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Dissecting each and every move we make as we navigate through life is not something that most people take the time to do, but a sociologist would argue that these habits and behaviors are the very nature that make us who we are. The pressures we see and feel, whether consciously or subconsciously, are all links in the framework of our society. After taking a day to record my actions, I’ve identified eight sociological concepts that impact the way I view my own thoughts, actions, and the rest of the world.
First and foremost, I noticed that I am an integral part of a larger whole. By integration, I’m referring to “a process of developing a society in which all the social groups share the socioeconomic and cultural life” . It is through the mixing of different cultures and beliefs that our society has successfully integrated and now share the same commonalities.
For example, when I start my car in the morning and wait for it to warm up, I’m part of a collective society that performs the same ritual, at about the same time, each morning. In other parts of the world, or even in other parts of the country, people are riding bicycles to work or walking to school. Even though there are people locally that have alternative modes of transportation, we all have to travel to work or school. It is a social norm to commute to a place of employment, just as it is customary to receive a paycheck for work performed and spend that money to support the household.
These commonalities may not seem strange to us, but it is when we look at another culture, say another completely different country, that we recognize their habits as odd. Because we see things through our own eyes, eyes that are accustomed to seeing our way of life, we immediately recognize the difference aspects of other cultures. As a college student, I have been assimilated into the blended environment of different races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and cultures. The blending of cultures is what makes America such a great country, but as I walked through the halls of the college today, I noticed that open-mindedness and acceptance are characteristics of America culture.
I tried to place myself in someone else’s shoes for a moment and see what it looks like from the outside; looking in. I couldn’t imagine what a foreigner would think of the American way of life, except that it might look scary and incomprehensible. When I watch news broadcasts that cover other countries, I try to maintain the perspective of cultural relativism, “a method whereby different societies or cultures are analyzed objectively without using the values of one culture to judge the worth of another” . It’s not always easy to view another culture objectively, and as I analyzed my own culture, I understand now why that would be a hard concept for anyone to grasp.
Even though this integrated culture of American society seems to be flawlessly chugging along “with liberty and justice for all”, there is a serious imbalance of power. Power can be defined as “the ability of an individual or a group to influence or change the behavior of other individuals or groups” , and we can see the tipping of scales leads to much more than an unequal treatment of all citizens.
Driving home, I noticed the traffic on the highway started to slow down and as I followed in succession, I saw the police car merging into traffic. Sure, the state police are supposed to be responsible for the safety of the public, but why is it that lawful citizens, such as myself, are inherently frightened by the thought of being pulled over? Part of it may be because we are afraid to act in deviance, breaking the law, but another part of it may be that we understand how power is distributed in society. Even though the police officer is just another human being, we have assigned him a higher value in our society and given him the ability to make decisions regarding the freedom of other human beings. Although we shouldn’t be frightened by the officer, it is simple to understand that the connection between the powerful elites that rule the country and the smaller powerful forces, such as the police, follow a distinct set of standards and practices that leave out the largest part of the population.
As a culture, and the largest population in the United States, we have accepted institutional discrimination as a reality. Institutional discrimination is maintaining “the advantage for the dominant group while providing the appearance of fairness to others”. Most of the time, we don’t realize that we are conforming to the framework that has been laid down to advance the elite, white-male dominated society.
Conformity is a hard term to define, but it can be understood best as the “assumption that there is order in nature and it can be discovered, described and understood” . It is when we take a step back and realize that society has developed over the course of millions of years that we start to understand the shortcomings of our social institution, best defined as “a complex, integrated set of social norms organized around the preservation of a basic societal value” . This is where we start to put the pieces together and understand that all of these concepts are interrelated and interdependent. I gathered all of this from a day worth of analyzing the world around me.
So, now that I understand how everyday interactions and rituals affect my own view on the world, I have a few options. I can either conform to the socially accepted traditions within our institutionally discriminated society, or I can take action. That doesn’t mean that I have to run out and pick up a sign, go protest, or start a riot. Instead, there are a number of ways that I can help break the cycle of an oppressive society; another sociological concept that has many understandings.
Social Action can be defined differently, depending on which theory provides the best explanation. According to Max Weber, “action is social in so far as by virtue of the subjective meaning attached to it by acting individual it takes account of the behaviour of others and is thereby oriented in its course. It includes all human behaviour when and in so far as the acting individual attaches a subjective meaning to it” however, “According to Talcott Parsons a social action is a process in the actor-situation system which has motivational significance to the individual actor or in the case of collectivity, its component individuals”.
In the case of my personal beliefs, I would have to align myself with Talcott Parsons and his perspective on social action. It seems to me that we are part of a society that “perform actions in everyday life as ifperformers on a stage” . This symbolic interactionism theory, known as Stage Theory, best explains the concepts that are interwoven to makeup the society that we live in today. In order to effectively make a change to the social system, we have to align ourselves with society and navigate within the confines of social acceptability. The only problem with this theory is that people get lost along the way. Once you’ve become good at blending in, you decide the fight isn’t worth it anymore and decide to give in the social norms, conform, and make the best of it. After all, fighting against a social institution that has unjustly and unequalled distributed the wealth, power, and prestige leaves you in a vulnerable position. You are part of the larger population that has no power, except the power to commit unlawful acts, which have become socially unacceptable.
As you can see, it is a vicious cycle that continues to keep institutional discrimination alive. The American culture supports the “appearance of fairness” to all and as long as you play by the rules and don’t go against the grain of social acceptability, you can expect to live fairly comfortable behind the scenes. It is the stage in American society that holds the most value, in terms of how you act. Although I had considered some of these concepts in the past, all of this became very clear to me throughout the course of my experiment documenting my day.
This morning was like any regular day. I woke up a few minutes before the alarm clock went off. I rolled over and hit the button, jumped out of bed and walked into the kitchen. I made myself a cup of coffee, let the dog outside to go to the bathroom, and sat at the table while I checked my email. After I realized it was probably too early for me to be looking at the computer, as I always do, I drank the rest of my coffee and took a shower. I got dressed, making sure that I wore clothes that were appropriate for school. I let the dog back inside, fed him, and put him in his crate. The neighbor would come by in a few hours and let him outside. I made myself a bagel with butter, ate it quickly, and locked the door on my way out. I started the car, threw my backpack on the seat, and drove to school. The ride to school is almost an hour for me so I thought about sociological concepts along the way and how society has evolved to something that is far beyond the scope of our understanding at times. I had a lot of thoughts as I parked the car, walked down the hall, and entered class. I observed everything through both of my classes. I left the school, made the same drive home, and made myself dinner. I took the garbage out, washed a few dishes, switched the laundry, and fed the dog. I played with him for a while, wrote two essays for school, and cleaned the house. After I ate dinner, I watched television for a while, but that wasn’t working for me. I had too much on my mind since I had been thinking about these concepts all day, so I searched for something that was a bit more informative. I actually settled on a radio news station covering the prison problem. I listened to that for a while and understood how there could be some many different perspectives on one topic. After that, I called a friend. We talked for a few minutes, but he was very busy so I scrolled through Facebook. I wasted a little time on the internet, and then I decided to start outlining the paper for this class. I didn’t have any substantial conversations throughout the day. I went to sleep.
References
Boundless Sociology. (2016, April 16). Dramaturgy. Retrieved from Boundless: https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/social-interaction-5/understanding-social-interaction-50/dramaturgy-316-10348/
Carl, J. D. (2013). Think Social Problems 2013. Pearson.
Connerly, W. (2016). With Liberty and Justice For All. Retrieved from The Heritage Foundation: http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/with-liberty-and-justice-for-all
SociologyGuide.com. (2016, April 16). A Student's Guide to Sociology. Retrieved from Sociology Guide: http://www.sociologyguide.com/
References
Boundless Sociology. (2016, April 16). Dramaturgy. Retrieved from Boundless: https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/social-interaction-5/understanding-social-interaction-50/dramaturgy-316-10348/
Carl, J. D. (2013). Think Social Problems 2013. Pearson.
Connerly, W. (2016). With Liberty and Justice For All. Retrieved from The Heritage Foundation: http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/with-liberty-and-justice-for-all
SociologyGuide.com. (2016, April 16). A Student's Guide to Sociology. Retrieved from Sociology Guide: http://www.sociologyguide.com/
