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How has the study of sociology impacted on human society
Role of sociology in society
How has the study of sociology impacted on human society
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Journal #1
Prompt: Mills and Berger present somewhat different visions of what drives sociologists and what the purpose of sociology is or should be. In what significant ways do their visions differ? Which do you find more compelling and why?
Berger starts by describing how many people who study sociology are motivated by the desire to “work with people” or “help people” in workplaces such as public relations, human resources, community planning, and so on. However, this way of thinking is not ideal or suitable to the field of sociology itself. According to him, the true sociologist is a person highly interested and passionate about the subject matter itself – that is, the “doings of men.” This interest drives the sociologist to explore human
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Instead of personal interest, Mills focuses on how the drive for sociology stems from a necessity of trying to keep up with the current high-pace and constantly changing society. When simply knowing facts or having skills of reasoning is not enough, people should turn to rely on a “sociological imagination” to organize and make sense of what is happening in the world and themselves. In this sense, sociologists should not just be limited to people specifically interested in the particular field, but rather people in all types of fields related to the concept – “journalists and scholars, artists and publics, scientists and editors.” Following this train of thought, the study of sociology is highly practical. The sociological imagination – drawing from biology, history, and society – consistently asks questions on three main topics: the structure of society, society’s stance in human history, and the various types of humans in society. Sociology views issue in the society as the interaction of two opposing forces: which values are cherished, and which values are threatened. In the current time, the main purpose of sociology is to explore in particular the uneasiness (unawareness of cherished values but awareness of threat) and indifference (unawareness of both cherished values and threats to them) people feel. In this sense, again, sociology is highly practical due to its focus on current problems that can or should be …show more content…
My idea of sociology is that it is very practical since it is about humans and we deal with humans everyday – instead of simply pursuing it theoretically, why not put it into practice and actually help people? The opposing factors of cherished values and threats is also a very interesting idea I have never encountered before, and I agree with the lack of awareness of them being a crucial problem in our high-paced society. Berger’s view on sociology, to me, though much more organized with the specific guidelines, also poses more limitations. Although Berger does explain that his words describe the “ideal” sociologist (and thus he/she is not expected to be found in real-life), I still believe that striving for more connections with other fields will be more beneficial instead of narrowing and specifying the field of sociology itself. The various “images” of sociologists he mentions, while inaccurate according to him, can nevertheless be useful in my opinion. The result of my support for Mill’s argument mainly lies in my preference of usefulness or improvements in society (thus benefiting more people) over the pure pursue of
People use to think sociology is something theoretically and cannot put it into practice. The blog of “ Doing Sociology” by peter Kaufman show we what a sociology majors can pursue, and how to apply sociology into our daily lives. In fact, there are a lot of departments and career resources that need sociologist. To make sociology less abstract, we need to be able to apply sociology into our everyday lives. Kaufman’s model of “doing sociology” has four point that will help we adopt sociology to our lives. The four points are:
Kendall, D., Linden, R., & Murray, J. L. (2008). Sociology in our times: The essentials (4th Cdn
In 1959, C. Wright Mills released a book entitled ‘The sociological’. Imagination’. It was in this book that he laid out a set of guidelines of how to carry out social analysis of the data. But for a layman, what does the term ‘sociological imagination’ mean? actually mean.
For decades there have been many questions that sociologists generally ask themselves when examining a social phenomenon. One well known sociologists is C. Wright Mills. Mills came up with the concept of sociological imagination. It is used to describe the ability of individuals to think away from routines that they are used to in everyday life and look at them from an entirely new perspective. Using this concept, mills applied it to asking and answering imaginative thoughts of sociological questions. Mills came up with three questions that many thinkers have consistently asked in their investigations of humanity and society. The three questions are what is the structure of this particular society as a whole? , where does this society stand
In the works “Sociology as a Passion to Understand”, written by Berger, and “The Sociological Imagination”, written by Mills, sociology encourages us to examine how our personal lives connect with the larger world. While Berger and Mills both support that the sociologist must fully commit to their work, they have differing opinions concerning why the sociologist behaves the way that they do. The sociological perspective introduced by Berger is supported by Mills’ foundation of the sociological imagination. For sociology to satisfy both the ordinary citizen and the sociologist it requires not only an in-depth inquiry of society and social relations, but a broader view of how society and social relations influence and reflect individuals.
Berger, Peter L. Invitation to Sociology; a Humanistic Perspective. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963. Print.
After reviewing the article titles given for this first assignment, I believe they indicate that Sociology, generally speaking, is not only a study of diversity or commonality in traits among people; it is also a science about factors in a person’s life and how these factors culminate responses. Interestingly enough, its topics of concern seem to be directly determined by current and common events of the world. Through the invention and expansion of new ideas, popular trends and fashions through time, Sociology adapts to responsibly to service the very subjects of interest it studies; for, even the slightest change of a person’s daily experience can have an insurmountable impact on attitude, personal growth, family dynamics and basic group behavior.
In closing, both works by Berger and Mills make it obvious that the two men share different ideas on how the practice of sociology should be conducted. While some of their ideas may vary, they both share a fundamental point that they are trying to get across that can be applied in any person’s daily life.
Sociologists develop theories to explain and analyze society at different levels and from different perspectives. Sociologists study everything from the micro level of analysis of small social patterns to the “big picture” which is the macro level of analysis of large social patterns.
This was an intriguing discussion of the sociological perspective because it discussed how ordinary people might go about debunking the truths of their societies. Examples of researching newspapers, talking to authorities, and questioning preset customs and definitions, much in the way we can redefine the concept of "love", makes sense when superimposed upon a living society like ours. Berger identified the methodological nature of the sociological perspective in that it is not a distinct way of seeing others, but a means to examine others through a multifaceted scope.
Before I started taking the course of sociology I wasn’t really expecting to learn anything, it was just supposed to be an easy online class. However, that was not the case. It challenged my mind. I started to see sociology all around me, starting with family, then friends, and how I see things overall in general. The fact that we have an everyday life in which there are patterns in ways of living is what sets a platform for a sociological breakdown and for being a part in what we do. A better way of understanding ourselves. We use sociology in many ways every day. One central and important study of sociology is the study of everyday social life. Everyday life and sociology are definitely two different words and situations, but they tend to hold a close relationship. While sociology is the study of the human interaction, everyday life consists of everyday human interaction. Everyday life is filled by human beings interacting with one another, ideas, and emotions. Sociology studies the interactions with all of these and shows how mere interaction resulted in things such as ideas. For an example, race and ethnicity are important concepts in the field of sociology and are ones that are studied a great deal. Race plays a large role in everyday human interactions and sociologists want to study how, why, and what the outcomes are of these interactions. Current sociological theories focus mainly on how there are many different factors in our everyday items of life, like movies. We were assigned a final to write a review for a movie in sociological form. The movie that was on the list that also happened to be one of my favorite movies, Toy Story. When we were assigned the assignment, I never thought about how in-depth it was with sociol...
Scanlan J Stephen; Guest-editor; Grauerjolz Liz (2009) 50 Years of C.Wright Mills and the Sociological Imagination, Teaching Sociology 37, (1), pp1-7
What is Sociology one might ask, Sociology is the study of human behaviour, collective action, interaction, and the consequences of these behaviours, actions and interactions. We study sociology. “ Things are not what they seem”, Peter Berger. Was a famous statement and the of sociology ams to prove it. Sociologists aim to “look behind curtains” to understand the complexity of society. Sociologist want to find out why people react and behave in certain ways. Its important for us to study sociology because its essential for peaceful and prosperous living. The study of society helps us analyze the quality of our everyday lives such as: Inequalities in the wealth of nations and classes, problems in gender relations, ethnic, racial and religious
Sociology is a study of society social life, social change, and social causes and consequences of human behaviour and allows us to gain an understanding of the structure and dynamics of today’s society, looking at the interlinking links patterns of human behaviour. Sociology looks at the in which social structure and institutions affect our everyday life. Sociological imagination was founded by C. Wright mills in the 1950`s it is an overall understanding of that some of the things that happen in society may lead to a particular outcome. Mills said it is “the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and wider society.” sociological imagination can also be defined as the ability to look at how sociological situations can unfold due to how everyone is different. The way we behave is shaped by the situation that we find ourselves in, the values and norms that we have and the way that other members of society act around us. It is also a way of thinking about how things in society have led to a particular outcome, and understanding of what led to that specific outcome. Sociological imagination is an ability to look at things socially and how they interact and influence each other gaining an understanding of different cultures and class systems.
(1997) Sociology: Introductory Readings, Revised ed. Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press. Hebding, D.E. and Leonard, G. (1996) Introduction to sociology: A text with readings, 5th ed. McGraw Hill Inc. (worldwide).