1. Cultivating the
“sociological imagination”
• Recognise that very few things are „natural‟
• Detect the symbolic value and socially
constructed nature of everyday things
• Be aware of the external forces „shaping‟ our
lives (and how individual choice is often a function
of commmunity trends)
• Be familiar with power-plays and conflicts

2. Good sociologists…
• Are able to „step out‟ of their immediate
scenarios (e.g. coffee)
• Recognise their position in wider society; accept
that they are a „product‟ of social influences (e.g.
jeans, football teams)
• Are aware of cultural differences (e.g. sexuality)
• Are sensitive to the causes and effects of social
policies and phenomena (e.g. Islam, social
media, etc.)
• Are cognizant of power-plays (key question: who
is being excluded?)

3. Sociological Theories

4. Functionalism

5. The sociology of
Durkheim

6. A social fact is…
“a way of acting, thinking and
feeling, external to the individual
and endowed with a power of
coercion, by reason of which they
control him.”

8. Suicides
• Divorced, more than non-divorced
• Protestant more than communal religion
• Single, more than married
Suicide often a result of anomie i.e.
a LACK of social solidarity.

9. Key questions Durkheim asked
• Can we understand people‟s mental lives
without understanding society?
• Can we study society and how?
• What „holds‟ society together? What is the
source of social order?
• What would threaten social order?

10. “We don‟t need
religion to answer
society‟s questions”

11. Functionalism –
society as
organism?

14. Organic Solidarity Mechanical Solidarity

15. ANOMIE?

17. Functionalism / Durkheim
• Looks at social facts which bear upon the
individual (doesn‟t emphasize personal
autonomy)
• Is about what „works‟ in society (doesn‟t
emphasize divisions and conflicts)
• Is about how people feel like „mis-fits‟ in
their worlds (doesn‟t emphasize the
systematic production of anomie)

18. Conflict

19. 1929…1987…
1997…2008

22. Capitalist Exploitation

23. The amount of work workers X
need to do to survive
The amount of work workers X +S
are made to do by capitalists
S = Surplus Value „stolen‟ from workers by
the capitalist

27. Some organisations
you should not put
your money into…

30. A must read!

31. Here are some of the
working conditions the
labourers must
endure…

32. Iris Fashions
Hours Per 72-80. 12-15 hour shifts; 6 days a week.
Week
Wages Per $0.20
Hour
Conditions No union; workers paid a $0.06 an hour
premium for overtime;$0.02 for each
shirt collar sewn.

33. You Li Fashion factory
Hours Per 93. 7.30-midnight. 7 days a week.
Week
Wages Per $0.13
Hour
Conditions No overtime pay; no benefits;
sometimes employees need to work 24-
hour shifts, 6-8 people to a dorm room;
dorm is dark and dirty; workers afraid;
under constant surveillance; no
Corporate Code of Conduct

34. Yue Yuen Factory
Hours Per
77-84. 11-12 hour shifts; 7 days a week.
Week
Wages Per $0.19
Hour
Conditions Forced overtime, no overtime premium
paid; excessive noise pollution; fumes
in factory; no Code of Conduct

35. The face of alienation

36. Why do the workers
„accept‟ this?

37. Hegemony?

40. Commodity Fetishism

41. Women Objectification = Commodity Fetishism?

43. Are products
ideologically (or
spiritually) „neutral‟?

44. Next time we go „Wow!‟ and
„Awesome!‟ over a product,
remember…

48. The “Opium of the People”

51. What happens when the exploitation
gets worse and worse?

55. The Bolshevik Revolution
Russia, 1917

57. McJob
• Low-skill
• Low pay
• High stress, exhausting
• Unstable
„An unstimulating, low-paid job with few
prospects, especially one created by the
expansion of the service sector.‟

58. „Here was the true
McDonald‟s workforce,
the company seemed to
be saying: happy,
contented, and just
passing through.‟ (Klein
2000: 241)

60. “MNCs‟ which control more than
33% of the world‟s productive
assets account for only 5% of
the world‟s direct employment.”

61. • Young, mainly teens and • Young, mainly teens and
early twenties early twenties
• earning minimum wage (or • earning minimum wage (or
below) below)

62. • Most retail and service employers tend to
view their employees as children: students
looking for summer jobs, spending money
or a quick stopover on the road to a more
fulfilling abd better-paying career i.e.
these are great jobs for people who
don’t really need them. (Klein:2000,
p.232)

63. Young Workers…
• Are more easily employed on part-time
contracts (because they have other
commitments such as school and college)
• They can be paid lower wages (because they
are usually not supporting a family and tend to
live in the family home)
• They are easier to control (because they have
less experience of work-place politics)
• They tend to be moving on – it is not a
permanent career move for the majority, and so
staff turn-over is fast.

64. Anti-Unionization
• 10 McDonald‟s managers arrested for
violating labor laws and trade-union rights in
Germany (1994)
• Two workers fired for organising strikes in
Ohio (1998)
• Wal-Mart threated to shut down store where
workers were about to vote on whether to join
union, Ontario (1997)
• Starbucks shut down Vancouver distribution
plant after workers unionized (1997)
• McDonald‟s shut down outlet before union
certification issued, Quebec (1998)

65. Symbolic Interactionism

69. A „powerful‟ sex scene?

70. Chic? Fresh? Stylish? Trendy? Voguish?
Or just a stupid waste of money?

71. Unhygienic? Dirty? Crowded? Unhealthy?
Or one of Malaysia‟s “culinary delights”?

72. Knowing what an event „is‟
allows us to decide which
„rules‟ and norms apply (or
don‟t apply); it also helps us
decide what others are
trying „to „do‟

75. S.I. is about how people
justify their actions and explain
themselves in their own heads

76. How do you construct
the meaning of…
• A joke? • A suicide?
• A complaint? • An abnormality?
• An insult? • „In‟ and „Out‟?
• A lecture? • „Coolness‟
• A challenge? • A seduction?
• A customer? • „Small talk‟
• A student?

77. To construct meaning is to
make a decision about
„what just happened‟

78. What is a “suicide”?

79. What is “religion”?

82. What is
“irrational”?