Читать книгу Our Social World - Kathleen Odell Korgen - Страница 59

 Humans are, at our very core, social animals—more akin to pack or herd animals than to individualistic cats.

 Sociology is based on scientific findings, making it more predictable and reliable than opinions or commonsense beliefs in a particular culture.

 A core idea in sociology is the sociological imagination. It requires that we see how our individual lives and personal troubles are shaped by historical and structural events that go beyond our everyday lives. It also prods us to see how we can influence our society.

 Sociology is a social science and, therefore, uses the tools of the sciences to establish credible evidence to understand our social world. As a science, sociology is scientific and objective rather than value laden.

 Sociology has practical applications, including those that are essential for the job market.

 Sociology focuses on social units or groups, on social structures such as institutions, on social processes that give a social unit its dynamic character, and on their social environments.

 The social world model is the organizing theme of this book. Using the sociological imagination, we can understand our social world best by clarifying the interconnections among micro, meso, and macro levels of the social world. Each chapter of this book focuses on one major topic in sociology using society at these three levels of analysis.