Sociology - Taking Notes

My wife, being the wonderful wife that she is, bought some books offline once. Not a few from amazon, but a couple boxes filled with dozens of books from a local, community site. Actually I think they were free.

Amongst them there was a book on Sociology, which inevitably will be an important course, so I decided to get a head start. I recently finished chapter one.

Now, I realize the naivety of scrawling some notes over a very basic review of the fundamentals of a very broad realm of science, but I am aware that my current audience most likely contains few expert sociologists, so perhaps I can entertain a few of my readers with an engaging new way to view their world, community, and society by not just taking notes but providing some insight and interpretation. Enjoy.

The book is Essentials of Sociology: a Down to Earth Approach, Ninth Edition, by James M. Henslin. Please keep in mind that the writing below is my own, and should not be held to represent the opinions of Mr Henslin nor other contributors to his work.



It first mentions perspective. Now, many people take perspective for granted, getting accustomed to a certain way of doing things, their daily routine, their job, their responsibilities, etc. Others don't have the opportunity to expand their worldview, either through conditions of poverty, a lack of education, illiteracy. (One can conclude which of those conditions applies more to the first and third worlds.) Another is a lack of motive or a lack of interest, or perhaps a resistance to taking in such a vast quantity of information. This is unavoidable. I would never expect everybody to learn everything about events everywhere in the world. However, frequently there is a responsibility to. For example, if one were to buy stock in a multinational company, he should assure that the company has never been linked to human rights violations, or if so has taken appropriate measures to prevent them in the future. The same goes for loans, to include car payments. Another, dare I say, is if one wishes to vote for a leader in a country such as America which includes itself in many endeavors that directly effect other countries in the world, you should be aware of the impact such a country and such leaders would make on the rest of the world, especially when taking into consideration our globalized economy.

From there on, it mentions three types of sociology and their purposes. There is basic sociology, which includes straight forward scientific observation, note taking, and perhaps some interpretation, but it is limited purely to academia. Then there is public sociology, which takes it a bit further into the realm of published works which create some form of discussion, debate, or perhaps controversy. Then finally there is applied sociology, which is study undertaken with the explicit intent to solve a problem, ranging from marketing issues in a single company to full scale social reform. Each seems necessary, to me, in playing its own role. The basic leads to more extensive literature, as the scientist can focus less on reform and more on creating reports. Such literature is the first step to the research needed for the reformists. Public sociology opens the door to the rest of the world, and such a forum generates the support, or opposition, sociology needs.

The chapter also includes two very important worldviews on society, also very opposite. They both say that the world is split into units, like sectors in an economy, but extending beyond the business world and into every aspect of social life, from politics to family matters to social classes. The first view, functionalism, states that these units effect each other, working together to generate a functional society, each effects and benefits from and contributes to the others. The other, conflict theory, founded by Marx, states the opposite, that these units seek only to exploit the others, to gain as much as they can, to fight for limited resources to serve their needs. In my opinion, it's hard to state how the world really works, but I would think it's a combination of the two, perhaps leaning, for now, toward conflict theory. However, as people's worldview expands in general, people are realizing just how integrated our global economy is and realize the need for society's different units to function coherently in order to maintain our resources and a dignified lifestyle.

That's the gist of it, with a few added terminological and historical notes, and some useful information on sociology research methods. I'd love to hear discussion, comments, and as always, ask me anything. I hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading.