Sociology and Social Interaction

Sociology

Systematic study of human societies.
Special emphasis to modern, industrialized systems.

Emergence of Sociology

The emergence of sociology as a discipline attempting to study systematically the human behavior and society dates from the early 1800s.

The background to the origins of sociology was the series of sweeping changes ushered in by:

French Revolution of 1789
 questioning the legitimacy of their monarchies
 questioning the authority of their churches
 demand for freedom
 HOW DID SUCH A RADICAL CHANGE HAPPEN?

emergence of the Industrial Revolution in Europe
 transformation of rural and stable societies into industrialized, urbanized, chaotic ones.
 Exploitation of factory workers
 The migration of people from farms to cities:
• Poverty in the cities
• Crowded housing
• Broken families
• Rising crime

Important Thinkers
Auguste Comte
Emile Durkheim
Karl Marx
Max Weber
Micheal Foucault
Jurgen Habermas

European Sociology (large scale social theories)
 Crime
 Broken families
 Poor neighborhoods
 Racial problems
 Social order and change

US sociology (pragmatic)
 Prostitution
 Street gangs
 Racial discrimination in employment

Scope of Sociology
To some people sociology appears to be a laborious study of the obvious, an expensive way to discover what everybody already knows/common sense knowledge

By systematically checking commonsense ideas against reliable facts, sociology can tell us which popular beliefs are myths and which are realities.

the sociological imagination: the sociological imagination requires to think ourselves away from the familiar routines of our daily lives in order to look at them anew:

i.e. madness (please think about other cases!)

Social Structure

The framework that surrounds us, consisting of the relationships of people and groups to one another, which give direction to and set limits on behavior.

We are all influenced by