I. What is sociology? A. Seeing Sociologically B. Sociological Theory C. Research Methods

A. Seeing Sociologically Sociology: < “the scientific study of human social life, groups, and societies.” (Giddens & Duneier, p. 3) < a “way of seeing”; a perspective < Seeing what?

Scope of sociology: Micro (self, everyday life) Macro (global, historical)

Sociology is about relationships: People people things space

Sociological Imagination C. Wright Mills, 1959 A “quality of mind”: “objective… not detached” Thinking self away from the daily routine Feel trapped? (25) “grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society”

Biography (self) History (“unruly forces”)

Mills’ Promise social scientist’s concern with history: epoch concern with biography: type of character that prevails Understanding these things—the sociological imagination—is “our most needed quality of mind.” (36)

Sociological imagination: the coffee example Daily ritual (often shared) Legitimate drug Social and economic relations in production and consumption Global socio-economic and political development Ecology

Berger’s Invitation Like Mills, sees impossibility of detachment: “His (the sociologist’s) own life, inevitably, is part of the subject matter.” (4) “It can be said that the first wisdom of sociology is this—things are not what they seem.” (5)

Sociology: a way of seeing Society is patterned (social structure) “what society makes of us and what we make of ourselves.” (Giddens: 7) Sociology provides a way of seeing all these things

social structure underlying regularities or patterns in how people behave and in their relationships with one another (glossary: A12) not static: social change “what society makes of us and what we make of ourselves”: structuration globalization

Two more themes in Giddens Globalization Ex.: 9/11 Social change Ex.: Romantic love