Soc 2010 Notes

August 18, 2010

Civil Inattention

Polite to ignore others. It is considered polite.

Elevators

Doctor's office waiting room

Empty bus

Erving Goffman

Sociological Imagination

The intersection of biography and history

Emergence of Sociology

Industrial Revolution

Period of chaos

Spawned an interest in the study of social sciences

Example of Natural Sciences

Chemistry

Study of the physical world

Biology

Awareness of other cultures

Before the industrial revolution, people were fundamentally the same

Anthropological data started to become available

Sociology developed in this very fast environment and focused on order and change and are these changes positive or negative?

Why have some societies changed and how can we maintain order?

The "Triumvirate"

Karl Marx

Communist Manifesto

His writings provided the basis of communism

He wanted to change society for the better

Philosopher, social scientist, economist, etc...

Economic system

He called the economic system the "mode of production"

How do they provide for themselves?

How does society support itself

Thought he could divide society into two different groups

Haves

Bourgeoisie

The Elite

Factory owners

Have Nots

Proletariat

Most people

Factory workers

Looked at the relationship to the mode of production as compared to values of people

Spent most of his life in London

Exiled from Germany

Suffered long periods of poverty

Wanted to reduce the difference between the rich and poor

Emile Durkheim

Was a French sociologist

Alarmed by what is going on in society

Seeing a lot of instability in France and Europe

Noticed that there was no study in social sciences

What is the social glue that holds people together

Dealt more with order

People are held together by shared values and beliefs

Known for a book named "Division of Labor in Society"

Study of suicide

Suicide rates among groups

Was the first systematic major study in Sociology

Comes in between the following

Egoistic

When they lack social networks

Usually the highest amount of suicides

Unmarried people have higher amount of suicides

Altruistic

Very high attachment

Kamikaze pilots

Degree of embededness in social networks or ties with other people

Men have higher rates of suicide than women but women are known to have higher attempts of suicide

Protestants have higher rates than Catholics

Catholics, statistically, have larger families than protestants

Beliefs play a hand in the differences

Peace time has higher rates of suicide than war time

In war time, people tend to be more united and have a since of nationalism and therefore feel like they belong to a group

Coined the term "Social Facts"

Should be the focus of sociology

Something outside of the individual

Anything that are social in nature such as values, beliefs, traditions

Called "Social Facts" because they are something that is taught, not given at birth

Governed from the outside and when they learn, they are dictated by those values

Max Weber

Wrote a book on spirit of capitalism

Social stratification

Law

Religion

Know for a lot of things

Probably had the greatest impact on sociology

A lot of his work is in debate with Marx

Concept of Value-Free

We shouldn't let our personal feelings get in the way

Don't let our feelings contaminate research

Remain as objective/impartial as possible

Concept of Verstehen

"Method of Understanding"

Put ourselves in another person's shoes

See something from someone else's view

Should use different methods other than