SOC150H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Zoom Lens, Lady Justice, Hidden Curriculum
Document Summary
Map is a good example of an abstraction: in which unnecessary details are filtered out so that the key elements of the system stand out. We must negotiate social relations just as we navigate thorough a street. We mostly do this automatically, except in a new situation. Aim of social theory: make the complex web of social relations visible to us. First, the familiarity of these relations means that we don"t think about them. Second, so many key aspects of society are anchored in relations that are not immediately visible from the surface social theory helps us chart our journey, to see where we are now and where to go from here. Hard to locate self in social theories. Social theories can be very abstract, stripping away all the details that make a scene familiar and leaving only the key principles from the perspective of participants.
