SOCIOLOGY A fively, accesible und compechemive intresiactewy to the diverse wey of thinking aboot socal Life, Sadly: The Fusks hut heen aratulated inics sv lygages, The volume packed with thoaght-prwsking sammarics, quowion, quotation and activities. Tt offer an abworbing: narrative about what we tmiewy by the soeial, arnt how we can think abot it, wecewings aru discus of the penonul, the political and social change, along with concepts and vivic contemporary cxanaples, and aneweriny questions such ax What i the scope, history nd purpose of sociology? How do ie cabinets pai of enderieeding sackety nnd “the mail? What ts che state of the world we live jm toclay? How do we analyw: niffcring and i i What are key methods and tools for researching and thinking alse snciety? * How lua dipitalicn reaped sacksloyy ard ats methods? + How might sociology help os understand the changes brought about by Cawid-197 + host wnciahagy have valued? + Whats the nie of saciology in making.a hemer world? ln thes chonughly reviecd and upskated thant edition the reader m encouraged to think entcally abour the structures, meanings, hmtones and cubtres finond in the rapidly changing world we live in, With tasks to simulate the sociological mind and suggestions for further reading both within the text ial Ge dx ackctapsnpiang webs, thal hook iy eqientel toad foe. all ict studying sociology and these with an interest in how the moder world works, Ken Plommer is Emeritus Profowor of Socelogy at the University of Essex, UK. and i atermationally knewa for hin rewarch om narrative, scxualities, coiteminp, Lesbian and Gay Stodies, and hemmmnom. He bs author frome 150 artickes and 15 books, inchiding the bestselling Socialogy: A Ciledul Introduction (with john Maciomm, fifth editsen, 2002). Hix meat recent books inchude Commapeliin Sexwallties QUT5), Niwntive Poure (M019), and Celtical Huercsanlon (8121)THE BASICS SERIES The Basics is a highly successful series. of accesible guidebooks which provide an overview of the ondlarreertal princes of a subject aves ia jaepon-frew andl urslaunstirg feat. Intereied for students. approaching a subject for the Firat Eine, the books bath introduce the ‘esientiags of a-sebject and provide an ideal springbsoaed for further stuchy. With owvew 50 tities spanning subjects from artificial intelligence [Alp to wornen's stadies, The Aicies aw an ideal starting point ex furterits weeking to understand a uubject area Each teat comes with recommendations for further stuxfy and gradually introchacs the earapliceiinns il raderairk within ds aee ‘SPORT PSYCHOLOGY pao Too ‘SPO8TS COACHING CAURA PURDT ‘STANISLAW SIC FORE WHTMAIN SUBCULTURES ORS HAENFLER ‘SUSTAINABILITY [SECCINED EENTHON) PETER JACQUES TELEVISION STUDIES Foy MULLER TERRORISM JAMES LUTE AND BRENDA LUTE THEATRE STUDIES (SECOND EDITION) AORERT LEACH TRANSLATION: AULIANE HOUSE TRANSNATIONAL LITERATURE PALA JAY WITCHCRAFT MARION GIBSON ‘WOMEN'S STUDIES (SECOND EDITION) BONNIE G. SMITH WORLD HISTORY PETER STEARNS ‘WORLD THEATRE E | WESTLAKE Cor a hull lint of tithes in thin series, please winit HYPERLIME “hetp:/ tween routhedpe com! The-lasica! book-series/2” wenw routiedge comiThe-asicsbook-seriestSOCIOLOGY THE BASICS Third Edition Ken Plummer JQ Routledge | LONDON AMD NEW ORK‘Thied edition published 2022 by Routledge ; 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OXT4 ARM and by Routledge ees Aweruse, New York, Mf 10158: Routledge is an imprine of the Taylor & Francis Group, an infiarma business © 2022 Ken Phunmrser The right of Ken Plummer to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, ‘All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, of other means, now known or hherealter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retriewal system, without permassion in writing from Uhe publishers. Frademuré notice: Product of corporate names may be trademarks or registered ‘Arademaris, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to ontringe. First edition published by Routledge 2010 ‘Second edition published by Routledge 2016 British Library Catalogaing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Pubvication Data Acatalog record for this book has been requested SBN: 978-0-367-74523-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-267-74524-0 (pbk) ISBN: 97B-1-003-158318 (ebk) (DOL: 10.4324/9781008158318 Typeset in Bemba by Apex CoWantage. LLCFor all my students who taught me much(ws) Taylor & Francis Taylor & Francls Group begs Soaps arettramres caeCONTENTS List of figures List of tables: Social Hauntings Preface to the first edition Preface to the third edition Imaginations: Acting ina World | Never Made Theory: Thinking the Social Societies: Living in the Twenty-First Century History: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants ‘Questions: Cultivating Sociological Imaginations Research: Critically Engaging with Empirical Truth Trouble: Suffering intersecting Inequalities Vision: Creating Sociological Hope xiv 20 49 100 156 183 216will cosmeits Conclusion: The Sociological Imagination: Twenty-One Thases Appendix: Epigrammatic Sociology Glossary Webliography Filmography: 4 Select Guide to Sociology and Film Select Bibliography Index 243 246 247 257 260 262 27421 5.1 61 62 63 Ta B81 FIGURES A continuum of the social 26 Putting it together: mapping out the flows ‘of 'the social’ 153 Two ‘ideal type’ logics of research processes: deductive and inductive 165 A conventional research toal kit 166 The multiple perspectives of rape-the Rashomoneffect 174 The matrix of intersections inequalities 212 The circle of sociological Life: the six ‘p's 22521 22 23 24 31 32 33 34 44 42 43 5.1 61 | F2 wa 81 TABLES Metaphors of the social that we live by; some opening images to start thinking sociologically Problems in living and their institutions Conflict is ubiquitous and intersecting in societies A basic guide to Foucault's key writings Emergent human social worlds — a classic Western typology (‘ideal types’) of Western societies World populations in summary Diagnosis of our times: opening ideas of future social imaginaries Global development: a select sample of countries from the Human Development Index (HDI), 2020 Some key Western thinkers of the evolutionary and colonizing typological tradition of early sociology From Comte to Beck: twenty-one early landmark male Western texts, 1824-1992 Expanding the concerns of sociology: the impact of early modem feminism Doing ethnography: a cultural analysis “Only Connect’: bringing together micro and macro, science and art Intersecting orders of social inequalities: a dynamic structure of life opportunities The subjective side of inequality The resources of a stratified life Future social imaginaries: grounded utopias in everyday life 36 38 41 98 106 14 9 139 163 193 202 206 234SOCIAL HAUNTINGS So these are the hauntings of social things, Attining te people and deetiched with thir presence, We do things together, We move with die other — The living. the dead, the soon to arrive. Sociality becoming the air that we breathe, (Our life's social worlds, so stuffed with the possabbe Prolifirating multiples and chings on the me Yet, here we all dwell in the rituals we make; The pounding of pattems to eogulf and exteap us, These worlds not of our making that haunt oll we die. The tiniest dhings amd the grandest of horrors. lnhuturnties of people and generations at war; (Gerdered chewed races, sexy nations disabled; Excluding, exploiting, dehumanizing the world. The stratified hauntiigs of pain we endure, Starving amazed at this chaos and complexity We celebrate, critique and ery im our shame, (Gur utopian dreamings of empowering lives, Each generation more justice, a flourishing for all? Sociology: the endless challenge for a betrer workd.PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION WELCOME TOTHE SOCIAL MAZE Welcome to the social maze. At the heart of this maze is a mew way of thinking and tmagnuing secrl life. We will start on eight journeys to a pestle grasping of these new ways for thinking about human socwl workds, Never mind if you do net arnve at the centre of the maze, | hope you will enjey seme of the Journeys, On the fire exploration, in Chapter 1, | want-you to get a glimpse of socilogy"s imagination — the demain ef the social —anc | give bots af exarmples, | will encourage you to develop a ontical comctousness, to become an ontider’, and suggest that sociology can book at anything —arytheng that engages you (fron sport te scremce to scx). The second jour- ney will examine jest what we mean by the secul and how we can think about it. twill look at some of the imaged we create to think abeut social things. ft is an invitation te social theory, Chapter 4 will move un ante the berly-borly of teeming human life as it emerges acres the world in the pwenty-firt century and locks at some of the significant changes taking place init, Many of these changes suggest the world is hurting to a disester! How can we posibly find ways of grasping this complexity? Gur next puzele (Chapter 4) will be to comder how secology, the ciscipline despmed to loek at the secial, developed in the Western world to deal wath just this problens, ft es ashort hestory. Chapters 5 and 6 will them start laying: out some road maps for doing soctology — tor thinking about theory and research: [cannot give precese satrics for this but wall aim, from avast litera- tune on all dhis, te dist! afew wedome that wall help you onentate yaunelf te what sociolaget try ta de, The seventh pathway looks ata topic which haunts most of the other pathways — the human suffering: and inequalities we find alang our-way: It is just one keyPREFACE TO THE FIRST EWTN ata of sociological investiganion but ene which mow sockoboyists would agree is central. On ny final journey (Chapter 8}, [ask why we shuld bother with all this anyway. [asks why? What's the pair of it all? Whar cole dees sociology have to play in the moder world? Each chapter is a pathway that can sand on its own, and any one aletic just might tke you te the holy grail of sociology Like all books in this series, 1 am anky looking at the basics of acciohogy. A short iitreductory book can hardly do justice to a coi plex and inexhaustible subject. [have had to be wery selective for a reader whe | assume isa beginner and koows little about the subject My hope is thar what | can say in a short space will tempt you m9 expand your ways of thinking abour the social and explore further the Workings of the sovaal ai the world we live. Each chapter will end with some advice om going firther (and cach chapter will also provide boxes to help your thinking). Ken Phommcr Wivenhoe, January 2040) ailPREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION ‘The first edition was written in 2008 and published im 2000, The weond echtion was revised in 315 and published in 216. This third edition was wontten one year after Coved had been identified: and wan published in 2021, The cone arguments and structune of the book remain the same bat it has been reworked a lithe page by page. Many quotations have had to be removed becuse of the changes in law about epigrammatc quotes, which oa pity. The core changes are threefold: (1) lt epdates all Gets, references and arguments, where needed. (2) It adeis new sections in several places, but notably on the emergence of Govid-19, (3) It ‘improves style’ wherever | thought itwas needed. The webate remuins a key aspect of the book: it will give you sources and leads to follow things up further, | do recom- mend you look at i, See [Link]/sociology. Lowrote the fine edition in the aftermath of major life-saving thomplant surgery, Fourteen yearn on, | nema deeply grateful to the many who saved my life them. Toby, in the midst of a pandennc, | ain ac glad te: have had a contrmming life to lve, Above all 1 thank my life partner, Everard Longland, Ken Phemmer Wivenhoe, February 2021IMAGINATIONS ACTING INA WORLD I NEVER MADE Men make them own hetory, but they do not make it av they please; they do not make it under self-selected carcumstances, brut under crcummtances existing already, gover and transmitted frei the past. The tradition of all dead generations wenghs like a mght- mare on the brains of the living. Karl Mars, The Eighteenth Heumutine of Louis Aeruaparte, MMW) | 1851] At birth, we are — each one of us — hured inte « social workd we never ewer made, We will have absolutely no say about which coun- try we are born into, whe our parents and siblings may be, what language we wall initally speak, of what relygron or education we will be gwen, We will have wo say about whether we are bom in Afghanistan, Algena, Austraha, Argentina, or one of several hundred other countries in the world. We wall have no say whether we are born into villages, sation or Grnihes consmlered supermch or i abject poverty. We will have mo say whether our initial family i Muslin, Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Hinds, of any ome of several thousand other smaller nehprons found across the workd, What is siyg- nificant here ts that we are born into a world that pre-exists ws and will continue after us, These days this word has become a ilobal, digital world, Yet we: ane ‘thrown into’ this cveryday social world: one thar was quite simply ome we had no say in raking. Thesis the very world which sociologees study, Every day we confront social coments — ‘socal fact” — which ‘come to each one of us from out= side and... sweep us along in spite of ourwlves’, We look at worlds DOF aaTROOTEtIMACMATIONS. we cannot with away — worlds that await us and shape us. They are ‘social facets’ over and above us." But then, very soon, meat of us lear to find eur own feet tit this very world we have been ‘thrown into’. Moa significantly, we start to become aware of other people in this waorld (usually initeally our dear — or motse dear — nether, fathers aid siblings): we suut to become attuned to them We learn how to please them and oth- ep and indeed haw to annoy then. We slowly start to inmagine the worlds that they five is and hew they may respond to us Like at ‘or not, we become increasingly socialited te act nowards them, to develop a primitive empathy or sympathy wwards others. I we do net —if we fil te learn this empathy = then we will not be able 1 cominncat, we will not be able to routinely go about our daily social lite in any kind of sansfictory way. Sociology is alo charged with studying this everyday life of adjustment — hew the billions of people who dwell on Planet Earth pee through the day living with each other, How do we adapt and eondorm, rebel amd inne- wate, nitualize and withdraw? We look at the complicated relations between our bodies, aur inner worlds for “subjpectivicies’) and oor way: of behaving with other in this living of everyday life sa that social worlds can proceed ina fairly intelligible and onderly fashion most of the ome. It wall of coune also be subject to serous contlict and breakdown, ard sociology looks at this too, What is fixemating about this everyday world as that we — that Tithe child thrown into a strange bet grven world — actually alvo do make part. of it oumelves It turm out that fron the moment of beth, when we fint confront thie construming workd, oll the montent we de and life contes to a dramatic end, we are given an active energy to keep going — to move through the werd with a tremendous potential and creative ability to act in it and on it, We Tithe human animalsare the creators of social bite all the times we are active agents whe muke social worlds, Sacialized inte it, we then make it work for un. So sociology studies this too, Sociolagists ask 1 This fa reference go the sxciologist Beni Murkbeim (Purkbcimn, 1982, Pp. S24). There are very few dirtier Rictites or references ie thia buck, They are hereafter provided vath an author reference puly which will be in the bibliography; or page ly page, offen with links, om the webune that accompanies this book. See herp’ “[Link]/scialogy.>LA IMATICUNS how prople come to assemble their social fives aie social worlds ia radically different ways in different times and places. Yet whilst som of us can develop ways of being the active agents of aur lives, many othen may be restricted in doing so. While no one is determined, we are pot all capable of knowledgeable actors in the world to the mame degree. And here ma key problem for socioloyies: inequali- ties (we wall return to this often and especially in Chapter 7) Sociology as consciousness: eutsiders on the margins? Sociology brings a fresh imagination for seeing social lif. As socicilo- gistswe enter the human social worlds of others and are likely — at least moementarily—to feel challenged by the differencesof others Forpeaple~ fn other group, countries and Limes live different lives to yours, To see ‘this clearly, | will need ta temporarily abandon my own takon-for- granted view of the world and develop an empathy with the worldview of others. As sociologists, we must suspend our own world and fora. level, there are some sociologists (like Harold Garfinkel (1917-2011) in a classic study, Studies in Ethnomethodalogy} who have conducted “breaching experiments’ ta make our everyday life axporiences very strange, Garfinkel invited his students to question everything going on. around them, to-ask and probe every convention of the dally round, A. friend says, ‘how are you?’ They ask back: "what do you mean by that?” They go toa shop and barter over the price of goods (in many cultures, ‘thes is the norm; but it i not so in the UK or North America). They: move their face right up to the face of the person they are speaking. ‘to, almost rubbing noses. They sit with friends and question everything, that is saed, These lithe experiments in breaking the routine soon show how much our society depends on trust, kindness and understanding, ‘each other. Others are soon threatened by strange questionings. This beads us To-one of sociology’s litte problems: the need to chal- lunge ethnocentrism and the closely linked ixxye of epocentrism. Here are stances that put our own ‘taken-for-granted’ ways of thinking at ‘the centre of the social world, a if we are always right and know cho trth. Ethnocentrism assumes that cur culture four ethne — way of fife) is at the centre of the world; whereas egocentram asiumes that the world revolves around us. Wie need bo purge ourselves from their influence. Sociology demands as a pre-requisite that we get rid of this:IMATION. soll-centred view of the world and that, as the contemporary and influ- ential sockologist Zyprount Bauman puts it, we Warn to defamiliarize ourcelves with the familiar, It stresses. the neod to always mee the dif- ferences [and value) of other lives and cultures and, indeed, the value of the differences of other standpoints. At its strongest, it absolutely forbids us to pronounce on others’ worlds and instead to take then’ seriously on their cwn teens. It makes us humble in the face of the word's differences: © To take the simplest example of this in evenrday life: you are going on a holiday to 4 country you do not know), You are the outsider, the stranger. Mow you can of course just go to another culture and *tram- ple’ on it assume-your own culture is best and net bother with what you find there You would became one of those ignorant, cras holl- daymakers that are an embarrassment to everyone! You would speak only in your own language; mot bother to leam any of the mew cus- ‘toms expected of everyone; and take litthe interest in what is going om that makes that culture bistorically different - its potitics, its religion, its family life. Worst of all, you willl probably extel the virtues of your own country when you face different foods, different ways-of queuing, different modes of talking to each other. You will be, in-short, a narnow— minded, uncouth holidaymaker abroad! But if you area more sensitive soul, then traveding can be very dif ficult. You often come to feel a complete foal as you stumble against: @ language you cannot speak and customs, mores and folkways you do not understand, | know that | sometimes feel Lar fike a very yours child when | cannot even say ‘excuse me’ or “where is [Link] that? in the hast language. Or simply when | want to ask fora cup of coffer “and cannot express myself, What @ bumbling, incompetent foot | ar! How can they — why should they - bother with me? People are usually kind and they try to hetp. But without a basic knowledge of a culture's language, it is hard to move around easily in it. And it goes much further than that. The meanings of cultures tie deep: the meaning of the gander in Japan, the bullfight in Spain, the veil in tan. (Kate Fox's Watching the English (2014) is.a now classic and bestselling field study of the English which gets at the taken-for-granted oddities of English culture ) ‘Hore is the social as-cutsider, not insider; outsiders are peaple wha donot belong, who dwell on the margins, who arc deviants and strang- ors. The social is. defined not just by who belongs, but by whe does nat, Often itis best studied and analysed not through the eyes of the pecple whe belong and are in it ~ bat rather through the eyes of those aut- sido. ft is only the outsider who can see [and question) what is truly>LA IMATICUNS ‘Taken for granted. Hence sociology takes seriously the vaices and 8 of immigrants, refugees, the strangers in town, the ‘invisible man’, tho alienated young, the disentranchised and deviant, the gothic and tho queer. Their differences throw a sharp light on what is taken for granted and nipermal. THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION AS CRITIQUE AND WONDER The physicist looks at the skies and stands in amazement at the cn verse. The municin listers to Mozart, Becthoven or Stravinsky — oF ABA, Adele, Taylor Swift and stands in amazement at the won drous works that lithe: human beings can produce on earth, The sporsperon finds their udrenalin gushing at the thought of ron ning Or going tow sports stadium. And the sociologist gets op every day and sands in wonder at the litte sockal worlds — and indeed human societies — that we have created for oumelves: their mean- ing. order, comfict, chaos and change, For the sociolagit, soctal life is sometimes sensed as something quite inspiring, and sometimes as something quite horrendens which bongs about disenchantment, anger and despair, Secolagias stand ty aver and dread, rage and dehghe at the humanly prodeced social world with all its joys and its sufferings. We enitique it. and we eritically celebrate it, Standing. un amazement at the complex patterns of human social hfe, we examine both the good things worth fostering and bad things worth striving toremove, Somology becomes the systematic, sceptical study of all things social. The dark side of society: the miseries and sufferings of human social life So here is the had news. On a bad day | can hardly get out of my bed. The weight of the world ond its suffering bean down upon me: the human misery, as it has confronted the billions before me. Luckily, [am mot a depressive; so [ have my ways of getting up and Springing inte action, Hut hang there same mormungs, | see the long historrcal march of homanity’s inhumanittes, the horror of the world and the sutfenngs of humankind. And | squirm. How can it be tharIMACMATIONS. for 58 long and with such seeming stupidity and bhudnes, haunan beings have continued ceaselesly to make human social worlds in which so very tany suffer — that are sa inanufestly dehiniianised aid inhuman? Here is a world full of wan and violence, poverty and inequality, depotions and corruption, Here is the borrendeus treat nent of other peoples who aev different from us and the vast neglect and denial of these suffers. Bilhons of people throughout history have pone te their deaths with inented lives, Studying this is ane of the routine topies fir soctolapy. For sociology might be seen as bor out of an awareness of human fragility, vuluerability and suffering. Everywhere it seenm societies cast ‘others’ into the roles of enemties and monster — creating: bier atch ofthe good” to vale aid ‘the bad! to dehuimanize. br was, after all, hitman beings that designed slavery for much of history - a system thar still esses (dhe Global Slavery Index in 2020 claims there are same 40.3 million melading 24.9 millon in forced labour and human trathcking; amd 15.4 mullon bring in forced marnages}. lt was alo binman activity — apparently sepported by gods — which created the “caste’ system of social stratificasion, as Aryan-speaking people moved into India around 1500 ach, creating a group of peo- ple called the untouchables who were to be designated outade of regular homan lif: and left with all the dirty jobs (ee Chapter 7) fe all a history of kings. nilers and popery dominating th splen- dour over the vait inmmierated manes. There has been no period free from wars — ower land, status, wealth and meligion — and by all accounts the twentieth century was the bloodiest century of all, with its genocides, world wars, purges. Tevolutonary mass shughters, tts “fschormy” and its ‘communism, There is controvery over how to count the number of actual meya-deaths’, but somewhere between 180 nulbon and 200 million a cumber atten cited. That is to say that probably one in ten of the population of the world born around 1800 were slaughtered through war or genocide im the twentieth century. And the widespread problems of war, poverty, hunger, Holocaust and disease throughout time may have only been margin- ally diminished in the current time. To all this mut now be added the accelerating threat of environmental crisisand an inmriment eco- logical cataurophe and existential criss, We humans do mot seem to have madea very good job of living together peacefully, creatively and happily. All this i the stuffof great literanine, poetry ind film making. Anda core concer for secialogy,>LA IMATICUNS Sociology, then, generates concent at the hhillions of wasted and daruged lives engulfed by ‘man’s inhumanity to man’, Sociobogises ate joterested an the social conditions thar prodie hatin social suffering. We are concerted with the ways in which private and dadividual sufferings have origi from within our sevieties: how what might seem to be personal problema are abo publi teres. For we muy Ory to gesp the contemporary problens of refu- gee by trying to undentind the problenis of an individual life. Bur usually, ie will be auch mare helpful to book at the wider structural problems of stare conflicts, matiorulin, raciua, religion and eco- noni inequalities (see Chapter 3; Chapter 7), Sociology is changed with inking the personal to the social, the private to the public, The atalysis of huiiais suffering becorties a central interest. Always look on the bright side of life: thejays and Gives this, it's not surprsing to find many saying that sociology is whe distal nee —a dark, bleak, pesinaisme disciphiie. Don't hang around with sociologists. they way, because the trade of sociologists takes them prety gloomy people, Indeed, all this tay have been enough to make you put the book down. But held on. I it really all sich bad news? Critical we sociologists are. Hut at the same time, we canner stop seeing — mutch of the time — how people alse go about thei daly rounds in society working with cach other, canng for cach other, loving cach other and often in ease and co-operation, Societies are often remarkable himan achievements. A few yearn age, aT lay mm ny moder hospital bed shortly after ten hoon of major life-saving: surgery. | pondered! past how all this had cone to be. My Idfe-threatering dines — chromic liver cirthous — had balled millions of people throughout history; but aver the past sixty vean ors, the inventon of transplant srgery throuch modern science had come to save thowsanids of hives, A hte-threatening, ill- new had been tamed, But it wax so much more than this, Here | was inamodern hospital — a hugely expensive bureaucracy employing thewands of worker in multioudes of different ways im a manive division of labour in order to srve my life and the lives of thousands of other. All around me [could see soctal acts of great, learned skill and scientific knowledge, myriad soetal acts of humane and. law ing care, multiple socal acts of practical activity: workers cleaning,IMACMATIONS. the flour, pushing molleys with paticns, provading food, keeping the plumbing going, welcoming the outpatients, organizing beds, orchesrating a millon linke daily routines. This was ne aiall hain and socal endeavour. How had this come to be? Av 7 lay there, [ celebrated the wonder of human social organization and the way it had Gahioned thin whole experience. | pondered — in a fash — the history of hospital, the training of doctor and nurses from all aver the world, the social ieanings of caring for others, the genera ity and altreicm of many people, the skill of singeans pased on from generation to generation, the daily organization of timetables and role: — for mise, doctors, porter, ambulance diver, social worker, pharmacists, phlebotomists, physiotherapists, transplant co- erdinanars, volunteer, adeinitrarer, ward inanager and the reat 1 pondered indeed my own social timetable on the ward and amy daily encounters with a myriad of health professions, a string of rituals from s-ray to mcdication, Stones of thankfulness and wonder like mine have recently been told many times dunng the Covid-19 pan= demic. And | thought: thes is what sociologats want te indertand. Just how did chis all come together? Just how does this work? And all of thy so | — and all che other — could live? Yer this in jist one of hundreds of stones | could tell af my soci ological amamement over many vean, There are many marvel of human creativity, care and imagmation. OW sctetice, mechcime, att, sport, ustc: the clothes we Guhion, the food we create, the music we delight in, the knowledge we have accumulated ower the millennia — the muncoms and libraries, the technolegies that get people onto the moon and allow them to speak to people all ower the world. ft goes con and oni, Sociologists also look im sheer wonder at faman social world making, at the ways in which we solve problems, do daily life and offen treat cach other with care, respect, kindness and love, Amd all ina sort of orderly way, We look at the social enganizanon of everyday living and the fortunate and fulfilled, even privileged, lives that some lead. And we ak about the social conditions under which the good, humane and happy social life can be lived. Soclayists look in two directions, ly ope direction, we look fir the probleins and suffering and are highly critical, In the other>LA IMATICUNS direction, we look for the joys and buunaaity of the social world and are (cuutouily and critically) celebratory. This hat been 4 long-time problens in the thinking abour society. [tis found, for iimtanee, quite stikingly in the Enhghtenment philosopher Voluire’s mots sat- ire Cundide (1759). Here the heres follows his teacher Dr Punplers's philosophy thae ‘everything is for the best in the best of all possible werkds’ (the Fanglosin philosophy), only to encounter everywhere he travel the torren of rape, beat . explointion, murder, war and canstrophe. Concluding, be is bed te say thar his is not the best of all posible worlds, bur we do make our owt lives, We had bet- tor, he says, cultivate our awn gardens. Amd here we may tind some happiness in the world. Think on: travelling in the alr And so here is the good mews and the bad news. Lam waiting Tor a plane ats major international airport, and | stand) in owe. How did it corne to be that millions of Homo sapiens can new: ‘travel daily acrous the globe in the air? This was nut really possible even a hundred years aga. Anew ‘aerornobility’ hat helped organize the: modem global world. And | ponder the complexity of this social action, the sheer inventiveness and creativity of hurnan beings to make all thes happen —to “invent” planes, flying, airports, travel. Think of a journey. From millions of fitthe individual lives, decisions. are made to eet fro A to B (say Buenos Aires to Cairo, but anywhere). Phone calls are made, websites are searched, and tour operators are brought in, A muscive worldwide system of booking involving thau- sands of business operations is brought into play, This is fumasy endeavour at a maniiestly global level Bookings are made. Arrbvals aed! departures are fixed. And airport terminals are reached: here are huge: complex enterprises where it would seem possible fer so much to go: ‘wrong ~ queuing, ticketing, baggaging, passporting, security, hoarding, take off, landings. In 2018, there were seme 4.4 billion air trips across the world, At London's Heathrow alone, some 80.9 million people moved through the airport, Athanta is: the workd"s busiest with 11053 million passengers por year, followed dosely by Brijang. (With Covad-19 in 2020, numbers travelling dropped all around the werld = putting the ‘very industry in jeopardy.) Here are amazingly cormples timetables in place - in major international airparts, planes take offand land every10 IMATION. few seconds, And these places - spaces — ave now built as huge cathe- drab. of conmumption, as places where you do not just want to fly, but somehow need to buy a wide bunch of expansive commoditios | have often pondered why nearly all major airports have a fascinating bar where caviar, smoked salmon, seafood and champagne are served (it is the Last: thing | fancy before going up into the air is it status food for the wealthy?) But there must be a demand for this. Ainports are fascinating objects of study: they are transient communities, vast shap- ping malls, landscapes of surveillance and places of work. They show massive divisors of Labour, multiple complex social emcounters, the social organization of spaces. There are sign systems that need to be understood, practical activities to be done, architecture to be tacitly understood, It is a world of markets, conimunication, conflicts, change and above all social order, And with it, there is a whole ‘underworld’ of airports that we lvow little about but which we sometimes read about. Aned we haven't even got up inte the air yet. ‘Once we take off, a-series of other wonder come into play. Who. could have imagined 200 years ago that we would iwent lange metal cans to house some 600 people which can then Fly in the air across. space at nearly 1,08) kilometres an hour? And even more than that: in these cant we would be served hot meals (vegetarian low-cholesterct fusion Thai would be my meal of cholee) and have a seemingly end- (ess choice of films, garmes and music? (Heaven forted that we should be bored on our eight-hour trip across thousands of miles.) 4 whole world of autopilots, airport mechanics, ground staff and of course Might attendants comes into play, And finally, | pondar what this means to: the millions of individual lives and pathways criss-crossing round the: world to meet business appointments and loved anes, Ta watch the faces at the arrival gates telly a lot The ending of the Richard Curtis film Love Actually (2003) shows the arrival gate at Heathrow with the screen siowly opening upto show hundreds of expectant faces meeting and greeting each other from their travels. Here indeed is asocial struc- tute at work — thocrands of people doing things together in pattermed ways — making social order at airports, making society work. Bue hold on, you will rightly say: there is also wery bad news here too, Mast of the world's population have never been near a plane or an aisport - suggesting a massive inequality of the warld. It has been estimated that a mere T per cent of the world’s population do 80 per gent of the world's flights - and only 5 per cent of those alive today have ever been on a plane, More than this, airports and planes wreak>LA IMATICUNS huge havot on the environment — destroying habitat and emetting, large quantities of carbon feven at they are planned to double in size iin the nant few decades), More than this: since the attack on the Twin. Towers of the World Frade Center and the Pentagon on September 1, 2001 (with some 3,000 victims (and nineteen jihadi hijackers) killed as four planes were crashed), they have become sites of fear, suspicion, surveillance and danger Many of my friends now hate fying because avtounding centres of simultaneous crass commercialiam (you have to: walk through an endtess shopping mall 1o get to the planes), surved- Sociologists have documented how airports hive become centres of distinctly unpleasant and dehumanized lite. for more on-all this, sev John Urry's Mobilitins (2007; chapter 7), Harvey Molotch's Against Security (2012 chapter 2) and Rachel Hall's The Transparent Travelor (2015). ‘One more example must entice; and it na much more general fone, Although soctologiss see and write about ternble things in the world, | have long been impressed — in hirerature and lite — at the myriad lithe ways im which peophe constrict their own lithe social worlds and go about ther everyday lives, wherever they can. mot being too nasty or disruptive to other people, amd very often heme kind to their neighbours and friends. Yes, we know there ts comflect, there ane bad neighbour and, according, to seme socbobogists, the dechiee of commenity. Lut there are also the ubispaitons lithe worlds ofhuman care, kindness and sensitevity to others. Ifyou look at much great literature, you wall certainly find tragedy and drama, hatred and jealousy, Bur you will also frequently find a celebration of ordinary people going about them ordinary lives. George Eliot's nineteenth- century novel Adididfemant (1871) 0a marvellous example. Generally considered to be one of the world’s greatest novels, it tells the story of indungralzation and change comég to a small nimeteenth-centary community, with all the class and gender divisions you would expect to find, Bot it abe tells the story of everyday heroism, of people pet- ting on with thetr lives, sometimes looking after others, sometimes doing altruistic act — ane all the litte personal foibles this generates. n12 IMACMATIONS. Call this ‘the social organization of everyday life’: it is abiquinous; and it is truly astounding Sociologists abo study these line acts of everyday life, how people care for each other —and indeed love each other. There is then a sochology of everyday Lie, a sociology of care antel a secbology af altruist, as well asa sociology of play, a seciology of love and a sociology of happiness, A SOCIOLOGY OF EVERY DAMNED THING ‘So in the end, it seems, sociology can study anything and every- thing — both the big things and the Linke things, Traditionally, it as studied throwsh a eerie of key institurions such as religion, educa- tian and the econoiy, Lock ar any school or college textbook on sociology {a good way to get the sense of the taken for granted in afield of sgudy) and you wall find chapters an social things lke the family, health, the government and the workplace. Bur sociology actually studies a lor more: im range is the whole of social life. Since everything thar hina beings do involves iotial things, everything ante anything: can be analysed socioloically, Thi certainly means it studies all the hig imsues of sockal lite — plage, cervironmental catastrophe, perrormim, dee dig trade, anigration. But it also means that sociologist can be interested in all the ithe chitigs of everyday life So here is a quick alphabet of a few topics. You can find a sociology of age, a sociology of boted water, a sociology of consumption, a sociology of drugs and deviance, There are soctologbes of education, of food anc fieotball, of ghobal things, of horror films. Sociologasts study Ireland and Etaly, Jamaica and Johannesburg, They investigate the sociobogy of knowledge, Jove, muwac and norms. They study Onental despotism, patriarchy, queer politics, rape, suicide, tramgender, the upper classet and urban life, voung behaviour, welfare, X-treme sports, youth and gero- tolerance policies, There can indeed be a sociological approach to any danined thing you can think of — even the most unlikely sounding subjects, [fit involves people coming together socially, chen it can be stuched socologeally. Wherever there are social things, sociologets can smudy them, Thi mean that sometimes sociglegy is mocked as a rather wild and silly discipline because it can study the most seem-= ingly rehculous things and seem to be trivial in the extreme, | hope to show you that thi itself na wery silly view. Soctologists can bring:>LA IMATICUNS their irtiaginations to study all thar is seckal in fuurai Tide. Aad char meats ewerythitig. So is sociology silly? The three ‘T's Let me give three of these seemingly ‘silly " examples quickly. | will eall them the three “T's: the sociology of tomatoes, the sociology olf toilers aid the sociology of telephones — the ‘tonarocs, toilets and telephones! problem! New you muy Lugh, and ar fret sight some might say this 1 typical and just whar gives sociology a bad name. A sociology of tomatoes, era sociology of toilets indeed? But chink art. Here are their concerns. Whar doc @ secdolaey of toimatoet book like? 1 lave one colleague who has — for many years now — specialized in the sociology off tomatoes, He isa profesor and he runs a research centre at a major university. He it a very serious aman, and if you pet him talking about tomatoes, be wall sot stop. Why? He cin trace the history otf toruntoes, froii the earliest Aztec saka through to the fineus Heine Ketchup bore and on te the lrest fehionable pizza and Hoody Mary cocktul He can shew bow the tomato has been continually Mumformned in the ways it has been produced, exchanged and con- sumed. He looks ut it pole in recent capitalist societies and shows how ‘if was an carly pioneer th mas. production and a contempo- rary contributor to the creanon of global cusimes. These days, it has become even more interesting as the variety of tomatoes found. in our supermarkets becomes srmultancously mere and more standard- ied and yet of a much wider range than people could have ever bought before. How can we get such standarcigation and yet such diversity at the same time — and often just round the commer? How fas capinclism onganized the torrata? How the world bas changed. Just ge te the tomatoes: and have a look nest time you are in a super- market, What is the chain of people that pot the tomatoes there? Why are they int this form? Who is buying them and whe ic making money owt of them? Hefore you know it, you are discussing the histoncal nature of the global coonomic system under capitals, [Link] haven't even sented te decum genetic modification and the emvironmertal testes. OK, but toilets? What can. socialogy of toilets powibly be about? Well, | have another colleague, Harvey Molotch, a dear friend as 134 IMACMATIONS. it happen, and a world leader in ‘urhan sociology’, whe studies what he calls ‘stuff, He looks at all the social things we use daily — frodi toaster to chairs — aid asks quesions about ther social hutory (where did they comm from), their social appearance (why do they come te look Hike they de) and how they are used in everyelsy life ‘Our worlds are cluttered with objects — you could make 4 quick list ofthe things surrounding you right now, from computers te pens to books to mobile photies and so on, These are all wetal objects aid they all have a seciology. Well afew years back, he gor interested jay toilets (and jokingly, he and his colleagues call it ‘shit studies}. Now surely J can’t be serious, A sociology of toilets? Shir studies? Again, think on. Toilet. fist 4 ttajer spectrums of issues, Cher the past cennury, they have become basic to our modern world, (Which reader docs net use one?) Wet the fd codlee (WE) mm recognized clobally as an icon of modernity — an emblem of wealth — for an estemated 2.5 billion of the world's population live without even a latnne! Over a billion fave te resort to ‘open defecation’ in fields, niud, forests and bushes. ‘Think alone of the smell ard saghes but also the comse- quences for health, The lack of sanitation breeds diseases. When we socially reorganine sanatanon, we change the amnells, sights and health of a society, Soa sociology of tombets rames the big neues of health amd inodernity, How cid changes in sentation bn the nanieteenth century prove to be a decisive faetor in changers health and morbidity bewek? Who in the world gets ‘decent’ toilets, ewen hiosury bathrooms? And how is it the poor so often dwell m such appalling sanitary condi tiom? Toilets flag another major isue for sociology: the study of social lneusallties. Kut now move to the more mmndane level of everyday lite, Spend aweek oherving your behaviaur and that of others in toilets; look for the tacit and overt serial rules that organize your behavaour and ake the little social ritual you have developed. These things have heen stiidied by sociologists te miggest ways tn which our everyday lives are regulated by fine system of rules and ritual, many of which we hardly notice. Think about the Jong quevics often found for wormen’) torlets, think generally about the gender differeces — men tarely talk in toilets, wornen often do, Think about the adjustment of drew and the comportment of body, Maybe watch Parornuta Vobra’s documentary film Q2P (Queue to Pee) (2006), which con>LA IMATICUNS be found on YouTube. Set in Mumbai, it looks at whe has to queve to pee and shows few geneber and clas inequalities are revealed throng toilets, Sormetines, tod, suciolaygias book kite the se-culled deviant pattems — where rules are broken. In one rewearkable clus at and controversial sociolyscal sudy, Transom Trade (1975), the sociohogist Laud Humphreys (194-1988) showed how toilet could be used by betercexuul mien for homasexual pickups with routine nen miaining iaware of the homosexual activities that were tak days place. "There as coach then to be said about toilets socbokogecally.. Finally, consider a sudalogy of telephones, What iight this look like? Probably ne means of cotmmunicunion has revolutionized the daily lives of ordinary people more than the telephone. Invented around 1876, it diffused radually from a few thou elite users tou Widespread way of communicating acros the social Claas and the world. (Herbert Case's Mistry of the Telephome is a classic pul Inhed in 110 and covers the first thirty-five yeam. There have been many such histones sence.) Portable and mobile phones armved. in the 1940s and were popular by the 100k. Siiart phones antived. in the Bits, ad the (Phone was announced in 2007, They have now become ubiquitous and umivenal. In 2020, some 4.4 billion peo- ple worldwide were using mobile phones — 3.5 billion were smart phones. In the UK alone, 64 per cent wed a amart phone — spending at average of two and a half haw every day (see finder. com/uk? wnobile-internet statistics). In just a few decades, the mobile phane has become a worldwide global necessity of modern living, (That said, there are some 3 billion who do mot have chem.) What has this meant? For most of human history, comm, ication has been direct and Gee-to-face, Hist with the phone, hunman interac tom started to be more and more mediated by technologies — shifting who we could speak to, wher we could speak to them and indeed wher we could speak with them. Bur with the smart and mobile phone, everyday hfe i revolutionized, It raises new issues here for the twenty-first century to confront. Space, for example, gets reor= janized: friendships wow can easily ylide across the globe, Time gets transferred: there is instant accessibility and the postbility for wany of ‘perpetual contact’ through a mobile phone, Information becomes vast, readily available and ubjquitous, The self comes to be presented in new and different ways — through ‘selfies’, for ekample. The vaual changes a: we use Skype amd can look at the people we 1516 IMACMATIONS. speak with, Language gets altered as new forts of texting amd writ- ing appear. The public/private is reconfigured: isis once private dow become mate and tare publicly visible. Inequalities shames asa new hierarchy of access to phones appears. There are these who have access to all this across the world, and these who do wot, Aud new global issues are raised of regulation (how states control these new communications) and survedlance (how state moninor what is going on), There is, aa you can see, a lot to be analysed about “twlephones', and sociologists have indeed written much om it, The changes wall go on. We are now arriving in the land of ‘the internet of things’. “Hig Dat’ and the world of artificial intellgence. 1 wall retum to all-thr throughout the book. A final example: the sociology of health and Covid-19 A tinal example of the importance of the sociological imaginanon can bring this totroduction to 4a Ghose As T werine this edition in 2120, the world his been overaken by the pandemic of Cavid-19, and same two million people have died. First noticed im China in early 2020 and clined to have arisen frond o live animal market in Wuhan, it has swept through the wereld Every courtry has been impacted, though some much more than others. Where dees sociol- ogy fit in here? Ment obviowsky, you will not be surprised to leary that there ba very well developed (and popular) field of sociology known as the sociology of health. (Socology i divided mte many uthfields — the American Sociological Association hsts over a hundred. This is one ofthe moat well-establohed areas of study.) Le discusses many tues. Far imtance, it looks at the social origins of illness, at its epidenn- ology and links to inequality. Here we see how Covi-19 affects groupe differently: so far it seems alder people, the disabled and diadvantaged groups are much more vulnerable — denvonstrating the well-known fact of widespread inequalities of health (see Chap- ter 7). ft looks too at the social experience and narratives of health and sickness (nanrative medicine). As we listen to the stories people tell of experiencing Covid, we lear of seme off its most distressing and traumatizing features. We lear too how farmihes and friends adjust or fil bo adjant to the ilies — sometemes facing the trauma of death,>LA IMATICUNS The sociology of breadth ale looks at the soctal onguuization of care and Ihealth; at the ways medical knowledge, science, medicine, the profesions of care, amd techrioloey have all been developing; and got organized to handle the pandemic, The great success story here seems te be the rapid developinent of waceines within a your of discovery of the disease — this has never happened before, But it abe shows us the weed for a well-organized public health systen. 9 orgie tricking and tracing of contact Cavid has naight us about the demanding yet vital role played by sare people — key workers — wapeciaily nunes, decron, caren and an army of ancillanes (lke cooks and porter), Here too is the sudy of key people — deere is asociohogy of nuning, We have alo leanet about the experiences of differcst countries, showing thie with poorer system and the Gilure of care. Otten it seems Lirge rich countries (like the USA and European couritries) have dome bess well than sinall countries (bike New Zealand and South Korea), It alee shows the social impact of illneson people, groups and different societies. There man interest int grlexbal Isealelh, Finally, sociology addireses what might be called ‘social existen- tialisen’ — the meanings of body, health, death and well-being. It asks about the social nature of the bedy and what it means to be human — how illness taker un to the foundational rss of bemg homan, olf matters to de with reproduction, life and death and dying. Amd so sociology brings a great deal no the stidy of the panderme. We wall look more at this later. SUMMARY This chapter has welcomed you to the soctological imagination by intreducing you to a sprinkling of examples. Sociology cultivates an imagination for examining the systematic, sceptical and crincal study of ‘the social’. It investigates the homan construction of social work and it sufferings aid joys, creating a bridge berweeti the perional life and the public one. This chapter has roamed over a number of examples to show that sociolopy can study ussything fren the big ismes (like war, migraion and poverty) po the smaller chings (like tomatoes, toilet amd telephone) and canbe both critical ancl celebratory. It grapples with the ides that even aa we are born inte a werld we never made, we are capable of acting ow it and changeng ir 718 IMACMATIONS. Sociologiss adopt an oursder stance; once eneountered, the world will never be seen in quite the samw way again. EXPLORING FURTHER More thinking 1 Start to build your sociological imagination by faking to the opening box an Soctolayey as Comciousness (p. 3) and inspecting: your own asumptions. Think about whether yeu can suspend belief? in chem, at least fora while, 2 In starting to get clear wane of the ‘basic’ of sociology, why not hhuild up your own sociology Mog. diary at Picebook pause and even Share with other? Following oo from the examples given in the chapter of tomatoes, toile and telephones, think af a few areas of social life that interest you (dhe ax ‘174, for example — dance, dress, dogs, democracy, drugs or drink!) aid start to bailed up your own seciglogical aiabyses of thei, By the aid of reading this book, yen should be startin: to think sociologically ard will have produced your own first siulll-scale sectoboical studies, 3 As you read each chapter of this beok, build up a fey imore observations, a litte collection of relewane- links and taybe some key words, Note thar work in bold throughout the text abe gathered together ina glowsary ar the end of the book and are key words to uriderstand. You may like to brkd your own glosary of ew words fier yar blog, Further reading “An inspiring book for several generations has been Charles Wright Milk, The Soceloyioal dmaginarion (1959), Daniel Nehinng and Dylan Kerrigan's lively Imagining Society: The Cave for Sociolagy (2020) dx ctpss the work of Milk aid updates him, Another earky classe ‘short’ intreduction to seciology i Peter Berger's fuvitatien to Sorint- agy (166); this book turned me on te socbobogy in the 160s! Peter Berger telh his personal story of sectokogy ina very readable way in Adventure of wr Accidental Sonvlogict (001). The publishers: Parking: Kindersley have published a lovely coloured ilhistrated guidebook: The Socinlagy Book (15), which ix a joy to book at. A lively and>LA IMATICUNS amusing graphic tonroduction can be found an Introducing Sociolayy: AL ‘Graphic Guide by John Nagle (2016). Graham Crow provides a clear introduction to the greatsevial thinkers aid their urguniests in his The Art of Secivlogical Argument (2015), For mare classic traditional inteo- duction, see abo: Norbert Elias, (Mhar bs Sociolyyy? (1978), Zyymuit Bauman, Thinking Secviegially (2019, thind edithom with Tin May); and Charles Lemaert, See! Things (2041, fitth edition). To coun ter the argument that sociology breeds despair, see Mary Halntes, Sociology fiw Chatimists (2010). Lautae Taylor has a very valuable loig- fanning programme on Radio 4, Thinking Allowed, which is always worth listening te — with a large gallery of back podessts. Textbooks are ako after a good way to sense the range of topics covered and get a feel for a discipline. Amougsr the many texm, Anthony Giddes aod Mhilip Summon, Sodelogy (2021, akuch edition), is mow the chasic, Widely wed in schools is Ken Browne's Am fntroducrion ty Sociology (2020, fifth editian), A valuable collectton of readings with clear commentary can be found in Darel Nehring. Sodelugy: An dmtroadice tory Tracthoole and Reader (2013). Twa widely used texthooks on the sociology of health are Sarah Neteleton's ‘Mie Sociology af Healeh amd Mileces (2020, foaerth edition); and Louise Warwick-Booth amd Ruth (Croms's Galohal Healt Stmufies (2018), Frnallly, we will be considering more apect of Covid-19 ax we move through the book, [t right be useful to look at WC, Cockerham fed.}, The Gorid-19 Reader (2021), for a wide-ranging set of articles from the earliest days; and F. Zakana, Ten Lessons fir ag Post Pardemic World (2021), As | write, Dieme an exploaon of writmyg about Covid-1: if isa sociologacal problem that can be approached from many angles, 19THEORY THINKING THE SOCIAL Society is net a mere sum of bodivideal, Rather, the system formed bry their associution represents a specific: reality which has it own characteristic . » The group thinks, feels, and aces quite Pin member would were they Emile Durkheim, The Rules af Sovioligial Method, 189S Many people view human life as biological, individual. econornic or religious, For sociologist, the starting peiitat has to be with ‘think- ing the social’. This is the place we wart, aking how we can best develop ways to think — and theorize — chi. Bur this is why seciol- ogy is quite a cifficult idea with mulaphe meanings. Indeed, when | dint came to study insome sicry-odd years ago as an exuberant young: gay man inthe 1960s, 1 naively knew three other words thar con- nected strongly te it: sical parrying, social work and coouhsm, [ liked all three and theught it had te be 2 good sabpect oo snudy! But d soon Jearnt it was oh se much wore than that, Ln this chapter, D atart to explore the idea of the social and iwtroduce some of the nutty ways sociologist theerze society. WHAT 15 THE SOCIAL? What | hope to get clear as that, at its best, sociology anudies a ais Hinctive reality of life. The ideas of both ‘social’ and ‘society’ derive trom the Lanin seria, which suggest both an active companionship and friendship, Ideas wf the ‘yectal’ were developed in the nineteenth century te mean, more and more, a cluster of human associations, Ein 10. IRATE RITATECH danitutions aad coniunities that mediate hina experience: through finily, village, pari, town, voluntary asoctarod, orga Hizaned aid ches It often indicated asocanons of people comng together for fdendly purposes (as in the friendly societies, selfIclp and trade uinians). Since then, the idea of ‘society’ hus green te become a ocntra for seciclogem — highlighted, even con- structed, by then as they made it their central object of wmdy. The sicial cones to capture the idea of people finctioning together in axocutions cutide of the workings of the state (whatas now often called ‘civil society). Amd in recent times, the idea of society itself hut been challenged aud re-debated, This chapter secks to raise some of these ideas. ‘Connecting sociology to other studtes: multidisciplinary studies Sociology is part of a wide spectrum of humuin and social sciences. Its, ‘own emphasis is on the social, and the task of this book is to show ‘what this means. But sociolegy should net stand apart fram other ways: of thinking, It is part of a wider, multidisciptinary praject that warts to make sense of our world, drawing frequently from these other disci- plines whilst also contributing to them, Connections always need to be made to disciplines like anthropology, archaeotogy, cnminalagy, eco~ nomics, humanities, history, pivlosophy, psychofogy and more Thus, we need an anthropotogiit’s eye to see the ways in which societies can be so different yet so similar as they evolve their webs of meaning into contrasting cultures and symbols across the world. We: need # critical economist’: analysis pats ea oe’ of moder finance and global capitaliam and its peels sr cnerderoerr as a from — recognizing that everything we exarnine evolves and ermerges: from a past. How did this ‘social thing’ come about? We need a link ‘with prychatogy to grasp haw the dynamics of "inner lives' connect to: the wider world. We need a philosopher's mind to deal with some pretty: profound issues around the meaning of knowledge (epistermalogy), the nature of human social life (ontology) and even the ultimate values of our existence (ethics). We need a bit of the artist to glimpse at the com- plexity and imaginations of unique human beings i they go about their myriad maltipticities of day-to-day creativities and doings. We need to 222 read books and Hterature to expand our horizons of other lives. All this is a tll order, indeed, and 4 sheer impossibility for amy one discipline {or person alone) te de. Bust bit by bit, and person by person, a can be put together. Sociology is really at its very best when it takes seriously all these other disciplines und wacks them into a deeper understanding. Take the study of education a4 an example. The sociologist will ask. ‘macro’ questions about how schools link to the wider society, opportu- nities and inequalities, as well ax ‘micro‘ questions about the culture of the school. The anthropologist will show us how knowledge exists and gets transmitted across different kinds of society ower the weorkd crim nologists will ask questions about “troubled cultures’ drugs) in schools and universities. The econamest will look at supply ait derided and the workkng of budgets for education. The humanities will direct us to films, art and novels about schools, universities, teach- [Link] students to. give us imaginations and insights, Mistorians will ask. how educational systems have grown and changed over tire, Philosa- pers will turn our attention to the purpase and meaning of education, whilst psychologists will direct us to the personal development af chil- dren and youth, A deeper understanding will come from connecting alll ‘the disciplines of which sociology is ane ital part. Social facts, doing things together and the social forms of tife Simply put, for soctologiits ‘the social’ has two rheanings. First, at depict a reality that come: to exit [Link] its own (nai Seen), Secondly, it depict a reality of mteractions, relaticihips aid communication between people The view that the social has a life of its own was Grmously cbinwd by the much-celebrated faunding French sociologist Emile Durkheim (185-917), Far him, saciety stood uniquely aa col lective reality over and above amy individual. Ina way, it works like a crowd: society comes to have a lift of its own and we get coerced to behave in certain ways-through if. Sociologists, hence, study thes social asa fact external to individuals which constrains us (Durkheim famously called these ‘social facts’).’ These days, social fact are 1 Wonds in bok can be found int the jglowary at the end of the bork and are developed mone ian the webnireTECH always extemal to us and regulatory, They can be cultural, lobal ancl, these days, claital. By cotrust, another iifliential early socrliger, the avant-garde Georg Sinamel (1858-1918), had o different view, seeing the social as ernbeddied in relations and intersection. He claimed that “socaety ia merely. ..4 constellation of tadividuals whe are the actual realities’, For him, communicating with other in the same species became a distinctive social ferrin of life (the human species could have been wesoctl), The wacial it human interaction, and it is the mudy aff this interaction which is atthe heart of sociology. An early leading sociologist, Max Weber (1864-1920), eked: how de we come 0 ‘uke into account the behaviour of othen'? A more recent leading, contemporary saviclogat, Howard 5. Becker (1924-), sugeests thar sociohogy micans studying people ‘doing things together’. The social becomes a relatiombip, and we ask about the ways in which we connect to cach other, How do we five with each other, and how might we survive without others? There are echoes here of Ribinsin Cros, the mou novel by Damel Defoe, with Robison Comoe being perhaps the carhest star of fm a Celebrity Get Me Chet of Here! Sesciologists ask: how is a society prossidile and how car buesant beieyss come te fine together? Social beings canmot survive and meet their needs other than through social co-operation and asseciation, bn this sense, the social lives tn otir imaginations as we come to live through the minds of others — a process which sociologists sometimes call role-taking: and the inter-subjective, How then might this happen? BECOMING SOCIAL: SOCIALIZATION, SELF AND BODY A newly born baby, full of bodily desires, is avery human animal —bur dt ota very secal one. As every good parent across the world knows, it tikes a while te care for a baby and to help po make it properly social and empathetic. These processes (often, called early OF primary socialization) are performed very differeuthy aero different cultures and acrow: histories: children are rated by weer Hues, manoies, in communes and linge Gienulies, by single parents, reidential homies, gay pareno and so om, There is great diversity dit child-rearing habin and mock research has shown how children come to commruct their language, their sense of self and identiry; and their social ‘habie® — for good or bad Whar seems clear is that if 23