Intro to Intro 2: Macrosociology

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Intro to Intro 2Macrosociology
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Examples of Macrosociology (1)

• Macrosociology is concerned with societies and
  parts of societies
• Important question How do societies change?
• One way is through technological change
• Consider the introduction of the automobile
• Q What changed with the introduction of the
  automobile?

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Examples of Macrosociology (2) The Automobile

• For starters
• Most people today afraid to be on a horse
• Not many songs about blue-tail flies
• Not so many flies
• Geography of supermarket products
• On average travel about 1000 miles
• Harms local producers
• Road construction now big business
• Good for immigrants

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Examples of Macrosociology (3)

• Riches and destitution why are there rich people
  and poor people?
• Are the rich really different?
• How much of success is inherited, how much earned?

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Examples of Macrosociology (4)

• Racial and ethnic relations
• Where do race and ethnicity come from?
• Why and how do they make a difference?

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Examples of Macrosociology (5a)

• Interactions between parts of society
• Example after-school daycare programs illustrate
  interactions between
• economy and family two earners needed
• education and family school hours affect
  possible working hours
• education and government govt determines public
  school hours

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Globalization

• Economy
• Popular culture
• Hollywood
• CDs of recent US movie releases cheap in China
• Companies try to export US property rights law,
  too
• Bollywood
• Even the nickname reflects globalization
• Hip- hop
• Jamaica Bronx ? worldwide tunes
• Gangnam style

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Globalization Early Theory

• One of the early analyses of globalization was
  The Communist Manifesto
• 1848
• By Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

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Micro vs Macro in D.C. and Lapland

• Tallys Corner (Liebow)
• Study of young under-employed men in a poor
  section of Washington, DC
• The Snowmobile Revolution (Pelto)
• Study of how Lapland life and culture were
  affected by the introduction of the snowmobile

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Extent of Sami (Lapp) Culture
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SC3A1pmi_28area29
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Micro vs Macro The Sociological Imagination

• The Sociological Imagination (Mills)
• Key ability to see connection between the life
  of the individual (microsociology) and the larger
  social context (macrosociology)
• Involves ability to see connections between
• Biography and history
• Personal troubles and public issues