You May Ask Yourself: Chapter 1: The Sociological Imagination: An Introduction

the study of human society

the ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an individual's life to seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces

a complex group of interdependent positions that, together, perform a social role and reproduce themselves over time; also defined in a narrow sense as any institution in a society that works to shape the behavior of the groups or people within it

invented "social physics" or "positivism" (said it arose from a need to make moral sense of the social order in a time of declining religious authority)

English social theorist, first to translate Comte to English

writings provided the theoretical basis for communism

advocated sociological analysis that allowed for the multiple influences of culture, economics, and politics

understanding. The concept of Verstehen forms the object of inquiry for interpretive sociology--to study how social actors understand their actions and the social world through experience (Weber)

wished to understand how society holds together and the ways that modern capitalism and industrialization have transformed how people relate to one another

a sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we can no longer reasonably expect life to be predictable; too little social regulation (Durkheim)

established what we today refer to as formal sociology, sociology of pure numbers (small group interactions)

first sociologist to undertake ethnography in the African American community

a concept conceived by WEB Dubois to describe the two behavioral scripts, one for moving through the world and the other incorporating the external opinions of prejudiced onlookers, which are constantly maintained by African Americans

founded the first American settlement house, Hull House

the theory that various social institutions and processes in society exist to serve some important (or necessary) function to keep society running

the idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in general (Marx)

a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions

a condition characterized by a questioning of the notion of progress and history, the replacement of narrative within pastiche, and multiple, perhaps even conflicting, identities resulting from disjointed affiliations

an entity that exists because people behave as if it exists and whose existence is perpetuated as people and social institutions act in accordance with the widely agreed-upon formal files or informal norms of behavior associated with that entity

a theory that attempts to predict how certain social institutions tend to function

sees to understand local interactional contexts; its methods of choice are ethnographic, generally including participant observations and in depth interviews

generally concerned with social dynamics at a higher level of analysis--that is, across the breadth of a society