In this brief essay I will be discussing two main ideas: Social location’s role to sociology and the concepts of sociology being relevant to my life. Social location is definitely‚ in my opinion‚ an important concept in sociology. But first‚ what is social location? Social location is basically a description of ourselves or someone else; from religion to gender‚ every aspect of ourselves or someone else can noted down as a social location. Chapter 1 in our textbook (The Sociology Project 2
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For years‚ social action theorists have sought out to understand how society operates. Unlike structuralists for example Marxists‚ action theorists are a micro level approach where they find the study of the individual and their interactions within society more important to our understanding. Action theorists are more voluntaristic‚ they believe that individuals possess agency where they have the ability to be free agents in themselves and in shaping society. Max Weber is well known within sociology
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When it comes to sociology‚ one of the most important thing to understand is the sociological imagination. (Mills‚ 2014‚ pg. 3) To fully understand how society works and why things happen we need to look at the bigger picture. To do this‚ sociologist approach things with what is called the sociological eye. (McIntyre‚ 2014 pg. 29) Both the sociological eye‚ and the sociological imagination needs to be used in order to understand why people do what they do. The sociological imagination can also be
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As time goes on‚ more and more people are suffering from a mental illness. In the United States‚ mental health typically is defined as one’s psychological‚ emotional and social well-being. Research shows that in the last year‚ at least a quarter of college students has either been diagnosed or treated for a mental health problem (Mooney‚ Knox‚ and Scacht‚ 2016‚ p. 35). My initial thought was that 25 percent students seems to be too high to be true. However‚ I myself have narcolepsy‚ depression and
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Social action theories are known as micro theories which take a bottom-up approach to studying society; they look at how individuals within society interact with each other. There are many forms of social action theories‚ the main ones being symbolic interactionism‚ phenomenology and ethnomethodology. They are all based on the work of Max Weber‚ a sociologist‚ who acknowledged that structural factors can shape our behaviour but individuals do have reasons for their actions. He used this to explain
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Sociological imagination was defined by C. Wright Mills stating “The quality of mind that provides an understanding of individuals within the context of larger society and distinguishes between personal troubles that affect individuals and social issues that affect society” (Mills‚1959). In a broad sense from Mills’ definition of sociological imagination I have interpreted it as looking at the perspective of something‚ life for instance‚ and look at it in a different perspective completely out of
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In the article The promise of the Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills‚ Mills explains the purpose of sociology to be how an individual understands and fits into their society. It’s our views on the world and how we learn to adapt to it depending on things that are occurring in society‚ and our perspective towards it. As far as the purpose of sociological method goes it’s a way sociologist can uncover the truths in order to explain why certain things occur in the society that we live in
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Pleasantville The movie‚ Pleasantville‚ had a large number of sociological theories and ideas expressed in very concrete ways. The people of the town were so obsessed by their norms that they were unable to function without them. It is a wonderful example of the functionalist perspective in action. I found it fascinating that the town was overwhelmingly concerned with “conventional morality which is based on right and wrong as embodied in social rules and laws” (notes). They never even thought
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History X (1998) American History X is a story about two brothers‚ Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) and Danny Vinyard (Edward Furlong)‚ who struggle to overcome racial barriers when they are faced with the tragic death of their father. Derek‚ becomes a Neo-Nazi enthusiast after his fire fighter father parishes in a fire set by black gang members. In a vulnerable place in his life‚ Derek falls into the hands of Cameron Alexander. Alexander is the leader of a Baptist church looking to brainwash the youth
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Social Class is one system of Social Stratification‚ social class is a form of structured inequality which has been apparent in many generations over time. A definition of Social Class is that people are classed as more ‘important’ and placed at the top of the hierarchy if they have a lot of wealth and higher status but lower if they do not. Social class can impact people in many ways including their chances in education‚ employment‚ and health but there is possibility for people to move up the
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