On reading the excerpts by Peter Berger and C. Wright Mills, it is obvious that these two sociologists have very different methods as to how the practice of sociology should be conducted. While these two authors may differ in their various methods, they both have an underlying point that they are trying to make which can be made applicable in any person’s daily life.
The main point behind Peter Berger’s work Introduction to Sociology is that in order to find out the truth about a person or perhaps a situation, one must take a deeper look than just looking at the deceptive superficial surface. He starts off making this point by saying that not everything is as clear as it may appear. The world that we live in has many different sides to it. The general public is usually not aware of all these different aspects of our world. Berger uses the term “cultural shock,” which refers to the sudden impact on a person by entering into a completely different culture not previously experienced by that person, to describe the way that a person feels when they first uncover a sociological aspect of the world. This shocking discovery takes place when a person’s eyes are opened to the environment around them and they perceive more than just the obvious, regardless of how drastic or subtle the realization may be. One example that Berger uses to aid in describing this phenomenon is when someone discovers that money going to their church is actually being contributed to a business that manufactures projectile weapons. While not all realizations are this dramatic, it still arouses a sense of enthusiasm within the discoverer. Once Berger fully explains how this sociological phenomenon takes place, he goes on to warn the reader that sociology is not fo...
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...ry back of the classroom everyday because of the obstacle that the stairs present, making it difficult to even hear the teacher. It is amazing just how different a situation can seem when it is looked at from a completely different perspective, and I believe it is this striking realization that both Berger and Mills are trying to get their readers to discover.
In closing, both works by Berger and Mills make it obvious that the two men share different ideas on how the practice of sociology should be conducted. While some of their ideas may vary, they both share a fundamental point that they are trying to get across that can be applied in any person’s daily life.
Works Cited
Mills, C. Wright. The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press, 1959.
Berger, Peter L. Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective. New York: Doubleday, 1966.
Kendall, D., Linden, R., & Murray, J. L. (2008). Sociology in our times: The essentials (4th Cdn
Dillon, Michele. Introduction to Sociological Theory: Theorists, Concepts, and Their Applicability to the Twenty-first Century. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Print.
Schaefer, R. T. (2013). Sociology: A Brief Introduction, Tenth Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Kendall, D. (2012). Sociology in Our Times, 9th Edition [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781285309682
People use to think sociology is something theoretically and cannot put it into practice. The blog of “ Doing Sociology” by peter Kaufman show we what a sociology majors can pursue, and how to apply sociology into our daily lives. In fact, there are a lot of departments and career resources that need sociologist. To make sociology less abstract, we need to be able to apply sociology into our everyday lives. Kaufman’s model of “doing sociology” has four point that will help we adopt sociology to our lives. The four points are:
Schaeffer, R. T. (2009). Sociology: A Brief Introduction. (8th, Ed.) New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
“However, to develop our sociological vision we must do just that: We must be willing to look at our own society with cool detachment, careful observation, and scientific analysis. We must examine the groups we live in- our family, our neighbours, our classmates, our nation- as if we had just set foot in a new and strange land.” (Goode, 1977, P. 3)
Newman, David. 2010. “Seeing and Thinking Sociologically.” Sociology: Exploring the architecture of everyday life: 8th edition, edited by D.Newman. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press, Sage Publications Company.
Berger, Peter L. Invitation to Sociology; a Humanistic Perspective. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963. Print.
This was an intriguing discussion of the sociological perspective because it discussed how ordinary people might go about debunking the truths of their societies. Examples of researching newspapers, talking to authorities, and questioning preset customs and definitions, much in the way we can redefine the concept of "love", makes sense when superimposed upon a living society like ours. Berger identified the methodological nature of the sociological perspective in that it is not a distinct way of seeing others, but a means to examine others through a multifaceted scope.
Scanlan J Stephen; Guest-editor; Grauerjolz Liz (2009) 50 Years of C.Wright Mills and the Sociological Imagination, Teaching Sociology 37, (1), pp1-7
Theories in sociology sometime provide us with the different perspectives with which to view our social...
In 1959, American sociologist Charles Wright Mills wrote his influential book 'The Sociological Imagination'. In the book, Mills proposed that possibly the most assistive part of his sociological imagination theory was differentiating problems within society between 'personal troubles of the milieux' and 'public issues of social structure'. In his view, 'personal troubles' were individualistic and where 'an individual's character and with those limited areas of social life of which he is directly and personally aware'. By contrast, his thoughts on 'public issues' were that they were more general problems, out with the scope of an individual, and would affect more than just one person. He used the example of unemployment to explain his sociological viewpoint further. H...
Before I started taking the course of sociology I wasn’t really expecting to learn anything, it was just supposed to be an easy online class. However, that was not the case. It challenged my mind. I started to see sociology all around me, starting with family, then friends, and how I see things overall in general. The fact that we have an everyday life in which there are patterns in ways of living is what sets a platform for a sociological breakdown and for being a part in what we do. A better way of understanding ourselves. We use sociology in many ways every day. One central and important study of sociology is the study of everyday social life. Everyday life and sociology are definitely two different words and situations, but they tend to hold a close relationship. While sociology is the study of the human interaction, everyday life consists of everyday human interaction. Everyday life is filled by human beings interacting with one another, ideas, and emotions. Sociology studies the interactions with all of these and shows how mere interaction resulted in things such as ideas. For an example, race and ethnicity are important concepts in the field of sociology and are ones that are studied a great deal. Race plays a large role in everyday human interactions and sociologists want to study how, why, and what the outcomes are of these interactions. Current sociological theories focus mainly on how there are many different factors in our everyday items of life, like movies. We were assigned a final to write a review for a movie in sociological form. The movie that was on the list that also happened to be one of my favorite movies, Toy Story. When we were assigned the assignment, I never thought about how in-depth it was with sociol...
Mills’ framework introduced the notion that humans function as both individuals and as members of the larger social group context. This overlap of form and function of individual role expectations created a notion that “the sociological imagination is a quality of mind that turns personal troubles into public issues”, and thereby contextualizing the self-representation championed within the realm of sociological research and study (Burawoy, 2008, 363). Through the expansion of sociological examination and thought processes, attention was brought to the interconnected nature of the individual to the greater social context. Within his conceptual framework, Mills demonstrated that individual experiences were not the product of individual idiosyncrasy, but were the product of the influence of social forces upon the individual. This increased understanding of the influences of social forces upon a person in both an individual sense and as a member of a group was intended to create empathy and a desire to motivate positive social changes that benefitted all levels of the current and future social