Sociological theory: foundations and major perspectives

Sociological Theory

Sociology as a field of study entails examining and understanding the behavior of human groups and associated social behavior. In understanding these aspects, the sociologists have, their focus primarily concentrated on the human interactions. These human interactions revolve around how the different social relations influence the behavior and attitudes of the people and how the societies originate, form and change. Human interactions are vast, and so is the field of sociology. It covers virtually all the topics of human life, from gender, race, religion, education, politics, health, group behavior and conformity among others. Sociologist focus on how the society and people influence other people since most personal experiences has their origin from external or social forces.

Sociological imagination

The social and external forces exist within the society in the form of interpersonal relationships between families and friends. Additionally, these relations form from the encounters in the academic, religious, economic and all other types of social institutions. In the year 1959, a sociologist named, C. Wright Mills, therefore, established the concept of sociological imagination. He continued and defined the subject of sociological imagination concretely as the ability to see and create visualization of the impact that social forces have on the clandestine and public lives of persons. Therefore, sociological imagination is a central and essential part of understanding the sociological perspective. Sociological imagination is thus, the concept of being able to "think ourselves away" from the usual routines of our daily lives and being able to look at them anew from the familiar way (Allan, 2010). In practice, it is the awareness of the relation between the experiences and the wider society, seeing how things interact and influence each other. For an individual to have an alternative view of the situation starts with dissociating from the familiar view of the situation.

Sociologists approach events and behaviors from a holistic and multidimensional perspective using sociological imagination. They focus on examining the personal and social forces when they are trying to fathom and elaborate any phenomena (Allan, 2010). For instance, to understand the concept of sociological imagination clearly, Mills gives several examples. The first example that he introduces is of a common happening in the society. Visualize this girl, she sees herself as being plump and wishes to get thin and fair. However, due to one or another reason, she cannot manage to achieve that look. This further develops into a chronic depression incidence, and she suffers from inferiority complex. In the pursuit to get thin, she becomes anorexic and thus faces associated severe health problems. If we approach this scenario from an isolation point of perception, we will observe that it is her personal problem, in which she is spoiling her life by her own actions. However, employing the concept of sociological imagination, we would manage to realize that, the condition she is experiencing originates from the larger society. It is the society, which is obsessed with the thin body and the fair skin. The media represents and portrays the thin and fair girl as the most beautiful and desirable; hence, this representation directly and indirectly affects the people as is happening to this girl. If it were only a few girls suffering from anorexia in the society, then we would conclude that it is a personal problem.

Another illustration from a different perspective is the prominent issue of jobs. Suppose there is this boy, he needs to get a job, but he does not manage because he has responsibilities such as loans and other bills that he needs to pay. After trying for some time, he does not manage, and, therefore, he decides to join the gangs, engaging in illegal and criminal activities. From an individual perspective, we would easily and quickly condemn this boy, saying that, he failed to try hard to get the job, and that he engaged in the crime to get easy and quick money (Bratton, Denham & Deutschmann, 2009). However, from a sociological imagination perspective, then we can observe conclusively that the larger social forces of economic meltdown, the high levels of unemployment, and irregularities in the subprime mortgage industry had a direct impact in the life of the boy. It is easy to blame this boy of having a deformed personal character. It would be true that if only few people suffered the same circumstance, then it would be a personal issue. However, it is true that several people, especially the youth who are suffering from the same problem causes the aspect to become a social and public problem, in which the government and the banking industry are involved. Therefore, the problem evolves from wider societal issues.

Similarly, taking any individual situation or problem and trying to ascertain the core basis of the problem in the society, one will always establish that the issue emanated from a particular issue. Additional examples of the case scenarios include, the increasing numbers of divorce cases, many farmers committing suicide, children becoming delinquent due to poverty, among others. These examples illustrate the aspect propagated by sociological imagination that the so-called "personal problems" originate from within the larger society directly or indirectly (Bratton, Denham & Deutschmann, 2009). Sociological imagination shows how the large social forces influence the individual behaviors and actions of the people.

The connections between individuals and the social-cultural structures

The social and political institutions establish the context for individual and the group behavior. They are responsible for availing the resources that individuals need to survive. The way people live their lives is largely dependent on the social structures in which they live (Schaefer, 2007). The subject of social justice is also a part of this social structures, which is responsible for ensuring that the social structures and resources availed by the society, and political institutions do satisfy the basic needs of the human beings. However, in the society, most social institutions have the characteristics of exploitation, political discrimination and exclusions, and a prevalent unequal distribution and access to resources. These structural differences force the creation of a system of winners and losers, which entraps the people in the particulate social situations. The structural violence in the society is because of the power inequalities, poverty issues and the denial of the basic human rights (Garfinkel, 2008). When the structure does not meet the basic human needs, and the various societal groups suffer from inadequate access of to the resources, and exclusion from institutional patterns of decision-making, the unequal and inadequate opportunities of employment, and the structural violence results. The United States presents a good illustration of this deindustrialization of the minority and the working class community.

There are different types of structural changes in the social realm. The characteristics of general breakdown of the government, economic privation and the civil strife feature in the conflicts observed in America (King & McCarthy, 2009). One form of injustice that needs addressing is bad governance. One very broad social structural change is state reform and democratization (Schaefer, 2007). This area needs serious redress. The social structural changes should focus on establishing a participatory nation-building process, fostering democratic development, and good, effective systems of dispute revolutions.

An additional form of social structural change is the strengthening of the civil society. The civil society covers various sectors and wide fields, including the business world, the trade unions, the women groups, the churches and the human rights activities (Schaefer, 2007). In many of the societies, the citizens do not participate in the institutions of public governance and are thus, unable to solve the social problems. The community relations and the civic life do not exist in most of the disintegrated societies, this form a basis for an oppressive regime.

Several injustices and oppressive activities that contribute to the social structural change and understanding of the society from sociological imagination perspective is that of social movements (Schaefer, 2007). Such movements that foster the push towards an understanding of the social problems that we experience in the United States advocate for the alternative approach that social imagination provide. Such is the understanding of the core cause of the quandary, which would provide a logical and practical point of perceiving the issues at hand. This way, the social structural changes that indicate the relations of individuals to the society and the influences these interactions have on the individuals (Giddens & Sutton, 2009).

The novel, America written by John Debrizzi

The novel America by John Debrizzi is an exclusive book that is set on fictional grounds. The story of the book is set in the American society. It is set in the early 20th century, and it tells the story of immigrants as they came into the Americas in this early century. The story unrolls from the perspective of social change, when these immigrants descendent into United States. The story features the leading role; a daughter of one of the immigrants meets the president. Consequently, this results in One Big Union, which then spreads through an eerie silence across the land. This story is bequeathing as it introduces a new perspective into the society and the lives of the individuals in the nation.

Relevance of the novel, America to our contemporary reality

The book is set on the leading theme of the societal interactions and changes that the society experiences from the interactions that happen in these meetings. The novel America is exceptionally reflective of the reality in the life of the contemporary America today. The social structural change that the American society experienced in the wake of the civilization era, and, which continues to occur today, is what the novel America covers. The novel tells of a story of the interactions between immigrants into America and the Americans that they found occupying the nation. It is true that the interactions existed long before the presentation depicted in the novel as though the interaction began only when the immigrant daughter met the president.

The interactions between immigrants began long before the president met the immigrant daughter; however, the society remained in oblique to the interactions, until when the president meets this daughter of the immigrant society (Adams & Sydie, 2001). This then marks the begging of the rebirth of a new nation and a new dawn in the society. The novel narrates the origin of the social structural changes that occurred from the interactions between the immigrants and the American people they found in the country. The novel tells of a birth of a new nation that happens through the influences of the different cultures in politics, economic and sociology of the lives (Bratton, Denham & Deutschmann, 2009). A new social culture results from these interactions, hence the representation of the society in the reality in this fictional writing. The creative mind of Debrizzi had the visualization of the future in the American society while writing this book. It is a clear representation of the contemporary life happenings in the society as it shows the journey through societal structural change and a consequent influence of the interactions between the different cultures, beliefs and practices (Burke & Stets, 2009). The new society that emanate from this novel illustrates the change in the American society today; therefore, it is conclusive that the novel, America by Debrizzi does represent the American society and is exceptionally relevant to the contemporary American life.

Ideas and theories of different sociologists and the novel America by Debrizzi

Karl Marx

Karl Marx is among the world's best sociologists, and the developers of the first theories of sociology. His main ideas in sociology base on the premise that, "the history of all the existing societies is the history of a class of struggles" (Skousen, 2007). According to Karl Max, since the inception of the human society from the primitive and relatively undifferentiated state, the society remains a fundamentally divided series of classes, with evident clashes in the pursuit of class interests. For instance, in the world of capitalism, the cell of a capitalist system is the central locus of the antagonism between the classes of the exploiters and the exploited. The interests of the different classes and the confrontations of power bring the central determinant of the social and historical processes. Additionally, Marx's theory analyses how the relative positions of men concerning the production process and access to the scarce resources and inadequate power determines the relationships between men.

Karl Marx points that the economic forces control the historical development more than any other force. History illustrates the conflicts among the different classes of society (Skousen, 2007). The government supports one class of society to smother the others and that the lone means to achieve social change is by use of violence. As it is evident from the novel America, the interactions between immigrants and the American people resulted in an eerie of silence. This indicates that the ideas that Marx propagates, as pertains the facets of governance and their weight on the sociological developments is true. Although the aspect of achieving social change is not applicable in most scenarios, as there are other methods of realizing the change. Nonetheless, the ideas that Marx discusses in his theory of classes is relevant to the ideas propagated in the novel by Debrizzi.

Saint-Simone

Saint-Simone presented a different approach towards the development of sociology and the societal groups. In his approach to the development of the field, he identified four key ideas that he based most in his argument. Among those ideas that he proposed and strongly argued upon include the idea of the society creating a new world, and the need for the unification of sciences. Secondly, he had the idea that there is a need to develop a science of society, from the analogues of natural sciences such as physics and biology. He also proposes that scientists should take over the leadership of society. It is evident that Saint Simone bases his ideas on optimistic view of the industrial society, focusing on the rapid progress that is prevalent in the productive forces. He thought that focusing on the facts and organizing these facts would help in expunging the growing antagonisms that the revolutionary uphill caused. In relation to the ideas propagated in the novel, simone's ideas on the development of the new world emanates. However, his idea of using the scientific and optimistic approach that does not rely on philosophy is not relevant. Therefore, most of his sociological approaches and the ideas he believes do not reflect the story told in the novel, America.

Max Weber

Max Weber in developing his sociological theory bases his arguments on the social action. The action theory that he developed describes the various factors that are subject of the influence causing the action, and serve as the foundations for the society (Allen, 2004). To illustrate his theory clearly, Weber established the dissimilarity between the concepts of act and behavior. He described behavior as an automatic response that results from little thought, and action as the outcome of a conscious route that gives meaning to the action and the world around the person. He was concerned with understanding the actions of people, to establish a cognitive approach to the behaviors and features of the society. He also focused on the formulation of four different types of rationality. These include the practical, theoretical, formal and substantive rationales (Ballantine & Roberts, 2010). He thus, established the contribution of the historical processes in transforming the western world. Additionally, Weber focused on the different types of authority and the forms of legitimate domination. In this development, he developed a structure of authority, which consisted of traditional, charismatic and rational-legal types of governance. These types of authority are useful in several models of examining the society and the phenomenon of governance.