Exam review - 10/12/2015 Sociological Imagination September...

10/12/2015
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Sociological Imagination
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September 3, 2015
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° What is sociology?
 Sociology is the scientific study of human social life, groups, and
societies
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In other words, it:
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Is a discipline devoted to both rules and expectations;
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Challenges what we think as natural, inevitable, good or true
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° Consider the Question:
 What is the relationship between education and income?

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The .01% “outliers”/”ayticas”:
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In the US:
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Current US population: 318.9 million
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.01% of that is 31,890 human beings
 In the world:
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Current world population: 7 billion
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.01% of that is: 700,000 human beings
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How do we study the “exceptions”
 What is the relationship between education and income
 An alternative way to study this question is:
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Locating the exceptions;
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Understanding their experiences;
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What do these experiences have in common?;
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Building a theory
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° What is sociology?
 Currently there are 52 sections
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Sociological Imagination:
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Article by C.W Mills:

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Why do we need sociological imagination?
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What is sociological imagination?
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Being able to see the commonality of how your life
affects society
 To connect your life to society
 To connect and compare your life to historical society
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Sociological imagination helps us to regain a sense of
personhood by:
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Providing social explanations to individual troubles;
 Linking macro-level social change to individual
biography
 Sociological imagination works on a link between structural
constraint and human agency:
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Social structure describes any recurring pattern of social
behavior;
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Agency is intentional and undetermined human action;
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What we do both gives shape to and is shaped by society;
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Agency reproduces structure
 For example consider: W course requirement
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Sociological Imagination in Practice:
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Sociological imagination pushes us to:
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Go beyond everyday mundane life and link to the
collectivity
 How did you come to study your major at UConn?
 Social Issues: credential inflation, ideology, labor
market, social reproduction, gender inequality,
globalization
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Individual situations: UCONN: Chem, bio,
engineering, finance, art, etc.
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Make the familiar strange;


Mayonnaise on French fries
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Develop a historical and global perspective:
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Sociologists challenges the idea of universality;
 There is no overarching structure; we must
differentiate culture, stratification system, politics,
economy, etc.
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Is love universal
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9/8
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History of Sociology
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° 18
th
– 19
th
Century:
 The consequences of Industrial Revolution?