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How are these people categorised and normalized? Who are to suceed and who are to fail?
To answer this question we must ask: How is this society changing? Where does it resdie within humanity as a whole, and what are it's implications for it? How are the institutions within it affected by it's historical context?
To answer this we must understand - What are the essential components and how do they interrelate? How is social order maintained and how does it differ from other forms? Why do certain aspects within this particular society maintain, whilst others change?
Lastly, to think sociologically is to subvert and question previously held assumptions. To attack and test the grounds upon which these assumptions stand, and to attempt to provide correct answers - and if not that, then to at least overturn incorrect ones. In Bauman's words - we must "defamilliarise the familiar"
For the individual, much of what we see occur upon a daily basis is explained as a result of a few isolated individuals. By way of common sense, we can explain an economic crisis as the result of a few reckless bankers or we decide that the failure of an institution is due to an under performing government. When thinking sociologically, however, we attempt to disentangle the complexity of interdependence and inter relation, and seek to place events, such as those mentioned above, within their wider sociological context.
Bauman also differentiates between the scale of sociological and personal observations of society. For the individual the the interactions with which they navigate their surroundings and explain phenomena are limited by their horizons. These horizons rarely go beyond their direct individual or anecdotal experience. However, the Sociological vista attempts to see beyond these limited horizons. Instead, it explains phenomena and interactions as resulting from a much wider and more intricate system, whilst still attempting to incorporate - theory dependent - the individual's experiences as an integral part of this system.
In order to identify what exactly constitutes a sociological explanation, we must first excavate, and look beyond the basis of a claim. Is it factual, based upon re-tesatble theory and backed up by rigorous and careful research? Or is it based upon opinion and predisposition? If it falls within the latter category, then it is a common sense explanation. If, however it is backed up by reasearch and evidence, then it is said to be sociological.
In attempting to define the differences between common sense and sociological explanations, Zygmunt Bauman offers four means of differentiating between the two. 1- What is the basis of it's claim?
2 - How wide is it's scope of its explanation?
3 - How does it explain wider social issues?
4 - Does it challenge or extoll taken for granted assumption?
By answering these three questions, we can begin to understand how our personal troubles and daily experiences can be seen in relation to others and to society as a whole. This is known a s developing a sociological imagination.