Part I

So begins my next topic adventure into that of Sociology. After week one I have decided that the topic does interest me more so than any of the other topics I have studied during my education.

I was a bit worried going into this class since I am using a Kindle version of the textbook to keep college costs down. In one sense, the book is easier to read because I can enlarge the text and change the font to my liking, but I am limited to reading the book on either my desktop or my kindle fire tablet.

Rating of the Kindle edition is at the moment a 4 star   

Please note: These are my views after completing chapters 1-3 of:

Sociologists do a great job of studying society. The need for them to bring about reform is not required. Society will reform itself all on its own with different cultures integrating themselves into each other through immigration the world continues to change and evolve.

The studies of sociologists will help reform problem areas such as drug addiction. Results of the studies provide ideas and solutions of how to help individuals overcome their addiction problems thus bringing about a change in society by forming a cultural movement among drug users.

There are three theoretical perspectives for sociology. Symbolic interactionism is views of society to be composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning and develop views of the world. Those symbols are used to communicate with each other through language and gestures. Functional analysis is composed of many parts with functions that contribute to society’s balance also known as functionalism and structural functionalism which would be how external events can change the way society functions. At a time in history, before industrialism, women remained in the home cooking, cleaning, being a mother to many children and raising families while the men and boys cared for the larger farm animals and worked outside the home. In today’s times, families, for the most part, are smaller and both men and women are working outside the home in equality positions. Men can be nurses and Women can be construction workers.

Conflict theory claims that society is composed of groups that are competing for scarce resources a struggle between the capitalists and the workers.

If I were a sociologist, I probably would want to study all three theories. I believe they fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and each one holds a clue about the dynamics of society. Without symbolism, the language barrier would not create conflict between cultures. Functional analysis will explain how society will evolve with each new technological advancement. The conflict theory studies how different groups affect each other within a culture, such as the wealthy and the have-nots, or the capitalists and the politicians.

Micro-level approaches to sociology explain social life more so than on the macro-level. The macro-level is concerned about language barriers that trouble the communication abilities of society while the micro-level looks at how overall society fits together like puzzle pieces. Groups in society fight to control the power over others while communities as a whole will function together in either a harmonious manner or dysfunctional such as crime or community services or the coming together for the greater good. Maybe language barriers have become a common sense rule that may never go away anytime soon.