Lecture 01: Introduction to Sociology

Sociology: the systematic study of human behaviour in social context

• we as humans shape society, and in turn are shaped by society

Individual Society

“Sociological Imagination” - personal troubles of the individual fall within public issues

Social structures – stable patterns of social relations

• micro: family, friends
• meso: school, community
• macro: class relations
Public Issues
• global: entire world

Personal troubles – individual problems

• homelessness
• job loss Personal
• poverty/hunger Troubles
• mental wellness

With SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION,

personal troubles become public issues.

Example: Job loss

• context of unemployment, demographics of unemployment
• relationship between education and jobs/job loss
• global manufacturing pressures, union presence

Example: Suicide
• Durkheim proposed that suicide should be viewed as a social act
• individuals with intermediate social solidarity had lower suicide rates
• high social solidarity = altruistic suicide (suicide bombings, mass suicide)
• low social solidarity = anomic/egoistic suicide (no regulations or lack of attachments)

Social solidarity – norms and ties between individual and community

My Notes
Lecture 1 - Intro

Can you See Structure

Micro - Face to Face interactions with family, friends, colleagues.
Macro - Structural things, industries.
Global - Go Beyond The Macro

What is Sociology?
• Systematic study of human behaviour in a
social context
• Informs about social structures, behaviour,
culture, etc.
• Dispels myths

Sociological Perspective
• Seeing the general in the particular, the
strange in the familiar
• Identify social context in which we live and
how these contexts shape our lives
 Sociological Imagination
• C. Wright Mills
• A sociological vision
• A way of looking at the world that allows links
between the apparently private problems of
the individual and important social issues
• Connecting individuals to social structures
• Interconnection between life of an individual
and the history of society

Durkheim’s Suicide
• Why do people commit suicide?

Durkheim’s Suicide
• Seemingly isolated and antisocial activity
• In fact, closely related to social forces
• Suicide rates vary by degree of social solidarity
• Effect different categories of the population
• Solidarity: degree of shared beliefs and values,
intensity and frequency of their interaction