Applying Sociology
Table of Contents
- What's in a name? How Socail forces Affect Personal Change
- The Sociological Imaginations: Turning Personal Problems into Public Issues
- Sociology at Work: Understanding the Issue of Race
What's in a Name?How Social Forces Affect Personal Choices
Have you ever read "Dear Abby" or "Ann Landers"? These two advice columns have been popular in the United States for decades. Not everyone knows that these women are sisters (twins, actually), nor that they both changed their names: Abby was born Pauline Friedman and Ann was born Esther Friedman.
These two women are among tens of thousands of people in our society who change their names to advance their careers. At first glance, changing one's name seems to be just a matter of personal preference. But take a closer look, from a sociological point of view, at the following list:
- William Claude Dukenfield
- Cherilyn Sarkisian
- Wynona Horowitz
- Robert Allen Zimmerman
- Larry Zeigler
- Frederick Austerlitz
- Paul Rubenfeld
- George Kyriakou Panayiotou
- Annie Mae Bullock
- Joan Molinsky
- Malden Sekulovich
- Jerome Silberman
- Milton Supman
- Karen Ziegler
- Ramon Estevez
- Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.
- Allen Stewart Konigsberg
- Raquel Tejada
- Jacob Cohen
- Lee Yuen Kam
Do you see the pattern? In the past, celebrities of various national backgrounds adopted English-sounding names. Why? Because our society accords high social prestige to an Anglo-Saxon background. Once again, we see personal choices guided by social forces.
Today, some young actors still adopt English-sounding names-Thomas Mapother, for example, changed his name to Tom Cruise. But the pattern is changing as more of today's film stars are keeping their non-English-sounding names. Consider Janeane Garofalo, Gary Sinise, Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Cameron Diaz, John Malkovich, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Why the new pattern? Probably because we all have become more accepting of the multicultural mix of our society.
The Sociological Imagination: Turning Personal Problems into Public Issues
The power of the sociological perspective lies not just in changing individual lives but in transforming society. As C. Wright Mills saw it, society, not people's personal failings, is the cause of poverty and other social problems. Using the sociological imagination, then, brings people together by turning personal problems into public issues.
In the following excerpt* Mills explains the need for a sociological imagination:
When a society becomes industrialized, a peasant becomes a worker; a feudal lord is liquidated or becomes a businessman. When classes rise or fall, a man is employed or unemployed; when the rate of investment goes up or down, a man takes new heart or goes broke. When wars happen, an insurance salesman becomes a rocket launcher; a store clerk, a radar man; a wife lives alone; a child grows up without a father. Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.
Yet men do not usually define the troubles they endure in terms of historical change. . . . The well-being they enjoy, they do not usually impute to the big ups and downs of the society in which they live. Seldom aware of the intricate connection between the patterns of their own lives and the course of world history, ordinary men do not usually know what this connection means for the kind of men they are becoming and for the kinds of history-making in which they might take part. They do not possess the quality of mind essential to grasp the interplay of men and society, of biography and history, of self and world. . . .
What they need . . . is a quality of mind that will help them to [see] . . . what is going on in the world and . . . what may be happening within themselves. It is this quality . . . that . . . may be called the sociological imagination.
*In this excerpt, C. Wright Mills uses "man" and male pronouns to apply to all people. Note that even an outspoken critic of society such as Mills reflected the conventional writing practices of his time as far as gender was concerned.
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Sociology at Work: Understanding the Issue of Race
One of sociology's pioneers in the United States, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois did not consider sociology a dry, academic discipline. On the contrary, he wanted to apply sociology to solving the pressing problems of his time, especially racial inequality.
Du Bois spoke out against racial separation and served as a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He helped his colleagues in sociology-and people everywhere-to see the deep racial divisions in the United States. White people can simply be "Americans," Du Bois pointed out; African Americans, however, have a "double consciousness," reflecting their status as citizens who are never able to escape identification based on the color of their skin.
In his sociological classic, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899), Du Bois studied Philadelphia's African American community, identifying both the strengths and weaknesses of people wrestling with overwhelming social problems. He challenged the widespread belief in black inferiority, attributing the problems of African Americans to white prejudice. His criticism extended also to successful people of color for being so eager to win white acceptance that they gave up all ties with the black community, which needed their help.
Early in his career, Du Bois was optimistic about overcoming racial divisions. By the end of his life, however, he had grown bitter, believing that little had changed. At the age of ninety-three, Du Bois left the United States for Ghana, where he died two years later. The problems of race remain with us to this day.
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