SOCI 210 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Harriet Martineau, Georg Simmel, The Communist Manifesto
1 Sep 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Empirical: based on observations of the reality (senses, experiences) Look at inside, vs. anthropology analyses outside/other ppl (indigenous) Scientific study of groups & group interactions/societies & social interactions. Identify patterns in social pressures, and focus on relationship between social structures & ind. Society: group of ppl who live in defined geographic area, interact with one another, and share a common culture. Micro (small group individuals) vs. macro-level (trend in society) of analysis. Contested: boundaries between societies are blurry, disagreement within group. Social imagination (c. wright mills 1959): awareness between person"s experiences and wider culture that shapes choices (i. e. marriage) Growing individualization prevents ppl from seeing how the structural/historical settings shapes us social imagination =solution: other level of understanding of our place in world. Can"t analyze society as an organ in itself. Based on certain assumptions, believed to be faulty by postmodern sociologists. Reification: error of treating abstract concept as something with real, material existence.
