SOICOLOGY AND COMMON SENSE - PowerPoint Presentation

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SOICOLOGY AND COMMON SENSE

Topic 1.c

Paper – 1

Sociology and Common Sense

Need to ponder

If sociology is study of obvious or application of common sense?

But common sense lacks validity and presents itself as a mere assertion

Common Sense

Weber

Routine knowledge we have of our everyday world and activities

Alfred

Schutz

Organised, typified stocks of taken-for-granted knowledge

And generally not questioned

Point of Similarities

Sometimes

folk wisdom is close to socio

For ex give a person a bad name and it will be blamed for many things more

Howard

Beckers

Labelling theory

of deviance

Common sense is often

related to social relationships

, social setting or

institutions

which fall under purview of sociology

Common sense

gives raw material

for sociology

Common sense can

even be supportive of sociological

theories

Point of Differences

Common sense is

status

quoist

but sociology

professes active change

It even

debates structure and agency intellectually

(man-society dualism- man creates society or vice versa)

Sociology

is

sceptic

while common sense is enforced through tradition

Peter Berger

:

“debunking” attitude

towards world taken for granted. 

Irreverent attitude

towards religion (Durkheim, Weber and Marx)

Common sense

explains many things

irrationally

For ex poverty is due to wish of god

Sociology is

verified, self-correcting

and academic discipline

Common sense

is assumptive which sometimes is

discontinuous/ paradoxical

(for example opposite attracts as well as fight)

Also, common sense not coherent across countries and eras.

Common sense has specific roles and duties assigned for genders, poor, tribal (

stereotypes

)

Margaret mead

study of

tribals

in

papua

new guinea region found certain gender role reversal contrary to common sense

Common sense is highly

value laden

Sociology attempts to be

objective and scientific

Common sense

lacks validity and reliability

Post modernist claim that sociology is not superior to common sense as there is

nothing as eternal truth

Anthony

Giddens

has said that sociological investigation often becomes common sense

For ex sociological investigation of marital breakups have made people believe that marriage is a risky business

Phenomenonlogists

attempting to

study “what” people do

and

not “why” people do

certain things

Poverty

Common Sense

problem families, low intelligence

Sociology

Structure of inequality in society, chronic irregularity of wages

Gramsci – Creation of Common Sense

Role of “common sense”, i.e. dominant ideas about society and about our place in it, in producing cultural hegemony

For example, the idea that one can succeed monetarily if one just tries hard enough, is a form of common sense that has flourished under capitalism, and that

serves to justify the system

For, if one believes that all it takes to succeed is hard work and dedication, then it follows that the system of capitalism and the social structure that is organized around it is just and valid

It also follows that

those

who have

succeeded economically

have

earned

their

wealth in a just and fair manner

, and that those who struggle economically in turn have earned their disenfranchised state

This form of common sense

fosters the belief

that

success and social mobility

are strictly the

responsibility of the individual

, and

thus obscures

the

real class, racial, and gender inequalities

that are built into the capitalist system