Briefly Outline the Distinctive Features of the...

Sociology is the systematic, sceptical and critical study of the way that people do things together .It’s not a science that simply lists facts and figures about society. Instead it becomes a form of consciousness, a way of thinking, a critical way of seeing the world. It welcomes you to challenge the obvious, to question the world as it is taken for granted and to de-familiarising the familiar. This is what empowers critical thinking which triggers the development of the understanding of the human life. The aim of this essay is to outline the sociological approach to understanding human life , to explore the different sociological perspectives , to question the reliability of the different forms of research and to emphasise the key†¦show more content†¦He felt that â€Å"The sociological imagination â€Å" was a way of understanding that social outcomes are shaped by social context. He claims that some things in society lead to certain outcomes. â€Å"when a s ociety becomes industrialised , a peasant becomes a worker . â€Å" Therefore the things we do are shaped by the situation we are in, the values we have. I believe that all three approaches differ but where they all overlap is in their belief that a person must be able to pull away from the situation and to think from an alternative point of view. To acquire real knowledge is to go against the status quo. 1. ‘The first wisdom of sociology is this: things are not what they seem (sociology global intro p.5) 2. C.Wright Mills.1959. ‘The promise’ in The Sociological Imagination New York: 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Wright_Mills 4. Macionis, 5th edition , chapter 1 5. Berger, Peter Invitation to sociology . New York , 1963 With regards to perspectives in understanding human life there are two which are prominent. The first is the functional perspective, this recognises that our lives are guided by social structures. It therefore organises sociological observation by identifying various structures of society and investigating the function of each one. This is a building block for theories that see society as a complex system whose parts work