What is it that howard becker defines as the study of people "doing things together"?

Chapter 1 Outline

1.1 What Is Sociology?

Broad definition: The systematic study of human society.

Howard Becker’s definition: The study of people “doing things together.” Society and the individual are dependent on and intertwined with each other.

1.2 How to Think Like a Sociologist

Practical vs. scientific knowledge

A social analyst approaches the world by using reasoning and questions to gain deeper insights, whereas an everyday actor approaches the world using knowledge that is practical or taken for granted.

Sociologists combine virtues of both analysts and actors for a more profound and comprehensive understanding of the social world.

A beginner’s mind approaches the world without knowing in advance what it will find. Rather than follow routine, we must find inner stillness to observe our surroundings.

Using the sociological perspective creates a sense of culture shock in the attempt to see the familiar though an outsider’s eyes.

C. Wright Mills’s concept of the sociological imagination involves being able to look beyond the individual to see the cultural and historical context. The process also works in the other direction: The sociological imagination brings to light how larger social forces influence individual lives.

1.3 Levels of Analysis

Microsociology concentrates on the interactions between individuals and the ways in which those interactions construct the larger patterns, processes, and institutions of society.

Macrosociology approaches the study of society by looking at the large-scale social structure to determine how it affects the lives of groups and individuals.

1.4 Sociology’s Family Tree

A theory is an abstract proposition about how things are, as well as how they should be. Theories are also called approaches, schools of thought, paradigms, or perspectives.

The theoretical paradigm we use affects the way that we see the world and helps to guide social research. Each theoretical paradigm has benefits and limitations. All these paradigms are necessary for social analysis.

Sociology has its roots in the various theories of philosophers, theologians, economists, historians, and journalists who focused on establishing society as an appropriate object of scientific scrutiny.

Auguste Comte: positivism; scientific method as applied to studying society.

Harriet Martineau: critiqued U.S. democracy as flawed and hypocritical for condoning slavery and denying full citizenship to women.

Herbert Spencer: social Darwinism; survival of the fittest; Spencer compared society with the human body in that all parts are needed for the function of the whole.

1.5 Macrosociological Theory

Structural functionalism

Founder and key contributions: Émile Durkheim. Use of empirical study; mechanical solidarity versus organic solidarity; study of suicide; anomie; religion as social solidarity; sacred and profane; collective conscience.

Original principles: Society is a stable system of interrelated parts that work together to function as a whole. Emphasis on social structure and the function that each part fulfills.

Offshoots: Parsons; Smelser; Merton’s manifest and latent functions.

Critiques: The mere persistence of an institution should not be seen as an adequate explanation of its existence; it is a static model that does not provide insight into social processes.

Advantages: Attempts to provide a universal social theory.

Conflict theory

Founder and key contributions: Karl Marx. Conflict over resources; social inequality; capitalism; means of production; proletariat versus bourgeoisie; alienation; socialism; false consciousness; class consciousness; dialectical model.

Original principles: Society is an area of conflict and change motivated by struggle over resources and power. Marx encouraged social change and equal access for all people.

Offshoots: Critical theory (Frankfurt school, neo-Marxism), including theorists such as Habermas, Adorno, and Marcuse; feminist theory; critical race theory.

Critiques: Overlooks commonalities and shared values.

Advantages: The principle of praxis, or practical action.

Weberian theory

Founder and key contributions: Max Weber, who focused on rationalization; the modern industrialized society as characterized by bureaucracies; iron cage of bureaucratic rules; verstehen.

1.6 Microsociological Theory

Symbolic interaction

Founder and key contributions: George Herbert Mead and the Chicago School—focus on the micro using Weber’s concept of verstehen; pragmatism.

Original principles: Face-to-face interaction is the building block for all of society. Through interaction we create a meaningful reality. Meanings are negotiated and modified through social interaction.

Offshoots: Dramaturgy; ethnomethodology; conversation analysis.

Critiques: Often dismissed by macrosociologists as being unscientific, astructural, and less rigorous than structural functionalism and conflict theory.

Advantages: Allows for versatility in addressing any sociological issue. Explores meaning and truly connects the individual to the social.

1.7 New Theoretical Approaches

Postmodern theory is an interdisciplinary theory that argues that there are no absolute universal truths from which we can interpret the meaning of existence. Instead, we need to embrace multiplicity, fluidity, complexity, and multidimensionality.

Midrange theory is a style of theorizing that strives to strike a balance between the micro and the macro. Work in this vein concentrates on incorporating research questions and empirical data into smaller-scale theories that eventually build into a more comprehensive body of sociological theory.

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