1.5 Resources and References
Key Terms
agency: The capacity of individuals to act and make decisions independently.
anti-positivism: The view that social researchers should strive for subjectivity as they worked to represent social processes, cultural norms, and societal values.
capitalism: An economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership, production, and sale of goods in a competitive market.
conflict theory: A theory that looks at society as a competition for limited resources.
critical sociology: A theoretical perspective that focuses on inequality and power relations in society in order to achieve social justice and emancipation through their transformation.
culture: A group’s whole way of life including shared practices, values, beliefs, norms and artifacts.
disenchantment of the world: The replacement of magical thinking by science, technological rationality, and calculation.
dramaturgical analysis: a technique sociologists use in which they view society through the metaphor of theatrical performance.
dynamic equilibrium: A stable state in which all parts of a functioning society are working together properly.
dysfunctions: Social patterns that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society.
egoistic suicide: Suicide which results from the absence of strong social bonds tying the individual to a community.
essentialism: The idea that the characteristics of persons or groups are significantly influenced by biological factors or human nature, and are therefore largely similar in all human cultures and historical periods.
feminism (or feminist perspective): The critical analysis of the way gender differences in society structure social inequality.
figuration: The process of simultaneously analyzing the behaviour of an individual and the society that shapes that behaviour.
function: The part a recurrent activity plays in the social life as a whole and the contribution it makes to structural continuity.
functionalism (or functionalist perspective): See structural functionalism.
generalized others: The organized and generalized attitude of a social group.
global-level sociology: The study of structures and processes that extend beyond the boundaries of states or specific societies.
grand theories: An attempt to explain large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions such as why societies form and why they change.
historical materialism: An approach to understanding society that explains social change, human ideas, and social organization in terms of underlying changes in the economic (or material) structure of society.
hypothesis: A testable proposition.
latent functions: The unrecognized or unintended consequences of a social process.
macro-level sociology: The study of society-wide social structures and processes.
manifest functions: Sought consequences of a social process.
micro-level sociology: The study of specific, local relationships between individuals or small groups.
mode of production: The way a human society acts upon its environment and its resources in order to process and distribute them to meet their needs.
paradigms: Philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them.
patriarchy: Institutions of male power in society.
positivism (positivist perspective or positivist sociology): The scientific study of social patterns using the methodological principles of the natural sciences.
qualitative sociology: A sociological approach that aims to gather and explore non-numerical data to gain an understanding of individuals’ social reality, including their attitudes, beliefs, and motivation.
quantitative sociology: A sociological approach which transforms aspects of social life into numerical variables, such as statistical methods and surveys with large numbers of participants.
rationalization: The general tendency for modern society for all institutions and most areas of life to be transformed by the application of technical rationality.
reification: Referring to abstract concepts, complex processes, or mutable social relationships as “things.”
significant others: Specific individuals that impact a person’s life.
social action: Actions to which individuals attach subjective meanings.
social constructivism: A theoretical perspective that focuses on the socially created nature of social life.
social facts: The external laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and cultural rules that govern social life.
social function: The role a social phenomenon performs in satisfying a social or biological need and ensuring the continuity of society.
social institutions: Patterns of beliefs and behaviors focused on meeting social needs.
social reform: An approach to social change that advocates slow, incremental improvements in social institutions rather than rapid, revolutionary change of society as a whole
social script: Pre-established patterns of behaviour that people are expected to follow in specific social situations.
social solidarity: The degree to which a group of people cohere or are bound together through shared consciousness, qualities or social ties.
social structure: General patterns of social behaviour and social coordination that persist through time and become habitual or routinized at micro-levels of interaction or institutionalized at macro or global levels of interaction.
society: A group of people whose members interact, reside in a definable area, and share a common culture.
sociological imagination: The ability to understand how personal problems of milieu relate to public issues of social structure.
sociology: The systematic study of society and social interaction.
structural functionalism: A theoretical approach that sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals that make up that society.
symbolic interactionism: A theoretical perspective that focuses on the relationship of individuals within society by studying their communication (language, gestures and symbols).
theory: An explanation about why something occurs.
verstehen: a German word that means to understand in a deep way.
Quiz Questions
1.1 What Is Sociology?
Wright Mills once said that sociologists need to develop a sociological _____________ to study how society affects individuals.
a. theory
b. imagination
c. method
d. habit
1.2 The History of Sociology
Which founder of sociology believed societies changed due to class struggle?
a. August Comte
b. Karl Marx
c. Ibn Khaldun
d. Émile Durkheim
1.3 Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology
Which of these theories is most likely to look at the social world on a micro-level?
a. Structural functionalism
b. Critical sociology
c. Quantitative sociology
d. Symbolic interactionism
1.4 Why Study Sociology?
Studying Sociology helps people analyze data because they learn:
a. interview techniques.
b. to apply statistics
c. to generate theories
d. all of the above.
Future Research
1.1 What Is Sociology?
Sociology is a broad discipline. Different kinds of sociologists employ various methods for exploring the relationship between individuals and society. Check out CRStal Radio, the podcast of the Canadian Review of Sociology.
1.2 The History of Sociology
Many sociologists helped shape the discipline. Learn more about prominent sociologists on the John J. Macionis website, and how they changed sociology.
Sociology is a multi-perspectival science. Learn more about the different sociological paradigms through mini-lectures and screen cast videos on society and culture from the Khan Academy.
1.4 Why Study Sociology?
The Canadian Sociological Association has produced a useful pamphlet “Opportunities in Sociology” which includes sections on: (1) The unique skills that set sociology apart as a discipline; (2) An overview of the Canadian labour market and the types of jobs available to Sociology BA graduates; (3) An examination of how sociology students can best prepare themselves for the labour market; (4) An introduction, based on sociological research, of the most fruitful ways to conduct a job search.
References:
1.1 What is Sociology?
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1.2 The History of Sociology
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Lévesque, C. (2024). ‘No Government Could Afford It’: Why a Newly Proposed Guaranteed Basic Income is Likely Doomed. https://nationalpost.com/news/no-government-could-afford-it-why-canada-wont-implement-a-guaranteed-basic-income-anytime-soon
Morris, A. (2015). The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology. Oakland, California: University of California Press. Retrieved January 10, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctv1xxtc2
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Ritzer, G. & Goodman, D. (2004). Sociological Theory, 6th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill Education.
Spencer, H. (1894). The Principles of Biology. New York: D. Appleton and Company.
Stapley, P. (2010). “Georg Simmel.” Cardiff University School of Social Sciences. Retrieved from http://www.cf.ac.uk/socsi/undergraduate/introsoc/simmel.html
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1.3 Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology
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Allan, K. Contemporary Social and Sociological Theory: Visualizing Social Worlds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
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Durkheim, É. (1984 [1893]). The Division of Labor in Society. New York: Free Press.
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Goffman, E. (1958). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, Social Sciences Research Centre.
Hempel, C. (1965). Studies in the Logic of Explanation. Aspects of Scientific Explanation. Free Press.
Herman, N. & Reynolds, L. (1994). Symbolic Interaction: An Introduction to Social Psychology. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press.
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1.4 Why Study Sociology?
Berger, P. L. (1963). Invitation to sociology: A humanistic perspective. Anchor Books.
Department of Sociology. (2015). What can you do with a major or minor in sociology? University of Alabama. https://web.archive.org/web/20150430230709/http://www.uah.edu/la/departments/sociology/about-sociology/what-people-do-with-sociology
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