"Sociology as a Form of Consciousness"

From: Peter Berger's Invitation to Sociology, 1963.

Society:

• System of interaction: individuals, groups, institutions.
• Human Beings "oriented" towards one another: Shared understandings, Meaningful interaction
• The Social as an "emergent reality"

Sociologists

• Not interested in same concerns as economist, political scientists, etc.; But in the human activity/interaction that surrounds and defines these spheres of social life.
• Look behind the scenes
• Explore "taken-for-granted" reality
• Uncover patterns that define the particular groups, or entire societies.
• Formal and official versus informal and tacit.
• Example: Marriage and Mate selection

1. Love- yes, but:
2. Who falls in love with whom? Propinquity and Homogamy.
3. Factors of social class, income, education, race, ethnicity, religion

Social versus Sociological Problem

• Social: What people are concerned about. What they define as a problem.
• Sociological- Not why a "thing" goes wrong, BUT:

1. Why and how, and who defines the "thing" as wrong.
2. How the "system" (institutional structure) works- so:
3. Not Crime, but the Law.
4. Not Divorce, but Marriage and the Family.
5. Not Poverty, but Economic Stratification.
6. Not drug use, but the "Social Construction of Drug Abuse"