Transcript What is Sociology? And What is Environmental Sociology?

Jan 16, 2014
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Aims to understand how the social world
works and what the future is likely to hold
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Argues that our lives are shaped by broad
social and historical influences that are often
“hidden” because they are taken for granted
as normal.
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Exposes these “hidden” relationships so that
we can begin to address problems
Sociologists use scientific methods to describe
how the social world works, and how and why it
works as it does.
Often comparative.
Define the usual way things work.
Many sociologists then use this information to work
to make the world better/solve problems.
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Questions that can be measured objectively and
scientifically.
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Sociologists do not make judgments or conclude that
beliefs/practices are right or wrong.
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Applied sociologists conduct research to help
organizations solve problems that impact social
policy.
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Most people on welfare don’t want to work and are
just looking for a handout
Compared with men, women touch each other more
while they are conversing.
 Society controls individual behavior.
 Because of the rapid rise in the divorce rate in the US,
children are much more likely to live in single parent
households now than they were a century ago.
 Because life seems more stressful in more densely
populated states, it makes sense that suicide rates are
higher in those states.
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Better understand social situations from diverse
perspectives
Ability to collect data and evaluate problems
Understand the intended and unintended
consequences of social policies
Reveal the complexities of social life
Learn about ourselves and our biases
Develop useful job skills (writing, critical
thinking, group interaction, analytics, etc.)
Sociological Imagination in Action
Vincent Vega (John Travolta) describes his visit to a McDonald’s in Amsterdam
to Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson).
The sociological imagination is the ability to see the
connections between our personal experience and the
larger forces of history.
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In your small groups, did you come up with any
private troubles that are not public issues?
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What might these be? Or, are all private troubles
public issues?
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Activity Posting 1 Due Tuesday
 Set up blog and post to Canvas discussion
 Journal about 5 “happenings”, briefly explaining how
social. Choose 1 and go into more detail about how things
might be different.
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Topics: Doing Sociology– Examples, Theory &
Methods
 Hurricane Katrina. Choose an essay, read, and be ready to
discuss
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Gang Leader for a Day, Chapt 1 for Thursday
 Book Club Leaders and Notetakers
Karl Marx (1818-1883)