Tom Kando
Here is the problem: most people don’t understand what sociology means, especially in our very individualistic country. Recently, Florida’s state university system removed Sociology from its general education requirement. That’s how far bigotry and animosity towards anything that even reeks of the “social” - as in “socialism” and “sociology” have gone.
Sociology has a lot to do with statistics. The world would be a better place if more people took at least some introductory courses in Sociology.
There is such a thing as the sociological imagination. The great sociologist C. Write Mills used the expression as the title of one of his seminal books (1959).
The sociological imagination is a way of thinking which allows us to understand how our personal experiences relate to larger social issues. It's a framework that helps people see the connections between their personal lives and the broader social, historical, and political forces that shape society and our lives.
Or more succinctly: Much of what Max Weber called your “Life Chances” is determined by the groups and categories to which you belong, to a much greater extent than your individual talent and effort. In many ways you are a statistic.
Let’ elaborate this: In life there are winners, losers, and many people in between. Most of us believe that successful people are successful because they have what it takes - talent, ability - and because they work hard and apply themselves. In other words, successful people DESERVE to be successful. And by the same token, if you fail, it’s your own damn fault, right?
Wrong. Now, I am not saying that you don’t deserve your fine job, or that you did not work hard at your job and that you are not good at it. But the reality is that for the vast majority of people, how successful they are in life is determined by something else than their effort and their ability
And what might that be,?
They are sociological factors, including the groups and categories to which you belong- first and foremost your family, your nationality, your social class, your race, your gender, your connections, and luck - being in the right place at the right time.
All the demographic statistics prove this. “The overwhelming majority of high-paying jobs are in the hands of white men born into rich families and educated at elite universities.
To be sure, there are exceptions, and there are individual characteristics such as personality which render my generalization less than perfect. But when sociologists speak of such things as “the reproduction of social class” and “social capital,” they identify some of the most important and most overlooked determinants of inequality: That for most people, socioeconomic status is passed on from one generation to the next, and investment in such things as education is the wisest course.
Each individual is a statistic, a probability. Where along the frequency distribution each of us falls depends on the categories to which we belong. This is exactly the opposite of what most of us believe, which is the Horatio Alger fantasy.
We all belong to many groups/categories. You are at the same time white, male, 45, a college graduate, son of a successful businessman, six foot tall, etc. Each variable contributes to your “life chances.” Some examples:.
Race and income: African-Americans’ annual income: $54K. Non-Hispanic whites: $83K.
Education and income: People with just a high school diploma: annual income:$36K. With a B.A. (Aged 22 through 27): $60K.
Race and Life expectancy:: African-Americans: 72years; White Americans: 76.5 years. Asian-Americans: 85 years.
Gender and traffic accidents:: Women: 4.4 million accidents per year. Men: 6.1 million.
Generations and Life chances: Baby boomers have had better job security, retirement and home ownership rates than generation Z, but their life expectancy is only 78 years, whereas that of generation Z is 100.
Of course, membership in various demographic and other categories interact with each other.
One important non-sociological factor that also affects your life chances is luck/bad luck: Being accidentally at the right place or the wrong place at the right time or the wrong time.
And to be sure, there are always exceptions. That’s why polls always have margins of error: They are always LIKELY to be correct, but there is always a chance that they are not - 5%, 1% or some other probability. Exceptions show us that it IS possible to escape “sociological determinism.” So we focus on them, and we prefer the Horatio Alger narrative, that the American Dream is available to all those who put in the dedication, effort and aptitude.
In the end, most of the sociological determinants of life chances can be subsumed under “luck/bad luck.” After all, nobody chooses the time, place and circumstances of their birth. History is an especially important factor about which no individual has control. If you were born shortly after World War Two (being a baby boomer), your life chances were in many ways far more favorable than those of most subsequent generations. You were lucky.
It is difficult to predict the ultimate outcome for each case. But the fact is that the categories to which you belong ultimately determine your life chances. You might think that you are an individual, in charge of your destiny by the choices you make, but in reality whatever happens to you in your life - your income, your life expectancy, your success and failure, your marriage, your family status, everything is mostly a function of statistical probabilities.
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