intro to sociology

1. The Importance of a Global
Perspective
As globalization is still going strong which is also due to new
information technology that draws even the farthest reaches of
the planet together, many academic disciplines are talking of
a global perspective.
The global perspective is important to sociology because global
awareness is a logical extension of the sociological perspective.
If sociology in general tells us that our place in society shapes
our life experiences it is logical to think then that the position of
our society in the larger world system affects everyone in your
country.

2. • The 195 nations in the world can be divided into three
categories according to their level of economic development:
1.High-income countries: (nations with the highest overall
standards of living).
2.Middle-income countries: (nations with a standard of living
about average for the world as a whole).
3.Low-income countries: (nations with a low standard of living
in which most people are poor)

3. Comparisons between all the nations can be
made for the following five reasons:
• Where we live shapes the lives we lead.
• Societies throughout the world are increasingly interconnected.
• What happens in the rest of the world affects life here in our
own country
• Many social problems that we face in our own country are far
more serious elsewhere.
• Thinking globally helps us learn more about ourselves.

4. 1.4: The Origins
of Sociology

5. 1.4: The Origins of Sociology
• Social Change and Sociology
• People began to be more aware of society and their place in it
because of the many big changes in Europe during the 18th and
19th century. Because of this the development of sociology
really spurred.

6. • The three most important changes in the development of
sociology are:
• The rise of a factory-based economy.
• The explosive growth of cities.
• New ideas about democracy and political rights.

7. Science and Sociology
• Throughout history people have been fascinated with the nature
of society.
• In China among these people were the brilliant K’ung Fu-tsu &
Confusius and in Greece you had Plato and Aristotle.
• In the Roman Empire there was Marcus Aurelius, St. Thomas
Aquinas and Christine de Pizan and William Shakespeare.
• They all wrote about the workings of society.

8. Science and Sociology
• What all these thinkers have in common is that they were all are
more interested imagining the ideal society instead of the real
society.
• The French social thinker Auguste Comte (1798-1857) coined
the term ‘sociology’ in 1838 to describe this new way of
thinking: to be as a thinker more interested in de ideal society
than in de real society.

9. science and sociology
• Comte saw sociology as the product of three stages of historical
development:
• Theological stage (the church in the Middle Ages).
• Metaphysical stage (The Enlightment and the ideas of
Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau).
• Scientific stage (Physics, chemistry, sociology).

10. • Comte’s approach is called positivism. He thought that the
idea of knowledge being based on tradition or metaphysics was
speculation. Comte thought that knowledge was based on
science.
• As a positivist, Comte believed that society operates according
to certain laws, just as the physical world operates according to
gravity and other laws of nature.

11. • Auguste Comte (Father of sociology)
named sociology in 1838 to describe a
new way of looking at society.
• Early philosophers had tried to describe
the ideal society.
• Comte wanted to understand society as
it really is by using positivism-a way of
understanding based on science.
• Karl Marx and many later sociologists
used sociology to try to make society
better.

12. Other founders of Sociology
• Karl Marx-(1818-1883-German philosopher)
believed that all historical change was caused
by a series of class struggles between the
haves and the have not
Emile Durkheim (French Sociologist 1858-
1917)-His work focused on how traditional
and modern societies evolved and function.

13. • Max Weber- (1864-1920-German
sociologist & Political economist) His most
famous work, The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism directly challenged
Marx’s ideas on the role of religion in
society.

14. Sociology and other sciences
• Social sciences concern people’s relationships and interactions with one
another.
• A multidisciplinary field, sociology draws from a variety of other social
sciences, including anthropology, political science, psychology, and economics.
• 1.0 Anthropology
• concerns individual cultures in a society, rather than the society as a whole.
• Traditionally, it focuses on what might be termed “primitive” cultures.
• Anthropologists place special emphasis on language, kinship patterns, and
cultural artefacts.

15. • Political Science
• concerns the governments of
various societies. It considers what
kind of government a society has,
how it formed, and how individuals
attain positions of power within a
particular government.
• It also concerns the relation of
people in a society to whatever
form of government they have.

16. • Psychology
• Psychology takes the individual out of his
or her social circumstances and examines
the mental processes that occur within
that person.
• Psychologists study the human brain and
how it functions, considering issues such
as memory, dreams, learning, and
perception.

17. • Economics
• Economics focuses on the
production and distribution of
society’s goods and services.
• Economists study why a society
chooses to produce what it does,
how money is exchanged, and
how people interact and
cooperate to produce goods.

18. Theoretical Perspectives

19. Sociological Theory
• A theory states how facts are related, weaving observations
into insight and understanding.
• Sociologists use three major theoretical approaches –basic
image of society that guides thinking and research.

20. ructural-Function (Macro level)
• Is a framework for building theory that sees
society as a complex system whose parts work
together to promote solidarity and stability.
• It explores how social structures—patterns of
social behaviour, such as religious rituals or
family life—work together to help society
operate.
• social functions-the consequences of any
social pattern for the operation of society
as a whole.
• Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim, and Herbert
Spencer helped develop the structural-
functional approach

21. • Thomas Merton pointed out that social structures
have both manifest functions - the recognized
and intended consequences of any social pattern.
• And latent functions- the unrecognized and
unintended consequences of any social pattern.
• He also identified that not all effects of social
structures are good, social dysfunctions as
patterns that may disrupt the operation of society.

22. Social Conflict Approach- Macro level
• It is a framework for building theory that sees
society as an arena of inequality that causes conflict
and change.
• Karl Marx helped develop the social-conflict
approach.
• The gender-conflict approach-a point of view
that focuses on inequality and conflict
between women and men.
• Linked to feminism-support of social equality
for women and men.
• Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) is regarded as the
first woman sociologist.

23. • • The race-conflict approach -a point
of view that focuses on inequality and
conflict between people of different
racial and ethnic categories.
• Focuses on the advantages—including
higher income, more schooling, and
better health—that society gives to
white people over people of color.
• • W. E. B. Du Bois identified the
“double consciousness” of African
Americans

24. Symbolic Interaction- Micro level
• It framework for building theory that sees
society as the product of the everyday
interactions of individuals.
• Max Weber’s claim that people’s beliefs and
values shape society and is the basis of the
social-interaction approach.
• Social-exchange analysis states that social
life is guided by what each person stands to
gain or lose from the interaction.