Developing Sociological Imagination from an Interactionist...

What is involved in developing sociological imagination from interactionist perspective? The concept of sociological imagination was developed by C. Wright Mills who defined it as an awareness of the relationship between an individual and the wider society, both today and in the past (Schaefer 5). Sociological imagination allows us to look at cultural activities and events from a larger perspective, placing them in a proper context. For example, it is considered normal in the United States to eat food while walking. Many people do so in busy streets of American cities. In Japan, however, it is considered disrespectful to food. Therefore, the Japanese people stop and eat their food while standing or sitting somewhere. A person employing sociological imagination would understand both practices within a national cultural context. Interactionist perspective in sociology, also known as symbolic interactionism, is a theoretical framework that sees society as the product of individuals interacting with one another (Macionis 13). In other words, daily interactions among people define their behavior. This theory also posits that the interactions involve symbols, gestures, facial expressions, and movements that can help us make generalizations about a larger society. Unlike other sociological perspectives, interactionist perspective looks at micro-sociology, focusing on smaller groups and activities. Based on understanding of micro activities, interactionist perspectiveShow MoreRelatedSociology : An American Sociologist C. Wright Mills1204 Words   |  5 Pagesin the sociological world. Sociology also helps us to recognize our position in the society by our â€Å"sociological imagination.† An American sociologist C. Wright Mills created the term sociological imagination to know our interdependent relationshi p between who we are as individual and the influences around us that shape our lives. By imagining how our actions might look to another person, we can have a better understanding on ourselves and our social worlds. Mills argued that the sociological imaginationRead MoreProfessional Student4171 Words   |  17 Pagescomprehend the link between their immediate, personal social settings and the remote, impersonal social world is called A. the sociological imagination. B. anthropology. C. a theory. D. verstehen. Answer: A 4. A key element in the sociological imagination is the ability to view one’s own society A. from the perspective of personal experience. B. from the perspective of cultural biases. C. as an outsider. D. as an insider. Answer: C 5. A sociologist observing behavior at a college footballRead MoreSociology1711 Words   |  7 PagesAble Camacho ID# 100357680 Section 1 Fall 2012 How would you describe your inner mind? crazy? genius? They say that both are two sides of the same side. Through my experiences, I shape the world around me, developing a unique perspective from my worldview. When it comes to how I perceive reality I just summarize it in these six concepts: culture, meaning, self, self-fulfilling prophecy, and scripts, and self-serving bias. My culture defines me down to my very genetic core. It explains why I driveRead MoreAlternative Learning Systems9735 Words   |  39 PagesArticles Sociology of the Prison Classroom: Marginalized Identities and Sociological Imaginations behind Bars Teaching Sociology 39(2) 165–178 Ó American Sociological Association 2011 DOI: 10.1177/0092055X11400440 http://ts.sagepub.com Kylie L. Parrotta1 and Gretchen H. Thompson1 Abstract The authors use sociology of the college classroom to analyze their experiences as feminists teaching sociology courses in the ‘‘unconventional setting’’ of prison. Reflective writing was used to chronicle experiencesRead MoreRole of education in society3291 Words   |  14 Pagesattainment. This essay will Identify and evaluate key policy developments in education provision designed to bridge the gap of gender inequality in British education. The role of education in society has been among the major issues in contemporary sociological and political debate. According to Iannelli and Paterson (2005) education is a major factor that helps determine the jobs and social class positions of individuals in society. As an institution of sociology, education plays a dominant role in transmittingRead MoreThe Impact of social class on education1908 Words   |  8 Pagesthe school labelling processes just to mention a few. Sociologists tend to be critical of the IQ theory for various reasons including the factors affecting how it is measured, so in this essay, I shall therefore concentrate upon the other more sociological approaches and exclude the IQ theory. The following list of key words were essential in my argument; different methods of attainment, gender, ethnicity, cultural deficits, social status, formal and non-formal socialisation, equality of opportunitiesRead MoreWhy Nurses Should Study Sociology4078 Words   |  17 Pag essociology in nursing and sociology of nursing The value of developing sociological skills Using sociological skills in nursing practice Sociological knowledge: policy, practice and change By the end of this chapter you should be able to . . . discuss the reasons why nurses should study sociology; understand the distinction between sociology of nursing and sociology in nursing; understand the value of sociological skills; discuss the role of sociological knowledge and the future of nursing practice. 1 IntroductionRead MoreThe Importance of Demography to Development11868 Words   |  48 Pagesexamination of the organization and development of human social life. The sociological field of interest ranges from the analysis of short contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social processes. Most sociologists work in one or more specialties or subfields. The meaning of the word comes from the suffix -logy which means study of, derived from Greek, and the stem socio- which is from the Latin word socius, meaning member, friend, or ally, thus referring toRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pages. Organization Theory Challenges and Perspectives John McAuley, Joanne Duberley and Phil Johnson . This book is, to my knowledge, the most comprehensive and reliable guide to organisational theory currently available. What is needed is a text that will give a good idea of the breadth and complexity of this important subject, and this is precisely what McAuley, Duberley and Johnson have provided. They have done some sterling service in bringing together the very diverse strands of workRead MoreConflict Management and Emotional Intelligence63003 Words   |  253 Pagesto   emphasise   intangible   elements   such   as   customer   focus,   respect   for   employees,   professional   standards   and   societal   care.      Nevertheless,   corporate   social   responsibility   is   something   which  is  receiving  more  and  more  attention  from  all  sorts  of  enterprises.      The   customer   service   industry   involves   the   application   of   principles   of   organisational   behaviour   and   psychology.      Knowledge   of   organisational   behaviour   principles   can   help   to   identify  the  beh

Active Audiences the Construction of Meaning Free Essays

Active Audiences the Construction of Meaning â€Å"Media messages are central to everyday lives†¦ Audiences are active interpreters of meaning. † â€Å"Audiences interpret media in diverse ways. †(255-256). We will write a custom essay sample on Active Audiences the Construction of Meaning or any similar topic only for you Order Now People in the media industry believe that the audience is a mass of passive readers who accept media messages uncritically. Nevertheless, the audiences actively take part in the interpretation of media texts which is an essential process when media messages start meaning something to people who assign their own implication to the texts. Sometimes audiences can interpret the message in the same way as intended by the producers, but sometimes they construct meaning that is very different. People interpret media texts in all types of social settings. Therefore, media has become a significant part of the social life. Since audiences are active receivers of media texts, they can change media messages by collective action such as prohibition of certain media texts, campaigns that show audiences’ disapproval of media products, public writing of letters of complaint regarding media, foundation of independent media that criticize main media but also supply audiences with alternative perspectives. Audiences from different races, ethnicities, genders and social classes construct various interpretations of the same media message. So, media texts are characterized by polysemy, they have multiple meanings. According to John Fiske (1986) there is abundance of meaning embedded in the media texts. Therefore, media messages are structured in a way that enables people to make different readings and interpret them actively, not simply to accept the dominant interpretation. People have agency but there is no structure. However, people from different social backgrounds construct various interpretations of same media texts. Social statuses shape audience members’ viewpoints, interests and attitudes towards media. As a result, people must be aware of their agency- the opportunity to construct meaning- and of the social constraints as well. People often construct interpretation that is based on widely accepted norms, values and beliefs about the world around us. According to Stuart Hall’s encoding-decoding model messages are constructed on the basis of specific â€Å"codes†, encoded by the producers and decoded by the active audience. To decode the media texts, audiences have to know the basic medium conventions and cultural values. Since media messages draw on some taken-for-granted beliefs and cultural codes, the audience uses its knowledge about them to construct meaning and decode the media texts. This factor hinders us from being fully autonomist. Active audiences use media for diverse reasons and construct different interpretations but the big corporations will always be there to nudge us in certain directions. Fortunately, people like me will often refuse to accept the preferred meaning and develop oppositional reading and resistance, which are related to social action. Audiences’ oppositional decoding is part of the resistance to the traditional roles and rules. People are suppose to use media to relax, fantasize and escape from the social reality or solve some problems and live in harmony not to be subliminally attacked by producer beliefs. Some people experience ‘pleasure of resistance’ by making interpretations opposing to the dominant meanings. Overall there will always be a give and take between the media and the people, what we have to remember is we can have control over these media influence as long as we can take a step back and acknowledge their presence. How to cite Active Audiences the Construction of Meaning, Papers

Ecofeminism in the 21st Century free essay sample

Ecofeminism in the Twenty-First Century. by Susan Buckingham Introduction Since ecofeminism was developed as a concept in the 1970s (1), there have been, arguably, major policy shifts in the fields of gender (in)equality and environmental sustainability. Thus a consideration of the achievements of, and work outstanding for, ecological feminism is warranted. In this paper, I will assess the changing policy landscape to explore the extent to which this has structurally altered gender inequalities and societies treatment of the environment, and the imbrication of these wo processes. In order to do so, I will look at the rising profile of gender mainstreaming at the international, European Union (2) and European national level; the application of the feminism debate to environmental concerns; and the shifting of the radical edge of ecofeminism, to explore future possible trajectories (see, for example, Plumwood 2003; Seager 2003). To some extent, I will suggest that the transformation of policy and development rhetoric to include gender, as distinct from womens issues (itself, arguably, a post-feminist dilution of womens equality), masks fundamental attachment to business-as-usual, where social roles, pay differentials, political representation and environmental degradation remain little changed. However, there is, I argue, sufficient evidence to identify the influence of ecofeminist thinking on major policy initiatives concerning the relationship between women, men and environment at a variety of scales. The central question of this paper, then, is whether ecofeminism (as a distinct discourse, or as an amalgam of feminism and environmentalism constructed in different times and places in different ways) has hanged the way in which Western society articulates the relationship between men, women and the environment. This, of course, is a problematic and speculative exercise and will follow from an analysis of how discourse and practice themselves have changed. This paper will consider key changes to gender equality as it is linked to environmental sustainability, and explore how womens/feminists interests have helped to shape the environmental debate in the past decade. I will try to unpick dominant discourses which, on the one hand, are beginning to naturalize (some ould say neutralize) environmental concerns (where the terms sustainable development and environmental sustainability are common currency but poorly understood to the point of being anodyne), but on the other hand are marginalizing feminism, to examine the impact of this on ecofeminism. Finally, I will explore the territory of ecofeminisms leading/radical edge to speculate on where this may take both conceptual understanding and policy in the future. First, however, to put this discussion into context, I will briefly review ecofeminist arguments to illustrate their ange, before focusing on the constructivist approach, which has had the most traction in gender/environment debates in the last two decades. Ecofeminist approaches It is tempting to use a retrospective to try to impose some sort of order on past intellectual activity, and what I am attempting to do first in this article is to explore whether there is an intellectual trajectory, through a not necessarily coherent body of thinking and writing on gender and environment in the late twentieth century. In teasing out the possible relationship between womens position, gender anage the environment, ecofeminist writers in the 1970s and 1980s explored the relative importance of essentialism and social construction in these relationships. The social constructivist analyses (which tended to dominate French and British writing; see, for example, Mellor 1992) drew from the Marxist and social feminist literature to show how womens position in society (as, for example, carers of children and other vulnerable family members, domestic workers, and low paid/status workers) derived from prevailing social and economic structures, which exposed them to a particular set of environmental incivilities. The specifically ecofeminist argument here proposed that, since the same social and economic structures also produced wide-scale environmental damage, then women could, in some sense, share this experience and were therefore better placed to argue on natures behalf. The essentialist argument that underpinned some of the North American and Australian analyses proposed that women had a particular relationship with nature by virtue of their biology (predominantly as actual or potential child bearers) and that this proximity to nature qualified them to speak more eloquently on natures behalf see, for example, Spretnak 1989; Daly 1978). Different authors drew on each position to different degrees, and much of the critique of ecofeminism (well articulated in Biehl 1991) over the past 20 years has focused on the problems perceived with essentialism, and on the validity of a shared experience between the human and non-human. Dennis Smith (2001), in discussing the role of gender in peace and conflict, has argued that essentialism is often used as a tool to mobilize a group around a perceived characteristic which sets it apart, and, certainly, cultural ecofeminism (prioritizing essentialist arguments) did so. Its strength was to demonstrate the possibility of a way of thinking and being which reversed the normal hierarchy in which men stood at the peak; however, little academic feminist environmental thinking is currently framed in this way.