BEYOND SOCIOLOGICAL

IMAGINATION

Berger’s Invitation to Sociology and More

 SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

• Criticised for being popular - its power of attraction lies in its rhetoric of
revolution promised through sociological imagination
• Why should all troubles be social issues? Can all troubles me social problem?
Are Social Issues – social issues for all? If not a a social issue for me what is it
exactly? Should my belief and action not be studied by sociologist?
• If you say something is a problem then you look for solution immediately.
• Is sociology necessary about helping people? Sociology can help social work
but it is not social work.
 IS THE AGENDA OF SOCIOLOGY IS
MAKING PERSONAL - PUBLIC?

• If solving social problem was the key feature how is that different from a
politicians or a bureaucrats concern?
• How and why should discipline of Sociology be considered scientific?
• Is sociologist a social worker and social reformer -- but can they be value free
 SOCIOLOGY: VALUE-FREE?

• Sociologist, in his professional tasks will need to be value free.

• The idea is to control bias as a sociologist. The sociologist is like a spy (but not
under pressure).
• Sociology cannot be a science without methodology – methodology central in
making the enterprise of sociology work.
• So you may see sociologist using statistics to comment on macro social
relations but they may also do little studies of obscure fragments of social life –
not necessarily lined to broader concerns. (Alcohol in social relations)
 WHY METHODS?

“The first wisdom of sociology: things are not what they seem. This
too is a deceptively simple statement. It ceases to be simple after a while.
Social reality turns out to have many layers of meaning. The discovery of each
new laver changes the perception of the whole.”
(Peter Berger , Inv itation to S o c io lo g y )
The first sociology less on
• So the goal is to understand society
• Methodology does not constitute his goal. Methodology helps in reaching this
goal.
 ILLUMINATION OF NEW FACETS OF
SOCIETY

• Sociologist travels at home with shocking results

• What they have in common with exploration in distant lands, however, is the
sudden illumination of new and unsuspected facets of human existence in
society.. Therefore..
• “Sociological understanding can be recommended to social workers, but also to
salesmen, nurses, evangelists and politicians—in fact, to anyone whose goals involve
the manipulation of men, for whatever purpose and with whatever moral justification”
• Going beyond world-taken-for-granted
 SOCIOLOGY AS A FORM OF
CONSCIOUSNESS

• Study of social - social situation as one in which people orient their action
towards one another
• Sociology linked to the study of modern societies
• Modernity and Industrialisation made societies very dynamic – the nature if
social action changed considerably
• Beyond christendom, the making of secular state and disintegrating of
absolutist state lead to a society beyond official interpretation
 SOCIOLOGY AS A FORM OF
CONSCIOUSNESS – KEY MOTIFS

• If we go beyond the official definition of the social to real questions of power

and cognisation – we need to go beyond problems and solution
• Debunking motif is inherent in sociological consciousness – Debunking
motif is not Psychological but methodological. (Webers take on Protestant
Ethic and Durkheims study of Suicide). Emphas ize the auto no mo us
characte r of so c ial pro c e s s e s
• Unrespectable motif of sociological consciousness -- view social reality with
compassion or with cynicism, both attitudes being compatible with clear-
sightedness (of course statements)
 MOTIF..

• Unrespectable motif (eg.South Indians are Black - Of course) Sociology does

not respect of course statements– looks for nuance. (Is it so? Why? How?)
• Relativizing motif is another of the fundamental driving forces of the sociological
enterprise (Against Catholicism and Communism). Relativizing motif - against
Homogenisation
• The modem mind, by contrast, is mobile, participates vicariously in the lives of others
differently located from oneself, easily imagines itself changing occupation or residence.
• Cosmopolitan motif
• "The individual who is not only urban but urbane is one who however passionately he mav
be attached to his own citv roams through the wholo wide- world in his intellectual
voyages" (p. 53)
 MANIFEST AND LATENT

• Manifest : Government supresses gambling or bans liquor ; Conversion;

Communism
• Latent : Illegal Empire of Alcohol and Gambling; what it does to local culture;
Produced an elite class of bureaucrats
• Very important role of ideology. Ideology could influence social action – for
instance hangman thinks of himself as public servant
• Think of Democracy; Civil Society; Demonetisation
• The fundamental sociological problem is not crime but the law, not divorce but
marriage, not racial discrimination but racially defined stratification, not revolution but
government
 SOCIOLOGY NOT REVOLUTIONARY --
BUT HUMANISTIC AND FOR FREEDOM

• Sociological perspective helps to illuminate man’s social existence

• Cannot use methodology and be deaf to society – should be able to discover
human values
• Sociology a humanly nefarious and humanly negating experience
• Sociology has a humanistic character, that character will have to manifest itself within
the academic milieu, if only for statistical reasons
• Culture shock is not induced readily most people are not prepared for relativisation
 SOCIOLOGY SUBVERSIVE BUT
CONSERVATIVE IN IMPLICATION

• Sociology is also against revolutions

• Total respectability of thought, however, will invariably mean the death of sociology.This is
one of the reasons why genuine sociology disappears promptly from the scene in
totalitarian countries, as is well illustrated in the instance of Nazi Germany (Berger 47-48).
• Sociology has a subversive impulse that can challenge the world-taken-for-granted.
Sociology generates thereat to institutions and institutionalized form of social life.
Conscientisation --(of interest to police)
• Liberating quality of bringing consciousness
• Permanent revolution impossible a fantasy – society strives for order.
• Better to look at order, continuity, triviality