WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?

1. LECTURE 3 WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY? 5 MAY 2010

3. Sociology • Sociology – how to apply the discipline of sociology and sociological methods to our lives? “I found that sociology helped me make sense of the world and it was an interesting, exciting, and fun discipline.” John J.Macionis (ma-SHOW-nis) • A definition of sociology – the systematic study of human society, and at the heart of sociology there is a special point of view called sociological perspective. • Sociological perspective as a new and exciting way of seeing the world. Thinking critically.

4. Suicide from a Sociological Perspective • Peter Berger, described a sociological perspective as seeing the general in the particular – Sociologists look for general patterns in the behaviour of particular people. Turning personal problems into public issues. • Suicide is an intensely personal and emotional issue and yet a sociological perspective would treat suicide as a social fact, one which needs to be studied objectively and from a social perspective- separating the individual and projecting it on a broader landscape

5. Sociological Perspective – Suicide • The incidence of Suicide increased as a result of • Depression due to recession

6. Nothing goes up for ever • Modern Pakistan– the globalised, multicultural, Metro Cash & Carry, Hyper Star, Credit card schemes, Hardees, Gloria Jeans • Buy now pay later culture. • 1 million caught in unpaid debts every year • The working poor – millions of households are officially classified as belonging to this group • A number of re-possessions, hundred times more than a year ago, growing economic instability • Concern about our future • More inequality in society than 2 years back

7. The market is crashing taking the good life with it • The decade-long boom coming to an end? Cheap imports from China, v. high levels of borrowing, cheap labour-skilled migrants. • Properties – national obsession. Buy-to-let land, but the property boom had to come to an end. • Economy based on borrowings – how to change peoples’ mentality? How to remoralize society?

8. The importance of global perspective – The power of sociology • Global awareness is a logical extension of the sociological perspective. • The study of the larger world and our society's place. What is the importance of a global perspective for sociology? • Future of the US economy - London and the rest of the world?

10. China at 60: Nostalgia and progress • In 1949 China's GDP was $18bn, or $50  per capita. In 2008, total GDP reached $4.3 trillion and $3,260 per capita. In the past 30 years, 200 million people came out of poverty. Today, Chinese society has become open and dynamic. There are close to 2,000 newspapers, more than 9,000 magazines and 287 TV channels. With 700 million mobile phone subscribers, 300 million internet users and 180 million bloggers, not surprisingly the Chinese lead the world in texting, blogging and surfing the web. • But: • After all, China's per capita GDP ranks 104th in the world. Because per capita overseas investment in China is still less than that of most developed countries. Some 135 million people across the country still live on less than a dollar a day.

11. ‘Thinking outside the box’ ‘Think ourselves away’ East – West • An example: 20 years ago – Europe- West and East: two different and contrasting lives on the same continent (a car, a phone, a colour TV set, a washing machine, colour pictures– luxuries; holiday abroad – a dream; sugar, coffee, toilet paper, a pair of shoes-the most wanted goods; a bike, an electronic watch, a pair of jeans or, trainers– teenagers’ dream . • This is sociology; a picture of society.

13. The most wanted goods under communism I

14. The most wanted goods under communism II

18. And the power of sociology is to demonstrate how strong are the social forces that organise every society in very different ways. • Just when and where you were born has radically shaped much of what you know and what you can do. After having encountered sociology you will probably never see the world again with the same eyes.

19. “The first wisdom of sociology: things are not what they seem” (Peter Berger , Invitation to Sociology) The first sociology lesson

20. Sociology teaches us what we regard as natural, inevitable, good or true may not be such, and that the ‘givens’ of our life are strongly influenced by historical and social forces. (Anthony Giddens)

21. Studying sociology • The sociological imagination allows us to see that many events that seem to concern only individuals actually reflect larger issues. • Migration, it may be a personal choice for someone to emigrate, to leave someone’s family and friends, jobs etc. It can be a personal tragedy for somebody to leave a homeland. It goes far beyond a matter for private despair when thousands of people in a society are in the same situation. It becomes a public issue. • Your private decision reflects your position in the wider society.

22. EXAMPLE: • Afghans in Pakistan – one the biggest wave of migrants in history, followed US attack on Afghanistan- Approximately 3.5 Million Afghanis are currently seeking refuge in Pakistan; the statistics on Afghanis in Pakistan are not accurate, as many early migrants have not been recorded as immigrants by the government. • The above numbers and reports raise questions and provoke debates not only from the Pakistani people, but also from the international community as a whole. (a ‘unmanaged migration‘ for Pakistan and a growing concern for international security and threat levels)

25. Social structure • The concept of social structure refers to the fact that the social contexts of our lives are structured or patterned, in distinct ways. • But social structure is not like a physical structure, such as building, which exists independently of human actions. Human societies are always in the process of structuration. They are reconstructed all the time by human beings. EXAMPLE: • The case of drinking coffee; you choose where to have a cup of coffee, what kind of coffee (cappuccino, espresso etc). As soon as you make your decisions with another hundred people in the same place and at the same time you all shape the market of coffee and affect the lives of millions of people associated with producing coffee on the other side of the world.

26. Sociology is about our own lives and our own behaviour. Studying ourselves is the most complex and difficult attempt we can undertake.

27. Theories and theoretical approaches.

28. Theory and sociology • Sociology is not about collecting facts. We want to know why things are happening. We need to develop theoretical thinking. A theory about revolution, industrialisation, can help us to identify the main stages of theses processes, the nature of changes, repercussions etc. • We need theories to help us to make sense of facts. Without a theoretical approach, we would not know what to look for in the beginning of our study.

29. Sociology in post communist countries • In the past sociology and sociological research were determined by the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, the ideology of communist states, named after two people – Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. The term Marxism-Leninism was not used in either Marx’s or Lenin’s time. It appears to have been devised by Stalin-‘founding fathers’. • Marxism provided the theory, whereas Leninism more concrete answers to questions of organisation and revolution.

30. After communism Example: Russia • Russian sociologists and historians were among the first academic groups to reject the totalitarian state and were seeking to gain greater access to the work of Western sociologists.

31. Facing up the facts • Lack of availability of statistical data. The present government does not want the real facts to be known. Is the current government unwilling to acknowledge that Russia is sliding from crisis to catastrophe? • Facts about Russia: • In the first six months of 2005, the Russian population fell by half a million. By the middle of the century Russia could lose up to half of its people. • Life expectancy for men is 56 years, the same as Bangladesh. • More then a million people will have died because of AIDS in Russia by 2020. • A quarter of the population lives below the poverty line.

32. Loss of young graduates to commerce • Different schools of thought – a loss of professional integrity • The rejection of Marxism It should not be dismissed as useless and dogmatic, but view it as a means of looking at the changing inter-relationship between economics and politics in Russia today. ‘Marxists’ have no real holding amongst the Russian sociologists today.