KINE 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Michael Messner, Social Order, The Sociological Imagination
4 Jul 2018
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Critical thinking & Thinking Critically
What does author Jon Witt mean by ‘sociological imagination’?
Sociological imagination is our recognition of the interdependent relationship between
who we are as individuals and the social forces that shape our lives.
Practicing this empowers us to more fully appreciate how factors such as age, gender,
race, ethnicity, class, and level of education shape our preferences, perceptions and
opportunities.
In a word from the president: MCAT2015, Dr. Darrell Kirch observes that “being a good
physician is about more than scientific knowledge”. How is his observation relevant to the
importance of sociological imagination for physicians and other healthcare workers?
Understanding the patient may be crucial to effective communication prescription and
healthcare support. For example. Poverty could affect a patient’s ability to access a
physician’s prescribed medication or to follow a prescribed course of action.
Effective healthcare practitioners understand the social constraints on patients and provide
advice, prescription and support
Effective healthcare practitioners engage in political activity for social justice issues that
impact healthcare.
Sociological imagination is very important to being an effective healthcare practitioner.
In the sociological imagination reading, Jon Witt introduces the concepts of sociological
structure and agency. What are structure and agency?
Structure: is about the wider social and cultural contexts of our lives.
Social institutions and groups are organized in ways that enable, encourage and constrain
(i.e shape) our sense of identity, choices and opportunities in life.
Society is not organized fairly so inequality and inequity exist at the level of social
structure.
Wider social context of our lives favour some groups of people over others in the that
some of us are more approved of, than others and some of us have more choices and
better opportunities than others.
Agency: refers to freedom of choice and action that individuals have.
We have the freedom to choose to follow or reject the identities, ideologies, lifestyles and
level of opportunities constructed for us by the wider social contexts within which we
live.
Agency allows us to choose to accept or resist the status quo (the way things are).
How might we apply the structure and agency to the debate over gender-based toy
marketing in the LEGO friends reading?
The social structures of dominant institutions and groups that make up our society
favour traditional gender-identities that encourage dichotomous thinking about what
girls and boys can do.
This gender-dichotomy is expressing the way toys are marketed, in the meanings
invested in different types of toys and in the way parents encourage and discourage
children to play with different types of toys depending on their gender.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Sociological imagination is our recognition of the interdependent relationship between who we are as individuals and the social forces that shape our lives. Practicing this empowers us to more fully appreciate how factors such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, class, and level of education shape our preferences, perceptions and opportunities. In a word from the president: mcat2015, dr. darrell kirch observes that being a good physician is about more than scientific knowledge . Understanding the patient may be crucial to effective communication prescription and healthcare support. Poverty could affect a patient"s ability to access a physician"s prescribed medication or to follow a prescribed course of action. Effective healthcare practitioners understand the social constraints on patients and provide advice, prescription and support. Effective healthcare practitioners engage in political activity for social justice issues that impact healthcare. Sociological imagination is very important to being an effective healthcare practitioner.
