SOCY 122 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: The Sociological Imagination, Print Culture, The Gutenberg Galaxy
15 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
The Sociological Imagination
Monday, September 19, 2016
The natural Attitude:
- How we “naturally” understand the world
o Biological nature as a species
o Automatically
o Taken for grated manner
- Everyday stocks of knowledge at hand
o Extensive and sophisticated social knowledge
o Unconnected recipe knowledge
o Difficult to move beyond everyday stocks of knowledge
The sociological imagination:
- Success and failure is attributed to personal action or inaction
- The egocentric perspective of the natural attitude is restricted and misleading
- To get out of the natural attitude we must get into the sociological imagination:
o Intersection of personal biography with history in a social structure
- Personal troubles of milieu:
o Character of individual and immediate relations
o Solution lies within individual, immediate milieu and willful activity
o A trouble is a private matter
o E.g. adjusting to pace of university instruction and learning.
- Public issues of social structure:
o Transcend local environment;
o Entails organization of many milieux extending into institutions and structures of
a historical society;
o An issue is a public matter
o E.g. impact of digital technology and everyday stocks of knowledge to meet
standards of higher education
o When a number of people suffer from the same trouble it is considered a public
issue
- “no social study that does not come back to the problems of biography, of history, and of
their intersections **
- Three Key Questions:
o What is the structure of society as a whole?
▪ Essential components; differences from other social orders; meaning of
particular features
▪ Structure/agency
o Where does the society stand in history?
▪ Socio-historical context
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Document Summary
How we naturally understand the world: biological nature as a species, automatically, taken for grated manner. Everyday stocks of knowledge at hand: extensive and sophisticated social knowledge, unconnected recipe knowledge, difficult to move beyond everyday stocks of knowledge. Success and failure is attributed to personal action or inaction. The egocentric perspective of the natural attitude is restricted and misleading. To get out of the natural attitude we must get into the sociological imagination: intersection of personal biography with history in a social structure. Personal troubles of milieu: character of individual and immediate relations, solution lies within individual, immediate milieu and willful activity, a trouble is a private matter, e. g. adjusting to pace of university instruction and learning. No social study that does not come back to the problems of biography, of history, and of their intersections ** There is a focus on digital information and digital culture. Human societies conflictive interaction among humans within a given social structure.
