenges many of our thoughts and beliefs • Come to class prepared to be exposed to alternate explanations of the world and to try and understand them

  8. Exercise: Who am I? • On the same piece of paper from before: • Ten answers to the question – “Who am I?” • Next: • Pair up with a class member and share • Chose 3 answers and introduce your partner and their answers • Next: • Examine the data on the board and write a paragraph explaining it – note any patterns • Finally: • Do men and women define themselves differently?

  9. Examining our Analysis • Is our analysis based on beliefs or what is in the data? • What are we missing? Are there more meaningful/additional relationships to explore?

  10. What we did… • Collected data • Interpreted data and looked for patterns • Used concepts – gender • Asked questions: factual, interpretive and not moral or aesthetic

  11. In conclusion: • Sociology provides us with the tools to examine the social world empirically, analytically, and critically • To do this objectively we have to constantly examine how our own perspectives and experiences shape how we view and interpret the world around us

  12. The Sociological Perspective • Sociology seeks to understand the relationship between the individual and society with:

  13. C Wright Mills: Sociological Imagination • A quality of mind that allows us to connect: “Personal troubles of the milieu” with “Public issues of social structure” • Examining these relationships gives us the knowledge to understand society, our place in it, and the ability to make changes

  14. HIV/AIDS Globally

  15. Understanding and Explaining HIV/AIDS • Cultural Explanations • Social Structure Explanations • Political Explanations • Individual Explanations

  16. Social Consciousness • Another sociologist, Peter Berger, believes that we need a social consciousness or “A form of consciousness that enables us to see the "reality" behind the "facades." • He asks us to critically examine the things that are familiar to us as unfamiliar • “It can be said that the first wisdom of sociology is this – things are not what they seem.”

  17. Practicing Social Consciousness • Have you ever asked yourself: Why do women shave their legs? • Why is it normal in our culture for women to shave their legs and not men?

  18. Asking How & Why (and when) with Social Consciousness • When did this ideal emerge? • How did this ideal emerge? • Why did this ideal emerge?

  19. In Conclusion… • A sociological perspective requires us to think critically and analytically about the social world around us, our place in it, our relationships to others, and our own personal beliefs and values • While sociologists study many aspects of society and social issues, the core concepts of the discipline are power, inequality, social justice, and social change

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