ANALYSIS OF "THE SOCIOLOGICALLY EXAMINED LIFE" (part 26)

Things That Go Together

by

Charles Lamson

Seeing patterns is often a matter of seeing what kinds of things tend to go together or happen together. One pattern in nature is for flight and feathers to go together. Any creature (larger than an insect) that flies is more likely to have feathers than fins or fur. Perhaps that does not seem like a useful pattern to know about. Here then is another. Any slithering legless creature with a triangular head is likely to be equipped with fangs and venom. Knowing about that pattern might save your life someday.

Creating knowledge about the world is largely a matter of discerning patterns. When we learn what tends to go with what, or what kinds of events tend to go with what, or what kinds of events tend to happen together, we begin to know what is going on. If we know the patterns by which the world operates, the world becomes a more predictable and controllable place. If we know the patterns, we can do better at avoiding or solving problems. If we know how things tend to happen, we can perhaps intervene and make them happen some other way.

However, being sociologically mindful, we should recognize the difference between patterns in nature and patterns in the social world. Patterns in nature (e.g., the connection between flight and feathers) are not human inventions. Our ability to see those patterns is socially constructed, but the patterns themselves are simply there. Patterns in the social world are the results of beliefs and cultural habits - our invented ways of doing things together. As such, these patterns are changeable. If people thought and acted differently, the patterns would change.

For example, you probably know that income tends to increase along with education. Just as feathers tend to go with flight, money tends to go with degrees and credentials. This pattern, however, is not a law of nature. we could change our economy to pay people for working hard - no matter what kind of work they did - rather than paying them for getting degrees. or we would pay people based on how much money they needed to care for themselves and their families there are many possible arrangements which is to say we could create different patterns.

Relationships Among Variables

Some people will say that thinking sociologically is about chopping the social world into variables, and then seeing how they are related. We could, for instance, measure income (dollars per year) and education (years of schooling), and see if they rise together, or are related in some other way. Perhaps after a certain point, more education produces no more income. If that is the pattern, it might be worth knowing about, especially if one is hoping that a P.H.D. will lead to a big salary.

We could also look for patterns using the Kindness Quotient. Perhaps, education tends to increase kindness, so that college graduates have higher KQs on the average than high school dropouts. On the other hand, income might tend to decrease kindness. This would mean that the effect of education is cancelled out, because education also tends to increase income. f so this would explain why people who have gone to college are no kinder than anyone else. all this is silly of course it is just a way to illustrate how some people look for patterns in the social world.

Being mindful of patterns in this way is not always silly. It is worth knowing, for example, if people in certain racial, ethnic, or gender groups are more likely to be unemployed, payed low wages, or mistreated in some way. Looking at differences in group averages is one way to discern such patterns. Looking at what goes with what, and under what conditions, is another way to get at patterns. Seeing these patterns, if they are indeed there, is essential to understanding how the social world works. But it is not enough.

To know that one variable goes with another is a starting point. Once we see a pattern, we must try to see how it is produced. Why, for example, does income tend to increase as skin color gets lighter? This is a troubling pattern that ought to be explained. To explain it, we would have to look closely at who does what to whom, how, and under what conditions, such that people with darker skins are paid less, on the average. If we are sociologically mindful, we will pay attention to the people and actions that produce the patterns we see.

*SOURCE: THE SOCIOLOGICALLY EXAMINED LIFE, 2ND EDITION, 2001, MICHAEL SCHWALBE, PGS. 109-110*

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