SOCIOLOGY: A CONTEMPORARY AND CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE
The word sociology—from the Latin socius (meaning “companion, friend, associate”) and the Greek logos (meaning “study of, discourse, theory”)—first appeared in Auguste Comte’s magnum opus The Positive Philosophy (Comte 1974; original 1855). Comte, one of the nineteenth century’s most important thinkers and the founder of sociology, preferred the title “social physics,” but after realizing that it had already been used by the statistician Adolphe Quételet in 1835, he settled on the title “sociology.” As he said in The Positive Philosophy:
I think I should venture, from this time on, to employ this term [sociology], the exact equivalence of my expression social physics already introduced, in order to be able to designate by a single name that complementary part of natural philosophy which relates to the positive study of all the fundamental laws proper to social phenomena (In Bierstedt 1978:1).
A number of other writers of the day, including John Stuart Mill and William Graham Sumner, preferred “ethology”—if not for the fact that it was a pure Greek word—but the institutionalization of the title sociology was complete when Herbert Spencer adopted it his 1876 work Principles of Sociology (cf. Bierstedt 1978:2). Since the development of sociology in the nineteenth century, hundreds, if not thousands of sociologists have penned varied definitions of the term sociology. A common focus in a majority of such definitions is the emphasis on the social and its varied forms—social interaction, social behavior, social bonds, social relations, social institutions. Additionally, sociologists employ specific scientific methods, and many such definitions represent the nature of sociology as inherently scientific. For the purposes of our book, we will define sociology as “the scientific study of society in all its forms.”
Like many of the social sciences, sociology is a broad, interesting and intensive study of the nature of society and the people whom inhabit our worlds. In an early study of introductory sociology textbooks, the following topics were found to be the most commonly addressed: the character of social problems; community conditioning of social problems; children and youth; adults and the aged; caste and minority problems; social class problems; war and revolution; social planning; the ecological order; aggregation; ecological organization; dominance; migration and mobility; succession; the relations between race and culture; races and culture groups; culture; race and culture contacts; the field of collective behavior; elementary collective behavior; elementary collective groupings; social movements; conclusions concerning collective behavior; institutions defined; institutions classified; institutions in process; institutions and the community; institutions and the person; social control; individual and environment; child and family; courtship, marriage and divorce; roles; deviants; and the person and social policy (McClung Lee 1951:xviii-xxiii). As you might identify in this list, the topics relevant to sociological inquiry are vast. In fact, some sociologists would claim that everything that is a part of our daily lives—from eating breakfast in the morning, to driving to the office at day, and returning home to watch television at night—is a potential frame of sociological inquiry. As you read each of the fifteen chapters, you will gain a greater appreciation of the diverse discipline that we know as sociology.
• Exercise: Using the following link, conduct an Internet study of the popular topics in the discipline of sociology. Look at some of the listservs, and join one if you have the time, in order to consider the hottest topics in sociology.
• Web Resource: Sociology Listservs
http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/w3virtsoclib/discuss.htm
Sociology began as a discipline attempting to forge its own uniqueness out of the natural sciences. In the nineteenth century social science emerged as a general approach to the study of society and social relationships (cf. Marshall 1994:493). Initially, Herbert Spencer and others pushed for a synthetic sociology “whose purpose was to integrate the entire corpus of social sciences into one general, encyclopedic social science” (Tomars 1957:505). Sociologists realized that such an endeavor would be impossible and instead directed attention to the study of social relations and groups. Because we understand a social science to be an approach to the study of society and social relationships, we can firmly say that sociology is a social science, but one question that confronts many college and university students is, what is the difference between a social and a natural science?
A wrong assumption is that natural science is cold, detached and factual and social science is interpretative, subjective and even touchy-feely. In fact many of the social sciences use research approaches that privilege the quantitative methodology often associated with the natural sciences—a quantitative methodology is based on the use of numerical data to make meaningful conclusions about empirical reality. One can say that the quantitative approach privileges the quantity of things to make a point. If my research concludes that “the United States consumes 45% of the world’s resources,” then I am making a quantitative argument; whereas, if I said that “an informant whom I interviewed suggested a series of strategies that she uses to curb over-consumption in her household,” then I am making a qualitative argument. The qualitative methodology is based on the use of non-quantitative sources—interviews, newspapers, books, focus groups—to understand the nature of reality. One can say that the qualitative approach privileges the texture and the quality of data (cf. Silverman 1998). Both natural sciences and social sciences use quantitative and qualitative methods to different degrees. A natural science is a discipline that approaches the understanding of reality through the use of specific experimental scientific methods, including laboratory approaches. Some popular natural science disciplines include mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry and biology. It is interesting to note that Auguste Comte’s argument for the establishment of sociology came as a reaction to the idea that many of these natural science disciplines had achieved in what Comte’s mind was a state of academic maturity. Because social sciences often study realms of human experiences and relationships, an uninformed assumption is sometimes made regarding the inability to study the subjective nature of such realms. Social sciences like psychology, anthropology, economics, political science and sociology, each apply discipline-specific methodologies to consider the significant worlds that each addresses, and each of the social sciences apply both quantitative and qualitative methods.
• Web Resource: Yenza's Social Science Research Guide (Includes Qualitative and Quantitative Methods Links)
http://www.nrf.ac.za/yenza/research/index.htm
• Web Resource: Bill Trochim's Center for Social Research Methods
http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/
• Web Resource: Topics in Statistical Data Analysis: On-Line Tutorial
http://ubmail.ubalt.edu/~harsham/stat-data/opre330.htm
• Web Resource: Social Science Information Gateway's Information on Research Methods
http://sosig.esrc.bris.ac.uk/social_science_general/social_science_methodology/
• Web Resource: Research Resources for the Social Sciences
http://www.socsciresearch.com/
• Web Resource: Resources for Methods in Evaluation and Social Research
http://gsociology.icaap.org/methods/
• Web Resource: The Virtual Research Assistant
http://www.ukans.edu/cwis/units/coms2/vra/door.html
Sociology is an incredibly diverse discipline. Though sociologists can “speak the same lingo” when it comes to theories, methodological approaches and general perspectives, there is much variation in the degrees of specialization within sociology. Subsequent chapters will illustrate this fact through a variety of case studies and methodological foci, but as one sampling of the variety of concerns in the discipline, here is a list of the current sections of the American Sociological Association:
Aging and the Life Course; Alcohol and Drugs; Animals and Society; Asia and Asian America; Children and Youth; Collective Behavior and Social Movements; Communication and Information Technologies; Community and Urban Sociology; Comparative and Historical Sociology; Crime, Law, and Deviance; Economic Sociology; Environment and Technology; Family; History of Sociology; International Migration; Labor and Labor Movements; Latino/a Sociology; Marxist Sociology; Mathematical Sociology; Medical Sociology; Methodology; Organizations, Occupations, and Work; Peace, War, and Social Conflict; Political Sociology; Political Economy of the World Systems; Race, Gender, and Class; Racial and Ethnic Minorities; Rationality and Society; Science, Knowledge, and Technology; Sex and Gender; Social Psychology; Sociological Practice; Sociology of Culture; Sociology of Education; Sociology of Emotions; Sociology of Law; Sociology of Mental Health; Sociology of Population; Sociology of Religion; Sociology of Sexualities; Teaching and Learning; Theory; and Ethnomethodology and Conversational Analysis (a section currently in formation).
This list is representative of the membership of the American Sociological Association—the professional society representing sociologists. The ASA was founded in 1905 by a group of forty or so sociologists who had gathered at Johns Hopkins University. The group included noted sociologists Albion Small, E.A. Ross and Lester Ward. Today the American Sociological Association has over 13,000 members. We encourage you to look at the ASA links in this chapter to learn more about the goals of sociology’s professional society.
• Web Resource: American Sociological Association
http://www.asanet.org/
• Web Resource: History of the American Sociological Association (1905-1980)
http://www.asanet.org/about/history/index.html
The February 1, 2002 explosion of the Columbia space shuttle highlighted both the technological dependency of our society and the precarious nature of new forms of technology and their capacity for catastrophe. Initially, as in the investigation of the first space shuttle disaster of the Challenger, emphasis was placed on technical issues and the attributing of the cause of the disaster to problems in space shuttle design. Interestingly, studies of the Columbia disaster have revealed another cause of the explosion, one which many people would have never considered—culture. Wayne Hale, a veteran NASA administrator, recently spoke of the cultural issues that led to the Columbia tragedy of 2002:
You laugh…but when you talk about culture and how people subconsciously deal with hierarchy and where they fit within an organization and whether they feel comfortable in bringing things up, things like the shape of the table matter. Being trained as an engineer, I’m wishing I’d taken more sociology classes in college. (Sawyer 2003).
Hale’s quote, understood in the context of critical contemporary sociology, is revealing on a number of grounds. First, it indicates that in the case of massive tragedy and disaster, such as in the case of space shuttle catastrophes or perhaps an event like September 11th, people are inclined to look for simple explanations rather than complex ones. At the time of the Columbia explosion no news outlets led with the story “Bureaucratic Culture of NASA Leads to Shuttle Disaster!” Such an account would strike readers as incredibly odd and this should tell us something about a society which has often been called a quick-fix society. Second, the quote suggests that certain faculties, such as science and applied technology, are valued in our society. A common story told to science students is that of the poorly-trained engineer. It goes something like this: the science teacher tells the student that she must study hard and that passing her along without regard to academic standards would be dangerous. If the student passes the class without comprehending the subject matter, she will go on to be an engineer who makes a faulty bridge—the consequences of the whole series of events being a bridge that collapses and kills hundreds of people. I have heard this story, or some variation of it, expressed by many science educators. The interesting thing about the story is that it is never told with the subject matter being a social science. What if the story went like this: if I pass you along in my sociology class, without you comprehending the theories, methods and perspectives of sociology, you will end up being a corrupt citizen, incapable of critically intervening in your own life and the lives of others. What if Hale and other NASA administrators had taken more sociology courses? Could they have created a NASA culture that might have prevented the Columbia disaster of 2002? The perspective that we will impart in this text is that sociology gives all people vital skills necessary for living and negotiating an increasingly complex and troubling world.
• Web Resource: NASA Home Page
http://www.nasa.gov
• Web Resource: NASA's Columbia Disaster Page
http://www.nasa.gov/columbia/home/
• Web Resource: The Challenger Accident
http://www.fas.org/spp/51L.html
Sociology is one of the most popular majors in the social sciences. Like the other social sciences—economics, history, political science, psychology and anthropology—sociology focuses on the many issues associated with humans and their worlds, but as you will discover in later chapters, sociology has specific theoretical and methodological concerns unique to its discipline. You will find that sociology offers you new insights into the world in which we live—insights of the sort that cannot be discovered on television or in the many contexts of everyday life. To illustrate the popularity of the major, consider the following list of celebrities who majored in sociology:
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Reverend Jesse Jackson, novelist Saul Bellow, President Ronald Reagan, television host Regis Philbin, actors Dan Aykroyd, Debra Winger and Dinah Shore, sex counselor Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and basketball star Alonzo Mourning.
We hope to impart on you the significance of sociology as both an academic and a practical discipline. With any field of your college or university education, what you take from the course depends on your relationship to what you are studying. Instead of thinking of sociology as a collection of deceased theorists, static theories and disconnected academic ideas, make what you take from sociology as personal as possible. Many people who major in sociology are comfortable with the idea of studying a field that is simultaneously applicable to the global world and the intimate world of our everyday lives.
Sociology is an incredibly popular major. According to an American Sociological Association study, the number of bachelors, masters and doctorates granted in U.S. institutions increased by 60.1%, 67.2% and 28.8% respectively since 1990 (ASA 2003a). In the year 2000 some 25,600 students received bachelors degrees in Sociology (ASA 2003b). Sociology’s popularity is due, in part, to its wide applicability. Employers in all sectors of society are interested in holistic thinkers who have problem-solving, analytical and critical thinking skills. All of these are skills stressed in the sociology major. A recent study of the expertise acquired by sociology majors made this very point—it discussed how studying classical theorists (Chapter 2) allows one to develop analytical skills; how studying culture and society (Chapter 4) provides one with critical insight about the values stressed by a given society; how studying groups and socialization (Chapter 5) gives one important insight about interpersonal relationships; how addressing forms of social organization (Chapter 6) inculcates necessary knowledge about the contemporary world of business and organizations; how studying race and gender (Chapters 9 and 10) provides one with important skills in negotiating a multicultural society (cf. Lambert 1997). We could list specific skill sets applicable to every chapter, but the point is this, sociology is a popular major because it is applicable.
After completing their degrees, sociologists end up in a number of diverse fields. In general, a Bachelors degree in sociology will be attractive to public and private fields in industry and government. According to one study sociologists are among the top twenty fields hired by the United States government (Lambert 1997:209). As an undergraduate sociology major you will probably not specialize in one sub-area of the discipline; this happens at the M.A. and Ph.D. level. A graduate degree in the discipline will make you more employable and will open up opportunities in the world of academe. An M.A. will qualify you to teach sociology at the community college level, while a Ph.D. is needed to teach at major research universities. Academe is not the only option for the sociology major. In the arena of organizational work, a number of sociology graduates opt to work in the human services, including community organizations and social services. Others choose to work for corporations, perhaps in training, consulting, program development or human resources. For sociologists who specialize in areas of study like criminology or medical sociology, future employment in the health organizations, mental and substance abuse and law enforcement fields are excellent opportunities. Still other sociologists use their analytical research skills to develop social research for agencies, corporations and governmental venues. One growing field in this regard is demographic and census studies. As a sociology and criminology advisor at one of my previous schools, I placed students in many internship programs with U.S. governmental agencies. These included the U.S. Customs Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigations. With the recent development of new agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, or the expansion of already existing ones, such as the Federal Aviation Administration, opportunities for sociologists interested in government work will be quite prosperous.
• Exercise: Get on the Internet and find the homepage of a college or university sociology department. With the organization of this text’s chapters as a guideline, make a list of all of the specializations offered by that department. What specific interests are stressed in the department of sociology? What interests are less important? Next, go to a second sociology department website and compare the interests with the first department. What differences or similarities did you identify?
• Web Resource: ASA Resources for Students
http://www.asanet.org/student/student.html
• Web Resource: FAQs on Sociology
http://www.asanet.org/research/faqintro2002.html
• Web Resource: NIU's Sociology Major Links
http://www.niu.edu/crc/major/Sociology.htm
• Web Resource: ASA's Careers in Sociology Page
http://www.asanet.org/student/career/homepage.html
• Web Resource: Job Guide 2003 Description of Sociology
http://jobguide.thegoodguides.com.au/jobdetails.cfm?jobid=431
One of the most important concepts of contemporary sociology is that of the sociological imagination. The idea comes from C. Wright Mills’ foundational text The Sociological Imagination (1959). Mills was one of the most effective proponents for the application of sociology to everyday life circumstances; he also did an excellent job of contextualizing the work of classical sociologists to better understand and interpret the contemporary world. In considering contemporary society Mills focused on the essential problem intoned by nineteenth century social thinkers—the sense of unrest that accompanies social change. By linking classical sociologists to the contemporary world, Mills is identifying the importance of using sociology as a window to link the past to the present, as well as the future (cf. Mills 1959:215). Sociology is an apparatus that we can use to understand the world, provided that we accept the fact that the world has always been a complex place in which to live.
The sociological imagination is often influenced by a sense of despair or apprehension about living in society. As you consider the many biographies of the ten sociologists in the next chapter, reflect on how the problems in each of their lives led to the formulation of the theories and concepts that each advanced. Mills describes this spirit in his famous text:
Nowadays men often feel that their private lives are a series of traps. They sense that within their everyday worlds, they cannot overcome their troubles, and in this feeling, they are often quite correct (Mills 1959:3).
In proposing the concept of the sociological imagination C. Wright Mills suggests that everyday people identify problems in their lives, yet he offers that everyday people often lack the sociological imagination—they do not have a means of contextualizing, explaining and ultimately transforming the problems in their lives. In his view of the concept, the sociological imagination allows a sort of bridging between history and biography with a dual goal of personal and social understanding (Mills 1959:6). In his pessimism regarding the capacity of everyday people to develop this creative approach of understanding the world, Mills acknowledged the powerful social forces that influence our perceptions of the world. His landmark text The Power Elite (1956) established a theory of elite deviance in which he recognizes the role of major social institutions in shaping our understanding of the world. As he suggests, people “do not usually define the troubles they endure in terms of historical change and institutional contradiction (Mills 1959:3).
Consider the recent illegal and immoral actions of corporations like WorldCom and Enron. For those intimately associated with the financial hardships related to the actions of these corporations, the nature of these institutional harms might seem intimate, but even that is an unsure assumption. For individuals unaffected by the actions of corporate deviants, the distance between the issue and the person might even be greater. To compound the collective lack of imagination intoned by Mills, we find the media more often than not expounding upon social problems using ready-made understandings of events, ones that often emphasize the roles of individuals in any given social trouble, not the roles of corporations, institutions or the government. Drawing on Marx’s terms, C. Wright Mills addresses this problem by speaking of the ways in which people “become falsely conscious of their social positions” (Mills 1959:5).
However, one may not lay blame only on the media and their influence on our lack of the sociological imagination. In a civic society, we all must play a role. Mills suggests that an important goal of thinking sociologically is to transform indifference into involvement in public issues (ibid.). Consider the confusion surrounding the 2000 Presidential election, or the spectacle that became the 2003 California Gubernatorial recall election. In both cases citizens withdrew from the electoral process before, during or after the election, often citing immediate concerns with their lack of voice in the political process. Indeed, both elections should raise concern among democratically-inclined citizens, but the apathy that became common in these situations could be channeled into more active political participation on the part of community members. The sociological imagination would require us to push aside the apathy in order to frame a discussion of a more equitable and just society—in this case a more desirable political process. The sociological imagination, like the perspectives and approaches of sociology, is an approach to understanding the world…what we choose to do with that approach is ultimately our doing.
• Web Reading: C. Wright Mill’s Writings and other Resources at “Famous Sociologists” (Scroll down to find Mill’s name).
http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/sociosite/topics/sociologists.html
Many of the sociologists of the classical and the contemporary period speak of sociology as something more than a means of understanding the world around us. They intuit that sociology can be a force in positive social change in making our world, and the world of future generations, a better place to live. Sociology is a unique field of study. After all, how many other disciplines can talk about the economic systems of the United States on the one hand, and the cultural constructions of gender in the music of Britney Spears on the other? We would like to emphasize that sociology is more than learning a few interesting theories or understanding how to undertake critical analysis of a text. In short, it is an applied discipline of awareness that can profoundly transform you and the world around you.
Sociology carries a unique ethos—a set of values that guides its collective approach to understanding society. It is our goal to stress these throughout the textbook, and we hope that you will find the ethos to be of personal utility regardless if you become a professional sociologist or not.
Have you ever heard someone begin an argument with the phrase, “common sense tells us…”? Such an argument is not sociological in nature. Though sociologists are fascinated with the significance of the quotidian (everyday life), we are not likely to analyze society using accepted or commonsensical forms of analysis. Instead, we advocate for the application of critical thinking in the discipline of sociology. By taking up the study of sociology you are committing to a means of thinking that eschews common sense as a meaningful category of social understanding. Critical thinking draws upon the Socratic method of intellectual interrogation, of asking questions to become more informed about the world. Critical thinking also avoids quick or seemingly simple solutions to problems. Years ago the social thinker Hans-Georg Gadamer spoke of a “hermeneutic circle” in terms of the cyclical nature of interpretation (1993), and using Gadamer’s notion we can apply the methodology of critical thinking to say that one is constantly open to new ideas and new interpretations, even of the seemingly simple situations in life. Being a critical thinker does not mean that you have to set aside your own belief systems; rather it implies that you think intimately about your own views of the world—their origins, relationships to other views, and so forth—such that you come to a clearer and more open appreciation of self and society.
• Web Resource: Critical Thinking Consortium
http://www.criticalthinking.org/
As we have suggested in this chapter, sociology is a discipline of endless imagination. Just about anything that relates to humans and their social organization is potential grounds for sociological study. In keeping with the diverse interests of sociologists, we suggest that you take a holistic and comparative approach as you continue your education. A holistic perspective respects the interconnections between things to better understand the entirety of the system, while a comparative approach recognizes the need to analyze things in relationship to other things, and never in a vacuum. As you approach the study of sociology, think in the complex ways that these perspectives suggest. Consider the situation of being asked by a manager to fix a problem with productivity in your workplace. Your first instinct is to place blame on the department subject to the most controversy—the mailroom—but after some consideration you hear that the mailroom’s lack of efficiency is related to the problem in the packaging department and their inability to keep up with orders. After some further reflection you discover that a number of managerial directives have changed the operational procedures at the workplace negatively affecting productivity. Your analysis is at once holistic and comparative in its focus on the interconnections of various departments in your workplace. As you read more about sociology, keep in mind the importance of thinking in holistic and comparative terms.
There is an old philosophical discussion of how one would respond to the request to show another the “side of a coin.” One person might meet the request by pointing to the heads side, while another might point to the tails side, yet a third thinks of the request in an entirely different manner and points to the very edge of the coin. What such a discussion illustrates is the significance of perspective in everyday life as well as in sociology. The influential work of Berger and Luckmann, in identifying the ways in which our reality is socially constructed (1966), illustrates the multiple ways in which all of us bargain for reality, as one of my college instructors used to say. In sociology we discuss the concept of cultural relativism, what amounts to a deep respect for alternate ways of living, and we understand that there are more than two ways of looking at a coin or any social issue. In developing your appreciation of sociology, keep in mind the importance that the respect for diversity plays in our discipline and in our world. The multitude of people, cultures, ideas, experiences, and approaches to living illustrates the unique and exciting aspects of living in our world.
In our contemporary world we are confronted with a multitude of images, ideas, arguments and concepts. We sometimes call these units of information memes, and depending on our perspectives and the specific meme and its origin, we might be more or less inclined to accept the information as “true.” Truth itself is a concept embedded in cultural systems, political arrangements and social orders. Many of us find ourselves in the situation of trying to unpack an argument given to us on the Internet or on the nightly cable television program, but how do we assess the legitimacy of the information being presented? In sociology we advocate an analytical approach to living. Being analytical does not mean that you have to be obscure or nerdy about the world; it suggests that you analyze or break apart the information being given to you. Who is telling me this? What is the person’s motivations for telling me? These are but two questions that a sociologist would ask in attempting to posit the legitimacy of a given argument. For any text—be it on the Internet, a book, a newspaper, a magazine, a film, a public speech—be prepared to confront that text as you would a used car salesperson. Instead of buying the argument up front, take it for a test drive and ask yourself if it meets the specifications given to you by the salesperson. By adopting an analytical approach to living, you will be able to apply the perspectives of sociologists to important situations in your everyday world.
In a consumer society where very often the emphasis of social life is on consumption and superficiality, the basis upon which individuals make their decisions about personal and public issues is the popular television, newspaper and Internet media. One of the problems with popular information about social issues is that it lacks social scientific legitimacy. One instance is discussed in a recent report of FAIR—Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. The study discussed the work of television journalist John Stossel and how his supposedly objective studies of popular social issues are fraught by misquotation of interviewees through editing techniques and general distortion of academic research (Hart 2003; Wen 2003). Another example gained popular attention—this being the case of plagiarism accusations at the New York Times. For many of the populace this newspaper’s phrase “all the news that’s fit to print” rings true as there is a misconception that the news presented in the New York Times is objective truth. A third example, and perhaps the most notorious of the three, is the testimony related to Iraq given by President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell. In numerous forums in 2003 two of the highest officials in the United States government spoke of Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction—30,000 warheads, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 25,000 liters of anthrax, and 500 tons of chemical weapons (Derber 2004:106). Part of the President’s State of the Union evidence included reference to alleged attempts of Iraq to purchase uranium from Niger. In new information related to this charge against Iraq, we now know that the CIA had informed Vice President Cheney and the National Security Council that the uranium story was fabricated. As of the end of the year 2003, none of these alleged weapons have been recovered in occupied Iraq. What this final example illustrates is how official explanation of issues in governmental “research” can have major and lasting social consequences. Many elected officials and citizens used the evidence provided by Bush and Powell as justification for their support of the invasion of Iraq. The next chapters will address specific scientific methods of research employed in the discipline and their origins in the work of major sociologists. A major value of the vocation of sociology is the use of research as a way of better understanding the world and of questioning official or popular explanations of social events.
• Web Resource: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)
http://www.fair.org/
Karl Marx’s famous statement about the need to do something about the world, as opposed to just philosophizing about it, concisely describes the applied focus of contemporary sociology. As the work of Jane Addams demonstrated, for some time sociology has been focused on using theoretical insights about society as a means of helping others. One of the growing fields of contemporary sociology is that of clinical sociology. Clinical sociology uses sociological analyses of society to offer public policy suggestions for addressing immanent social problems. When we speak of the applied skills offered by sociology, we would suggest that a major goal of studying the discipline is to come up with ways of transforming theory into praxis (or practice). An example can be illustrated by the sociological study of everyday interactions. Let us suppose that your sociological research involves the consideration of the sources of conflict in small group interaction. As a theorist of this subject you study the issue for a number of years and become quite versed in the theoretical considerations of the topic. A year later you are elected to a local school board and immediately, because of the election of new members, conflict develops among the new board. The conflict leads to stalemate meetings and an unruly community that quickly gets fed up with the lack of effective decision-making of the new board. If you, as a school board member, set up a conflict resolution retreat for the board members, this would be an effective application of your theoretical knowledge about conflict and small group interaction. Keep this example in mind as you begin to study the theoretical approaches of sociology, and use every opportunity possible to apply the knowledge that you will gain in the discipline.
• Media Exercise: Rent the film Mindwalk—a feature film that amounts to an interesting consideration of the nature of reality involving the conversations of a career politician, a poet and a physicist. As you watch the film take into account the different views of reality expressed by the three characters. Which of the positions did you most closely relate to? Why? Which of the positions were the furthest from your own perceptions of reality? Why?
• Web Resource: Fritjof Capra’s Homepage
http://www.fritjofcapra.net/
• Web Resource: Clinical and Applied Sociology
http://www.asrcsolutions.com/ssp/
• Web Resource: Society for Applied Sociology
http://www.appliedsoc.org/
• Web Resource: ASA Section on Sociological Practice
http://www.asrcsolutions.com/ssp/
• Web Resource: Sociological Practice Association
http://www.socpractice.org/
As you learn more about the approaches of sociology understand that sociology does not exist in a vacuum—even the world that is the subject of analytical study of the discipline is itself a force that impacts the very field of sociology—and it cannot claim to answer every human question. In a recent sociology class this later issue arose. I had shown the film Hands on a Hard Body—a documentary of an annual competition in Longview, Texas in which contestants keep their hands on a Nissan truck until the last person standing wins the vehicle. The competitions can be physically and mentally challenging; in 2002 the winner of the competition survived ninety-nine hours of endurance with her hands on the truck. After viewing the film in class, one of my students questioned the strategies of a very devout contestant who used religious tapes and prayer circles to be successful in the event. Though she did not win the truck, she was one of the final three contestants left standing. My student suggested that her use of spirituality was invalid because it could not possibly result in benefiting her in the competition. Another student disagreed with the first student and suggested that the woman’s use of spirituality indeed allowed her to make it that far in the competition. My response was that sociology could speak to the nature of the event itself and the issues of social interaction among the contestants, but it could not address whether or not one person’s spirituality or one person’s lucky charm could impact that individual’s success in the competition. Such questions, I concluded, are a matter of personal belief, and like one’s political views, matters of a personal sort might be studied by sociologists, but sociologists are not interested in taking sides on the legitimacy of issues that cannot be verified using scientific methods. As you study sociology remember that personal views are your own, and though sociology can enlighten you to the possibility of new ways of living and creative views of the world, it cannot make decisions of the personal sort for you.
• Web Resource: ZNet's Topics for Contemporary Society
http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm
The first issue—that of sociology not existing in a vacuum—is an equally interesting concern. Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and many of the other classical sociologists we have considered, shared an interest in understanding the impacts of industrialization on traditional society. Their approaches to sociological theory differed, but each shared the view that sociologists ought to develop powerful tools to understand society, especially as society changed and impacted the lives of individuals. Today sociologists further emphasize the need to focus on the ramifications of social change. Even though sociologists strive to understand the intricacies of their societies, they are not arrogant to assume that the conceptual tools they use to comprehend social reality are not impacted by society itself. In other words contemporary sociology is in tune with the notion that the changes in society are themselves forces in the development of sociology. It should be stated that this acknowledgement does not relegate the work of historic sociology to an inferior status; in fact, contemporary sociologists are constantly looking for ways to make the work of classical sociologists relevant in the current age of the discipline. At the same time sociologists are cognizant of the need for new conceptual tools to understand a changing contemporary world. Many aspects of this facet of sociology will be addressed in subsequent chapters, but here is a short list of some of the social changes that have affected contemporary sociology:
• Globalization: The post-eighties is an era of rapid social change in which multi-national corporations have increased their control of world markets, information technology has an expanded role in our lives, new global alignments (such as the World Trade Organization) have grown, and U.S. popular culture has expanded globally. In such times sociologists have committed more attention to local-global articulations and their impacts on society and personal identity. Globalization is one of the most popular concerns of contemporary sociology.
• Web Resource: SSRC Globalization Resources
http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/teaching_resource/tr_globalization.htm
• Web Resource: The Globalization Website
http://www.emory.edu/SOC/globalization/
• Technology: One of the most interesting facets of contemporary society is the expansion of the role of technology in our personal lives. The use of the Internet, e-mail, cell phones and varied forms of consumer electronics has sparked new theoretical interests in sociology and other social sciences. The sociology of cyberspace and virtual communities is a growing interest in the discipline.
• Identity: The academic and political climate of the sixties influenced the contemporary view of the significance of personal identity as a constituent factor in understanding the nature of reality. In many of the classical sociologists we find an unfortunate absence of attention to the specific personal categorical qualities of people. Race, gender and sexuality are infrequently mentioned in classical sociological theory, whereas contemporary sociological theory reflects a deep concern with how these categorical qualities impact our understandings of the world. Another recent social development that has challenged sociological conceptions of the self and identity is work focused on the notion of the hybrid-self or the saturated self (cf. Gergen 1991). These theories suggest that the very core of our identities is not as organic as it once was, or once perceived to be; instead, our identities are understood to be impacted by the myriad of symbols, ideas, information, and forms of popular culture that were once thought to be independent of our identity formations. Once such study by sociologist Nikolas Rose considers how the “private” self is shaped and impinged upon by forces in the home, the workplace and the school (Rose 1989).
• Web Resource: Kenneth Gergen Homepage
http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/kgergen1/web/page.phtml?st=home&id=home
• Violence: The role of violence in human societies perhaps dates to prehistoric times, and in the contemporary world warfare, starvation, genocide, workplace and environmental deaths continue to impact more and more people. Warfare itself plagues the human world in unprecedented forms of violence with weapons capable of killing more people than in the past. Studies have shown that ninety percent of those killed in warfare after World War II have been civilians (Zinn 2002). In many contemporary societies domestic violence and rape are growing social problems. In the current age, a major task of sociology is to discuss immanent social problems, especially those that result in violence and death.
• Web Resource: Google's War and Conflict Resources
http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Issues/Warfare_and_Conflict
• Web Resource: International Law and Warfare Against Civilians
http://www.dannen.com/decision/int-law.html
• Web Resource: Third World Traveler's Howard Zinn Website
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html
• Consumption: The expansion of consumer society and the increasing imbrication of consumerism in the personal lives of individuals has attracted the attention of many sociologists. Though Marx addressed commodity fetishism in his revolutionary theories, he could not have predicted the rapidity in which consumption practices have spread to all facets of contemporary life. Contemporary sociologists like George Ritzer have expanded the considerations of consumption and society to include the ways in which social life has been altered by new patterns of consumption, such as the “McDonaldization of Society” (1996). In his work of the same name Ritzer extends Max Weber’s analyses of bureaucracy and rationalization to illustrate how the processes of fast food consumption have spread to realms of everyday life outside the fast food industry.
• Web Resource: George Ritzer's Website
http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/ritzer/
• Web Resource: The George Ritzer Room
http://www.angelfire.com/or/sociologyshop/RITZER.html#mcd
• Geo-Politics: One of the most significant realizations of the analyses of the September 11th terrorist attacks is that the political circumstances behind the attacks relate to the destabilizing geo-political effects of post-Cold War realignment. After the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, in good part because of the resistance efforts of the mujahideen resistance troops, the country was left politically destabilized. The United States funded the efforts of the mujahideen and their popular leader Osama Bin Laden because of its interest in combating the Cold War enemy the Soviet Union. The tragedies of September 11th emphasize the uncertain nature of the new political order, and sociologists have begun to ask new questions and conduct new research on the relationship of the new geo-political scene and significant social issues like political authority, gender and the public sphere.
• Exercise: Review the PEW report “Views of a Changing World.” Consider at least three findings in the report that surprised you, and three others that did not. Overall, what is your opinion of the research conducted by this organization?
• Web Resource: SSRC's 9/11 Essays
http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/
• Web Resource: ASA Speaks on 9/11
http://www.asanet.org/media/terror.html
• Ecology: As fossil fuels continue to dwindle, as rainforests are deforested, as diseases of modernization increase, as species are killed at an alarming rate of two to four per hour, many people have begun to focus more attention on the issue of ecology as it impacts our society and our selves. New concerns in the sociology of space and urban sociology have paralleled the popular focus on the effects of contemporary society on ecology.
• Signification: In his landmark study of contemporary society, Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Fredric Jameson illustrates the myriad ways in which contemporary society has been affected by new forms of culture, technology, economics and architecture (1992). One of the author’s vivid examples is of the qualitative differences between two paintings—Vincent Van Gogh’s “A Pair of Boots” and Andy Warhol’s “Diamond Dust Shoes.” In his comparison of the works, he addresses how signification (what each work means) moves from the depth of associations between the earth, nature and peasantry in the first work to superficiality and commodification in the second (Jameson 1992:6-10). His comparison is a nice illustration of the ways in which signification—the processes of signs, symbols, images and ideas in our society—has been altered in the contemporary world. Social theorist Jean Baudrillard has written numerous works on what he labels the hyperreal character of United States society. A number of studies of the field of postmodernism have also informed contemporary sociological research. Much of Jameson’s writing and that of postmodernists addresses the ways in which cultural meaning of the world has been transformed from a linear to a more fluid and elusive context. Sociologists recognize the ways in which consumer society and cyberculture continue to impact the approaches that they use to comprehend the contemporary world.
• Web Resource: Fredric Jameson Links and Bibliography
http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~scctr/Wellek/jameson/
Sociology: A Critical and Contemporary Perspective is organized into sixteen chapters, each covering the specific areas of the discipline of sociology. We hope that you will find the textbook to be thought-provoking and relevant to your studies as a student of sociology. Most importantly we would like to stress the relevance of the critical perspective as it relates to the discipline—as students living in a changing and sometimes uncertain world, it is important to think critically about our world and our relationship to it. Like C. Wright Mills intoned in his concept of the sociological imagination, each of us has the opportunity to reinvest our relationship to society by looking deeply at ourselves and others. It was an anthropologist, Margaret Mead, who made the often quoted statement, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” As a social scientist Mead recognized the significance of social change, especially as citizens question the information given to them in society, the nature of the relationships in which they relate, and the overall patterns of the society in which they live. We hope that you will recognize the contemporary perspective of our text. The discipline of sociology does not exist in a vacuum, and in bringing to you the ideas about our discipline, we stress that sociology must be understood in relationship to the world in which it exists. We hope that you will enjoy both the critical and the contemporary orientations of this text.
The remainder of the textbook is organized into major topical areas of sociology. We have written the text in this manner to give you a concise yet applied approach to understanding the theoretical, methodological and contextual concerns of professional sociologists. Chapter 2, Sociological Thinkers and Their Influence, addresses ten major sociologists whose work has come to influence the study and practice of sociology today. Chapter 3, Sociological Theories and Methods of Research, will inform you as to the major theoretical approaches of sociologists as well as the ways in which sociologists conduct research. Chapter 4, Culture and Society, presents the interesting issue of what culture means to sociologists and how tricky it can be to define in a contemporary, globalized world. Chapter 5, Socialization, discusses one of the most studied concepts from the discipline and considers how our everyday surroundings impact who we are and who we are to become. Chapter 6, Forms of Social Organization, explores the ways in which we organize our world—from small groups to international organizations. Chapter 7, Deviance, Crime and Social Control, represents the many approaches to the study of violations of laws or public taste. Chapter 8, Social Class and Stratification, considers the sociological study of the ways in which our society is organized and divided by social class. Chapter 9, Race and Ethnicity, focuses on the ways in which sociologists understand the varied dimensions of race and ethnicity in our world. Chapter 10, Gender, builds on the previous chapter and draws attention to the role of gender, sexuality and forms of social oppression like sexism. Chapter 11, Marriage and Family, offers insights on the sociological study of a form of social organization very familiar to us—the family. Chapter 12, Healthcare, Education and the Workplace, looks at three of the most studied and often most controversial arenas of everyday living. Chapter 13, Politics and Religion, considers the ways in which sociologists interpret forms of authority and decision-making in society. Chapter 14, Population, Urbanization, the Sociology of Space, discusses the use of sociology as a means of understanding how our spatial worlds are organized as well as major features of our contemporary world, such as population change and urbanization. Chapter 15, New Social Movements and Social Change, investigates the rich world of what sociologists call new social movements—groups organized to change society in one way or another. Chapter 16, Technology, Globalization and the Future, looks at how our society is changing and how sociology offers us insights on how to interpret such change.
Each of the chapters offer you an exciting array of features that we hope will better guide you through the terrain of sociology. Some of these features include:
• Web Readings: For your consideration, additional reading of classic and contemporary sociologists can be found on the included web links in each chapter. Use these readings to further explore the ideas considered in the chapters. Even if it is not part of your classroom assignment, consider reading more than is required to benefit your sociological education.
• Key Terms: We have bolded key terms in the text itself, and have provided you a list of key terms and definitions at the end of each chapter. Use these to reinforce your understanding of major sociological concepts.
• Application and Media Exercises: We have included a variety of exercises in each chapter. These speak to the practice side of sociology—the application of the sociological concept. For each of these you will be asked to consider a point, compare a web site, seek out information on the Internet, or view a film outside of class. This supplemental work will assist you in better understanding how sociology “comes alive” in our world.
• Web Resources: Each chapter has a list of websites that will further your understanding of sociology. Use these to check out new ideas in sociology, to assess the work of a sociologist, or to just enlighten yourself with new ideas. We will continue to update these links to make them as contemporary and relevant as possible.
• Questions for Further Reflection: At the conclusion of each chapter you will find a list of reflection questions—short essays designed to have you think more intimately about a specific focus of sociology. Use these to assess your own knowledge of the reading and to further your work in the discipline that we call sociology.
• Web Resource: Sociological Tour Through Cyberspace
http://www.trinity.edu/~mkearl/index.html
• Web Resource: Famous Sociologists Resources (Excellent resource)
http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/sociosite/topics/sociologists.html
• Web Resource: Sociology Internet Resources
http://vax.wcsu.edu/socialsci/socres.html
• Web Resource: Dead Sociologists Society
http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/DEADSOC.HTML
• Web Resource: Timeline for Sociology 1600-1995
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/timeline.html
• Web Resource: Social Science Information Gateway for Sociology
http://sosig.esrc.bris.ac.uk/sociology/
• Web Resource: SocioWeb
http://www.socioweb.com/~markbl/socioweb/
• Web Resource: Julian Dierkes' Comprehensive Guide to Sociology On-Line
http://www.sociolog.com
• Web Resource: Academic Info's Sociology Gateway
http://www.academicinfo.net/soc.html
• Web Resource: Virginia Tech Sociology Resources
http://www.lib.vt.edu/subjects/soci/
• Web Resource: Bartleby’s Book Site (Offers free on-line texts for viewing)
http://www.bartleby.com/
• Web Resource: Stuart Macwilliam's Internet Sociologist (Focused on using Internet resources)
http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/tutorial/sociologist/
• Web Resource: Voice of the Shuttle (One of the best Internet sites for the social sciences and humanities)
http://vos.ucsb.edu/
• Web Resource: MagPortal (Magazine Search Site)
http://www.magportal.com/c/soc/
• Web Resource: Free Internet Articles
http://www.findarticles.com
Sociology—the scientific study of society in all its forms.
Quantitative Methodology—is based on the use of numerical data to make meaningful conclusions about empirical reality.
Qualitative Methodology—is based on the use of non-quantitative sources—interviews, newspapers, books, focus groups—to understand the nature of reality.
American Sociological Association—the professional organization of over 13,000 members that represents academic sociology.
Critical Contemporary Sociology—a form of sociology that addresses contemporary society through an approach that questions, interrogates and challenges reality.
Quick-Fix Society—a society that is focused on simple explanations or solutions to complex social issues or problems.
Sociological Imagination—the ability to link one’s personal experiences to the issues and ideas of the larger world.
Critical Thinking—a means of thinking that eschews common sense as a meaningful category of social understanding.
Holism—a perspective that respects the interconnections between things to better understand the entirety of the system.
Comparative Perspective—an approach that recognizes the need to analyze things in relationship to other things, and never in a vacuum.
Bargaining for Reality—the idea that humans construct their own worlds through a process of contesting reality.
Cultural Relativism—what amounts to a deep respect for alternate ways of living, even if they are different than your own ways of living.
Meme—a unit of information.
Clinical Sociology—an approach that uses sociological analyses of society to offer public policy suggestions for addressing immanent social problems.
Globalization—the post-eighties era of rapid social change in which multi-national corporations have increased their control of world markets, information technology has an expanded role in our lives, and new global alignments (such as the World Trade Organization) have developed.
Postmodernism—a series of contemporary concerns emphasizing the fluid nature of meaning and reality as well as the breakdown in traditional forms of legitimation in the world.
• Reread the segment in Section I entitled “Why Study Sociology?” Complete an essay that addresses the suggestion of the author’s that culture led to the Columbia space shuttle disaster. What assumptions are involved in the author’s assertions? In writing your essay either support or refute the thesis—that culture caused the shuttle disaster—using additional research of NASA and the space shuttle explosion.
• Consider the segment “Who Majors in Sociology,” also found in Section I. Write a short written response in which you consider your own ideas about whether you would major in sociology. In your writing list and discuss three reasons why you would major in sociology, and three reasons why you would not.
• Section II of our chapter addresses C. Wright Mills’ notion of the sociological imagination. As you think about the concept write an essay in which you apply it to your own life. Draw on at least one issue from your own life and connect it to the “bigger picture” as you relate your own application of Mills’ notion.
• Review Section III of the chapter, The Ethos of Sociology. Write a short reflection piece in which you consider two of the six forms of the sociological ethos. Discuss the one that most closely relates to your own life perspective. In other words, which of the six do you most clearly apply in your own life? Next, choose the one that you have no relationship to and consider why that skill is not a part of your everyday approach to the world.
• Section IV, Sociology in a Contemporary World, looks at the ways in which sociology itself has adapted to massive socio-cultural changes in the world. Write an essay that focuses on one of the eight listed issues. Specifically, argue that the issue you have selected is indeed present in our contemporary world. To do so use one or more popular feature films that reflect the existence of the issue that you have chosen.
ASA (American Sociological Association)
2003a, Overview of the State of Sociology: Long- and Short-Term Trends, 1990-2001, http://www.asanet.org/research/reportcard.html
ASA (American Sociological Association)
2003b, Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral Degrees Awarded in Selected Social/Behavioral Sciences, Selected Years 1968-2000, http://www.asanet.org/research/soscideg6800.html
Berger, Peter and Thomas Luckmann
1966, The Social Construction of Reality, Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
Bierstedt, Robert
1978, “Sociology,” in Sociology: The Basic Concepts, Pp. 1-8, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Comte, Auguste
1974, The Positive Philosophy, New York: AMS Press.
Derber, Charles
2004, The Wilding of America: Money, Mayhem, and the New American Dream, New York: Worth.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg
1993, Truth and Method, Second revised edition, New York: Continuum.
Gergen, Kenneth
1991, The Saturated Self, New York: Basic Books.
Hart, Peter
2003, Give Us a Break: The World According to John Stossel, EXTRA! 16(2):10-14.
Jameson, Fredric
1992, Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Durham: Duke University Press.
Lambert, Stephen
1997 Great Jobs for Sociology Majors, Chicago: VGM Career Books.
Marshall, Gordon
1994, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McClung Lee, Alfred
1951, Principles of Sociology, New York: Barnes & Noble.
Mills, C. Wright
1953, Introduction to the Mentor Edition, in The Theory of the Leisure Class, Thorstein Veblen, Pp. vi-xix, New York: Mentor Books.
1956, The Power Elite, New York: Oxford University Press.
1959, The Sociological Imagination, New York: Grove Press.
PEW (The PEW Global Attitudes Project)
2003, Views of a Changing World, Washington, D.C.: The PEW Research Center for the People and the Press, http://www.people-press.org
Ritzer, George
1996, The McDonaldization of Society, Revised edition, Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Rose, Nikolas
1989, Governing the Soul, London: Routledge.
Sawyer, Kathy
2003, “Shuttle Manager Details Changes,” The Washington Post, September 12, 2003, p. A02.
Silverman, David
1998, “Qualitative/Quantitative,” in Core Sociological Dichotomies, Chris Jenks, ed., Pp. 70-95, London: Sage.
Tomars, Adolph
1957, “Sociology and Interdisciplinary Developments,” in Modern Sociological Theory in Continuity and Change, Pp. 501-527, New York: The Dryden Press.
Wen, Rachel
2003, The Stossel Treatment, EXTRA! 16(2):15-17.
Zinn, Howard
2002, Terrorism and War, New York: Seven Stories Press.