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Sociology: The forces that shape social life
Individuals make choices, but the menu of choices was already arranged by society.
The sociological imagination
Personal troubles are often public issues in disguise. One person unemployed is a hardship; a wave of unemployment is an economy, and sociology studies the wave, not the ripples.
Institutions do quiet work
Family, school, religion, law and the economy coordinate behavior by defining what counts as normal. Their deepest power is staying invisible while doing it.
What this course teaches
Nine units run from research methods through culture, socialization, deviance, stratification, race and gender, family and religion, education and work, and social change.
Flashcard
T \leftrightarrow PS
Troubles relate to public structures
Mills’ link between personal troubles (T) and public structures (PS) is the discipline’s signature move.
Check your understanding
A researcher joins a community group for two years to watch behavior in context. This method is: