Unit.1 Towards an introduction to the study of society. Awakening the sociological imagination 1

2. Unit 1: Towards an introduction to the study of society:
The awakening of the sociological imagination 1
Objectives:
 Define society and explain what sociologists view
as a society
 Explain and be able to use a sociological
perspective
 Explain the sociological imagination (a term
coined by C. Wright Mills)
 Explain how culture shock and the beginner's
mind can be useful in demonstrating a
sociological perspective.

3. Society:
Society = a group of
people who shape their
lives in aggregated and
patterned ways that
distinguish their group
from other groups

4. What does society look like?
 The study of society
 Society as an object itself (sui generis)
 if society is an object, than it can be examined
closely and analyzed like any other subject
(sounds simple isn’t it? We divide it in pieces and
explore each piece carefully)
 A sociologist does to society, what a biologist
does to a living organism, or a geologist does to a
rock:
 Society becomes something scientifically
weighted, measured and dissected

5. A geologist studying a rock:

6. Is Society a concrete object after all?
 But, wait…as we begin to dissect this object, we
discover that it’s made up of countless other
components
 Of things like: culture, working class, ethnicity
 These things appear to be sui generis (objects
on their own) as well: more phenomena to
examine by themselves, hmmm, but wait….
 And these components can be broken down even
further into seemly endless bits and pieces
 It gets confusing: daunting, almost impossible to
imagine we could analyze something so big, with
so many parts, the shapes and boundaries are so
fluid

7. Society looks like this painting by
Kandinsky:

8. Or more like this:
Relationships between
individuals in a society
(social networks)

9. What can we see?
 If we can’t see the whole of society, what can we
see?
We can see people living their
lives, interacting with each other,
working, playing, eating, dancing, flirting,
lying, fighting, grieving, driving in their
cars, ending their lives by own choice,
partying, getting married, divorcing,
stealing, loosing their minds…..etc
 There are limitless observable phenomena for us to analyze
sociologically
 In fact they are all happening around us right now, every moment
of every life
 Scoping social phenomena

10. E.g. Addiction to alcohol?:
Mad Men and alcoholism [Sociology of Mad Men]
As a sociologist you start
wondering what happened in
episode 3?

11. And the ladies in ‘mad men’:

12. This is what society looks like:
 People actively and collectively shape their lives,
organizing their social interactions and
relationships to produce a real meaningful world:
and they do this in patterned ways that (we as)
social scientists can analyze.
 We are curious to analyze the
social processes that
everyone experiences and how
those social processes create the larger

14. E.g. The sociology of partying and its
possible secondary effects 
First shy, drink alcohol,
dance, dance, kiss, kiss some
more, with the guy, ‘what’s his
name again?’ and yeah, let’s
go his place…
The sun shines, headache,
OH NO! a one night stand,
with this guy?
(Tierra traga me)

15. E.g. the sociology of first loves /You can not eat nor think clearly, or do
anything else, you just think about that
person, you want to be with that person, you
want to do everything for them, you don’t
care if they don’t appreciate it, don’t care if it
all comes from one way, if it hurts, if she
doesn’t call, you want to lose yourself in their
eyes, literally lose yourself…
This is the One, I KNOW IT! (not! Or not
always! Or to be specific, 95% of the time
this is not the one)

16. Is sociology a science?
 Natural science is the
study of the physical
features of nature and
the ways in which
they interact and
change
 Social science is the
study of the social
features of humans
and the ways they
interact and change

17. Positioning sociology among other
sciences:
sociology
economic
s
psycholog
y
geograph
y
Communicati
on studies
Anthropolo
gy
History
Political
science
Sociology overlaps with other social sciences, but much of the
territory it covers is unique

18.  Sociology =
 the systematic or scientific study of human
society and social behavior, from large scale
institutions and mass culture to small
groups and individual interactionsThe sociology of The
Sopranos would deal with
family, mafia, loyalty, the
experience of crime,
morality, immigration,
integration etc.

19. Socius Logos [study of society]
 Another more pragmatic definition by Becker (1986):
sociology is the study of
“people doing things together”
 Above definition reminds us of the fact that neither
society nor the individual exists in isolation but each is
dependent on the intertwined with the
other…
Humans are social beings :
 Not only for survival, but importantly because our
very sense of self derives from our
membership in society (E.g. family,
neighborhoods, etc.)

20. Awakening the sociological
imagination

21. Micro and Macro sociology
 The different sociological perspectives are like the
photographers' lenses, allowing different ways of
looking at a common subject (Newman, 2000):
Sociologist can take:
 a Micro sociological lens: zoom lens
 a Macro sociological lens:wide-angle
lens
 or any number of perspectives located on
the continuum between the two

22. Macro and Micro perspectives:
 The micro perspective assumes that
society’s larger structures are shaped
through individual interactions;
while,
 The macro perspective assumes that
society’s larger structures shape those
individual interactions
 Think of these perspectives as being on a
continuum

23. Levels of analysis: micro- and macro sociology:
society
culture
Social institutions
(economics, politics, education, mass media,
religion)
Social inequality (class, gender, ethnicity)
Groups
Roles
Socialization
Interaction
self
Sociology covers a wide range of topics at different levels of analysis

24. Sociological Imagination (1)
 One quality of mind
that all the great
social analysts need
to possess in order to
study social
phenomena
 The ability to
understand
“ the intersection
between
biography and
history”
C. Wright Mills (1916 -
1962)

25. Sociological imagination (2)
 The sociological imagination requires that we
search for the link between the micro and
macro levels of analysis
 Mill’s characterization of sociology as the
intersection between biography and history
reminds us that the process works in both
directions:
 While larger social forces influence
individual lives, there are many
ways in which our individual lives
can affect society as well

26. Sociology and Common Sense?
 Our theories and opinions typically come from ‘common
sense’ , every day knowledge and
experiences. These can be biased and incidental 
 This is not the sociological imagination!
 The commonsense knowledge, while sometimes accurate, is
not always reliable, because it rests on commonly
held beliefs rather or assumptions than on systematic
analysis of facts.
 Doing sociologyis a radical
undertaking: it requires from us a willingness to
suspend our own pre-conceptions, assumptions
and beliefs about the way things are 

27. Example of the awakening of the sociological
imagination:

28. How to think like a sociologist 
1. Never assume anything
2. Get ready to be wrong
3. Ask even more questions
4. Make the everyday
strange
5. Embrace life’s
complexities
http://nortonbooks.typepad.com/everydaysociology/2009/06/how-to-think-like-a-sociologist.html

29. Ways to stimulate the sociological
imagination:
1. Try to create in ourselves a sense of what
anthropologists call Culture Shock
 This term was coined in Anthropology to describe the
experience of visiting an exotic foreign country.
 The first encounters with the local natives and their way
of life can seem so strange to us that they produce a
kind of disorientation and doubt about our ability to make
sense of things. Putting all judgments aside for the
moment
 This state of mind is very useful 
 At this point: when we completely lack an understanding
of our surroundings we start truly perceiving
what is in front of our eyes

30. Culture shock
In the TV show Lost,
six of the characters
return from a deserted
island to discover that
ordinary experiences
that they previously
took for granted seem
strikingly different or
unfamiliar
Or my favorite
analogy for the
awakening of
the
sociological
imagination
that started
with an
unbelievable
culture shock:
Alice in
Wonderland
What about
the Tourists
that come for
the first time to
Aruba, would
they
experience a
similar culture
shock?

31. Sociology Zen (beginner’s mind)
 Practice the opposite of the expert’s mind which is
so filled with facts, projections, assumptions,
opinions and explanations that it can’t learn
anything new 
 You need a Beginners mind:
approaching the world without preconceptions in
order to see things in a new way…DISCOVERY

 Make the assignment Analyzing everyday life: for
the next session on Monday, the 22th of
November.
 We will then test your ability to apply a beginner’s

32. The practice of Sociology Zen: