| Friday, September 26, 2008 |
| What's The Point Of Sociology? |
I often wonder what is the point of sociology. The way I see it, society should be studied so that we can improve it. However, from the most of the books we've read and discussions we've had, society seems to be studied only so that we can understand it. It seems to me like there's little action and a lot of apathy in sociology. I don't see how these studies are truly beneficial.
I also feel weird studying society sometimes. It's like we're a bunch of scientists studying lab rats and how they work and why...but we're not. Sociologists are studying real people with real issues. The way they go about it bugs me sometimes too. They focus on one people, learn their story, and then once they've gathered enough information to make their point, leave those people and try to attribute what they've learned about certain individuals to our entire society.
I'm glad that Julie Bettie acknowledged some of this in her first chapter. She writes about how she's such an outsider coming in and studying people different from her, and how uncomfortable that makes her sometimes. She rationalizes this by saying she's trying to learn about these people, "well enough to serve them in a struggle against those relations.", but I'm having trouble seeing how sociology helps people in their struggles. So far, I only see how it makes outsiders (and the question of what types of people are sociologists is a whole nother entry) understand society better. What I really want to know is how can sociologists apply what they've learned to improve society. |
posted by MaSh @ 1:22 AM  |
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