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Goals for Class Today

Housekeeping: Learning objectives and discussion guidelines...edit the wiki!

Review

New concepts

 Paradigms in sociology

Inconvenient facts, Ethnocentrism, Cultural Relativism

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Review

mechanical vs. organic solidarity

Gemeinschaft vs. Gesellschaft relationshipsrational vs. non-rational behavior 

bourgeoisie vs. proletariat

 Sociological imagination If we want to understand the experiences of individuals, we frequentlyneed to look to the social. If we want to make differences in the lives of individuals, we may need to make changes at the level of the social.

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Exercising the Sociological Imagination

Think of the ways in which we tend to see

 the following as personal troubles rather  than public issues/social problems:

school shootings

HIV/AIDS

???

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New Concepts

The manifest vs. latent functions of things in societymanifest functions are intended reflect a society’sdesired outcomes

latent functions are unintended consequences of 

 things aimed at a desired outcome (they can bedesirable or undesirable)

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Skepticism

 Always questioning common 

explanations for things by identifyingboth the manifest and latent functions of social things

Why don’t we make eye contact withstrangers when walking down the street?

Why are tatoos so popular recently?

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Paradigms in Sociology

Functionalist Paradigm

 Society is organized and guided by shared normsand values

 Society is made up of parts that work together Like most organisms, society seeks a stasis andavoids disturbances

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Paradigms in Sociology

Conflict Paradigm

 Society is made up of groups with different beliefsand conflicting values

These groups compete for scarce resources Society is in a constant state of conflict (it’s this tension that creates stability)

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Paradigms in Sociology

interactionist paradigm we act toward other people and things on the basis of how we perceive reality

our perceptions are shaped by our interactions with

othersconflict in society results from people operating from different perceptions of reality

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Sociology: Work of the Devil

Inconvenient facts–pieces of evidence that contradict our untested assumptions about the social world

Ethnocentrism–seeing differences as signs of inferiority

Cultural Relativism–we can only understand people

 within their cultural context Sociology aims to explain why things are the way theyare, not whether the way things are is right or wrong