Sociology Taster Session

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Sociology Taster Session

• Dr Sin Yi Cheung, Dr Tina Miller
• Taster Day Friday 1 April 2005

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How much do we know about our society?

• What is the population of the UK?
• What are the two most common religions in the UK?
• What is the proportion of dependent children
  living in lone-parent families?
• What is the current unemployment rate?

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Now consider this.

• How would you describe the social geography of
  the area in which you were brought up?
• Consider class, ethnicity, age and religion

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What is Sociology?

• Systematic, sceptical study of human societies
• Enables us to understand the social world that
  were living in
• Stresses the importance of interdependence of
  different parts of societies
• Goes beyond describing specific events by
  generalisations

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Changing meaning of Families
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Why Should Students Study Sociology?

• Developing independent and critical thinking
• Many questions are being asked of our own society
  and where it is heading in the 21st century
• There can be no better time than now to study
  sociology
• Why is there so much public concern over crime?
• What kind of schools and hospitals do we want?
• Do UK-born ethnic minorities (e.g. Pakistani,
  Greek, or Chinese) identify themselves as
  British, or not?

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Understanding Societies

• Why is our society structured in the way it is?
• How different is the British society from
  societies in other countries?
• What effects is globalisation having on us all?
• Studying social institutions
• Family, education, work, labour market, health,
  crime
• (Patterns of) differences and divisions
• Transformations and globalisation

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Forces of Globalisation
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A Globalised World?
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Global inequalities
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How Do Sociologists Research the Social World?

• Ethnography - participant observation and field
  research (interviews, narrative building, etc.)
• Survey research measurement and statistical
  research (sampling, questionnaire, coding,
  correlation, multivariate analysis)
• Comparative, historical and cross-cultural
  research (historical records are used to study
  different countries)
• Applied, policy and evaluation research
  (experimental, quasi-experimental design)
• (Pawson, 1999)

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Careers in Sociology

• A professional sociologist (at universities,
  research institutes, think tanks)
• Teaching
• Public sector work, e.g. Health authority, local
  govt, probation service, etc.
• Human resources management
• Marketing, market research
• Public relations
• Journalism