UNIT 1- SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

1.1 What Is the Sociological Imagination, and Why Is It Worth Acquiring? This section introduced the concept
of the sociological imagination and explored how it helps us learn to ask hard questions.
- Social Imagination is the capacity to think systematically about how things we experience as personal
issues are really social issues that are widely shared by others living in a similar time and place as us.
- In other words, it means to relate our personal lives with the world happening around us.
- Our attitude and influence is shaped by what we experience. Truly understanding each experience
requires us to think about them in a third person view.
- Sociological Imagination helps us ask hard questions because we know that there are other people in
the same situation as our own.

The Sociological Imagination

Looking Through a Sociological Lens
Learning objective 1.1.1: Discuss how a sociological imagination helps to challenge stereotypes.
- It helps us to look beyond surface value. Questioning preconceived notions in order to be more
involved in the world without harmful ideas that stump our understanding of others.

Engaging Our Sociological Imaginations: From Personal Puzzles to Sociological Questions Learning objective
1.1.2: Explain the process for forming sociological questions.
- By triggering or actively engaging our social imaginations we open ourselves to a new way of thinking.
Ex: common sense thinking. Recognize the context in order to apply a certain common sense rule.
Once you learn to understand both stereotypes and common sense knowledge in a deeper light, then
you can start asking questions.

Sociological Questions: A Detailed Example

Learning objective 1.1.3: Identify the types of questions that sociologists are particularly well equipped to
explore.
- Sociologists tend to explore questions based on a broad view of the world, taking into perspective life
beyond one person. From basic information on human life to groups and organizations to a changing
global economy and its impact on social relationships.
- Questions like student loan debt, students’ relationships, and students’ backgrounds.

The Endless Reach of the Sociological Imagination

Learning objective 1.1.4: Discuss the wide range of topics and areas of life that sociologists study.
- A large number of topics are studied, the only thing that matters is that sociologists can draw upon
questions, forming theories on finding the answer and studying them as well. All of which starts with
“How and what ways do social contexts matter?”

Key Terms
social network (p. 2)
- The ties or connections between people, groups, and organizations.
society (p. 4)
- A large group of people who live in the same area and participate in a common economy or culture.
sociology (p. 4)
- The study of societies and the social worlds that individuals inhabit within them.
sociological imagination (p. 5)
- The capacity to think systematically about how many things we experience as personal problems—for
example, debt from student loans, competing demands from divorced parents, or an inability to form a
rewarding romantic relationship at college—are really social issues that are widely shared by others
born in a similar time and social location as us. It involves taking into account how our individual lives
are impacted by historical and social contexts.
stereotype (p. 6)
- A simplified generalization about a group (e.g., women or men) that is often false or exaggerated.
Stereotypes are most often negative, although positive stereotypes can sometimes be found.

1.2 What Are Social Contexts, and Why Do They Matter? Sociology is fundamentally concerned with how we
are influenced by society. All of us are situated in an array of social contexts. This section explored how these
influence us and our behavior.
- Social context is the influence of society on individuals. By recognizing social contexts we can make
educated guesses on certain prospects in life. As well as recognizing certain advantages and
disadvantages applied by these social contexts.

Social contexts: From Individuals to Societies

Families and Communities
Learning objective 1.2.1: Analyze how families and communities shape the social development of children.
- Families provide their children with racial, ethnic, and religious identities; provide financial, emotional,
and physical support; basic social skills and a guide to navigate the world. Communities shape
comfortability towards a social environment. Ex: Living in a safe neighborhood makes you feel safe and
comfortable in daily life as opposed to living in an unsafe neighborhood.

Identities and Groups

Learning objective 1.2.2: Explain how our identities impact our opportunities in life.
- Though most of our identity is given to us at birth by our families, we can always change it to fit our
present selves. However there are certain identities that may give you an advantage or disadvantage
over other people. Which in turn affects how you’re treated and what you are able to achieve.

Schools and Organizations

Learning objective 1.2.3: Discuss how the schools and organizations we participate in shape our lives and
identities.
- Social contexts that provide even more experience and opportunity by placing us into more groups
once again.

Social and Historical Contexts

Learning objective 1.2.4: Analyze the ways in which the social and economic context we are born into shapes
the opportunities available to us.
- Depending on what is happening in the world around us we are either faced with setbacks or
opportunities that did not exist or were not made available at one point in time.
- Being born into a working class family today differs from one in the 1900s.
- Being able to relate to society as a whole, big picture, not just a personal problem but a social issue.
Sociology as the Study of Social Contexts
Learning objective 1.2.5: Explain the distinction between social interaction and social structure.
- Social interaction is one person’s response to another, the way people act together. Governed by
norms.
- Social structure are different ways rules and norms form patterns in everyday life, governing social
interactions. Two critical components are social hierarchies- social positions of status; and institutions-
a longstanding framework of rules and norms that also regulate organizations.

Key Terms
social context (p. 10)
- The social environments, including economic and cultural conditions, that influence people’s lives.
identity (p. 11)
- The social characteristics and group affiliations an individual has.

social interaction (p. 12)

- The way people act together, including how they modify and alter their behavior in response to the
presence of others. Social interaction is governed by norms.
norm (p. 12)
- A basic rule of society that helps us know what is and is not appropriate to do in a situation. Norms
evolve over time as social attitudes and expectations change, although those changes are typically very
slow.
social structure (p. 13)
- The external forces, most notably social hierarchies, norms, and institutions, that provide the context for
individual and group action.
social hierarchy (p. 13)
- Any relationship between individuals or groups that is unequal and provides one person or group with
more status and power than another.
institution (p. 13)
- A complex term used to stand for structured and enduring practices of human life that are built around
well-established rules and norms or are centered in important organizations like the government, legal
courts, churches, schools, or the military.

1.3 Where Did Sociology Come From, and How Is It Different from Other Social Sciences? This section
examined the context in which sociology began to develop and explored the question of how sociology fits into,
and relates to, the other social sciences.
- French philosopher Auguste Comte first used sociology in 1839
- “father of sociology,” Emile Durkheim founded the first European sociology department at the University
of Bordeaux in 1895 and the first major European journal of sociology (L’Annee Sociologique) in 1898
- Sociology Department at the University of Chicago, which was founded in 1895 as the first sociology
department in America
- Sociology became a popular and widely acknowledged field of study from the 1920s onward, with an
increasingly distinctive way of understanding social life
- C. Wright Mills wrote The Sociological Imagination in 1959, sociology was one of the five major social
sciences
- sociologists are engaged in the study of many key societal issues and controversies, working from
universities as well as inside government agencies, in nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations,
and in policy and political advocacy groups
The Sociology of the Social Sciences

The Birth of Sociology

Learning objective 1.3.1: Discuss the origins of sociology as a discipline.
- Development of a new way of questioning and seeking answers to issues and problems of the modern
world unfolded in fits and starts throughout the nineteenth century, but the idea that the social world
could be studied with rigor and scientific methods akin to those that had been applied to the natural
world took hold from the 1880s onward.

Sociology and the Industrial Revolution

Learning objective 1.3.2: Explain the roles of industrialization and urbanization in the development of sociology.
- The development of sociology was the effect of trying to understand economic and environmental
issues affecting people during industrialization and urbanization.

Sociology’s Siblings
Learning objective 1.3.3: Compare and contrast sociology with the other social sciences.
- Sociology’s concepts and theories cover a wide range, with broad explanations on the social world and
human behavior. Sociologists move from individuals > groups > institutions > global society. Different
parts of society influence each other. Moves from science to science.
- Political scientists are primarily concerned with topics that involve governments and the policies they
produce
- Economists are mainly concerned with individuals’ economic behavior (microeconomics) and the
performance of the national (or global) economy (macroeconomics).
- Psychologists are interested in understanding the workings of the human mind.
- Anthropologists claim expertise in the practices of diverse cultures and how they vary across time and
place.

Sociology’s Children
Learning objective 1.3.4: Identify some of the spin-off fields that originally started in sociology.
- Criminology, gender studies, African American studies, Latinx studies, lgbt studies, urban studies, rural
studies, organizational or management studies, industrial relations or labor studies, demography,
communication/media studies.

Key Terms
industrialization (p. 16)
- A process of economic change characterized by the decline of farming and the growth of factories and
large-scale goods production.
urbanization (p. 16)
- The process through which large numbers of people move to cities in search of jobs and opportunities
and cities grow in size and complexity.
urban area (p. 16)
- A geographic area with a high population density (e.g., 1,000 individuals per square mile).
interdisciplinary research (p. 17)
- A method of research that integrates ideas, theories, and data from different academic fields.