# Sociology  ## Metadata - Author: [[Paul Oliver]] - Full Title: Sociology - Category: #books ## Highlights - The Enlightenment was a philosophical and intellectual movement of 18th-century Europe that emphasized the use of reason, observation and science, in contrast to the dogmatic beliefs that had previously held sway. ([Location 196](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=196)) - Social capital thus consists of children having access to a complex network of affluent, successful, high-performing people, including not only their peers but also the parents and relatives of their school friends. ([Location 307](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=307)) - Cultural capital consists of the range of skills, knowledge and attributes that help people to succeed in life. This may include academic qualifications and skills, experience of foreign travel, and an understanding of the arts. ([Location 350](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=350)) - Note: Network effect for intelligence too - Qualitative research often involves the collection of data, and the subsequent generation of scientific theories from that data. This process is known as ‘induction’. The theory developed in this way is not regarded as eternally valid, but as a basis for further investigation and testing of the provisional theory. In the case of quantitative research, a set of initial data is used to generate a hypothesis or provisional statement about the world. Further data is then collected in order to try to test the validity of the hypothesis. If the data seems to support the hypothesis, then a theory is constructed. The latter process is known as ‘deduction’, and is typical of traditional scientific method. ([Location 365](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=365)) - One of the most important insights of sociology consists of the process whereby knowledge is created in a social setting. According to the perspective of some sociologists, what is accepted as knowledge in society derives from a process of discussion, evaluation and analysis between groups of human beings. To put it another way, human beings ‘negotiate’ viewpoints which will become accepted as legitimate knowledge. ([Location 386](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=386)) - Social constructionism is the theory that our understanding of the world around us is principally created through interactions between people, and the sharing of knowledge and viewpoints. ([Location 413](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=413)) - Note: Philosophical power of viewpoint induced and deduced - It could be argued that one of the most valuable things in the world is capacity and willingness to consider the viewpoints of others. Many of the most serious conflicts in history have and do arise because some people are intolerant of the views of others. Once we accept that there are multiple viewpoints in the world, we become more tolerant. However, we do not have to think that all viewpoints are equally correct; merely to respect the rights of others to hold them. ([Location 592](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=592)) - This means that we should try wherever we can to place our thought processes in the public domain, so that others may appreciate the ways in which we try to make sense of the world. If we can speak and write about sociology in this way, then we are operating within the traditions of social science. ([Location 604](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=604)) - Note: Observations of what others have observed (academic disciplines) - Critical theorists attempt to analyse society and then to try to change it for the better, rather than simply to understand and explain societal mechanisms. ([Location 625](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=625)) - Positivism is the philosophical position that the methods of the physical or ‘natural’ sciences can be used to investigate society. ([Location 825](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=825)) - Interpretivism argues that if we are to understand society, then we must try to make sense of the way in which our fellow human beings look at the world. ([Location 866](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=866)) - Ethnography is a research approach used to study distinct communities or social groups, and to try to understand the meanings people attach to the social world. ([Location 956](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=956)) - The researches of Engels suggested to him that the living conditions of working people were significantly worse during the period of early capitalism than they had been prior to the Industrial Revolution. ([Location 1186](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=1186)) - Gentrification is the gradual restoration of inner-city, working-class housing by middle-class residents, accompanied by an often parallel movement of former working-class residents to suburban areas. ([Location 1259](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=1259)) - The wide variety of employment prospects in a city environment has a number of consequences for social life. People can establish employment-based networks that are constructed around the career patterns of individuals. These networks can create communities with a sense of belonging, not unlike the traditional kind of community found in rural settings. ([Location 1297](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=1297)) - In the case of a capitalist society, for instance, relatively few organizations will challenge the prevailing value system of the profit motive. ([Location 1422](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=1422)) - Husserl defined phenomenology as research into the nature of human consciousness, and the way in which the consciousnesses of different people interrelate with each other. Husserl’s phenomenology proved to be a very influential philosophical position, which had a strong impact upon a number of different sociologists. Key idea: Phenomenology Phenomenology is the study of the way people view phenomena within their conscious experience, and from a subjective viewpoint. ([Location 1481](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=1481)) - The interesting question for Garfinkel, however, was the way in which this rational thinking developed among human beings. Previous sociologists such as Durkheim and Parsons considered that so-called social facts were very important in encouraging rational discussion about society. Garfinkel, on the other hand, argued that rationality developed through the medium of human talk. ([Location 1529](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=1529)) - Constructionism is a theory concerning the way knowledge is created, which assumes that knowledge is largely created through human beings sharing their sense of what is significant in the world. ([Location 1599](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=1599)) - It is a feature of many contemporary societies that a range of different interest groups in civil society, and also political groupings, compete for political power and influence. There is thus not one predetermined locus of power, but a range of influential groups who may exercise more or less political power depending upon the fluctuating political and social environment. The political nature of society is thus seen as pluralist, which contrasts with the view of society as being controlled largely by elites. ([Location 1693](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=1693)) - Pareto was also opposed to the theory of Marx that eventually the proletariat would rise and replace the bourgeoisie. According to Pareto, even if the original elite was removed from power, it would simply be replaced by a different elite. ([Location 1792](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=1792)) - Gaetano Mosca (1858–1941), an Italian political thinker and contemporary of Pareto, was largely in agreement with Pareto’s thinking on elites, although he felt that elites owed much of their ability to hold political power to their organizational skills. ([Location 1794](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=1794)) - New forms of manufacture, where the processes are based upon information technology, often enable the job to be completed more rapidly. A major disadvantage of this is that there can often be a concomitant loss of employment. ([Location 3837](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=3837)) - For example, parents may be members of golf clubs, tennis clubs, bridge clubs, chess clubs or rowing clubs. They may participate in amateur dramatics, light opera or family history societies. ([Location 5100](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=5100)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Freire argued that if learners of any age permitted themselves to accept the values and ideas of the dominant class, then they would essentially be dehumanized. Students needed to become aware that the educational process was capable of transforming them, and helping them become aware of their own sense of social consciousness. This process was termed ‘conscientization’ by Freire. ([Location 5160](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=5160)) - Tags: [[pink]] ## New highlights added August 27, 2023 at 6:24 AM - Manuel Castells (1942– ), the Spanish sociologist, has written about the ‘information age’, arguing that the postmodern world is distinguished not by productivity and the manipulation of raw materials, but by the use and control of information and knowledge (see also quotation by Lyon, below). The period of industrial manufacture of the latter part of the 20th century is being transformed into a society that uses information. Furthermore, the advances in the use of information, it is argued, will not be made by individuals but by groups of people who are able to work in an integrated manner, using their intellectual abilities to work together in intelligence-based networks of creativity. ([Location 5454](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00VQL4VIY&location=5454))