crash course #1

• Sociology got its start thanks to a French philosopher named Auguste Comte in the 1800s
• Sociology

  The scientific study of society and human behavior
• Society

  A group of people who share a culture and a territory
• Culture is in everything, from the biggest questions in politics to the smallest interactions between people
• Sociology is incredibly broad and may be the broadest of the social sciences
• Sociology looks at all aspects of society, and at all scales, from two people talking to differences between nations
• Sociological perspective

  1. Seeing the general in the particular 2. Seeing the strange in the familiar
• Sociology tries to understand social behavior by placing it in its wider social context


  The sociologist might notice how individual choices are influenced by factors like class, neighborhood, race, gender, or age
• A sociologist might be interested in societal trends and their impacts
• Examples of what a sociologist might be interested in

  • Declining marriage rate in society
  • Factors causing the declining marriage rate
  • Societal impacts of declining marriage rate
  • Tendency of people in the US to marry partners of the same class and race
• Sociologist is interested in

  General patterns in society composed of individual choices
• Sociologist sees elements of the whole pattern by looking at individual choices
• Sociologist sees how individual choices fit into a general pattern, like a single stone in a mosaic
• Seeing the strange in the familiar

  Approaching the everyday world as if seeing it for the first time, from an outsider's perspective
• Seeing the strange in the familiar is important for sociology to understand how society works and uncover patterns of behavior
• Common sense understanding of society is necessary for living in it
• Sociology needs to view common sense things as strange and unfamiliar to truly understand how they work and uncover patterns of behavior
• Sociology needs to know what's true about society
• Common sense in society can include harmful conventions like discrimination based on race and gender
• Sociological perspective helps understand problems like discrimination by seeing the general in the particular and the strange in the familiar
• Key concepts in the study of society

  • Social location
  • Marginalization
  • Power and inequality
• Social location

  Spot on the map of society, classified by race, social class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc.
• A person's life and choices are influenced by their social location
• Social location can limit choices, impact learning, and affect how others perceive an individual
• Social location can contribute to the marginalization of a social group
• Marginialized groups occupy a position outside the centers of power and often have a clearer view of how power operates
• Social location can contribute to the marginalization of a social group

  The marginalized group occupies a position outside the centers of power
• Marginalized groups

  • Racial minorities
  • Ethnic minorities
  • Sexual minorities
  • Religious minorities
• Marginalized groups tend to have a clearer view of how power operates
• Heterosexual people


  Often don’t recognize the social power of having their relationships socially sanctioned and being able to display affection in public, unlike LGBT people
• There are many different kinds of power and inequality
• Kinds of power and inequality

  • Economic power and income inequality
  • Political power and politically-enforced inequalities like segregation or slavery
  • Social or cultural power and inequality
• People with non-standard accents or dialects are often judged harshly and can be seen as less intelligent or less mature
• Time of massive economic, social, and political upheaval in Europe

  The late 18th and 19th centuries
• Industrialization took off during the late 18th and 19th centuries in Europe
• The population of Europe exploded during the late 18th and 19th centuries, especially in cities
• This period saw the advent of mass democracy, the fall of kings, and the rise of the nation-state
• The rise of science as a discipline was the context in which sociology arose
• The first sociologists were driven to scientifically understand the quickly changing societies around them
• Sociology is about understanding society at every level and how those levels interact