sociological imagination

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  • How can a sociological imagination

    help you better understand your

    world?

    Why do social contexts matter?

    Where did sociology come from, and

    how is it different from the other

    social sciences?

    How can this book help you develop a

    sociological imagination?

  • C. Wright Mills

    Sociological imagination

    Helps us to ask hard questions and seek answers about the social worlds we inhabit

    The sociologist C. Wright Mills on

    his motorcycle in a famous photo.

    Sociological Imagination

  • Looking through a Sociological Lens

    Sociological imagination

    Challenges our basic impulses to see aspects of life as inevitable or natural

    Provides insight into stereotyping and active discrimination

    Facilitates more active and effective participation in the world around us

  • Engaging Our Sociological Imaginations

    Learning to ask good questions

    The ability to ask hard questions instead of accepting easily available answers is the

    hallmark of sociological imagination.

    How are these sociological questions formed?

    Lets look at some examples.

  • Forming Sociological Questions

    What types of questions are sociologists

    particularly well equipped to explore?

    Lets look at four:

    How do students lives before college shape their experiences in college?

    How do the social organizations of college life shape students; experiences?

    Does the experience of college benefit everyone equally?

    How are students college paths shaped by the larger labor markets awaiting students upon graduation?

  • The Endless Reach of the Sociological Imagination

    Exposure to violence is

    another topic explored

    by sociologists.

    Living in a high-crime

    neighborhood increases

    stress levels and is

    harmful to children in

    many ways. See Sharkeys research findings

    later in the chapter.

    What about exposure

    to violence?

  • How Do Our Families Shape Our Social Development?

  • How Do Our Families Shape Our Social Development?

  • How Do Our Communities Shape Our Social Development?

  • How Do the Organizations and Institutions We Are a Part

    of Help Us Form Our Identities?

  • How Do the Organizations and Institutions We Are a Part

    of Help Us Form Our Identities?

    Would it be the same today as then? 1910 African American male in South 1940s child from Detroit working-class family 1950s woman entering adulthood

  • Sociology as the Study of Social Contexts

    So

    cio

    log

    y Involves study of the diverse

    contexts within which society influences individuals

    Distinguishes between social interaction and social structure

  • Sociologys Historical Context

    Comte (1798-1859)

    Coined term sociology

    Veblen (1857-1929) Commons (1862-1945)

    Economics and sociology

    Smith (1723-1790) Marx (1818-1883)

    Philosophy and economic relations

    Durkheim (1858-1917)

    Father or sociology

    First European Sociology Department and major European journal of sociology

    University of Chicago

    First U.S. Sociology Department

    Great Thinkers and Schools

  • Sociologys Historical Context

    Industrialization

    Growth of factories and large-scale goods production

    New technologies and innovations

    Immense social changes Different approaches needed

    Urbanization

    Growth of cities in late nineteenth century in U.S., Europe, and elsewhere

    Shift from agriculture to manufacturing

    Problems were markedly different

    New type of political challenge, including social movements

  • Sociologys Family: Siblings

  • How is Sociology Different?

    How we see a community or social

    setting is shaped by what vantage

    point we use. Viewed from space,

    social life doesnt appear very different, but the closer we get the

    greater the differences we can see.

    Different levels Different units of analysis Wider range of connections than

    other social sciences

    Do you know ways in which

    sociology differs from other social

    sciences?

  • Sociologys Children