Chapter 1
Introducing Sociology
by Robert Brym
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson
Canada Limited.
1
SOCIOLOGY
•
Sociology is the study of the powerful social
forces that influence social relations and
personal lives.
•
Sociology emerged at the time of the Industrial
Revolution, an era of massive social
transformation accompanied by new social
problems.
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2
THE ENLIGHTENING
PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIOLOGY
• Durkheim’s analysis of the relationship
between suicide rates and social relations at
the end of the nineteenth century is a classic
and still highly informative example of the
sociological perspective at work.
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DURKHEIM’S FINDINGS
•
Some categories of people (men, Christians,
the unmarried) have higher rates of suicide
than others (women, Jews, the married).
•
Why? Because people who are weakly
integrated into social groups are more likely to
take their own lives.
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DURKHEIM’S U-CURVE (I)
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5
DURKHEIM’S U-CURVE (II)
• As the level of social solidarity increases, the
suicide rate declines. Then, beyond a certain
point, it begins to rise again.
• At one extreme, anomic suicide occurs in very
low solidarity settings.
• At the other extreme, altruistic suicide occurs in
very high solidarity contexts, where norms
tightly govern behaviour.
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6
IMPLICATIONS OF
DURKHEIM’S ANALYSIS OF
SUICIDE
Social forces exist as a distinct level of reality:
• They are external to individuals.
• They constrain individual behaviour.
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SUICIDE IN CANADA TODAY
• Youth suicide, rare in Durkheim’s time,
has risen since the 1960s in Canada.
• Suicide rates for men remain considerably
higher than those for women.
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8
SUICIDE BY AGE AND SEX
Insert Figure 1.2, p. 7
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SOCIAL STRUCTURES I
• Social structures are relatively stable patterns
of social relations.
• The three social structures are:
– Microstructures
– Macrostructures
– Global structures
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10
SOCIAL STRUCTURES II
• Microstructures are patterns of intimate social
relations formed during face-to-face interaction
(e.g., families, friendship circles).
• Macrostructures are overarching patterns of
social relations (e.g., class relations,
bureaucratic organizations).
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11
SOCIAL STRUCTURES III
• Global structures are social structures that lie
outside and above the national level (e.g., the
United Nations, the European Union, free trade
areas such as the NAFTA region).
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12
FOREIGN AID, DEBT, AND
INTEREST PAYMENTS,
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
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THREE REVOLUTIONS LED
TO THE SOCIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
• The Scientific Revolution (circa 1550) encouraged the
view that conclusions about society must be based
on evidence.
• The Democratic Revolution (circa 1750) suggested
that people create society and human intervention
can therefore solve social problems.
• The Industrial Revolution (circa 1780)
created a host of social problems that attracted the
attention of social thinkers.
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COMPONENTS OF THE
SOCIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
• The sociological imagination shows the connection
between personal troubles and public issues.
• Values are ideas about right and wrong.
• Research is the process of systematically
observing reality to “test” theories.
• Theories are tentative explanations of aspects of
social life.
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SOCIOLOGY’S FOUR MAIN
THEORETICAL TRADITIONS
•
•
•
•
functionalism
conflict theory
symbolic interactionism
feminism
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FOUR THEORETICAL
TRADITIONS IN SOCIOLOGY
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POSTINDUSTRIALISM
• Postindustrialism is the technology-driven shift
from manufacturing to service industries and
the consequences of that shift for all of society.
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MAIN SOCIOLOGICAL
ISSUES IN THE
POSTINDUSTRIAL ERA
• autonomy versus constraint
• prosperity versus inequality
• diversity versus uniformity
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SUPPLEMENTARY SLIDES
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SUICIDE, CANADA, BY AGE
COHORT, 1981-97
The text argues that
youth suicide has
increased in Canada
since the 1960s. Is
that increase evident
in the period 198197? Why or why not?
25
20
1981
1991
1997
15
10
5
0
1-14
yrs
15-19 20-24 25-44 45-64
yrs
yrs
yrs
yrs
65+
yrs
Source: “Suicides, and suicide rate, by sex, by age group.” On the World Wide Web at
http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/health01.htm (15 November 2003).
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21
The European View of the
World, Circa 1600
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