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SUMMARY OF TODAY’S LECTURE
• Situate our social location
• Introduce sociology and why it is worthwhile to study
• Define the sociological imagination
• Explain how sociology emerged and discuss key figures
associated with its emergence
• Look at the meaning of society and how societies have
evolved over time
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SOCIAL LOCATION
Social location: Unique
vantage point influenced
by important social
characteristics that
inform an individual’s
perspective and shape
their experiences
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WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?
• Derived from the Latin word “socius” and the Greek word “logos”
to mean “reasoned speech or discourse about companionship
• Simple, broad definition: sociology is the systematic or scientific
study of society
• Standard textbook definition: the social science that studies the
development, structure, and functioning of human society
• Dorothy Smith’s definition: the systematic study of all those
aspects of life designated by “the social”
• Better to focus on what sociology does
• Involves looking for and looking at social patterns in social
variables, in social institutions, and in social interactions
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Sociologist Dorothy Smith (1999) defines “the social” as the “ongoing
concerting and coordinating of individual activities”
o Sociology = the systematic study of all those aspects of life designated by
the “social”
§ It concerns relationships, and what happens when more than one
person is involved
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WHAT DO SOCIOLOGISTS STUDY?
• Notice patterns that happen to people differently based on
varying characteristics (e.g., age, class, “race,” ethnicity,
gender, sexual orientation, ability, etc.)
• Investigate and challenge social patterns other perceive
• Help to understand issues affecting society that give us a
means to form opinions on social issues
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WHY STUDY SOCIOLOGY?
• Obtain a greater understanding of the social world
• Better understand ourselves and our social behaviours
• Develop an understanding about others around us both on a
larger scale (e.g., Canada-wide) and a smaller-scale (e.g.,
neighborhoods, classrooms, workplaces)
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MICRO, MACRO, MESO, &
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
• Society: a group of people whose members interact, reside in a
definable area, and share a culture
• Culture: the group’s shared practices, values, beliefs, norms, and
artifacts
• Sociologists study different level of analysis:
• 1. Micro-level analysis
• 2. Macro-level analysis
• 3. Meso-level analysis
• 4. Global-level analysis
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These examples illustrate the ways in which society and culture can be studied at
different levels of analysis ranging from the detailed study of face-to-face
interactions to the examination of large-scale historical processes affecting entire
civilizations
Common to divide these levels of analysis into different gradations based on the
scale of interaction involved:
o Micro-level analysis = the focus is on the social dynamics of intimate,
face-to-face interactions
o Macro-level analysis = focuses on the properties of large-scale, societywide social interactions that extend beyond the immediate milieu of
individual interactions: the dynamics of institutions, class structures,
gender relations, or whole populations
o Meso-level analysis = combines the micro- and the macro-levels to study
the experiences of groups and the interactions between groups
o Global-level analysis = the focus is on structures and processes that
extend beyond the boundaries of states or specific societies
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STUDYING PATTERNS:
HOW SOCIOLOGISTS VIEW SOCIETY
• Interested in the experiences of individuals and how those experiences
are shaped by interactions with social groups and society as a whole
• When general patterns persist through time and become habitual or
routinized at micro-levels of interaction, or institutionalized at macro
or global levels of interaction, they are referred to as social structures
• A key basis of the sociological perspective is the concept that the
individual and society are inseparable
• Figuration: the process of simultaneously analyzing the behaviour
of individuals and the society that shapes that behaviour
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THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
Sociological imagination:
the capacity to shift from the
perspective of personal
experience to the grander
societal scale that has caused
or influenced that personal
experience
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THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
• Helps us distinguish between personal troubles and
public/social issues
• Requires us to separate ourselves from the familiar reality
of our personal circumstances and view social issues from
a broader context
• Important element of the sociological imagination is history
because historical events shape contemporary society and the
lives of individuals
• Everyone must attempt to use their sociological
imagination!
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SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
EXAMPLE
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A BRIEF HISTORY
OF SOCIOLOGY
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THE ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY
• Chinese philosopher Confucius
was one of the earliest thinkers
who reflected a sociological
imagination
• Arab scholar Ibu Khaldûn was
the first to carry out the
systematic study of
sociological subjects
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF
SOCIOLOGY IN EUROPE
• In the 19th century, sociology became an area of academic
interest
• Developed in response to changes at the time such as
industrialization, urbanization, and population increases
• Politics of the time were favourable for growth of
sociology
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF
MODERN SOCIOLOGY
• Weber’s disenchantment of the world: “principally there are no mysterious
incalculable forces that come into play, but rather one can, in principle,
master all things by calculation”
• Modern science combined rationalism and empiricism
• Sociology adopted these core principles to emphasize that claims about
social life had to be clearly formulated and based on evidence-based
procedures
• Sociology emerged: (1) as an extension of the new worldview of science, (2)
as a part of the Enlightenment project and its focus on historical change, social
injustice, and the possibilities of social reform, and (3) as a crucial response to
the new and unprecedented types of social problems that appeared in the
19th century with the Industrial Revolution
o Rationalism = sought the laws that governed the
truth of reason and ideas
o Empiricism = sought to discover the laws of the
operation of the world through the careful,
methodical, and detailed observation of the world
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THE SPREAD OF SOCIOLOGY TO
NORTH AMERICA
• In the late 19th and 20th centuries in North America, the
emergence of the conditions similar to those in Europe
spurred the growth of sociology
• Brought considerable human costs (e.g., inadequate living
and working conditions, divisions of cities into ethnic
communities and ghettos)
• Sociologists were inspired to study these new ways of
American life
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CHICAGO: A TRAINING GROUND
FOR ASPIRING SOCIOLOGISTS
• Robert E. Park
• Pioneer of urban sociology
• Research focused on human ecology
• Ernest Burgess
• Known for adding physics-like statistical precision to the
field by making predictions
• Jane Addams
• Social reformer who worked to improve the well-being of
those living in poverty in the inner city
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF CANADIAN
SOCIOLOGY
• Unlike the US, Canada underwent urbanization and
industrialization at a slower rate and different concerns that
fueled the growth of sociology
• No distinctly Canadian approach to sociological research and
practice
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MCGILL UNIVERSITY:
DAWSON, HUGHES, & MINER
• Carl Addington Dawson
• First professional, institutionalized sociologist in Canada
• Work reflected two elements: (1) the social gospel movement
and (2) hands-on social work
• Everett C. Hughes
• Believed in community research and focused on the ethnic
division of labour
• Horace Miner
• Field work research focusing on direct observation of and
interaction with people
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THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO:
HAROLD INNIS & S.D. CLARK
• Political economy: looks at the relationship between politics
and the economics of production, distribution, and the
consumption of goods
• Harrold Innis
• Argued that the availability of staples shaped the economy
and social development of Canada
• Samuel Delbert Clark
• Work focused on Canadian social development as a process
of disorganization and re-organization
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SOCIAL CLASS & ETHNICITY:
JOHN PORTER
• Recognized the themes of class
and ethnicity
• Coined the term “vertical
mosaic” to describe Canadian
society where different parts of
the mosaic were present, but not
equal with racially marginalized
groups at the bottom
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EARLY WOMEN SOCIOLOGISTS & THE
WRITING OF GENDER IN CANADA
• Annie Marion MacLean
• First Canadian woman to obtain a Ph.D. in sociology
• Pioneered the study of working women
• Aileen Ross
• First woman hired as a sociologist by a Canadian
university
• Work focused on two concerns: women and India
• Helen C. Abell
• Called the founder of rural sociology
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THE GROWTH OF SOCIOLOGY IN
CANADA
• Sociology did not become a
significant area of study and
teaching in Canada until the
1960s and 1970s
• Most sociologists were
from the US and UK
• 1970s saw a big movement to
Canadianize sociology texts
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TYPES OF
SOCIETIES
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TYPES OF SOCIETIES
• Society: a group of people who interact in a definable territory and
share the same culture
• Consist of various types of institutional constraint and
coordination exercised over our choices and actions
• Auguste Comte provided the first sociological theory of the
evolution of human societies – the law of three stages:
1. Theological stage: notion that the gods cause things to happen
2. Metaphysical stage: humans explain causes in terms of abstract,
speculative ideas
3. Positive stage: humans explain causes in terms of positivist,
scientific observations and laws
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PRE-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES
• Small, rural societies
dependent largely on local
resources
• Economic production limited
to the amount of labour
human beings could provide
• Few specialized occupations
• First occupation was that
of the hunter-gatherer
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HUNTER-GATHERER SOCIETIES
• Societies with a strong
dependence on the
environment and based on
kinship and tribal affiliations
• Were nomadic, moving to
new areas to find sustenance
and following their main
source of food
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HUNTER-GATHERER SOCIETIES
• Ideal type or model that characterized hunter-gatherer
societies includes several common features:
• Distribution of economic surplus organized on a
communalistic, shared basis
• Power dispersed equally within the community or shifted
between individual members based on skills and talents
• Social control exercised through customs and sentiment
• Organized on the basis of kinship and kinship ties
• Little separation between public and private spheres of life
• Community life was personal and emotionally charged
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HORTICULTURAL & PASTORAL
SOCIETIES
• Horticultural societies formed where
conditions provided fertile soils to grow
stable crops with simple hand tools
• Pastoral societies relied on the
domestication of animals for survival
• In these societies, stable agricultural
surpluses began, populations increased,
specialized occupations developed, and
society sustained trading with others
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AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES
• Relied on permanent tools for survival,
making farming possible and profitable
• People could engage in contemplative
and thoughtful activities (“dawn of
civilization”)
• Agricultural techniques made the
production of surpluses possible and
social classes and power structured
became further entrenched
• Differences in social standing became
more pronounced and institutionalized
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FEUDAL SOCIETIES
• Societies organized around the
aristocracy providing land in return
for military service
• Pieces of land were cultivated by the
lower class of serfs who produced
agricultural surpluses for lords
through forced agricultural service
• Power was handed down through
family lines with serfs serving lords
for generations
• Forced labour was replaced by a
system of rents and taxation
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INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES
• Steam power began to appear
everywhere
• Resulted in increased wealth,
productivity, and technology
• Serfs and peasants fled to
cities in search of factors jobs
• Populations of cities became
increasingly diverse
• Upward and downward
mobility became possible
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POST-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES
• Societies based on the
production of information and
services
• Power lies with those in charge
of creating, storing, and
distributing information
• Members of society employed
as sellers of services instead of
producers of goods
• Social classes divided by
access to education
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Sociology is a broad discipline that examines societies and
the people living within them
• Must use our sociological imagination to “think
sociologically”
• Sociology did not develop around the world at the same pace
• To better understand society and societal changes, we can
look at various types of societies through time and how
changes influenced societal development
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