A Contemporary Introduction

to Sociology
Culture and Society in Transition
by Jeffrey C. Alexander and
Kenneth Thompson
•Sociology is the science (-ology) of society (socio-)

Sociology can help us make sense of our experiences by taking

our accounts and sharing or comparing them with others.
• The sociological perspective is constituted of stories told by
individuals and groups and shapes how we establish our
worldviews.
•We can examine social structures (patterns of organization that
constrain human behavior) by observation of the sociological
perspective.
 Culture vs. Subculture
• Culture: The symbolic and learned aspects of
human society. Culture is not biological but,
instead, is transmitted and shared via social
interaction.

• Subculture: The symbols and lifestyles of a

subgroup in society, one that deviates from the
“normal,” more general (dominant) culture of a
society.
 C. Wright Mills and
The Sociological Imagination (1959)
• Sociological imagination: the ability to understand
not only what is happening in one’s own
immediate experience but also in the world and to
imagine how one’s experience fits into the large
picture
• It is necessary for us to use a sociological
imagination in order to define the troubles we
experience through historical changes and the
institutions of society
 Peter Berger’s four dimensions of
sociological consciousness
• Debunking: The sociological perspective is
frequently concerned with seeing through
the facades of social structures and
debunking official interpretations
• Unrespectability: involves a fascination
with the unrespectable view of society
 (continued)

• Relativizing: refers to the capacity, typical of the

modern mind, but especially developed in
sociology, to see how identities and perspectives
vary depending on the situation or context.
• Cosmopolitanism: The turbulent urban center of
modern times have tended to develop a
cosmopolitan consciousness, a knowledge of a
variety of lifestyles and perspectives, and a certain
sense of detachment from them.
 Society Today: So What’s New?
• Sociology came into being as an effort to understand the
social issues created by the changes of modernity.
• Modernity: in sociology, refers to the set of historical
processes that transformed the traditional order
• Postmodernity: in sociology, refers to the contemporary
developments in historical, social, and economic
processes.
• Table 1.1 Characteristics of Premodern, Modern, and Postmodern
Societies
 Focuses of the
Sociologists of Modernity
• The early sociologists of modernity
examined the development of economic
life, social organization, integration,
culture, gender and socialization, public
vs. private, and occidentalism vs.
orientalism
 The Cultural Turn
• The Cultural Turn refers to two
developments:
- the increasing importance of cultural
industries and of knowledge more generally
in the economy
- the increasing attention being given to
cultural factors in sociological examinations
 Globalization
• A social phenomenon characterized by the
growing number of interconnections across
the world.
• Rather than studying society in terms of
various nation-states, sociologists today are
concerned with multinational and global
problems.
 Technology in the
Global Village
 The New Technology - New Tools

 Cultural Lag and Cultural Change

 Technology and Cultural Leveling

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 Determinism vs. Free Will
• Determinism states that social structures and
cultural factors determine behavior of individuals
• Karl Marx insisted, that “it is not consciousness
that determines society, but society that
determines consciousness.”
• Emile Durkheim, the French founder of modern
scientific sociology, stated that individuals have
little power against social facts
 Structure vs. Culture
• Many of the greatest sociologists have made
structure central to the stories they tell
about institutions, processes, and groups.
The structural approach is objective.
• With a cultural approach, it is values and
beliefs that are central to society. The
cultural approach is subjective.
 Culture and Taken-for-Granted
Orientations

 Using your sociological imagination in culture

 Meeting someone new and seeing the effects of a much

different culture

 Internalization of our norms – eye contact, space, etc.

 Culture Shock –feeling of disorientation, uncertainty, or fear

when immersed in an unfamiliar culture

 Ethnocentrism – “Culture within us” - Positive/Negative

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 Attitudes Toward Cultural
Variation
• Ethnocentrism – perceive one’s culture and
way of life as the norm or superior
Functionalist vs. Conflict Perspective

• Cultural Relativism – view people’s behavior

from the perspective of one’s own culture
Xenocentrism – belief that the products,
styles, or ideas of one’s society are inferior
 Cultural Change
• Innovation – process of introducing a new idea or
object to culture
Discovery – making known or sharing the
existence of an aspect of reality
Invention – existing cultural items are combined
into a form that did not previously exist
• Diffusion – process by which a cultural item is
spread from group to group
• Technology, communication
 Practicing Cultural Relativism

 “Sick Cultures” – Robert Edgerton - Lack of

enhancement in our lives
 Confronting Contrasting Views of Reality

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 Components of Symbolic Culture or
Non-Material Culture

 Symbol – something to which people attach meaning

and that they use to communicate
Gestures
 Using ones body to convey messages without words
 Gestures’ meaning differ among cultures
 Can Lead to Misunderstandings

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 Components of Symbolic
Culture
Language
 Because written language lacks subtle cues,
Emoticons – online use
 Provides social or shared past
 Provides social or shared future
 Allows shared perspective
 Allows complex, shared, goal-directed behavior
 Like Gestures the same sound in one culture is
entirely different in another
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 Language and Perception:
 Language Has Embedded Within It Ways of
Looking at the World
 It is our language that determines our
consciousness
 Language both reflects and shapes cultural
experiences

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 Values, Norms, and Sanctions
 Values - What is desirable in life
 The standards at which we determine what is good or bad
 Norms - Expectations or rules for behavior
 “Should Do”
 Expectations in our societies
 Sanctions - Reaction to following or breaking norms
 Positive Sanctions
 Negative Sanctions

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 Folkways and Mores
 Folkways - Norms not strictly enforced
 Walking on the right side of the sidewalk
 Holding a door
 Mores - Core Values: We insist on conformity
 Law

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 Subcultures and
Countercultures
 Subculture - A World Within the Dominant Culture

 Countercultures - Groups With Norms and Values at

Odds With the Dominant Culture
 Survivalists -a person who anticipates and prepares
for a future disruption

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 Values Clusters, Contradictions, and
Social Change
 Value Clusters – values that together form a larger whole

 Hard work, education, efficiency, material comfort, and

individualism are bound together
 Value Contradiction – to follow the one means that you will
come in conflict with another. Freedom, democracy applied
only to some groups. Women's Liberation, Racism, Sexism

“It is precisely at the point of value contradictions, then, that one

can see a major force for social change in a society.”
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 Emerging Values
 Leisure
 Luxury Crusies
 Self-fulfillment
 Self help movement
 Physical Fitness
 Fitness centers
 Youthfulness
 Botox
 Concern for the Environment

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 Values and Culture
 Culture Wars: When Values Clash
 Homosexuality
 Value as Blinders – What is attainable?
 “Ideal” vs. “Real” Culture
 Norms, values etc. that the group sees as ideal
 However most people don’t reach these ideals,
this is what sociologist call Real

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 Cultural Universals
 Some Activities are Universal - Courtship,
Marriage, Funerals, Games

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 Sociobiology
 Controversial View of Human Behavior

 Biology Cause of Human Behavior

 Charles Darwin and Natural Selection

 Sociologists and Social Biologists on

Opposite Sides

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Elements of rural culture
a) Specialized language
b) Unique values (ideas of right and wrong)
c) Unique norms (standards of behavior)
d) Material culture products
 Material vs. Nonmaterial
Culture
• Material Culture – physical or technological
aspects of daily lives

• Nonmaterial Culture – ways of using material

objects, customs, beliefs, governments, patterns of
communication

• Cultural Lag – period of maladjustment when the

nonmaterial culture is still adapting to new
material conditions
 Elements of Culture
1. Language
2. Norms
3. Sanction (positive sanction and negative
sanction)
4. Values
 Theoretical Perspectives
 Functionalist Perspective
Cultural ‘competency’ helps an individual
function well in society.
Social stability requires consensus.
Socialization into expected standards of behavior.
All cultures are legitimate: recognize cultural
uniqueness.
Can this actually be dysfunctional?
 Theoretical Perspectives
 Conflict Perspective
The role of power in defining what is
mainstream, and what is deviant: whose
interests are supported?

Dominant Ideology – set of cultural beliefs and

practices that help maintain powerful social,
economic, and political interests
 Theoretical Perspectives
 Symbolic interactionist
Culture is a set of shared symbols (language,
practices) that reflect basic values and have
been:
Constructed though social interaction
Agreed-upon by members of the culture
May be difficult to understand by non-members and
can be used to define cultural boundaries
 Thinking about cultural change /
variation:
• Theory perspectives:
– Functional:
• differences fill specialized roles, can exist within.
Change is adaptive.
– Conflict:
• differences due to power imbalances or struggles.
Change represents challenges to the status quo.
– Interactionist:
• new cultural forms are shaped through social
interaction or agreement
•
Theoretical
Functionalist
perspectives
– How does rural culture keep things running smoothly for
the culture and for society as a whole (filling roles)
• Conflict
– How are stereotypes of rural people and environments used
to reinforce existing power structures and distribution of
resources
• Symbolic Interactionist:
– How is rural culture ‘created’ within the culture and in
larger society through interactional patterns
 Study Questions
• How does the sociological perspective
challenge individualism?
• What is the difference between personal
troubles and public issues? Can you think of
an example that falls into both categories?
• Briefly describe Berger’s four dimensions
of sociological consciousness.
 Study Questions (continued)
• What do sociologists mean by modernity and
postmodernity?
• What is determinism? Describe sociological
arguments against this position, and explain why
both sides have been heatedly debated in the field.
• What is the difference between structural and
cultural approaches? Is either deterministic?