WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?

- Research into how/why things change?
- Better know ourselves as a society
- To prevent/predict future sociological issues/events
- To figure out how we can best change society

Definitions
- The systematic study of human society (Society: The Basics)
- The study of the structure, development, ineratction, and collective behavior of organized groups of human beings (Merriam-Webster)
- Sociology emerged as a field of study in th elate 19th century as a way to understand the transition from traditional to modern society (University of Calgary)
- Emile Durkeim, Max Weber, Georg Simmel, Robert E. Park are considered the fathers of sociology

AREAS OF STUDY

- Families
- Ethnic Relations
- Schooling
- Social status and class bureaucracy
- Religious movements
- Deviance
- Elderly
- Social Change

- Study how social structures, social processes and cultural products constrain and enable human behavior
- Micro: Study issues of peoples self-identity, trust, and risk; does so through narratives and life stories and face-to-face interaction in day to day life.
- Macro: Look at institutions and the relationship between social processes and individual lives
(University of Calgary)

TOOLS OF STUDY

- Observational techniques (watching news, online activity, general "distance" observation)
- Surveys and interviews
- Statistical Analysis
- Controlled experiments

ASSIGNMENT:

Post on Populi or Facebook: take notice in your interactions with people in general settings. Do you see any patterns with the way people act, talk or dress.

WHY SOCIOLOGY?

- Connecting the past, present and future
- Sociology increases our understanding of our own society
- Helps us know when/how to challenge old ideas about how society should work
- Knowing about how the past shapes the current, helps us how our current society will shape future generations
- Understanding sociology helps us understand why structured inequalities, discrimination, and persistent poverty are so difficult to eliminate
- Gives us an understanding of how to build a better society
- We have a voice in a changing society

SOCIOLOGY IS.....

- Historical: we will look at contemporary social occurrences, their origins, and the processes that brought them about

- Comparative: we will learn to understand or society by comparing different groups o fpeople and engaging in the comparative study of social instityutions

- Reflexive: we will grasp the critical nature of sociology and its practival relevance for producing change by recognizing that in human society, knowledge has practival consequesnces

	Created by heinrichs.mark almost 11 years ago

January, 23, 2014