1. Be related to a concept or subject we have discussed in this course 2. Be something that you are interested in researching in an academic fashion 3. Ask a specific question that you’ll try to answe

 Social Movements  Extremist Political Activism (primarily Far -Right, white nationalist, etc.)  Men and Masculinities 3 Course Components • Given the unique circumstances we find ourselves in, our course will look a bit different from more traditional courses: • Course components:

 Two exams (30% and 35% respectively):

Administered through CourseSpaces  REVEL online chapter quizzes (20%):

Multiple choice quizzes based on textbook materials  Investigative Paper (15%): You’ll ask a question about a topic related to something we’ve discussed in this course, then use your sociological imagination – and academic sources – to answer it. 4 Textbooks:

Purchase these through the Pearson online portal • I’ve put instructions for doing this in the “announcements” section of CourseSpaces • Here’s a link that should take you to the REVEL site (where you can also purchase the text):

https://console.pearson.com/enrollment/qmsoo 3 • You must register for REVEL, as it’s a significant portion of your grade. • Please take a look at the REVEL site, as it will have information on due dates for chapter quizzes. Take them as early as you can; I do not offer extensions for these quizzes, as you’ve already had a week to complete them. 5 What are our responsibilities?

My Responsibilities • I will be prepared for each class, including making sure our tech is working properly (on my end) • I will strive to provide all of you with a positive learning environment • If there are changes to the syllabus or other course materials, I will communicate that with you clearly, and be open to feedback from you Your Responsibilities • You’ll log in on time (with your mics muted, please) • You will remember that (virtual) classrooms are diverse environments, and strive to behave in a professional and courteous manner • Come willing to be challenged by new ideas • Strive to ensure that any medical emergencies, accidents, or other learning challenges are communicated with me as soon as possible 6 Part I:

What is Sociology, generally speaking?

To answer this, let’s begin with a couple of questions… Our society is filled with difficult questions • Why are the overwhelming majority of spree killers and mass shooters men? • Why are the majority of primary school teachers women? • What role does vacationing and migration play in the emergence of new pandemics like COVID - 19? • What draws people to believe in things like chemtrails, the reptiloids, or the Illuminati? 8 Sociology is the study of social phenomena, social interactions, social forces, and social institutions • Social Interactions: Any exchange between two or more individuals.

 This is the foundation for society – every society • Social Forces: Things that influence people to think or act in certain ways, and that persist over time. • Social Institutions: G roups or organizations, spanning time, consisting of of people bound together in common purpose • We are going to spend a lot of time talking about these in this class 9 A History of Sociology The TL;DR Version. Sociology is a product of “Modernity” • Modernity : A span of time typified by reliance on reason, observation, the scientific method, and empiricism • Early sociologists emerged from the same intellectual tradition as physics, biology, chemistry, and astronomy • Rooted in Materialism –the belief that events and phenomena are the product of natural, observable forces in an objective, physical universe governed by discoverable laws 11 Modernity, continued 12 Prior to this period, explanations tended to rely on supernaturalism , rather than observation There was a brief period where supernaturalism was questioned and “pure reason” was preferred, before people began to rely on observation But where are we now? How do we gain knowledge in the 21t Century? • Belief in the explanatory power of science has been challenged • Politically -weaponized anti -intellectualism leads to distrust of expert knowledge • “Infotainment” has blurred the lines between fact, opinion, and fantasy Consider for example the responses to COVID - 19 • In a “modernist” society, responses might include:

 An unquestioned reliance on medical expertise and medical science  Trust in public officials to do a competent, evidence -based job of treating the spread of the disease  Airtime and space reserved for sober, fact -based discussion of potential responses and challenges • But while we’ve seen the above, we’ve also seen:

 Questioning why we should even listen to “experts” – what do they know anyways?  Challenging public health measures like social distancing – “who they hell are they to tell me what to do?”  Preferring to take advice from anonymous sources on social media; embracing the irrational; rejecting science as “ideology” 13 Let’s pause for questions Type ‘em if you got ‘em How can we make sense of our changing world?

We can start by building a sociological “toolkit” to aid us. Sociology is more than a simple set of tools; it is a way of seeing the world • Sociologists are trained to “step outside” of their usual worldview. We try to see our world as a stranger might. • Doing this enables us to see the strange in the familiar • But how does that work? • Let’s look at a quick example: 16 What are some patterns that we can identify in these images? 17 The strange in the familiar • Google’s search results for “fashionable men” returned a list of images with few people of colour • Just to be sure, I refreshed the search results 3 times in Incognito mode (of those, 2 refreshes resulted in different images appearing)  1 st time: around 2/20 men were non -white  2 nd time: around 4/20 men were non -white  3 rd time: around 4/20 men were non -white • Why does Google’s search algorithm return those results? Is Google racist? • No, but the sites that Googles caches and categorizes (by page views among other metrics) may reflect a bias that is worth investigating. 18 C. Wright Mills & “ The Promise ” of Sociology • The history of society is the history of social change  As social conditions change, people’s roles and identities change as well • As societies change, their core values shift as well, reflecting the new order, and standing as a rejection of the old • At each stage in the development of society, people are caught between their ability to choose (agency), and the pressures of society that shape them (structure) – we’ll talk about this ad nauseum soon enough. 19 Mill’s Sociological Imagination “… it is by means of the sociological imagination that men and women now hope to grasp what is going on in the world, and to understand what is happening in themselves as minute points of the intersections of biography and history within society. In large part, contemporary humanity's self - conscious view of itself as at least an outsider, if not a permanent stranger, rests upon an absorbed realization of social relativity and of the transformative power of history.

The sociological imagination is the most fruitful form of this self -consciousness. By its use people whose mentalities have swept only a series of limited orbits often come to feel as if suddenly awakened in a house with which they had only supposed themselves to be familiar. ” 20 Mills is attempting to illustrate the difference between Personal Troubles and Social Issues • Personal Troubles: Issues that stem from personal decisions and individual agency.

Personal troubles emerge from within you.

 E.g. Getting sick because you lick other people’s eyeballs • Social Issues: Emerge as a result of social forces outside of your direct control. Social issues cannot be solved by any one person; they must be addressed as a society .  E.g. Global pandemics and widespread social and economic destabilization 21 Personal Troubles v.

Social Issues 22 Social Issues: Generally a result of social forces acting against a person, based on some arbitrary trait or characteristic, or with a person, for similar reasons Solutions: Come together in solidarity, with allies, in prolonged antagonism with social institutions and organizations, to alleviate or seek redress for social inequalities Personal Troubles: Generally a result of personal agency – life choices that carry tangible consequences both immediately and later in life. Solutions are often similarly personal:

Go to school Go to counselling Stop being a jerk, maybe. Personal troubles and social issues interact • Example: Being bad with money: only a personal trouble?

 What does it mean to be “bad” with money?  What are you spending your money on, and who is telling you those things are bad?  How might your subject -identity (who you are and how you are situated in the context of society) influence your spending patterns?

 What is your level of education?  How much experience do you have with personal accounting and finance?  What’s your socio -economic background? 23 How can we spot the difference? • Sometimes it can be simple  E.g. Homelessness or chronic poverty • Sometimes not so much  E.g. Substance abuse; personal choice or public health concern? (hint:

context matters) • How we decide sometimes comes down to ideology (so, political affiliations, beliefs about individuals v. society, etc.), but what should guide our thinking? 24 In sociology, we study the ways that social forces impact people’s lives • Definition: In sociology, social forces are practices, processes, or institutions that influence – or force – people in society to act and even think in certain ways.

 Example: Smartphones and social media  People are encouraged and expected to have one  People are encouraged and expected to have multiple social media accounts  This allows corporations to gather and sell user data to enable them to encourage people to buy more 25 We study the interaction between social forces and the process of socialization • This is a broad term, but what we’re talking about are the “how’s” of becoming paid up members of our societies. • We aren’t born knowing how to be “good” people, or good citizens; we need to be taught • We’re taught through agents of socialization , and through social institutions . But what are those? 26 Consider this: 27 What influences in your life brought you to the University of Victoria? How did they influence you?

What values do you hold that caused you to want to come to university? Another example:

Recycling your trash • Recycling wasn’t always a part of our lives; we used to simply throw everything away, including glass, metal, and paper • As the environmentalist movement grew in influence, more people began to adopt its recommended practices (recycling & composting) • Over time, people began to feel pressure to conform to this new way of doing things (if you don’t recycle, you’re a ‘bad citizen’) • Now, recycling is protected and enforced by law in most of Canada 28 So let’s review 29 Sociology is: • The study of social phenomena, social interactions, and social institutions The sociological imagination is: • A toolkit that allows us to see the “Strange in the familiar”, to see the patterns and social forces that help shape our world and ourselves Social forces are: • Practices, processes, or institutions that influence – or force – people in society to act and even think in certain ways Questions? Part II The Sociological Imagination Building the container for our sociological toolkit Housekeeping • Textbooks: Get them. You can buy them through the REVEL portal. • REVEL quizzes: The first one is due by the end of this week (Sunday evening). Each quiz will be due on the Sunday of each week. Do not miss those quizzes, as there’s no “do over” . Learning Outcomes 33 To understand the sociological imagination To gain an understanding of the “strange in the familiar” To gain an understanding of the “general in the particular” To continue to build on our knowledge of sociology’s origins Recap: The Sociological Imagination What is it, and how does it work? What are its components? 35 General in the Particular: What first appears to be a unique or personal experience or phenomena, might turn out to be more widespread.

01 Strange in the Familiar:

When we step back, things we do can seem silly, weird, or unusual, and therefore worth investigating (why do we wear pants, instead of something else?) 02 Example: Men’s Fashion over time • Louis XIV of France – the “sun king” (1638 – 1715) • What did he wear? What makes it “masculine”?

 Heels – by law no one could have higher heels  Silk Stockings – to show off legs/calves  Robes, ruffled collars, powdered wigs 36 Men’s fashion in the 21 st Century • Idris Elba: Handsome man, or handsomest man? • What is he wearing?

 What makes it “masculine”? • What do our fashion choices communicate about us?

 Our “class”?  Our education?  Our geographic location – or at least, the geography we identify with?  Our culture? 37 What sorts of social phenomena impact our lived experiences?

Any combination of the following:

• Race Gender • Class Education • Age Ability • Sexual orientation • Some of these are “ascribed ” (imposed by society); some are “achieved ” (earned by individual effort) 38 The story of social inequality is the story of differential socialization Definition: Differential socialization is the phenomena of raising, teaching, and treating people differently, based on arbitrary social/physical traits Difference: We recognize that people are different, and we assign value to those differences Preference: We begin to desire some groups/categories over others, often based on the values we’ve ascribed Privilege: People who fit into those categories become more desirable Power: Over time, the more desirable people fill the most desirable/powerful/influential jobs – often over people with equal or greater qualifications 39 Privilege and Power rely on social context • While there are certain statistical trends that hold true across all demographics, power and privilege are also intersectional (we’ll get to this) • While in general, white working - class men face fewer systemic challenges than working -class men of colour, class difference can – and do – alter these hierarchies 40 How does context change the dynamics of privilege?

• When looking at men from the same social class or socio -economic background, we see that white men tend to do “better” • In some cases “better” is still crap, but even at the lowest rungs of society, being a white man carries privileges  Less likely to be arrested (than non -white men)  More likely to be placed in transitional housing  More likely to be able to access benefits or assistance 41 Privilege and subordination are Intersectional • Part of the sociological imagination is understanding how different vectors of privilege and subordination play out in different scenarios • The context of a given phenomenon or scenario determines which elements of the people involved are privileged or subordinated 42 Questions?

Comments? A History of Sociology The long(er) version: A history of 3 revolutions Revolution One: The Scientific • No exact beginning; 18 th and 19 th Centuries in Europe • Characterized by a preoccupation with empirical, direct observations of the world • Birth of physics, biology, chemistry, as we know them today 45 Auguste Comte & the Social Physick • Felt that developments in the physical sciences could be adapted to study the “laws” of society (“the Law of 3 Stages) • Theological Stage – “God did it, heathen.” • Metaphysical Stage – “I think, I am.” • Positive Stage – “Science the shit out of this.” 46 Positivism: A beginner’s guide • This is a philosophical commitment to the belief that everything in the universe (and the universe itself) can be understood through scientific investigation alone.

 There is a knowable, objective reality  Over time, all branches of science will begin to resemble one another  Science is dispassionate, objective; there is no room for value judgements 47 48 Anti - Positivism: It’s not a rejection of science • There exists an objective world: How do you know that? Is the social world similarly objective? If not, does that mean it doesn’t exist? • Science will become more similar:

Demonstrably false, therefore there may be a problem with positivist models of the world • Science is value -neutral: Demonstrably false; science – and scientists – are value -laden. Therefore, “science” is not dispassionate. Anti -positivists don’t necessarily reject positivism – or science – but they are critical of its central claims Revolution Two: The Political • European societies underwent radical change as old ideas (like feudalism or the “divine right of kings” were being challenged • “Social Contract theory” • “Society” as a concept • Revolutionary theories about democracy, self -rule, and the right of all (white, male, land -owning) peoples to participate in their own governance 49 The “State of Nature” “Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of war, where every man is enemy to every man, the same consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withal. In such condition there is no place for industry... no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” ― Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan 50 Revolution Three: The Industrial • The industrial revolution literally changed the face of the entire planet, for good or bad, depending on what you’re looking at. • Mass production • Assembly Lines • Mass urbanization • Industrial/mechanized Warfare • Globalization & its consequences 51 Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) • Economist, Historian, Political Scientist, sometime sociologist • Saw that industrial revolution changed social structures radically • Your relation to the means of production dictated your class • If you owned a factory: Bourgeoisie • If you merely worked in one: Proletariat • “The history of society is the history of class struggle” 52 Revolutions & Modernity • What we now call “modernity” is a product of the convergence of these three revolutions.

 Changed how we are governed  How we see our place in the universe  How we communicate and interact 53 A fourth revolution: The Information Revolution? • Radical shift in how people communicate • Global cultural exchange (and colonization?) • Destabilization of borders/states • “Free Spaces” and “Imagined Communities” 54 Questions? The Sociological Imagination:

Questions to reflect on… 56 1. What are some of the more influential social forces in your life?

2. What is something in society that you’ve always thought was strange?

3. Think about a convention, tradition, or practice in society that you don’t really like doing:

• Why don’t you simply stop? • What are the costs of stopping? Next Week: Classical Sociological Theory Chapter 2 57