MAKING CONNECTIONS: SOCIOLOGY IN THE REAL WORLD
How Sociological Perspectives Might View Food Consumption
The consumption of food is a commonplace, daily occurrence, yet it can also be associated with
important moments in our lives. Eating can be an individual or a group action, and eating habits
and customs are influenced by our cultures. In the context of society, our nation’s food system is at
the core of numerous social movements, political issues, and economic debates. Any of these
factors might become a topic of sociological study.
A structural-functional approach to the topic of food consumption might be interested in the role of
the agriculture industry within the nation’s economy and how this has changed from the early days
of manual-labour farming to modern mechanized production. Food production is a primary
example of how human systems adapt to environmental systems. In many respects the concerns of
environmentalists and others with respect to the destructive relationship between industrial
agriculture and the ecosystem are the results of a dysfunctional system of adaptation. The concept of
sustainable agriculture points to the changes needed to return the interface between humans and
the natural environment to a state of dynamic equilibrium.
A sociologist viewing food consumption through a symbolic interactionist lens would be more
interested in micro-level topics, such as the symbolic use of food in religious rituals, or the role it
plays in the social interaction of a family dinner. This perspective might also study the interactions
among group members who identify themselves based on their sharing a particular diet, such as
vegetarians (people who don’t eat meat) or locavores (people who strive to eat locally produced
food). The increasing concern that people have with their diets speaks to the way that the life of the
biological body is as much a symbolic reality, interpreted within contemporary discourses on
health risks and beauty, as it is a biological reality.
A critical sociologist might be interested in the power differentials present in the regulation of food,
exploring where people’s right to information intersects with corporations’ drive for profit and how
the government mediates those interests. Or a critical sociologist might be interested in the power
and powerlessness experienced by local farmers versus large farming conglomerates. Another topic
of study might be how nutrition varies between different social classes.
1.4. WHY STUDY SOCIOLOGY?
Sociologist Bernard Blishen (1919 – ) was the research director for the Royal Commission on Health
Services which drew up the plan for Canada’s national medicare program in 1964. (Photo National
Archives of Canada, C-036222)
When Bernard Blishen picked up the phone one day in 1961, he was surprised to hear Chief Justice
Emmett Hall on the other end of the line asking him to be the research director for the newly
established Royal Commission on Health Services. Publically funded health care had been introduced
for the first time in Canada that year by a socialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF)
government in Saskatchewan amid bitter controversy. Doctors in Saskatchewan went on strike and
private health care insurers mounted an expensive anti-public health care campaign. Because it was
a Conservative government commission, appointed by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, Blishen’s
colleagues advised him that it was going to be a whitewash document to defend the interests of
private medical care. However, Blishen took on the project as a challenge, and when the
commission’s report was published it advocated that the Saskatchewan plan be adopted nationally
(Vaughan 2004).
Blishen went on to work in the field of medical sociology and also created a widely used index to
measure socioeconomic status known as the Blishen scale. He received the Order of Canada in 2011
in recognition of his contributions to the creation of public health care in Canada.
Since it was first founded, many people interested in sociology have been driven by the scholarly
desire to contribute knowledge to this field, while others have seen it as way not only to study
society, but also to improve it. Besides the creation of public health care in Canada, sociology has
played a crucial role in many important social reforms such as equal opportunity for women in the
workplace, improved treatment for individuals with mental and learning disabilities, increased
recognition and accommodation for people from different ethnic backgrounds, the creation of hate
crime legislation, the right of aboriginal populations to preserve their land and culture, and prison
system reforms.
The prominent sociologist Peter L. Berger (1929– ), in his 1963 book Invitation to Sociology: A
Humanistic Perspective, describes a sociologist as “someone concerned with understanding society
in a disciplined way.” He asserts that sociologists have a natural interest in the monumental
moments of people’s lives, as well as a fascination with banal, everyday occurrences. Berger also
describes the “aha” moment when a sociological theory becomes applicable and understood:
[T]here is a deceptive simplicity and obviousness about some sociological investigations. One reads
them, nods at the familiar scene, remarks that one has heard all this before and don’t people have
better things to do than to waste their time on truisms—until one is suddenly brought up against an
insight that radically questions everything one had previously assumed about this familiar scene. This
is the point at which one begins to sense the excitement of sociology (Berger 1963).
Sociology can be exciting because it teaches people ways to recognize how they fit into the world
and how others perceive them. Looking at themselves and society from a sociological perspective
helps people see where they connect to different groups based on the many different ways they
classify themselves and how society classifies them in turn. It raises awareness of how those
classifications—such as economic and status levels, education, ethnicity, or sexual orientation—
affect perceptions.
Sociology teaches people not to accept easy explanations. It teaches them a way to organize their
thinking so that they can ask better questions and formulate better answers. It makes people more
aware that there are many different kinds of people in the world who do not necessarily think the
way they do. It increases their willingness and ability to try to see the world from other people’s
perspectives. This prepares them to live and work in an increasingly diverse and integrated world.
Sociology in the Workplace
Employers continue to seek people with what are called “transferable skills.” This means that they
want to hire people whose knowledge and education can be applied in a variety of settings and
whose skills will contribute to various tasks. Studying sociology can provide people with this wide
knowledge and a skill set that can contribute to many workplaces, including:
An understanding of social systems and large bureaucracies
The ability to devise and carry out research projects to assess whether a program or policy is working
The ability to collect, read, and analyze statistical information from polls or surveys
The ability to recognize important differences in people’s social, cultural, and economic backgrounds
Skills in preparing reports and communicating complex ideas
The capacity for critical thinking about social issues and problems that confront modern society
(Department of Sociology, University of Alabama)
Sociology prepares people for a wide variety of careers. Besides actually conducting social research
or training others in the field, people who graduate from college with a degree in sociology are hired
by government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and corporations in fields such as social
services, counselling (e.g., family planning, career, substance abuse), designing and evaluating
social policies and programs, health services, polling and independent research, market research,
and human resources management. Even a small amount of training in sociology can be an asset in
careers like sales, public relations, journalism, teaching, law, and criminal justice.
MAKING CONNECTIONS: SOCIOLOGY IN THE REAL WORLD
Please “Friend” Me: Students and Social Networking
The phenomenon known as Facebook was designed specifically for students. Whereas earlier
generations wrote notes in each other’s printed yearbooks at the end of the academic year, modern
technology and the internet ushered in dynamic new ways for people to interact socially. Instead of
having to meet up on campus, students can call, text, and Skype from their dorm rooms. Instead of a
study group gathering weekly in the library, online forums and chat rooms help learners connect. The
availability and immediacy of computer technology has forever changed the ways students engage
with each other.
Now, after several social networks have vied for primacy, a few have established their place in the
market and some have attracted niche audience. While Facebook launched the social networking
trend geared toward teens and young adults, now people of all ages are actively “friending” each
other. LinkedIn distinguished itself by focusing on professional connections, serving as a virtual world
for workplace networking. Newer offshoots like Foursquare help people connect based on the real-
world places they frequent, while Twitter has cornered the market on brevity.
These newer modes of social interaction have also spawned questionable consequences, such as
cyberbullying and what some call FAD, or Facebook addiction disorder. In an international study of
smartphone users aged 18 to 30, 60 percent say they are “compulsive” about checking their
smartphones and 42 percent admit to feeling “anxious” when disconnected; 75 percent check their
smartphones in bed; more than 33 percent check them in the bathroom and 46 percent email and
check social media while eating (Cisco 2012). An International Data Corporation (IDC) study of 7,446
smartphone users aged 18 to 44 in the United States in 2012 found that:
Half of the U.S. population have smartphones and of those 70 percent use Facebook. Using Facebook
is the third most common smartphone activity, behind email (78 percent) and web browsing (73
percent).
61 percent of smartphone users check Facebook every day.
62 percent of smartphone users check their device first thing on waking up in the morning and 79
percent check within 15 minutes. Among 18-to-24-year-olds the figures are 74 percent and 89
percent, respectively.
Smartphone users check Facebook approximately 14 times a day.
84 percent of the time using smartphones is spent on texting, emailing and using social media like
Facebook, whereas only 16 percent of the time is spent on phone calls. People spend an average of
132 minutes a day on their smartphones including 33 minutes on Facebook.
People use Facebook throughout the day, even in places where they are not supposed to: 46
percent use Facebook while doing errands and shopping; 47 percent when they are eating out; 48
percent while working out; 46 percent in meetings or class; and 50 percent while at the movies.
The study noted that the dominant feeling the survey group reported was “a sense of feeling
connected” (IDC 2012). Yet, in the international study cited above, two-thirds of 18- to 30-year-old
smartphone users said they spend more time with friends online than they do in person.
All of these social networks demonstrate emerging ways that people interact, whether positive or
negative. Sociologists ask whether there might be long-term effects of replacing face-to-face
interaction with social media. In an interview on the Conan O’Brian Show that ironically circulated
widely through social media, the comedian Louis CK described the use of smartphones as “toxic.”
They do not allow for children who use them to build skills of empathy because the children do not
interact face to face, or see the effects their comments have on others . Moreover, he argues, they
do not allow people to be alone with their feelings. “The thing is, you need to build an ability to just
be yourself and not be doing something. That’s what the phones are taking away” (NewsComAu
2013). What do you think? How do social media like Facebook and communication technologies like
smartphones change the way we communicate? How could this question be studied.
