Allan Johnson “The Forest, the Trees, and the One Thing”

Allan Johnson

“The Forest, the Trees, and the One Thing”

Why practice sociology?

To understand the worldTo understand why suffering occursTo be part of the solutionTo understand connections between things

• “Criminal lawyers and judges study crime• Economists study economics• Political scientists study politics• Anthropologists, psychologists, historians,

divorce lawyers study families• But this doesn’t mean they’re practicing

sociology • Nor, when a TV show talks about something

social, does this mean the show in question is talking about sociology

Explaining itself

• A lot of sociology doesn’t attempt to explain how it is sociological

• You could read several years of sociology and still not know why something is sociological

• You might come away thinking it is “social studies…”

• But this is not correct

We need a systematic way to figure things out

Sociology is more than just common senseIt proposes a perpsective in which we can

understand the world and understand how to solve problems

Any kind of problem!

The author considers corporations in order to

deal with diversity - varied mix of people in the world

workforce is changing - more female, more non-European

Difference means more than variety

it is a basis for inclusion/exclusionrewarding some more and some lesstreating some with respect and others not

Imagine you had lots of different people in one room…

Black, white, Chinese, Japanese, Muslim, Jew, African, Indigenous

How would this socially work? Would everyone be an individual?Would any pattern emerge socially?

You can imagine if you just threw random people into a room, some social pattern would emerge

Patterns of inequality exist

difference is a basis for privilege

People are reluctant to talk about privilege,

especially those who belong to privileged groups

Ex. Racism - whites often don’t say anything, or

react angrily and defensivelyMen often react the same way about

sexismWhy?

People tend to think of things in terms of individuals

It affects how we see the worldPeople often think social problems come

down to individual character flawsThis is especially true in the United States

Because of this individualistic perspective

a member of a privileged group often hears a personal accusation

when the issue of privilege is brought up

If individualism is correct…We can ONLY change the world by changing

one person at a timeThis means if we want to improve society

we’d have to employ a lot of psychologists and police officers to make society better

Where does this individualism come from in the U.S.?

EnlightenmentPsychology - William James,Sigmund Freud

“self-help” bookspersonality choices for leadersif enough people “heal themselves”, the

world will be better

Proof of this dominance

A sociologist says that society is more than just individual people

A forest is more than individual trees

We are always participating in something larger than ourselves

We need to understand what it is we are participating in, and

how we participate in itThis is what sociology is

The One Thing

Ex. Schools,corporations,families,societies

We participate in social systems

Ex. Position - fatherYou can imagine what being a father meansWhat kind of work fathers do in China and in

the USWhat they “feel” like they “must do”

Important to remember however that people aren’t systems, and systems aren’t people

People participate in systems without being part of the systems

themselves

statement describes the U.S as a systemNot a personal attack on anyonesocial system defines your experienceyou have choices about how to participate

in the system

“The U.S. is a racist society that privileges whites over other racial

groups”

Ex. What is funny? Amos and Andy

Monopoly - game as a social system

has positions,a material reality - board, dice, properties,and ideas and sets of relationshipsgoal -to win - get the most money

the system (game) encourages thissystem is external, it is not ours to shape

Greedy behavior is presented as the path of least resistance

Systems affect how we

thinkfeeland behave

However, systems narrow the range of possibilities

People follow the path of least resistance given their position

Ex. Laughing at a racist joke

You can behave in a nearly infinite number of ways

Individualistic models don’t work

Every human interaction is related to a social context

Individual perspective is too narrow, it misses most of what is going on

Suicide

men more likely than womenwhite more likely than blackProtestant more likely than CatholicWhy?Groups occupy different positions in a

social system

Social systems and social life can be horrible or wonderful

but the people who participate in these might be neither

Ex. Sweatshops, migrant workers

Johnson argues that the biggest barrier to ending social oppression

is-

defensive resistance on the part of the privileged

Awareness absolves personal guilt, butalso challenges you to consider your

behavior

Personal solutions can’t solve social problems

Ex. Economic insecurityMost blame personal actions, not systemic

causes

Sociology looks at social life

in relation to systems AND how people participate in these systems

Social systems aren’t idle things

they are constantly being created and recreated as people act

People occupy a social location-

their place in a social systemEx.Teacher,Father, Half Black,Male, Homosexual,Bartender, High School Degree,Older, From the West Coast,Christian, Republican