Sociology Connection with Romana Pires

Students of sociology study the major three sociological theories of functionalism, conflict and symbolic interaction. Each theory or a combination of three are often used to explain current events and social behaviors.

Conflict sociologists are probably interested in the recent protests in Egypt and Tunisia. The people of both countries have demonstrated and rioted over high rates of unemployment, inflation, overall low living standards and political rights. Thousands of people took the streets to protest in an attempt to overthrow the government regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.

The protest in Tunisia was successful in overthrowing the President Ben Ali who has been in power since 1987 and it is yet to be determined if the people of Egypt are successful in overthrowing President Hosni Murabak who has governed since 1981.

The premise of conflict theory is that society works through constant competition and struggle over power and other important social and economic resources such as wealth and education. Those groups in power are in dominant positions to exploit and take advantage of groups with little access to power. Once the exploitation can no longer be tolerated, subordinate groups will organize to protest either peacefully or violently and if they are successful society changes and a new group emerges into power. The cycle then repeats itself. Can you see these basic ideas of the conflict theory in action as the people of Egypt and Tunisia take to the streets?

The United States is in a difficult position in that we have supported both of these regimes and yet our cultural values also support democracy for which the people are now fighting.

As with the uprising in Iran a few years ago, social media such as Twitter has had a great impact on the Egyptian people communicating their message to the world. This explains why the Egyptian government turned off the internet and cell phone communication.

Educate yourself more about these two current events:

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Egyptian_protests and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010%E2%80%932011_Tunisian_uprising

Map of Egypt: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/africa/eg.htm

Map of Tunisia: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/africa/tn.htm

Video from 1/28

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Want to learn more about the three sociological theories? Click here.

California Budget Deficit

sociologypires — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:28:45 +0000

On January 10th, Gov. Brown introduced his budget proposal which includes a solution to balance the 25-28 billion dollar state deficit. His proposal includes massive cuts to public services, a reconstruction of state services and an extension of the temporary tax increases. Tax increase extensions will have to be approved by the voters who already turned down a similar proposal last year at the ballot. His proposed budget cuts will have to be approved by the state legislature.

Just to give you an idea how difficult it is to solve the budget crisis, the Los Angeles Times has created an interactive budget balancer. Try your hand at balancing our state budget! How did you do? Leave your comments below.

Here is Gov. Brown’s budget proposal overview. What do you think?

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Welcome to Sociology

sociologypires — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:01:53 +0000

Click on the following videos/websites to view the multimedia resources for this week. Scroll all the way down this website.

Listen to the Audio: Introduction to Sociology (audio to text available here as well). Click Here

1. Sociology Major: Focus of Study. Sociology majors and minors focus on a variety of different topics in sociology.

2. Why Major in Sociology? This video was created by sociology students at USC.

3. What Is sociology? 10E-So1 Sophia Harley. So, what is sociology anyway? This video was made by a student. I think Sophia Harley did a great job! What do you think?

4. Did You Know 4.0? Shift Happens. This is one of the more popular videos about the technological societal changes. Online learning is one of those changes. You will find as we study society, that technology has a great impact on social change.

5. A Vision of a Student Today. Does this look familiar anyone?

6. Society by Eddie Vedder. The soundtrack from the movie: Into the Wild. I love starting the semester with this video (again student produced) and the lyrics ooze sociology! Pay special attention to the “sociological perspective’ in your Chapter 1 reading.

Well…these are the introductory videos to get us started with the semester. You will be viewing websites and videos each week that I will use to engage you in our weekly discussions. Feel free to leave a comment below for your colleagues. These comments are NOT part of our Bb discussions – just a place for you to leave a quick comment if you would like to share with your colleagues.

Here’s the poll for this unit:

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What is Sociology?

sociologypires — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 01:11:26 +0000

Click on the following videos/websites to view the multimedia resources for this week. Scroll all the way down this website.

Sociology is the study of society and human behavior. But what exactly does this mean? Let’s find out…

1. What is Sociology?

A visual tour of the many topics we will be examining. See if you can notice a theme or a pattern to the video and how it relates to this week’s readings. Hmm…

2. Seeing Society Differently

A thought provoking video to get you interested in the study of society. A good beginning to starting your own sociological journey…

3. Studying Society

More reasons, why studying sociology is valuable!

4. The Three Minute Sociologist

So why did you register for this course anyway? Let’s find out from the “three minute sociologist.”

These videos should have given you a general overview of the material we will be studying this semester. Feel free to leave a comment below for your colleagues. These comments are NOT part of our Bb discussions – just a place for you to leave a quick comment if you would like to share with your colleagues.

Here’s the poll for this unit:

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Sociological Perspectives

sociologypires — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 01:23:22 +0000

Click on the following videos/websites to view the multimedia resources for this week. Scroll all the way down this website.

Sociological perspectives which are also referred to as theoretical perspectives and sociological theories are used by sociologists to explain and predict both society and human behavior; particularly human behaviors in groups. There are three main sociological perspectives (theories) used by sociologists to understand society.

While there are new sociological theories or explanations that come out of social research all the time, usually new theories derive from one of the three main perspectives of functionalism, conflict and symbolic interaction.

Functionalists and conflict sociologists tend to study society using a macronanalysis approach. This means that they tend to focus on the totality or society as whole. Symbolic interactionists on the other hand tend to explain and study small group or individual behaviors which is referred to as a microanalysis.

Let’s examine these more further, shall we?

1. The Three Minute Sociologist: Why Theory?!?!!

Teacher, why do we have to study theory? When do we get to the good stuff? Hmm…

2. Introduction to Structural Functionalism

Functionalism explains society as being made up of different parts (structures) that all work (function) together in unity to maintain a balance. Sociologists also call these parts social institutions which are the building blocks of society. Can you think of examples of social institutions in society as you view this video?

3. I Love Lucy

Many of us have seen this classic I Love Lucy episode. Using what you have learned about functionalism from the above video, what messages are women being given in this episode (or clip) of Lucy and how do these messages relate to the ideas of functionalism?

4. Conflict Theory

This video on Marxism closely resembles the basic ideas of conflict theory.

5. Explaining Karl Marx

Karl Marx had a vision of a classless society which he called communism. After his death many countries adopted communism or close variations. Sociology considers Marx the “father of conflict theory.”

6. A Tribute to Communism (disclaimer: graphic video)

But Marx’s vision of equality did not materialize in countries that attempted to to live by his ideas as you can see in this graphic video. Based on your understanding of conflict theory, do you think it is possible to have a truly equal society? Why or why not?

7. Symbolic Interaction: Labels

As you watch this video, think about the labels that were put on you by your family, teachers and friends when you were a child. Were they mainly positive or negative? Did you become those labels as an adult?

8. Symbolic Interaction: Social Construction of Reality

As you watch this video, think about how our views of reality are affected by our culture and our use of language (verbal and non-verbal symbols) as we interact with one another creating meaning for ourselves.

9. Non-Verbal Communication

Psychologists have found that about 93% of our communication is non-verbal. Next time you’re interacting with another person pay attention to your non-verbal behavior and the messages you think the other person is receiving (looking-glass self).

10. Beauty

Now that we’ve covered theory, practice using the three main sociological perspectives to explain this video. Why do I think that your “perspective” on beauty may be just a little bitty different now that you are a “sociologist in training?”

These videos should have given you a general overview of the three sociological perspectives. Feel free to leave a comment below for your colleagues. These comments are NOT part of our Bb discussions – just a place for you to leave a quick comment if you would like to share with your colleagues.

Here is the poll for this unit:

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