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View a Sample Chapter 01_TS_2e_CH01(002-027).qxd 8/14/10 2:14 AM Page 2 SOCIOLOGY 01_TS_2e_CH01(002-027).qxd 8/14/10 2:14 AM Page 3 WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY? WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE THREE MAJOR SOCIOLOGICAL PARADIGMS? WHY IS COMMUNITY LEARNING IMPORTANT QTO A SOCIETY? “Like you, I know people who drink, people who do drugs, and bosses who have tantrums and treat their subordinates like dirt. They all have good jobs. Were they to become homeless, some of them would surely also become “alcoholics,” “addicts,” or “mentally ill.” Similarly, if some of the lower and sometimes middle level of our the homeless women who are now so labeled wage-labor hierarchy. The major failure is the were to be magically transported to a more inability of the system, even in the best of usual and acceptable setting, some of them— times, to provide jobs for all who are able and not all, of course—would shed their labels and willing to work. Every day, millions of would-be take their places with the rest of us somewhere workers are told that our society has nothing on the spectrum of normality. for them to do, that they are not needed, that 3 “There are many homeless people in they and their dependents are surplus. America and that is a shame. Shame on you, “Another major system failure, equally shame on me, shame on America. Shame destructive, is the fact that a growing number because it is the result of choices we have of men and women—individuals and heads of made, shame because it does not have families—are workers but remain poor. to be. Homeless people are homeless These workers file papers, mop floors, clean because they do not have a place to live. the tables, or guard whatever needs guarding. “The connection between homelessness At the end of the day, they say “OK, I’ve done and poverty points to major system failures at what you asked me to do. What am I worth?” And our society answers, through the employ- er, “Not much. Not even enough to live on.”1 An Introduction to the Foundations of Sociology CHAPTER 01 01_TS_2e_CH01(002-027).qxd 8/14/10 2:14 AM Page 4 he homeless are corner; they now have simply happened. And I often viewed as names and faces. Nobody was left, like Liebow, to Tnameless, faceless, chooses to be homeless, wonder why a country voiceless people loitering Liebow writes, but some- as developed as the on street corners and hud- times circumstances turn United States has allowed dled under bridges. It’s against him or her. homelessness to become easy for us to turn a blind Homelessness can happen a “normal” part of its eye to the problem if we anywhere, even on a col- culture. don’t feel a personal lege campus, as I found Liebow’s book is a connection to the man out one semester: I blueprint of what sociology panhandling on the side- learned that one of my is all about. He gathers walk or the woman seek- students often stayed in information, explains his ing warmth beneath a the library until closing findings, and then thinks flimsy cardboard box. time. She didn’t have a about the bigger picture. In Tell Them Who I place to live, so she read He questions social poli- Am: The Lives of Homeless in the library until closing cies and draws his own Women, professor and and then walked to a conclusions. A sociologist sociologist Elliot Liebow local store to sleep in the like Liebow does not try 4 gives a voice to the clothing aisles. She was to pinpoint one specific homeless women he pregnant, and her parents cause of homelessness in encounters. The homeless had kicked her out of the the United States. Instead, Chapter 1 are no longer anonymous house. Of course, none he tackles the issue from people on the street of this was planned; it all angles. SOCIOLOGY Sociological Imagination— a science guided by the basic understanding the ability to look beyond that “the social matters: our lives are affected, the individual as the cause is defined as and should be and examines not only by our individual characteristics, but studied using a for success and failure and the relationship by our place in the social world” see how one’s society between influences the outcome Functionalists Symbolic Interactionist • Auguste Comte • George Herbert Mead • Herbert Spencer • Herbert Blumer • Emile Durkheim • Erving Goffman • Talcott Parsons • Howard Becker • Robert Merton Symbolic Interactionism Conflict Theorists • focuses on how people interact in their • Karl Marx everyday lives with their society’s symbols • Harriet Martineau and was founded by • is a micro orientation on the individual sociologists such as • W.E.B. Du Bois and how he or she interacts with the • Jane Addams social environment • John Bellamy Foster 01_TS_2e_CH01(002-027).qxd 8/14/10 2:14 AM Page 5 get the topic: WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY? Sociology Defined SOCIOLOGY is a science guided by the basic understanding that “the social matters: our lives are affected, not only by our individual characteris- How do you define sociology? You might say that it’s the study of society, tics but by our place in the social world.” the study of how people live, or the study of people’s interactions with one another. This is all true, but these answers only scratch the surface. According to the American Sociological Association, sociology is a sci- the social world.”2 Like any science, sociologists seek to understand the ence guided by the basic understanding that “the social matters: our lives facts of a situation while keeping an open mind about what they are study- are affected, not only by our individual characteristics but by our place in ing. In addition to this, we strive to keep our personal opinions at bay. MAKE CONNECTIONS n Using Video Games Sims and Façade play up the entertainment you don’t have to be afraid to test how factor, they also provide a lesson in sociology. extreme behaviors affect your characters. to Study Sociology Players of The Sims and Façade manipu- <<< Have you ever wanted to control some- late characters in a virtual world to see the >>> ACTIVITY Think about a real-world one else’s actions? Leave it to video effects certain behaviors have on the charac- theory you’d like to use The Sims or games to allow you to act out such a ters’ lives. Your characters become Façade to test. How would you use the fantasy. One of the most popular is The depressed when they have little interaction game to test the theory? What do you Sims, a strategic computer game that with others, just like in real life. think the outcome of your study will be? simulates real life. You decide when your The Sims and Façade allow you to study Write a few paragraphs describing your character sleeps, eats, and even bathes. the effect people’s actions have on themselves proposed sociological study. If you have <<< More recently, the game Façade has and others. The best part is that in the simu- access to either of these video games, go sprung forth a similar idea. While The lated world, the consequences are not real, so ahead and test your theory! 5 Developing a behind in school, hanging out on street corners, and getting into trouble. Like many single parents, she had no other options and no idea what else Sociology Sociological Imagination to do. One of my students recently lost her job at a nearby automotive factory. When we think of kids in trouble, many of us probably blame the par- She attended classes during the day and worked at a convenience store ents. But, in this situation, does the blame rest solely on her shoulders? at night. Being a single mother of two, she had no one to watch her kids Famous American sociologist C. Wright Mills (1916–1962) would say no. while she was at work. Without supervision, her children were falling Mills asserted that people must understand how outside forces contribute Individual Choice vs. Social Forces • Solidarity—the level of connectedness Functionalism a person feels to others in • views society as a system of interrelated parts • is a macro orientation because it studies how the environment and is studied using one • Social Control—the social mechanisms of three theoretical paradigms social structures affect how a society works that regulate a person's actions and Conflict Theory • studies issues such as race, gender, social and class, criminal justice, and international relations • is a macro orientation because it studies how the struggle for resources holds society together 01_TS_2e_CH01(002-027).qxd 8/14/10 2:14 AM Page 6 6 Chapter 1 to someone’s situation. In other words, Mills wanted us to develop a sociological imagination—the ability to look beyond the individual as When working-class parents struggle to the cause for success and failure and see how one’s society influences >>> put food on the table, some might blame the outcome.3 Developing a sociological imagination helps you understand your their predicament on a lack of education or place in a complex world. We must grasp both the history and the motivation. People using a sociological biography of a situation to generate this imagination. Mills argued that most of us see social issues through biography; that is, our personal imagination, however, might attribute point of view.4 This micro, or small-scale, reference focuses our atten- other forces, such as rising gas prices, to tion on the individual.
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