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Have you ever wondered why some people are poor while others are rich, why some people divorce while others remain married, why some schools desegregate while others remain segregated, why some people are employed while others remain under or unemployed, why men tend to experience the workplace differently than women, and why some people respond well to change while others do not?
Sociology attempts to address these issues and other complexities of everyday life by utilizing a “sociological imagination” — systematically looking for “public issues” that underlie “private troubles” (C.W. Mills). For example, Sociologists understand unemployment, not as the problem of one person who cannot find a job, but as the interaction of economic, political, and social forces that determine the number of jobs and who has access to them.
“The first wisdom of Sociology is this: things are not always what they seem. . . . social reality turns out to have many layers of meaning. The discovery of each new layer changes the perception of the whole.” (Berger, 1963)
As a social science, Sociology offers a range of explanatory perspectives and methodologies in the study of urban and rural life, family patterns and relationships, social change, inter-group relations, social class, environment, technology and communications, health care and illness, social movements, community responses to disasters, and pressing contemporary issues.
More specifically, Sociology is the systematic study of social behavior and human groups focusing primarily on the centrality of relationships in all aspects of social life, particularly the influence of social relationships on people's attitudes and behavior and how societies are established and change.
For additional information:
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CONTACT |
Glenn Sims
Assistant Chair
Tel: (623) 845-3694
Office: 05-103
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OUR DEPARTMENT
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PROGRAM and LINKS
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