Journal Entry Two
The reading this week regarding social reality and the impact it has on all types of organization was fascinating and eye opening. Social reality, also understood as the ability of a group to come to a consensus about various aspects about an organization is present in our daily life and anywhere human interaction is encountered in an organizational setting. Different organizations, throughout all facets of civil, political, the military and the private sector have different perspective on groups and inclusions into those groups. Course directed readings asked about an organization to which we are involved and to give thoughts and ideas regarding it. My job currently take a considerable amount of my time between deployments, detachments and workups. Because of this incredible time commitment my job is the best organization in my life I can use to compare my ideas and thoughts regarding social reality.
As a Navy pilot our group of members is quite small, once a pilot reaches a squadron they are one out of at most 15000 active duty pilots who are actually in a flying status, compared to approximately 300,000 Sailors on active duty, we are essentially the flying division of the Navy. Shared values, common ideals and a social order is alive and well in any type of aviation squadron. After flight school, pilots are awarded in a winging ceremony (ritual) their “wings of gold” which signify that person has complete a grueling track of training, which many do notpass. Also, they are finally permitted to wear their coveted brown shoes; most other positions in the Naval forces wear black shoes. Aviators elevate themselves, however the greater Navy has allowed for these uniform items to be worn, thereby imp...
... middle of paper ...
...ns and Asians than any other component of the Navy.
Finally, I would like to address my thoughts on the article by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann about the “Social Construction of Reality”. The article is stating that society is a product of humans. Without humans there would be no society, we create and sustain our own society. Furthermore, we are a product of our own creations. Individuals are a product of the society that surrounds them, however if that specific individual did not exist, society would continue.
Relating this back to my current Naval theme, concept can be broken down from society in its entirety to specific societies. For example, if I was no longer a pilot, the Naval Aviation community would still continue. While one person may have a lasting impact, the contributions of one person do not outweigh the organization as a whole.
For me, I chose symbolic interaction to define society because of the experiences that I have had in society, but others might see experiences and the world differently. In all, society functions with people and those people determine how it develops, either individually, in groups, or in search of power (Claerbaut, 2015, “Theoretical Perspectives of Sociology”).
The academic essay, “The Social Foundations of Human Experience”, by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann written in 1966 is an interesting take on the socialization of human beings. It provides a myriad of information and ideas promoting readers to think about how socialization, as well as social structures effect both society and individual beings. The authors argue that human beings experience life based on the socialization process and their innate abilities to interact with each other. Society operates in a distinct way, based on human activity and human interaction. Through examining our course content and reading the essay I have found that the Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann
In today’s society, it is easy to spot someone blaming themselves for the occurrence of their personal life problems. For example, a single-mother may blame herself for not being able to support her children well due to a shortage of money and unavailability to find a decent job. Another could be a newly wed couple having daily arguments that may lead to their divorce, or women who are facing difficulties perceiving their housekeeping responsibilities and wanting to become something more than just a homemaker. These various private tensions may seem very personal. These dilemmas are all related to a bigger world called society and this is known as the sociological imagination. Sociological imagination suggests that people look at their own personal troubles as social issues and, in general try to connect their own individual encounters with the workings of society. The personal problems are closely related to societal issues such as unemployment, marriage, war and even the city life where the private troubles and the public issues become clearly apparent. With the understanding of the sociological imagination, I began to notice the daily choices I make, the classes I attend, the way I was raised by my parents, the group of people I choose to hang out with, the things I like to converse about with others are all somehow affected by public issues and what society tends to make us believe is right. There are many areas in my life where I feel that I am greatly affected by various sociological theories such as events dealing with gender and sexuality, family and culture, ethnicity and race, and social class and work.
Social reality itself is being defined. What social institution people believe they are taking part in, the setting, the roles that are being presented--none of these exists in itself, but only as it is made real by being acted out. Goffman is a social constructionist, except that he sees individuals as having little or no leeway in what they must construct; the situation itself makes its demands that they feel impelled to
C. Wright Mills (1959:1-7)): “ Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.” He illustrated that you need to understand the history of a certain society to understand what people in that society really are. History forges people, affects their action and who they are going to be. A person can only be defined by analysing his background, social structure, and so call “milieux”.
Society, however, is a state towards which humans have naturally evolved, and our continued existence without society is inconceivable. Thus, although determinism is argued successfully from a causal point of view, it is clearly flawed in a practical context as it fails these fundamental aspects of human life.
‘Society makes and remakes people, but society is also made and remade by the multiple connections and disconnections between people, and between people, places and things’ (Havard, 2014, p.67).
Good appearance commands respect; Officers should show pride in their dress and uniform. Neat, appropriate attire, wearing assigned uniforms in good repair show respect for their position.
My personal condensed definition of “the sociological imagination” is that it is the idea one should be aware of the societal structures around themselves, and how those structures can influence a person and vice-versa. In addition, I think that having a “sociological imagination” also involves a deep appreciation for the importance of society and culture. Consequently, for a person that has completed a basic introduction to sociology college course and actually paid attention, I would hope that they have been exposed to some basic taste of the sociological imagination.
society functions. It is works such as these that shake the very foundations of how we understand
...lay in societal change. However it was only until the works of Durkheim and Simmel that the role of individual interaction and society is brought to the forefront. Durkheim largely viewed the individual as needing society as a mechanism of constraint to the aspirations of an eternal goal. Finally, Simmel was able to expand on Durkheim’s dualism by noting that society could be viewed as more than a mechanism of constraint rather as an accumulation of individual interaction. Either through a combination or as individuals each theorist distinct view of the relationship between the individual and society demonstrates a new understanding towards the nature of social reality.
The sociological imagination is very useful in understanding the statement above. The text uses the example that an economist noticed that in Manhattan on sunny days, the market did well and on rainy days, the market did poorly. Once the public got their hands on this information they flooded the market with data on this and it seemingly went away. An example I like could be any type of resource that a person is gathering/harvesting/mining, when there is only one person mining gold, the resource will be plentiful, but when a few million people start mining the same gold, it vanishes.
In Sociology, there are several contributing factors to the development of culture, values, and norms within a society. One of the factors is social construction, an idea that it maintained by people that define specific meanings and connotations that are assigned to people, places, and things that are found in the environment and to people’s notions of their interactions with these objects. Born in Vienna, Austria in 1929, Peter Berger is a sociologist that is well known for his contributions to sociological theory along with his partner, Thomas Luckmann, who is most notably known for advancements in philosophy and sociology. Published by Austrian sociologists Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann in 1966, their work The Social Construction
Members consider the consequences of their work and societal issues pertinent to it and seek to extend public understanding of those relationships.