|
Bauman, Z. and May, T. 2001
Thinking
Sociologically
Second edition of
Bauman, Z. 1990.
Revised by
Tim May. Basil Blackwell.
"This book is about the difference that living in society makes
to what we do, how we see ourselves, objects and others, and what happens
as a result." (p.97)
Contents:
Introduction: The
Discipline of Sociology
Sections: In search of distinction -
Sociology and
common sense - The content of
Thinking Sociologically
Part 1:
Action,
Identity and
Understanding in
Everyday Life.
1.
Oneself with Others.
Sections:
Choice, freedom and living with others
Oneself with another: Sociological perspectives
Socialisation, significance and
action
Summary
"Socialisation never ends in our lives. For this reason
sociologists distinguish between the stages of socialisation (primary,
secondary and tertiary)"
2.
Viewing and Sustaining Our Lives.
Sections:
Sustaining our lives:
interaction,
understanding and
social distance
"... our self-identity is bound up with the social identities
that we portray to others and those we encounter in our everyday existence"
(p.30)
'Us' within the 'other'
"oppositions become tools that we draw upon to chart the world"
(p.30)
Viewing and living lives:
boundaries
and
outsiders
Segregation and movement in the
city
Summary
"The boundaries between 'us' and 'them' provide for the
maintenance, via
distinction, of
identity." (p.183)
3. The
Bonds that Unite: Speaking of 'We'.
Sections:
Communities:
Forging
consensus and dealing with
conflict
Calculation, rationalisation and
group life
Summary
"Manuel
Castells writes, in the conclusion to the second of his three
volume study on The Information Age, that we are witnessing the
growth of networks, markets and organisations that are increasingly
governed by 'rational expectation'. Yet if this is a summary of a dominant
trend in contemporary western societies, in our survey of the bonds that
unite, what is most striking is the diversity of human
groupings."
Part 2: Living our Lives: Challenges, Choices and Constraints.
4.
Decisions and
Actions:
Power, Choice and Moral Duty.
Sections:
Making decisions
Values, power and action
The motivation to act
Morality and action
5. Making it Happen: Gifts, Exchange and Intimacy in
Relationships.
Sections:
The personal and impersonal: the gift and exchange
In
pursuit of ourselves: love, intimacy, caring and commodities
The
commodities of identity - Summary.
"Love and exchange are two extremes of a continuous line along
which human relations may be plotted"
6.
Care of Our
Selves: The
Body, Health and
Sexuality.
Sections:
In search of security
Embodied selves: Perfection and satisfaction
The pursuit of health and fitness
The body and desire
The body,
sexuality and
gender
Summary
7.
Time,
Space and (Dis)
Order.
Sections:
Experiencing time and space
Risk society
Autonomy, order and chaos
Summary
8.
Drawing Boundaries:
Culture,
Nature,
State and Territory.
Sections
Nature
and
Culture,
State, Nations and Nationalism
Citizenship and the
State
"To paraphrase Max
Weber,"
[see Weber] "the state has a monopoly over the
legitimate
means of violence"
(p.135)
Nations and Nationalism
Summary
9.
The Business in Everyday Life: Consumption, Technology and
Lifestyles.
Part 3: Looking Back and Looking Forward.
10.
Thinking
Sociologically.
page 170 Three strategies
1: replication of the scientific enterprise. Leading thinker
Durkheim.
2: reflection and modification associated with
Max Weber
That human actions are meaningful is the foundation of hermeneutics.
page 172
3: demonstration by effect:
pragmatism.
page 173
Questions for
Reflection and Further Reading.
|