SOCIO 10: MIDTERMS

WEEK 2: IMAGINING THE SELF AND SOCEITY

○ “Statistical data by themselves do

WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY
not make sociology. They only
According to PETER L. BERGER become sociology if they are
● It is one of the unpopular fields among the sociologically interpreted, put
Social Science disciplines. within a theoretical frame of
● There are many common misconceptions reference that is SOCIOLOGICAL”
regarding Sociology.
● Sociologist as someone concern in
To know more about Sociology, Learning the developing a scientific methodology that
misconceptions will tell us more. he can then impose on human
phenomena
● Sociologists ‘like to work with people’, ‘help ○ Some of the neologisms are
people’ ‘do work that is useful to the necessary because of vagueness
community. of concepts.
○ “Sociologist insights are valuable ○ Sociologists must have precise
to anyone concerned with action definitions to maintain scientific
in society. But action need not be rigor.
particularly humanitarian.
● Sociologist as a detached, sardonic
● Sociologist as theoretician to social work. observer, and a cold manipulator
○ “Social work is highly influenced by ○ It is a moral question that
psychology than of sociology” concerns not just the sociologists
○ “Social work refers to certain
practices in society. On the other Berger described his ideal type of a sociologist
hand, Sociology is an attempt to ● Someone concerned with understanding
understand those practices. society in a disciplined way.
● Objective and control their personal
● Berger further elaborated what does preferences and prejudice
“attempt to understand” by citing Weber’s ● They do not claim that their frame of
notion of ‘value-free Sociology’ reference is the only way a society can be
○ It means that it views society free looked at.
from any values, or viewing in ● Concern with methodological questions
objectivity and without any biases. and employ methodology not as a goal,
but a way to understand society.
● Sociologist as social reformer ● Concerned with exact significance of the
○ Social reforms brought by term they are using
sociological studies are not ● Primarily theoretical (understanding for its
sociological understanding per se, own sake)
but are applications of such
understanding. Beyond the ideal type
● Occupy themself with matters that other
● Sociologist as a gatherer of statistics on regards as too sacred or distasteful for
human behaviour. dispassionate investigation
 ● Their questions are like this: What are ● It helps us grasp history and biography
people doing with each other here? What and the relations between the two within
are their relationship to each other? How society.
are these relationships organized into ● A mind possesses sociological
institutions? What are the collective ideas imagination focused on three set of
that move men and institutions? questions.
● the fascination of sociology lies in the fact
that its perspective makes us see in a new ○ What is the structure of this
light the very world in which we have lived particular society as a whole? What
all our lives. are its essential components, and
how are they related to one
“SOCIOLOGY IS AN INDIVIDUAL PASTIME… A another? How does it differ from
PASSION… NO PASSION IS WITHOUT ITS DANGER” other varieties of social order?
Within it, what is the meaning of
any particular feature for its
SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
continuance and for its change?
According to C. WRIGHT MILLS
● Neither a personal life of an individual nor ○ Where does this society stand in
the history of a society can be understood human history? What are the
without understanding both. mechanics by which it is changing?
○ “Nowadays people often feel that What is its place within and its
their private lives are a series of meaning for the development of
traps…Underlying this sense of humanity as a whole? How does
being trapped are seemingly any particular feature we are
impersonal changes in the very examining affect, and how is it
structure of continent-wide affected by, the historical period in
societies.” which it moves? And this period -
○ Going beyond the common sense. what are its essential features?
● A quality of mind that will help them to use How does it differ from other
information and develop reason in order periods? What are its characteristic
to achieve lucid summations of what is ways of history-making?
going on in the world and of what may be
happening within themselves ○ What varieties of men and women
now prevail in this society and in
● It enable to transform from personal this period? And what varieties are
“uneasiness” to focused on explicit coming to prevail? In what ways
troubles and indifference to involvement are they selected and formed,
to public issues liberated and repressed, made
sensitive and blunted? What kinds
● An individual can understand her own of `human nature' are revealed in
experience and gauge her own fate only the conduct and character we
by locating herself within her period. observe in this society in this
period? And what is the meaning
for 'human nature' of each and
 every feature of the society we are
examining?

PERSONAL TROUBLES
● A private matter; values cherished by
individual are felt by her to be threatened

PUBLIC ISSUES
● Have to do with matters that transcend
the local environment of the individual
and the range of her inner life.
● Its a public matter often involves a crisis in
institutional arrangements and often too it
involves that Marxists call “contradictions”
or “antagonism”

“The sociological imagination provides the

ability to see our private experiences and
personal difficulties as entwined with the
structural arrangements of our society and the
times in which we live.”

“What we experience in various and specific

milieux, I have noted, is often caused by
structural changes. Accordingly, to understand
the changes of many personal milieux we are
required to look beyond them.”