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    Introducing Sociology: A Graphic Guide
    Introducing Sociology: A Graphic Guide
    Introducing Sociology: A Graphic Guide
    Ebook292 pages2 hours

    Introducing Sociology: A Graphic Guide

    By John Nagle and Piero Pierini

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Sociology is interested in the ways people shape the society they live in, and the ways society shapes them. Simply, it is the study of what modern society is and how it functions.

    In the series' inimitable style, Introducing Sociology traces the origins of sociology from industrialization, revolution and the Enlightenment through to globalization, neoliberalism and the fear of nationalism – introducing you to key thinkers, movements and concepts along the way.

    You will develop insight into the world around you, as you engage your 'sociological imagination' and explore studies of the city, theories of power and knowledge, concepts of national, racial and sexual identity, and much more.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIcon Books
    Release dateNov 3, 2016
    ISBN9781785780745
    Introducing Sociology: A Graphic Guide

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      Book preview

      Introducing Sociology - John Nagle

      Published by Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre, 39–41 North Road, London N7 9DP

      Email: [email protected]

      www.introducingbooks.com

      ISBN: 978-178578-074-5

      Text copyright © 2016 Icon Books Ltd

      Illustrations copyright © 2016 Icon Books Ltd

      The author and illustrator have asserted their moral rights.

      Editor: Kiera Jamison

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

      Contents

      Cover

      Title Page

      Copyright

      Kung Fu Sociology

      No Such Thing as Society?

      What Is Sociology?

      The Sociological Imagination

      Public Sociology

      Puppets and Dangerous Giants

      Origins and Birth of Sociology

      Hegel and the Spirit

      Auguste Comte – Sociology Finds a Name

      Statics and Dynamics

      Spencer and Social Evolution

      Karl Marx – Conflict and Revolution

      Social Conflict

      Durkheim – The Discipline Develops

      Solidarity

      Social Facts

      Crime

      Suicide

      Max Weber

      The Ideal Type

      Protestant Work Ethic and Capitalism

      The Iron Cage

      Structural Functionalism – Talcott Parsons

      Symbolic Interactionism – Herbert Blumer

      Urbanization

      Microsociology – Erving Goffman

      Impression Management

      Emotional Labour

      Contemporary Sociology – Michel Foucault

      Social Constructivism

      Knowledge Is Power

      Social Categorization

      The Prison – Discipline and Punishment

      Surveillance Society

      Failed Consumers

      Pierre Bourdieu

      Cultural Capital

      Distinctions and Taste

      Social Class

      Postmodernism

      Metanarratives

      Sociology and Gender

      Biological or Socially Constructed?

      Gender Performance

      The Gender Order

      Hegemonic Masculinity

      Masculinity in Transformation

      Masculinity in Crisis

      Homosexual Masculinity

      Race and Ethnicity

      Double Consciousness

      Sociology and Migration

      Cultural Racism

      Islamophobia

      Multiculturalism

      Cultural Relativism

      Recognition

      Critiquing Multiculturalism

      Essentialism vs Interculturalism

      Globalization

      Time-Space Compression

      Time-Space Distanciation

      World-System Theory

      Core and Periphery

      Cultural Globalization

      Homogeneity

      Heterogeneity

      Glocalization

      Risk Society

      First Modernity

      Second Modernity

      Reacting to Risk

      New Opportunities?

      The Cosmopolitan Vision

      Global Civil Society

      INGOs

      Global Social Movements

      Global Change?

      Social Movements

      Old vs New Social Movements

      Post-Materialism

      New Social Movements

      Lifeworld and System

      Nations and Nationalism

      Primordialism

      Ethnic vs Civic Nationalism

      Boundary Maintenance

      Modernism

      Imagined Communities

      Ethno-Symbolism

      Globalization and Nationalism

      Rocking the World?

      Bibiliography

      About the Creators

      Index

      Kung Fu Sociology

      In a documentary on the life and work of the leading sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002), Bourdieu explains that sociology is a martial art. Bourdieu is not suggesting that learning sociology will automatically qualify the student for a black belt in Kung Fu. Instead, he sees the value of sociology as helping to unmask domination: forms of social inequality based on class, race, gender and much more besides. Despite the existence of domination in our everyday lives, it is often disguised so that we fail to recognize it. For Bourdieu, the role of sociology is to expose the workings of domination throughout our societies.

      I OFTEN SAY SOCIOLOGY IS A MARTIAL ART, A MEANS OF SELF-DEFENCE. BASICALLY, YOU USE IT TO DEFEND YOURSELF, WITHOUT HAVING THE RIGHT TO USE IT FOR UNFAIR ATTACKS.

      This book is not intended to be some sort of self-help guide or instruction manual that equips the reader with the tools to transform their societies. A rather more modest proposal is suggested. By outlining key sociological thinkers, concepts and ideas, the objective is to familiarize the reader with the rich intellectual heritage of the discipline. Although, if, as Bourdieu supposed, an engagement with sociology is akin to learning a combat sport, reading this book may provide you with some of the training required to build a just and fair society.

      THE TASK FOR SOCIOLOGY IS TO COME TO THE HELP OF THE INDIVIDUAL. WE HAVE TO BE IN SERVICE OF FREEDOM.

      No Such Thing as Society?

      In a 1987 interview, the then UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) famously stated:

      THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS SOCIETY.

      A sociologist would both agree and disagree with Thatcher’s sentiments about society. However much humans appear to exhibit individual behaviour and live in a world of incredible choice, our access to choice is limited by the social groups we are members of. They may agree with Thatcher, however, that society does not exist as an unchanging and fixed set of institutions.

      OUR VALUES AND OPPORTUNITIES ARE FORMED BY OUR POSITION WITHIN SOCIETY. SOCIETY IS ALSO THE SUM OF EVERYDAY INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PEOPLE SEEKING TO ATTAIN COMMON AIMS.

      What Is Sociology?

      Is it possible to provide a simple definition of sociology? This task appears especially difficult when we consider that the discipline of sociology is now over a century old and contains a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches. One way to consider sociology is as a methodical study of the ways that people are affected by and affect society, and the processes that are associated with groups, societies and institutions.

      GOOD SOCIOLOGY IS SOCIOLOGICAL WORK THAT PRODUCES MEANINGFUL DESCRIPTIONS OF ORGANIZATIONS AND EVENTS, VALID EXPLANATIONS OF HOW THEY COME ABOUT AND PERSIST, AND REALISTIC PROPOSALS FOR THEIR IMPROVEMENT OR REMOVAL.

      The aim or perspective of sociology is to reveal how social structures create both opportunities and constraints that characterize our lives.

      Social structures are those relatively stable relationships between people that are shaped by institutions. Sociology maps out social structures so we can begin to see the social forces that act upon us.

      By challenging the myth that human behaviour is purely individualistic or driven by biological impulses, sociology encourages us to understand the social dynamics that turn us into members of society.

      THINKING SOCIOLOGICALLY MEANS RECOGNIZING HOW MY SOCIAL GROUPS HAVE A STRONG IMPACT ON MY LIFE CHOICES AND EXPERIENCES.

      The Sociological Imagination

      Thinking sociologically is what the American sociologist C. Wright Mills (1916-62) termed the sociological imagination. Mills said that when we develop a sociological imagination we begin to see how wider social forces connect with our personal biographies. For Mills, the sociological imagination is particularly powerful when we identify the society we live in, rather any personal or individual failings, as responsible for many of our problems.

      MY STRUGGLE TO PAY THE RENT IS CONNECTED TO GOVERNMENT POLICIES ON MINIMUM WAGE AND EMPLOYMENT LAW.

      Mills recognized that cultivating the sociological imagination is not easy. It is far too easy to blame laziness for unemployment and fecklessness for poverty. Equally, it is too easy to single out individual intelligence when a student lands a place at a top university. Yet the sociological imagination compels us to see racial, gender and socioeconomic inequalities not as facts of nature but as products of the social world.

      WHY SHOULD WE GIVE BENEFITS TO PEOPLE TOO LAZY TO GET A JOB? I GOT TO UNIVERSITY AND GOT A JOB ENTIRELY ON MY OWN STEAM. NO ONE HELPED ME.

      KNOW THAT MANY PERSONAL TROUBLES CANNOT BE SOLVED MERELY AS TROUBLES, BUT MUST BE UNDERSTOOD IN TERMS OF PUBLIC ISSUES.

      Public Sociology

      Nurturing a sociological imagination is the first step towards a public sociology. A public sociology, as the phrase suggests, is concerned with making the public

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