Class: The Sociological Imagination, Part 2

Class Notes

How do individuals structure society?  

"No social structure, however massive it may appear in the present, existed in this massivity from the dawn of time.  Somewhere along the line each one of its salient features was concocted by human beings.... Since all social systems were created by men, it follows that men can also change them" (Berger 1963: 128).

In Social Construction Theory (1966), Berger and Luckmann argue that society is created by humans through a process of externalization, objectivation, and internalization.  People create cultural products though interaction (externalization), then those products take on a life of their own, separate from their creator (objectivation), and then we learn the supposed "objective" facts about those cultural products (internalization). We learn who we are and how to act both from others-- social influence-- and from how society is organized-- societal influence.  Society is organized into statuses, roles, groups, organizations, social institutions, and cultures, just to name a few.

In sociology, there are three important sociological paradigms: structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interaction. Structural Functionalism originated with Talcott Parsons (1956) and Robert Merton (1957). It argues that society is a stable, ordered system of interrelated parts or structures, where each structure has a function that contributes to the continued stability or equilibrium of the whole. Conflict Theory originated with Karl Marx (1818-1883). It argues that social order arises not from the societal pursuit of harmony, but from dominance and coercion. Conflict among competing interests is the basic animating force in any society, and social change occurs only through revolution and war, not evolution or small steps. Symbolic Interaction originated with Mead (1934) and Blumer (1969).  It argues that society (from cultures to institutions to selves) is produced and reproduced through our interactions with others, by means of language, and our interpretation of that language. We act toward things on the basis of their meanings.  Those meanings are not inherent, but are negotiated through interaction with others. Meanings can be modified or changed through interaction.

Required Readings: 

Culture of Fear, Glassner (Sociology Reader, pp. 20-32)

Researching Dealers and Smugglers, Adler (Sociology Reader, pp. 33-41)

Recommended Readings:

"Seeing and Thinking Sociologically," Chapter 2 in Newman (Sociology, pp. 17-49)

Keywords: Social Construction Theory, Social Influence, Societal Influence, Structural Functionalist, Conflict Theory, Symbolic Interaction, manifest and latent functions, dysfunctions, ideology, false consciousness, class consciousness,