- Videos on the scientific revolution and industrial revolution:
Podcast on Durkheim and suicide
Sociological imagination general podcast
Podcast on conspiracy theories
Podcast discussing what is sociology
Podcast on the nature of the social sciences, touches on some important issues
Definitions
- Theories: general ideas, hypotheses, or assumptions about the social world. Theories offer potential answers to questions we have about social phenomena.
- Methods: the procedures by which sociologists gather reliable and accurate data about the social world.
- Data: A collection of observations about the social world, gained through methods. With data, we can develop or test theories.
- Power: the capacity of an individual or group to influence the behaviour of another individual or group.
- Voluntarism: The belief the individuals have free will, or can freely choose their actions and behaviours. Voluntarism is opposed to determinism.
- Determinism: the belief that individual action is determined or constrained by forces outside of our control.
- Sociological Imagination: an ability to see relationships or draw links between personal experience and the wider social context.
- Agency: the capacity of individuals to act in a free, self-chosen manner.
- Structure: social factors that limit agency, reducing our ability to make free choices.
- Industrial Revolution: a series of changes in production and manufacturing, occurring from the mid-18th century onwards. Key features of the industrial revolution include a greater use of machines, the organization of labour in factories, and the use of new materials, such as iron and steel.
- Capitalism: an economic system in which the means of production are held privately, and operated for profit. Common features of capitalist systems include private property, wage labour, competitive markets, and voluntary exchange.
- Scientific Revolution: a series of changes in scientific inquiry, beginning from the mid-16th century. Key features of the scientific revolution include the emergence of science as a distinct discipline, the separation of science from religion, and the development of the scientific method.
- Religion: Organized cultural practices and worldviews linking us to the supernatural.
- Scientific Revolution: A series of changes in scientific inquiry, beginning from the mid-16th century. Key features of the scientific revolution include the emergence of science as a distinct discipline, the separation of science from religion, and the development of the scientific method.
- Political Revolution: a series of changes in political governance across Europe and the Americas, beginning with the American and French revolutions of the late 18th century. These changes generally replaced absolutist monarchies with constitutional states and democratic republics.
- Functionalist theory: theories that analyse social phenomena by examining their role in the creation or maintenance of social order.
- Conflict theory: theories that analyse social phenomena by examining their role in play in the creation or maintenance of group power.
- Symbolic Interaction: Synonymous with communication: the use of symbols to exchange meaning with other people.
- Interactionist theories: theories that analyse social phenomena by examining how individuals create and make sense of the social world through communication.
- Socialization: The process by which the individual learns the norms, values, and practices which are common to a particular social group.
- Racism: Prejudice or discrimination based on perceived race.
- Sexism: Discrimination or prejudice against one sex, typically women, on the basis of their perceived inferiority.
- Prejudice: The pre-emptive judging of a group or individual based on assumed characteristics.
- Global North: The use of a geographic reference, linked to the northern hemisphere, to capture the political, economic and social status advantages and power of countries that were previously called ‘Developed’., which are mostly in tis hemisphere. Similar to Minority World.
- Minority World: The wealthy countries of the ‘West’, which include a minority of the world’s population but are responsible for the majority of consumption and have substantial influence over global politics. Used as an alternative to terminology of ‘First World’ or ‘Developed World’.
- Quantitative Methods: Methods that aim to quantify elements of social life, often to compare groups. These approaches, which include survey research and statistical analysis of the results, often aim to identify general patterns in society or within a group.
- Big Data: A large amount of data, particularly as now being generated through new digital commerce and social media channels.
- Qualitative Methods: Researching social life from the perspective that not everything can be counted, and that understanding people’s experiences and perspectives is a key aim of sociological research. Includes participant observation, ethnography, interviews and focus groups as major methods.
- Ontology: Theory and study of what exists, of the types of beings in the world, how they emerge, change and are related to each other.
- Epistemology: The theory and study of knowledge, including what can be known and how.
- Social Order: A situation of social stability, in which the norms or structures of a society are generally supported and maintained by its members. Typically contrasted with a state of disorder or chaos.
- Roles: Commonly held expectations about how people should or will behave in certain social positions. Individuals are thought to ‘play’ roles when they conform their behaviour to these expectations.
- Practices: In Bourdieu and others, a term used to describe the performance or carrying out of an action that provide a foundation for broader social patterns and selves.
- Feminist theories: theories that analyse social phenomenon by examining their role in the creation or maintenance of male dominance.
- Post-Colonial theories: theories that analyse social phenomena by examining their role the creation of maintenance of Western/European dominance.
- Majority World: The countries of the world outside the ‘West’, primarily in the Southern hemisphere, where most of the word’s population resides. Developed as an alternative to terminology of ‘Third World’.
- Reflexive/Reflexivity: The capacity of an individual to reflect on their behaviour, and to recognize the structural factors which shape, constrain, or otherwise inform it. Reflexivity is linked with the sociological imagination. Reflexivity is also sometimes used for the capacity of a group, or an academic discipline, to reflect on its own assumptions or apply its methods to itself.
- Identity: The qualities and attributes that establish a person’s individuality.
- Class: categorizations of individuals based on economic status. Members of a class will generally be similar in wealth, occupational type, and lifestyle.
- Occupation: A person’s principal job or profession, the activity by which they earn their means of subsistence.
- Gender: A classification by which certain traits or behaviours are defined as masculine or feminine. Typically distinguished with sex, a classification by which individuals are defined as male or female on the basis of physiological characteristics.
- Sexuality: an individual’s sexual identity, including their sexual preferences, desires, tastes, and so on.
- Race: a largely informal rank in biological taxonomy, typically referring to genetically distinct populations of individuals within the same species.
- Ethnicity: a set of shared values, cultural practices, and ideas which distinguish one group of people from another. Aspects of ethnicity include rituals, religious beliefs, languages, social norms, and so on.
- Discrimination: The unfair treatment of an individual or group based on their particular characteristics.
- Globalization: An ongoing process of social change by which regions and nations become increasingly interconnected with one another, especially in regard to economic, political or cultural phenomena.
- Biological Racism: The belief that certain racial or ethnic groups are superior to others based on intrinsic factors of biology.
- Cultural Racism: A belief that the culture of one ‘race’ or ethnic group is superior to another. Cultural racism typically involves the belief that certain ethnic cultures are fundamentally incompatible; it is in this sense opposed to multiculturalism.
- Islamophobia: Discrimination or prejudice against members of the Islamic faith.
Books on the General Topic
Willis, E. 2011. The Sociological Quest, 5th edn, Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Bauman, Z. and May, T. 2019. Thinking Sociologically. Malden: Blackwell.
Bancroft, A & Fevre R 2016. Dead White Men & Other Important People, London: Palgrave.
Germov, J. and Poole, M. 2019. Public Sociology. Routledge.
Research Monographs
Sales, A., 2012. Sociology today. London: SAGE.
Shilling, C. and Mellor, P., 2014. The Sociological Ambition. SAGE Publications Ltd.
Barnes, N and Bedford, A. 2021. Unlocking Social Theory with Popular Culture. Springer.
Contemporary Articles
- Establishes a position that understands Indigenous lived experience and its expression within sociology, simultaneously recognizing and challenging the way in which these understandings are shaped by discourses of both Western hegemony and marginality.
- Invokes the ideas of the sociological imagination. Discusses what sociology can offer to education and health practitioners working with Indigenous people.
Akiwowo, A 1999, ‘Indigenous sociologies: extending the scope of the argument’, International Sociology, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 115-138.
- Discusses a number of debates about the relationship between ‘indigenous sociologies’ and mainstream world sociology.
- Fun in light of the opening discussion of the chapter. It explicitly mentions the reptilian conspiracy.
- Good example of the sociological imagination.
- Uses Durkheim’s ideas as a basis for the discussion, good to link in to the discussion in the chapter.
Back, L & Tate, M 2015 ‘For a Sociological Reconstruction: W.E.B. Du Bois, Stuart Hall and Segregated Sociology’, Sociological Research Online, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 1-12.
- Useful discussion of Du Bois, talks about sociological history.
- Fun analysis of Jerry Springer, nice clear example of functionalist ideas.
- Example of a conflict theory approach. Links into to the chapter’s discussion of agency and structure.
- Fairly accessible application of interactionist ideas
- Discussion of feminist theory, talks about a range of other useful sociological theories and concepts.
Go, J 2013, ‘For a Postcolonial Sociology’ Theory and Society, vol. 42, no.1, pp. 25-55.
- A good overview of the postcolonial perspective.
- Illustrates the structure agency debate and links in with some of the examples in the chapter.
Discussion Questions
- What is the sociological imagination?
- Provide an example: how has your wider social context influenced your own personal experience or opportunities?
- How much freedom do you think individuals have to make decisions and act in the world? Can you think of some social factors which might constrain our ability to act?
- How might these factors influence inequalities between different social groups (classes, genders, ethnicities, sexualities and so on)?
- Which groups do you think have the most power and influence? Why do you think they have this power, and how do they maintain it?
Chapter References
- Abrahamson, M (1978) Functionalism. Prentice-Hall.
- Allen, RC (2017) The Industrial Revolution: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
- Blumer, H (1986) Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. University of California Press.
- Bourdieu, P and Wacquant, L (1992) An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. University of Chicago Press.
- Clark, G (2007) A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World. Princeton University Press.
- Collins, R (1974) Conflict Sociology. Academic Press.
- Comte, A (2009) The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte, 2 vols., trans. H Martineau. Cambridge University Press.
- Du Bois, WEB (1996) The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Du Bois, WEB (1998) Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880. Free Press.
- Durkheim, E (1951) Suicide: A Study in Sociology. Free Press.
- Giddens, A (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. University of California Press.
- Henry, J (2008) The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science, 3rd edn. Red Globe Press.
- Martineau, H (2002) How to Observe Morals and Manners, 3rd edn. Transaction Press.
- Martineau, H (2005) Society in America, 4th edn. Transaction Press.
- Mills, CW (1959) The Sociological Imagination. Oxford University Press.
- Morris, A (2017) The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology. University of California Press.
- Palmer, RR (2014) The Age of the Democratic Revolution. Princeton University Press.
- Principe, LM (2011) The Scientific Revolution: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
- Robertson, J (2015) The Enlightenment: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
- Rossi, AS (1973) ‘The First Woman Sociologist: Harriet Martineau (1802–1876)’, in Rossi, AS (ed.) The Feminist Papers: From Adams to de Beauvoir. Northeastern University Press.
- Simmel, G (1950) The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Free Press.
- Ward, L (1897) Dynamics of Sociology. D. Appleton & Company.
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