Invitation to Sociology Essay

Peter L. Berger (1963, pp. 2324) 2 noted in his classic apply Invitation to Sociology, The first wisdom of sociology is thisthings argon not what they seem. Social reality, he said, has many layers of essence, and a goal of sociology is to help us discover these multiple meanings. He continued, hoi polloi who like to avoid shocking discoveriesshould stay away from sociology. As Berger was emphasizing, sociology helps us see through conventional arrangements of how society works. He referred to this theme of sociology as the laugh at motif. By looking for levels of reality other than those given in the official interpretations of society (p. 38), 3 Berger said, sociology looks beyond on-the-surface understandings of social reality and helps us recognize the value of alternative understandings. In this manner, sociology often challenges conventional understandings well-nigh social reality and social institutions. For example, suppose two people meet at a college dance. They are interested in getting to know each other. What would be an on-the-surface understanding and description of their interaction over the next few minutes? What do they say? If they are like a typical couple who just met, they will ask questions like, Whats your name? Where are you from? What dorm do you live in? Whats your major? Now, such a description of their interaction is OK as far as it goes, but what is really going on here?Does any of the two people really care that much slightly the other persons answers to these questions? Isnt each one more than concerned about how the other person is responding, both verbally and nonverbally, during this brief interaction? For example, is the other person paying attention and smiling? Isnt this kind of understanding a more complete analysis of these few minutes of interaction than an understanding based solely on the answers to questions like, Whats your major? For the most complete understanding of this brief encounter, then, we must lo ok beyond the rather superficial things the two people are telling each other to uncover the true meaning of what is going on. As another example, consider the power structure in a city or state. To know who has the power to make decisions, we would probably natter a city or state charter or constitution that spells out the powers of the branches of government. This written document would indicate who makes decisions and haspower, but what would it not talk about? To put it another way, who or what else has power to influence the decisions elected officials make? Big corporations? Labor unions? The media? Lobbying groups representing all sorts of interests? The city or state charter or constitution may indicate who has the power to make decisions, but this understanding would be limited unless one looks beyond these written documents to get a deeper, more complete understanding of how power really operates in the setting being studied.