Sociology Fundamentals | Basic Understanding of Sociology

Basic Understanding of Sociology

Have you ever thought about how the world works? I'm referring to the human world. Have you ever considered who goes to college and why? What drives individuals to go to the streets? How do you know you should raise your hand in math class but not at dinner? Why do some individuals enjoy Broadway musicals, others enjoy hip-hop, and others enjoy both? We're going to find out about all of that and so much more. Particularly you! You'll discover more about yourself and your role in the world.

Sociology's foundation was laid in the 1800s by a French philosopher named Auguste Comte. He wanted a rigorous science to study and deal with society's fundamental problems. That is still an element of sociology, even though it is very different now. Sociology is the study of society and human behavior. But isn't society a very big thing? Society is made up of economies, politics, and entire cities. What's it got to do with raising your hand at the dinner table? As it happens, a lot. A society is a group of people with a common culture and place of residence. Additionally, culture affects all facets of existence.

Auguste Comte

So, society is large, but it is also quite little. Do you want to see how? Let's head over to the Thought Bubble! Assume you're sitting alone in your room, belting out songs from your favorite Broadway musical at the top of your lungs. There was no one else in sight. There is no such thing as society. Except, of course, it is. Even if you disregard the house you're in - and the parents, siblings, or roommates you're undoubtedly irritating with your terrible singing - there's still the song and the music that goes with it. Those items, as well as every other object in the room that you did not manufacture, are all products of civilization. When you're screaming out Hamilton, you're alone, but you weren't alone when a buddy first exposed you to the show and its songs. And, for that matter, your musical taste isn't entirely your own. What music you prefer might be impacted by everything from what you were exposed to as a child to what your friends like now, to where you grew up or what schools you attended. Society is complex; it finds its way into unexpected areas.

So, when we state that sociology is the study of society and human behavior, we are referring to a very vast field. It may be the widest of the social sciences. The social sciences encompass disciplines such as economics and psychology, and while they all have various objectives and views, they are all attempting to objectively comprehend the social environment via controlled and repeated observation. So, what distinguishes sociology from the other social sciences? Sociology, like the others, seeks patterns - recurrent features or events. However, it searches for patterns in all sorts of areas. Sociology examines all elements of the society of all sizes, from two persons chatting to national disparities.

This variety is what distinguishes sociology, particularly in what is known as the sociological perspective. And the sociological perspective entails two things: seeing the general in the specific and seeing the unexpected in the familiar. Seeing the general in the specific means that sociology attempts to comprehend social behavior by situating it within its larger social context. To return to the example of you screaming out Broadway melodies in your room, the sociologist who overhears you from the sidewalk may observe not just your choice of what to sing, but also how that particular decision may have been impacted by your class, neighborhood, color, gender, or age.

To use another example, a sociologist may not care whether or not you decide to marry, but she may be interested in knowing more about your society's dropping marriage rate - and, for example, what's driving it and whether it's having any societal consequences. The sociologist is interested in a broad pattern, one that is made up of a large number of specific individual choices. Each individual contributes to the pattern, and by examining their individual decisions, a sociologist may identify pieces of the overall pattern, similar to how a single stone fits into a mosaic. The second aspect of the sociological viewpoint is perhaps the most difficult to achieve: seeing the odd in the familiar.

To see the odd in the familiar is to approach ordinary life as though for the first time. This is difficult, but it is also really necessary and sort of cool. When we first wondered why you raise your hand to ask a question in math class but not at the dinner table, it was an example of attempting to see the weird in the familiar. This is especially difficult because your culture appears normal to you. It's something you take for granted. You get a common-sense grasp of society as you are socialized into it, which is a good thing! After all, to exist in society, you must first comprehend it.

You should know that when you meet someone new, you should shake their hand, that red signifies stop, and that you should endeavor to be on time. But, if sociology is to examine society, it must be able to look at these things as unusual and foreign, comprehend how they operate and find cultural patterns of behavior. Common sense must just carry us through the day, but sociology must know what is true. This is significant because a society's common sense does not consist just of innocuous norms such as shaking hands. Only white men were seen to be capable of participating in society in the United States 200 years ago. It was general knowledge that slavery was correct and that women should not have the right to vote. These ideas were common sense in the same manner that their polar opposites are now. And the sociological viewpoint, which lets us see the general in the specific and the odd in the familiar, helps us grasp difficulties like these by allowing us to recognize some of the essential concepts in the study of society. These topics include social location, marginalization, power, and inequity.

If you envision a map of society that depicts all of the many social groupings and their interactions with one another, your social position is your placement on that map. Your social location is a means of categorizing yourself based on your race, socioeconomic class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and so on. Understanding social location is critical because, just as a sociologist seeks the general in the specific, a person's life and choices are impacted by their social position. This is true in a variety of ways: The most obvious limitation is that your social location might restrict your options. However, your social location influences what you learn and what you are taught about society.

There are many distinct types of power, as well as many different types of inequality. There are obvious types, such as economic power and income inequality, as well as political power and politically-enforced inequalities, such as segregation or slavery. But there are also less evident types, such as social or cultural power and inequality. People who talk with non-standard accents or dialects, for example, are frequently criticized severely and may be perceived as less intellectual or mature as a result. Sociology may help us recognize and comprehend all of these issues, as well as attempt to resolve them. That's the point: Sociology is about understanding society, and since society is where we all live, we want it to function as effectively as possible.

Good sociology may assist us in developing sound public policy. And, if we look back to Comte, he wanted to understand and maybe solve the issues of his society. Europe saw significant economic, social, and political change in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This was the era of rapid industrialization, with industries popping up like weeds and being linked by larger and larger rail networks. At the same time, Europe's population surged, expanding faster than at any other period in history. This was especially true in towns with concentrated industrial production. All of these huge economic and social developments were accompanied by political upheavals.

When the early sociologists looked about at their rapidly changing cultures, they felt compelled to try to scientifically comprehend them. We previously said that civilization was more than simply major events such as revolutions, industrialization, and demography. However, it is also these things. Because they are linked, it is both large and little. Sociology is concerned with comprehending the entire system, at all levels, and how those levels interact. It's about understanding why you don't have to raise your hand at the dinner table and how so-called common sense may lead to disastrous policy decisions. Hello and welcome to the science of sociology.