Sociological Imagination: How to Gain Wisdom about the Society in which We All Participate and for Whose Future We Are All Responsible (Part 2)

The function of sociology, as of every science, is to reveal that which is hidden.

Pierre Bourdieu

Sociology: an Introduction (Part B)

by

 Charles Lamson

 Sociology, the Human Science

Sociology is the scientific study of human societies and human behavior and the many groups that make up a society. Sociologists must ask difficult, sometimes embarrassing questions about human life in order to explore the consequences of cataclysmic events such as those that shut down factories or enslave an entire people. To understand the possible futures of people who confront such drastic changes, sociologists are continually seeking knowledge about what holds societies together and what makes them bend under the impact of major forces such as war and migration.

The Social Environment

The knowledge sociologists gather covers a vast range. Sociologists study religious behavior; conduct in the military; the behavior of workers and managers in industry; the activities of voluntary associations such as parent-teacher groups and political parties; the changing relationships between men and women or between aging individuals and their elderly parents; the behavior of groups in cities and neighborhoods; the activities of gangs, criminals, and judges; differences in the behavior of entire social classes---the rich, the middle classes, the poor, the down-and-out; the way cities grow and change; the fate of entire societies during and after revolutions and a host of other subjects. But how to make sure the information gathered is reliable and precise, how to use it to build theories of social cohesion and social change---that is the challenge faced by the young science of sociology. 

As in any science, there are many debates in sociology about the appropriate ways to study social life and about which theories or types of theories best explain social phenomena. Most sociologists, however, would agree with the following position:

• Human actions are limited or determined by "environment." Human beings become what they are at any given moment not by their own free decisions, taken rationally and in full knowledge of the conditions, but under the pressure of circumstances which delimit their range of choice and which also fix their objectives and the standards by which they make choices.

This statement expresses a core idea of sociology: individual choice is never entirely free but is always determined to some extent by a person's environment. In sociology, environment refers to all the expectations and incentives established by other people in a person's social world. For the sociologist, therefore, the environment within which an individual's biography unfolds is a set of people and groups and organizations, all with their own ways of thinking and acting. Certainly each individual has unique choices to make in life, but the social world into which that person was born---be it a Native American reservation, and urban ghetto, a comfortable suburb, or an immigrant enclave in a strange city determines to varying degrees what those choices will be.

Levels of Social Reality

In their studies of social environments, sociologists look at behaviors ranging from the intimate glances of lovers to the complex coordination of a space shuttle launch. Thus, for purposes of analysis we often speak of social behavior as occurring at three different levels of complexity micro, middle, and macro.

The micro level of sociological observation is concerned with the behaviors of the individual and his or her immediate others---that is, with patterns of interaction among a few people. One example is Erving Goffman's studies of the routine behaviors of everyday life. Goffman's research showed how seemingly insignificant ways of acting in public actually carry significant meanings. Thus, in a study titled "Territories of the Self" (1972), Goffman categorized some of the ways in which we use objects as "markers" to claim a personal space.

Markers are of various kinds. There are "central markers." being objects that announce a territorial claim, the territory radiating outward from it, as when sunglasses and lotion claim a beach chair, or a purse a seat in an airliner, or a drink on a bar the stool in front of it. . . . there are "boundary markers," objects that mark the line between two adjacent territories. The bar used in a supermarket checkout counter to separate one customer's batch of articles from the next is an example. (pp. 41-42) 

The last time you placed your sweater or book on the empty seat next to you on a bus, you told yourself that when someone came for the seat you would take up your things. But you hoped that the stranger who was coming along the aisle would get your message and choose another seat; you could claim your extra space as long as possible. You communicated all this by the manner in which you placed your marker and the persistence with which, by your body language, you defended your space.

Some sociologists deal almost exclusively with a much larger-scale, or macro, level of analysis. The macro level of social life refers to whole societies and the ways in which they are changing---that is, to revolutions, wars, major changes in the production of goods and services, and similar social phenomena that involve very large numbers of people. One example of macro sociological analysis is the study of how the shift from heavy manufacturing to high-tech Industries has affected the way workers earn a living. Another example is the study of how the invasion and settlement of the American West in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries gave rise to the beliefs and actions that drove Native Americans onto reservations.

Middle-level social phenomena are those that occur in communities or in organizations such as businesses and voluntary associations. Middle-level social forms are smaller than entire societies but are larger and involve more people than micro level social forms, such as the family or the peer group, in which everyone involved knows everyone else or is in close proximity to the others as on a bus or in a classroom. The drama that surrounds the firing of a coach on a sports team, and the reorganization of personnel that often follows, is an example of social change in the middle level of social analysis. 

These three levels of sociological analysis can be helpful in understanding the experience of the immigrants from Asia, Africa, or Latin America who may be appearing in your town or community or in one nearby. Macro level social forces such as war or overpopulation may account for the influx of immigrants. Middle level social forces such as the availability of work at low-wage and skill levels, or the presence of earlier arrivals from other nations, may help explain why certain immigrant groups become concentrated in particular communities within the United States. And at the micro level of analysis there will be, especially at first, important differences in the way immigrants and native-born people interact on a daily basis.

Note that the three levels of social reality are not defined according to fixed or standard measures. Instead, they are used in relative fashion. The social impact of a global corporation such as General Electric, for example, can be analyzed at the macro level of the entire corporation and its dealings on the world stage. In that case, its component factories, and the trade unions they often battle against, are middle-level forms, and specific groups within these factories operate at the micro level within the global Corporation. How one uses and defines these levels of social reality often depends on the type of sociological analysis one is performing.

*SOURCE: SOCIOLOGY IN A CHANGING WORLD, 6TH ED., 2003, WILLIAM KORNBLUM, PP. 5-7*

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