One central and important study of sociology is the study of everyday social life. Everyday life and sociology are definitely two distinct terms and situations, but they hold a close relationship. While sociology studies human interaction, everyday life consists of everyday human interaction. Everyday life is filled by human beings interacting with one another, institutions, ideas, and emotions. Sociology studies the interactions with all of these and shows how mere interaction resulted in things like ideas and institutions.
Everyday that you wake up and come into contact with what you do and the people you speak to is sociological. You wake up and interact with objects. Some of these objects you see yourself in such as your clothes, and your music, would be called the sociology of identification. If you live with your parents and siblings, you wake up and interact with them, by saying good morning and having breakfast with them. You recognize and participate in the family institution. When you go to school, or church, or your job, you know what's expected of you and you know how to act in the way that is labeled normal. Therefore, you interact with a set of norms by conforming to them or breaking them which is deviance.
The fact that we have an everyday life in which there are patterns in ways of living is what sets a foundation for sociological analysis and for being a witness in what we do, in order to understand ourselves better. You use sociology in many ways everyday.
Race and ethnicity are important concepts in the field of sociology and are ones that are studied a great deal. Race plays a large role in everyday human interactions and sociologists want to study how, why, and what the outcomes are of these interactions.
There are several sociological theories about why prejudice, discrimination, and racism exist. Current sociological theories focus mainly on explaining the existence of racism. The
References: Macionis, J. (2009). Society the basics. (12th ed.). The sociology of race and ethnicity . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.trinity.edu/mkearl/race.html Winant, H. (n.d.). Race and race theory. Retrieved from http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/winant/Race_and_Race_Theory.html