macionis and plummer 2008 | Apuntes de Sociología

SOCIOLOGY, A GLOBAL INTRODUCTION by Macionis

& Plummer (2008)

Chapter 1: The sociological imagination.

What is sociology? Sociology = the systematic study of human society. Sociology becomes a

form of consciousness, a way of thinking, a critical way of seeing the social.

Peter Berger characterized the sociological perspective as seeing the general in the particular,

meaning that sociologist can identify general patterns of social life by looking at concrete

specific examples of social life. Furthermore, society acts differently on various categories of

people.

The sociological perspective in everyday life. Periods of massive social change or social crisis

throw everyone a little off balance. This stimulates the sociological vision.

Benefits of the sociological perspective:

1. The sociological perspective becomes a way of thinking, a form of consciousness that

challenges familiar understandings of ourselves and others, so that we can critically asses the

truth of commonly held assumptions. So: it challenges the taken for granted.

2. The sociological perspective enables us to asses both the opportunities and the constraints

that characterize our lives.

3. The sociological perspective empowers us to be active participants in our society. Wright

Mills claimed that developing the sociological imagination would help people to become more

active participants.

4. The sociological perspective helps us to recognize human differences and human suffering

and to confront the challenges of living in a diverse world.

Problems with the sociological perspective:

1. Sociology is part of a changing world. Note: society can change just as quick as it is being

studied.

2. Sociologists are part of what they study. Therefore, much sociology remains ethnocentric =

bound to a particular cultural view.

3. Sociological knowledge becomes part of society, it influences society.

C. Wright Mills: the sociological imagination. Wright Mills (1916-1962) saw sociology as an

escape from the traps of our lives because it can show us that society is responsible for many

of our problems. The live of an individual and the history of a society needs to be understood

in order to understand either. Sociological imagination = a quality of mind that will help to see

what is going on in the world an what may be happening within individuals themselves.

Chapter 5: Culture - What is culture?

Culture as design for living = the values, beliefs, behavior, practices and material objects that

constitute a people’s way of life.

According to Max Weber, culture is the webs of significance in which we have spun and in

which we are suspended.

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SOCIOLOGY, A GLOBAL INTRODUCTION by Macionis

& Plummer (2008)

Chapter 1: The sociological imagination.

What is sociology? Sociology = the systematic study of human society. Sociology becomes a form of consciousness, a way of thinking, a critical way of seeing the social. Peter Berger characterized the sociological perspective as seeing the general in the particular, meaning that sociologist can identify general patterns of social life by looking at concrete specific examples of social life. Furthermore, society acts differently on various categories of people. The sociological perspective in everyday life. Periods of massive social change or social crisis throw everyone a little off balance. This stimulates the sociological vision. Benefits of the sociological perspective:

The sociological perspective becomes a way of thinking, a form of consciousness that challenges familiar understandings of ourselves and others, so that we can critically asses the truth of commonly held assumptions. So: it challenges the taken for granted.
The sociological perspective enables us to asses both the opportunities and the constraints that characterize our lives.
The sociological perspective empowers us to be active participants in our society. Wright Mills claimed that developing the sociological imagination would help people to become more active participants.
The sociological perspective helps us to recognize human differences and human suffering and to confront the challenges of living in a diverse world. Problems with the sociological perspective:
Sociology is part of a changing world. Note: society can change just as quick as it is being studied.
Sociologists are part of what they study. Therefore, much sociology remains ethnocentric = bound to a particular cultural view.
Sociological knowledge becomes part of society, it influences society. C. Wright Mills : the sociological imagination. Wright Mills (1916-1962) saw sociology as an escape from the traps of our lives because it can show us that society is responsible for many of our problems. The live of an individual and the history of a society needs to be understood in order to understand either. Sociological imagination = a quality of mind that will help to see what is going on in the world an what may be happening within individuals themselves.

Chapter 5: Culture - What is culture?

Culture as design for living = the values, beliefs, behavior, practices and material objects that constitute a people’s way of life. According to Max Weber, culture is the webs of significance in which we have spun and in which we are suspended.

Non-material culture = the intangible world of ideas created by a society. (thoughts) Material culture = the tangible things created by members of a society. (things) Non-material and material culture involve cultural practices = the practical logics by which we both act and think in a myriad of little encounters of daily life. Only humans generate and then rely on culture rather than instinct to ensure the survival of their kind. Culture, intelligence and the ‘dance through time’. Gradually, culture pushed aside the biological forces we call instincts so that humans gained the mental power to fashion the natural environment for themselves. What is civilization? Civilization = the broadest most comprehensive cultural entities. The long duree = in civilization there are totalities sensed over long periods. Religions are one of the key defining features of civilizations. The major components of culture. There are five major components of culture: symbols, language, values and beliefs, norms and material culture. Symbols = anything that carries a particular meaning in recognized by people who share culture. 1: Culture shock = the inability to read meaning in one’s surroundings. i. Culture shock is a two-way process. A)Experiences = the traveler experiences something when encountering people whose way of life unfamiliar. B) Inflicts = it is also what the traveler inflicts on others by acting in ways that may well offend them. 2: The meaning of symbols is never inherent in objects, but is constructed around them through practices. Symbolic meanings can even very within a single society. 3: Semiotics = the study of symbols and sign. Semiotics suggests that meaning is never inherent in objects but are constructed around them through a series of practices. Language = a system of symbols that allow members of a society to communicate with one another. a. English is becoming a global tongue that is favored as a second language in many of the world’s nations. 1: From the mid-1960’s onwards, Europe experienced an ethnicity boom = a widespread awareness of different ethnicities having their own language. Mandarin is the most spoken language (20 % world population). 2: Language is the major means of cultural reproduction = the process by which one generation passes culture on the next. 3: Oral cultural tradition = transmission of culture through speech. Language sets free the human imagination. 4: Sapir-Whorf hypothesis = people perceive the world through the cultural lens of language. Linguistic determinism = language shapes the way we think. Linguistic reality = distinction found in one language are not found in another. So: a system of language guides how we understand the world but does not limit how we do so.

Chapter 15: Economies, work and consumption.

Changing economies: the great transformation. Economies = social institutions that organize the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. Economies are never just economies. Also, they are all interconnected. There are three key phases in economic organization: Production 2. Distribution 3. Consumption of goods and services. There are three economic revolutions:

The agriculture revolution: a. The development of agriculture about 5000 years ago brought change to earliest human societies (note: hunting and gathering societies). Individuals began to adopt specialized economic roles. Also, towns emerged, which would soon be linked by networks of trader g in food, animals and other goods. b. The keys to an explosion of the economy were: agricultural technology, productive specialization and division of labor, permanent settlement, trade c. Both country and city dwellers often labored in their homes, this pattern is called cottage industry.
The industrial revolution: Industrialization introduced five notable changes to the economies of Western societies: i. New forms of energy. ex: steam energy in 1765. ii. The centralization of work in factories. 1. Work moved from the private sphere to the public sphere. iii. Division of labor and specialization. iv. Wage labor. The benefits of industrial technology were shared unequally.
The information revolution and the post-industrial society: a. The nature of production itself started to change and service industries emerged. b. This revolution caused three key changes: Tangible products and ideas. This era was defined by the production of goods and revolves around creating and manipulating symbols. Mechanical skills to literacy skills. Decentralization of work away from factories. Capitalism is a dynamic economic system and keeps changing its form. One major trend (starting in 1960s) has been characterized as a shift in flexibility of production: from Fordism to post-Fordism. Fordism = an economic system based on mass assembly-line production, mass consumption and standardized commodities. Fordism is technically limited and not very flexible. Post-Fordism = new economic system based on flexibility (rather than standardization) , specialization and tailor-made goods.

The three revolutions above also reflect a shifting balance among the three sectors of a society’s economy:

Primary sector = generates raw material directly from the natural environment.
Secondary sector = transforms raw materials into manufactured goods.
Tertiary sector = generates services rather than goods. Global economy = economic activity spanning many nations of the world with little regard for national borders. This development of a global economy has five main consequences:
We are seeing a global division of labor by which each region of the world specializes in particular kinds of economic activities.
We are seeing workers in the poorer countries working long hours for little pay in what has been called the sweatshops of the world. They produce goods that can be sold in high-income countries. Sweatshops of the world = subcontractors survive the competition by sweating their workers our of wages, hours, benefits for safety rights.
An increasing number of products pass through the economies of more than one nation.
National governments no longer control the economic activity that takes place within their borders. There is a rise of global cities (see chapter 24).
A small number of businesses, operating internationally, now control a vast share of the world’s economic activity. Economies: differing kinds. Contemporary economies of the world can be analyzed in terms of two abstract models: capitalism and socialism. Few societies have economies that are purely one or the other. Most European countries have a degrees of mixed economies. Capitalism = an economic system in which resources and the means of producing goods and services are privately owned. o There are three distinctive features:  Private ownership of property. This can lead to profits for relatively few people, which generate polarization and cleavages between groups. (have and havenots).

The changing nature of work. With the decline of agricultural work in the 20th century and mass production, an eclipse of family farms was signaled. They are declining in number and produce only small part of our agricultural yield, in favor of large corporate agribusinesses. Also, teleworking has become well established as a form of work. In addition, the growth of the new IT sector was caused by the trend towards a knowledge society and indicated a real shift in patterns of work. Finally, the growth of service occupations is one reason for widespread descriptions on Europe as a middle-class society. Employment rate = the number of persons aged 15 to 64 in employment divided by the total population of the same age group. (Dual labor market) The change from factory work to service jobs represents a shifting balance between two categories of work: ¸ Primary labor market = occupations that provide extensive benefits to workers. ¸ Secondary labor market = jobs providing minimal benefits to workers. Occupational gender segregation = works to concentrate men and women in different types of jobs. Women’s work include a second shift, when they get home they do the domestic work. The unpaid and often hidden work – domestic labor – has another aspect. There is also an amount which is paid and visible; largely that which performed by women employed by middle-class men and women. In low-income countries, women are often compelled to work in the sweatshops of the world. This describes the subcontracting system of labor. Such sweatshops are especially common in the garment industry. A rapidly growing sector of work has been the spreading of industries form high-income societies to lower- income societies (mainly because it is cheaper). Part-time work has become more common. Companies scrambling to remain competitive in global economy are downsizing and decentralizing to gain flexibility. Self-employment = earning a living without working for a large organization. For minorities, self-employment has been a strategy for broadening economic opportunity. Also, self- employment hold the potential to earning a great deal of money. The disadvantages are: it is vulnerable to fluctuations, lack pension and health care. Underground economy = the economic activity generating income that is unreported to the government as required by law.

macionis and plummer 2008, Apuntes de Sociología

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¡Descarga macionis and plummer 2008 y más Apuntes en PDF de Sociología solo en Docsity!

SOCIOLOGY, A GLOBAL INTRODUCTION by Macionis

& Plummer (2008)

Chapter 1: The sociological imagination.

Chapter 5: Culture - What is culture?

Chapter 15: Economies, work and consumption.

Chapter 26: Social change and globalization: