Chapter 1: Sociology & the Real world - Research Paper Example

? CHAPTER SOCIOLOGY & THE “REAL WORLD” Introduction This book will address issues that relate to the concepts, which underlies sociological practice. We will look at the relationship that exists between what we call sociology and the real world and how the two concepts intersect or fail to intersect. On the western thought, too much sociology has become an extreme case. It is important to note that; man’s greatest discovery in the history of human kind was followed by a mistake where man doubted the reality of the real world. In light of this the book offers three sociological words that in many circles have fallen into dispute and they are much needed for sociological theory needs that is objectivity, reality and truth. In the sociology field if any of these rise or fall so do the others (Kerry & Jill, 2012). The words interrelate so that if one intends to reflect on the other you have to invoke one and the devaluation of one diminishes the other. For example, the objective world is used synonymously with the real world and therefore truth is infused into this as it has describes correspondence traditionally. This is despite the fact that the aspects are vague amidst our mind set knowledge and inanimate objective reality (Smelser & Badie, 2004). The sociological perspective view of this underlies that one sense of objectivity is closely associated with a given form of social process that creates intersubjectivity i.e. how human beings with different actual experiences of the same things convince themselves that they live in a common world. Another approach to diverge on reality of the world is the argument that as long as there are leis there are always truths that such lies emanated from. Moreover, this is followed by the assumption that these terms are used in face-to-face interactions (Smelser, 2009). 1. What Does Society Look Like? While the idea of society is quite familiar, there definition and description may be quite difficult. This is due to the reason that the society is made up of a varied component such as the culture, race, family, education, social class and the integration of the people. According to Kerry and Jill, people forming the society actively and collectively often shape their own lives organizing their social interactions and relationships into a meaningful world and this is the foundation behind the study of sociology and the reality world by a cross section of sociologists. Therefore, a society is a group of people who shape their lives in aggregated and patterned ways and hence aiding how one group can be distinguished from the other in unique line such as tribe, family, education, culture or any of the subdivisions (Kerry & Jill, 2012). For a long time individuals have sought out an understanding of the meaning of life, their place in the society and the social world in totality. The book highlights the earlier explanations as one s based on tradition, superstition and myths hence the emergence of social sciences as a reality check for the whole world. Sociology is therefore, a systematic or scientific study of the human society and their social behavior right from the large-scale perspective and mass culture all the way to the small groups and individual interactions. Kerry and Jill define sociology as a study of the people doing things together. This therefore tells us the fact that the society and individuals are interconnected inherently, either depends on the other, and therefore the sociologists are endowed with the responsibility to study the fact that the society affects the individuals and individuals affects the society (Robertson, 2007). Although on the interactional level, lies are most of the time interesting in themselves, the social world comprise of lies which lack the basics for their continuance meaning lies have the tendency of coming to an end. In the same context, it is impossible to conceive of an inanimate globe of complete mistake or human being psychologically ability to survive (Smelser & Badie, 2004). Therefore, those entrusted with thinking things through cannot blindly discard error and truth. The individuals who disregard truth n either level simply push the concept below awareness making them thrive more effectively from being freed from the concept of reflection as shown through our awareness. When humans are lied to they become outraged and this is evident when others think that we are lying to them (Kerry & Jill, 2012). The naive notions of objectivity, reality and truth are greatly exemplified by the sweep of the twentieth century ranging from the critical sociology, postmodern critics and more recently the powerful findings of neuroscience (Robertson, 2007). It is important to note that the traditional way of explaining the truth as a mental mirror of the real world independence and quite pure from the contaminations of our peculiar mentalities are dead in the waters. In light of the current neuroscience, any aspirations that human beings can transcend their seriously limited senses and minds to view the world as real and independent are no longer a position but mere ignorance. This is because it is not the basis to run away from the truth or reality of the whole world making the current definitions of objectivism, reality and truths not belong to our predecessors but to us. They are not cast in stone making them subject to change just like in any developmental process, which are revised from time to time to attain the objectives there in designed (Smelser, 2009). In this chapter, it is the concept of truth that is quite challenging to understand hence it has to undergo through a series of transformations through the theories formulated. To support the reality of the world, we will note that as long as there are no taxes and death, we live in a world that is independent of our individual and collective wills and this is quite important. In nature and in social life happening occur that we either as individuals or as collectivities neither initiate nor desire. Therefore, the culture of adopting objectivity and collectivism has to be accepted to enable the existence of the remaining extent of fidelity to prevail (Smelser & Badie, 2004). 2. Methodological approaches to sociology and the “real world” However, we ought to alongside the fidelity, the part played by the particular human beings brains in the formation of the three terms, and connect them to how the world responds to our limited actions and methodological initiatives which include:- micro sociology, where the studies are done on a face to face basis and through small group interactions (Smelser, 2009). This is to find out on the facts surrounding the real world an d how the facets of study are affect the other larger patterns and institutions of the society. This methodological approach focuses on the small-scale pieces of the society. Macro sociology on the other hand checks at the real world through the studies of the large-scale social structures and determines how they are likely to affect the lives of groups and individuals. For example, the study of all the males and the females’ interaction in their varied places of occupations, so that, the discovery of the differences in each gender opportunity for advancement of their careers. It is a fact that when conducting research methodology refers to the process by which one gathers data and analyzes them where the translation of the social world will be done using quantitative research by finding the cause and effect relationships (Robertson, 2007). Qualitative researches as a methodology will most of the timework with non-numerical data such as texts, notes, interview transcripts. In understanding the reality of the world, this type of research will try to understand how people make sense of the world through participant’s observation in which case the researcher actually takes part in the social world by him/her conducting the studies. The meaning of truth therefore is bounded upon the peculiarities of our primate bodies as we act on our environment and the inherently changeable discursive frameworks of our thoughts communities (Smelser, 2009). 3. Sociology and the diminishing contacts with reality, “real world” With all our talks revolving around empiricism, the contacts which sociology has with the outside world is much limited though human kind seems to the last to even know and care about this. Factually, it has been noted in the past that it is the sociological theories that are that are reduced to testable hypotheses and data relevant to this tasks are collected. This data will in most of the situations reflect something taking place in what we call the empirical world, which is used as a code word for “real”. Real words such as reports are sometimes used to represent such realities (Macionis, 2007). These are the words, which will reflect the social phenomena set up that exist as external to us as individuals after which such data is organized; and put to a statistical set up and the delivery of the findings take place. Because our notion about reality is quite vague, the reality of the world often escapes us about what the real test has to be comparing them to the rest of our thinking behavior and how it enhances our actions in our real environments (Robertson, 2007). In fact, it is hard for practical reasons to apply sociological theory to the real world problems that face us today and to have the feedback from this application further refine and redirect our theory. The fact that such applications are not practical in the normal sense cannot block us from reflecting on these consequences and exploring the remaining available options (Smelser & Badie, 2004). True enough, there are formal subfields of sociological practice and others for applied sociology in the real world practice of sociology; the pure theorists normally consider these. This is due to the sole reason that they are hardly seen as the necessary tools of our trade and the importance they hold for theory construction. For the individual who are not in the position of drawing the clear line between fantasy and reality, it may not appear as complete loss as argued in this book (Macionis, 2007). From the readings of the book, I have learnt that friends, family and community members are able to refer to the real world by referring to the meaning as the social world, which they all ail from and even, are inhabitants. They consider their own experiences as the facets of the real world as they disregard the experiences of others as minute and artificial. For instance, a businessperson is in the position of presenting justification of theory decision to outsource jobs for greater profit margins by claiming that the people protesting against such decisions as not understanding of the real world of business. A racist’s statement may also be justified by any individual as something that is grounded upon the real world interaction. In either case, an individual give advantage to their own views over the whole of the body of knowledge without subjecting the same to research (Smelser & Badie, 2004). 4. The Sociological Perspective and Conclusion The sociological perspective will therefore view the real world as a sociological imagination describing the ability to scrutinize issues from the sociological perspective (Smelser, 2009). Such a form of imagination is the quality of the mind that enables the understanding of the relationship between our particular situation in life and that, which happens at any given social level. In is important to note that when using sociological perspective, one focuses on the social context in which people live concerning the impact of such context on individual’s life. Sociological perspective in the real world perspective will always try to create in us a sense of culture shock that is the disorientation which occurs when on enters a radically new social world. The sociological journey through the real world will always meet either the everyday actor or a social analyst of whom both approaches have strengths and weaknesses. Through these processes, the lessons learnt about sociology classes like; race, class and gender are most of the time overridden by the individuals (Macionis, 2007). This is through their interaction to one or two people confirming some societal stereotypes. According to the well-accepted principles of sociology and the real world, it is quite possible that applying equally to science that most of the people will argue the concepts directed towards race, which should never be the case at all costs as there are a varied approach (Smelser & Badie, 2004). References Kerry, F., & Jill, S. (2012). The Real World: An Introduction (3rd ed.). New York: Norton and Company. Macionis, J. J. (2007). Sociology (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Robertson, I. (2007). Sociology (3rd ed.). New York, N.Y.: Worth Publishers. Smelser, N. J. (2009). Sociology. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. Smelser, N. J., & Badie, B. (2004). Sociology. Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell. Read More