Introduction to Sociology
Said Bennis
Mohammed V University in Rabat
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General Approach
The book Introduction to Sociology adheres to the scope and sequence
of a typical introductory sociology course.
Core concepts,
Foundational scholars, and
Emerging theories
The book is organized so that topics are introduced conceptually, with
.relevant, everyday experiences
Learning Objectives
Students should be able to demonstrate
mastery of the learning objectives
Summary of the course
1. Introduction
2. History of Sociology
3. Pionners of Sociology
4. Theoretical perspectives
5. Sociological Research
6. Sociology and Cultural Issues
7. General Recapitulation
Question of the Day
Which of the following best describes sociology as a subject ?
1. the study of individual behaviour
2. the study of cultures
3. the study of society and social interaction
4. the study of economics
Social interaction
Concerts, sports games, and political rallies can have very large crowds.
When you attend one of these events, you may know only the people
you came with.
Yet you may experience a feeling of connection to the group.
You are one of the crowd.
Socialization
You cheer and applaud when everyone else does.
You boo and yell alongside them.
You move out of the way when someone needs to get by,
and you say “excuse me” when you need to leave.
You know how to behave in this kind of crowd.
In group
A key insight of sociology is that the simple fact
of being in a group changes your
behaviour.
Questions of the day
A sociologist defines society as a group of people who reside in a defined area,
share a culture, and who :
1. Interact
2. Work in the same industry
3. Speak different languages
What Are Society and Culture?
A society is a group of people whose
members interact, reside in a definable area,
and share a culture.
•
A culture includes the group’s shared
practices, values, beliefs, norms and
artifacts.
Examples of Social Issues
analyze video of people from different societies as they carry on
everyday conversations to study the rules of polite
conversation from different world cultures.
interview a representative sample of people to see how email
and instant messaging have changed
the way organizations are run.
study how migration determined the way in which
language spread and changed over time.
study the history of international agencies like the United Nations
or the International Monetary Fund to examine how the globe
became divided into a First World and a Third World
after the end of the colonial era.
These examples illustrate the ways society and culture can be studied at
different levels of analysis, from the detailed study of face-to-face
interactions to the examination of large-scale
historical processes affecting
entire civilizations.
It is common to divide these levels of analysis into different
gradations based on the scale of
interaction involved.
The Sociological Imagination
The scale of sociological studies and the methods of carrying them out are different.
Each of them looks at society using what pioneer sociologist C. Wright Mills
called the sociological imagination, sometimes also referred to as
the “sociological lens” or “sociological perspective.”
Mills defined sociological imagination as how individuals
understand their own and others’ pasts in relation to
history and social structure (1959).
It is the capacity to see an individual’s private troubles in the context of
the broader social processes that structure them.
It is possible for them to be addressed and understood in terms of personal,
psychological, or moral attributes, either one’s own
or those of the people in one’s
immediate milieu.
In an individualistic society, this is in fact the most likely way
that people will regard the issues they confront:
“I have an addictive personality;”
“I can’t get a break in the job market;”
“My husband is unsupportive;” etc.
If private troubles are widely shared with others, they indicate
that there is a common social problem that has its source
in the way social life is structured.
At this level, the issues are not adequately
understood as simply private troubles. They are
best addressed as public issues that require a
collective response to resolve.
Obesity, for example, has been increasingly recognized as a growing problem
for both children and adults in North America.
Obesity is therefore not simply a private trouble concerning the medical issues,
dietary practices, or exercise habits of
specific individuals.
Obesity is in part a product of the increasingly sedentary and stressful lifestyle of
modern, capitalist society, but more importantly it is a product of the
industrialization of the food chain, which since has produced
increasingly cheap and abundant food with significantly
more calories due to processing.
The sociological imagination in this example is the capacity to see the private
troubles and attitudes associated with being overweight as an issue
of how the industrialization of the food chain has altered
the human/environment relationship, in particular
with respect to the types of food we eat and
the way we eat them.
By looking at individuals and societies and how they
interact through this lens, sociologists are able to
examine what influences behaviour,
attitudes, and culture.
By applying systematic and scientific methods to this process, they try to do so
without letting their own biases and pre-conceived ideas
influence their conclusions.