Sociology is the key to understanding how society operates and how we can make it better. Our culture plays an important role in how we view society. For example, as an American, my view of Egypt will be different than the people that actually live there. Where I see despair, they see hope.
We all have a sociologial eye in the way we see things and how it effects our everyday lives. For many people, the government dictates how we live. In fact, the government is directly responsible for determining classes of people. Oftentimes this defines what we do and how we are treated in society. If you are Republican, you are seen as someone with power, the wealthy. However, if you are a Democrat, you are viewed as an inidvidual that has low to medium income and generally you are considered the laborers, not the decision makeres. These are trained behaviors and have shaped our country for years and continues to regulate our lives still today.
Sociology was founded by scientists in an attempt to understand different social changes an effort to make our society better. There were several theorists at the forefront of these changes.
Karl Marx believed that in every ecomomy there is a dominant class( the owners) that owns and controls the means of production and exploits the other class (the workers). He believed that the owners not only ownd the means of production for market goods, but also the means of the production of ideas in society. There is always a ruling class according to Marx.
Max Weber look at the combination of ecomonic and political power. He built his theory on class, status and party position in the bureaucratic structure. He believed that power was "the chance of a man or a number of men to realize their own will in a communal action even against the resistance of others who are participating in the action."
Emile Durkheim believed that society was a biological organism, with each organ dependent on the others for survival. He believed that society is made up of interdependent parts, each working for the good of the whole, rather thatn composed of competing interests. Durkheim thought that people were selfish by nature and must be channeled and controlled through proper socialization by institutions in society.
George Herber Mead believed that the mind and the self are created through social processes. He was primarily interested in how th human self develops throug communicatin with others via language and other symbolic behavior (symbolic interaction). Through symbolic interactions, society is a social construction, continually created and recreated by humans.
Jane Adams was not only a sociologist but also an activist that advocated on behalf or racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, the poor and world peace. She was was one of the few women who was viewed as a leader in her field. In fact, she was the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She focused her research on issues related to the need for social reform, reducing inequality, and bridging the gap between the rich and the poor. She founded Hull House in a poor, inner city immigrant neighborhood and became an underground university for women activists focusing on questions of housing, sanitation and public health.
The are many things to know and learn in sociology and our culture is ever changing. What we think and feel changes also based on our experiences in and around us. Needless to say, the more exposure we have with different people from different countries, races political and religous background will dictate our views as sociologists. This is our right and it is also our responsibility to ourselves to embrace the world as we see it not as others dictate it should be.
