6 Reading: What Is Sociology?
What Are Society and Culture?
Sociology is the study of groups and group interactions, societies and social interactions, from small and personal groups to very large groups. A group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture is what sociologists call a society. Sociologists study all aspects and levels of society. Sociologists working from the micro-level study small groups and individual interactions, while those using macro-level analysis look at trends among and between large groups and societies. For example, a micro-level study might look at the accepted rules of conversation in various groups such as among teenagers or business professionals. In contrast, a macro-level analysis might research the ways that language use has changed over time or in social media outlets. The term culture refers to the group’s shared practices, values, and beliefs. Culture encompasses a group’s way of life, from routine, everyday interactions to the most important parts of group members’ lives.
Culture can be divided into 2 subcategories: material culture and non-material culture. Material culture would include the tangible items used by a society such as cell phones, shoes, cars, etc.… Nonmaterial culture refers to things such as language, symbols, rituals, and beliefs. For example, our cell phone may be material culture but the texting language we currently use would be referred to as nonmaterial culture.
Culture includes everything produced by a society, including all of the social rules. Sociologists often study culture using the sociological imagination, which pioneer sociologist C. Wright Mills described as an awareness of the relationship between a person’s behavior and experience and the wider culture that shaped the person’s choices and perceptions. It’s a way of seeing our own and other people’s behavior in relationship to history and social structure (1959). One illustration of this is a person’s decision to marry. In the United States, this choice is heavily influenced by individual feelings; however, the social acceptability of marriage relative to the person’s circumstances also plays a part. Remember, though, that culture is a product of the people in a society; sociologists take care not to treat the concept of “culture” as though it were alive in its own right. Reification is an error of treating an abstract concept as though it has a real, material existence (Sahn 2013).
Studying Patterns: How Sociologists View Society
All sociologists are interested in the experiences of individuals and how those experiences are shaped by interactions with social groups and society as a whole. To a sociologist, the personal decisions an individual makes do not exist in a vacuum. Cultural patterns and social forces put pressure on people to select one choice over another. Sociologists try to identify these general patterns by examining the behavior of large groups of people living in the same society and experiencing the same societal pressures.
Studying Part and Whole: How Sociologists View Social Structures
A key basis of the sociological perspective is the concept that the individual and society are inseparable. It is impossible to study one without the other. German sociologist Norbert Elias called the process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of individuals and the society that shapes that behavior figuration. An application that makes this concept understandable is the practice of religion. While people experience their religions in a distinctly individual manner, religion exists in a larger social context. For instance, an individual’s religious practice may be influenced by what government dictates, holidays, teachers, places of worship, rituals, and so on. These influences underscore the important relationship between individual practices of religion and social pressures that influence that religious experience (Elias 1978).
Individual-Society Connections
When sociologist Nathan Kierns spoke to his friend Ashley (a pseudonym) about the move she and her partner had made from an urban center to a small Midwestern town, he was curious about how the social pressures placed on a lesbian couple differed from one community to the other. Ashley said that in the city they had been accustomed to getting looks and hearing comments when she and her partner walked hand in hand. Otherwise, she felt that they were at least being tolerated. There had been little to no outright discrimination. Things changed when they moved to the small town for her partner’s job. For the first time, Ashley found herself experiencing direct discrimination because of her sexual orientation. Some of it was particularly hurtful. Landlords would not rent to them. Ashley, who is a highly trained professional, had a great deal of difficulty finding a new job. When Nathan asked Ashley if she and her partner became discouraged or bitter about this new situation, Ashley said that rather than letting it get to them, they decided to do something about it. Ashley approached groups at a local college and several churches in the area. Together they decided to form the town’s first gay-straight alliance. The alliance has worked successfully to educate their community about same-sex couples. It also worked to raise awareness about the kinds of discrimination that Ashley and her partner experienced in the town and how those could be eliminated. The alliance has become a strong advocacy group, and it is working to attain equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LBGT individuals. Kierns observed that this is an excellent example of how negative social forces can result in a positive response from individuals to bring about social change (Kierns 2011).
Think It Over
- What do you think C. Wright Mills meant when he said that to be a sociologist, one had to develop a sociological imagination?
- Describe a situation in which a choice you made was influenced by societal pressures.
Practice
1. Which of the following best describes sociology as a subject?
- The study of individual behavior
- The study of cultures
- The study of society and social interaction
- The study of economics
Show Answer
c
2. C. Wright Mills once said that sociologists need to develop a sociological __________ to study how society affects individuals.
- culture
- imagination
- method
- tool
Show Answer
b
3. A sociologist defines society as a group of people who reside in a defined area, share a culture, and who:
- interact
- work in the same industry
- speak different languages
- practice a recognized religion
Show Answer
a
4. Seeing patterns means that a sociologist needs to be able to:
- compare the behavior of individuals from different societies
- compare one society to another
- identify similarities in how social groups respond to social pressure
- compare individuals to groups
Show Answer
c
Show Glossary
- culture:
- a group’s shared practices, values, and beliefs
- figuration:
- the process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of an individual and the society that shapes that behavior
- reification:
- an error of treating an abstract concept as though it has a real, material existence
- society:
- a group of people who live in a defined geographical area who interact with one another and who share a common culture
- sociological imagination:
- the ability to understand how your own past relates to that of other people, as well as to history in general and societal structures in particular
- sociology:
- the systematic study of society and social interaction