1           Key Ideas About the Social World

If you pay attention to recurring messages in the popular media, you might easily get the idea that our world is in the process of changing dramatically. You might sense that the past is rapidly disappearing as we crossing the threshold into an entirely new era. From cheerleaders of the future, the message we get is that on one side of the divide are all the old, bankrupt ideas that have made our world so messy and dangerous, whereas on the other side are the brilliant new ideas that will usher us into utopia. From the prophets doom, you get the opposite sense of where we have been and where we are heading. They usually have a positive, if romanticized, view of the past and its presumed values (commitment to family, community spirit, the work ethic, etc.), and they envision a future devoid of such virtues. Not surprisingly, they view what is ahead with considerable foreboding.

Both views have many popularizers. Perhaps you have seen titles like the following on bookstore shelves and at newsstands: 

These ideas have relevance in sorting out issues related to the world of work. They speak to problems and possibilities shaping what it means to be a citizen today. They have much to offer in thinking about the shifting nature of social relations even at the most intimate levels involving lovers, friends, and neighbors. In short, the purpose of the book is to reveal the relevance of sociological thinking for everyone concerned about their public and private lives.

In preparing this work, I came to realize how important some of my former teachers were in convincing me of the vitality and significance of the sociological imagination. In coming to understand what are admittedly often difficult ideas, I had the good fortune of encountering a number of truly wonderful teachers. This began in my undergraduate years at the University of Michigan, where the kind and generous Max Heirich first planted the seeds of my decision to become a sociologist. At Yale, I took engaging courses from Norman Birnbaum and David Apter, but it was particularly in the social theory courses of a dynamic and encouraging teacher, Steve Warner, that I obtained a real grounding in sociological theory. At the New School, my main teachers Stan Lyman, Art Vidich, and the late Ben Nelson deepened and enriched my thinking, while encouraging independence of thought.

In the preparation of this manuscript, I have benefited from the assistance of a number of people. These include my mother and my sister Kathy, both of whom served as editors and critical readers. At Pine Forge, Jean Skeels has been most helpful in a wide variety of ways, Becky Smith helped immeasurably in recasting the first chapter, and in the process liberated the next from some genuinely tortured prose! Closer to home, Dan Pittman assisted with the index.

A number of people read and commented on various versions of the manuscript. Although I did not always take their advice, I greatly appreciated the collegiality and the critical insights offered by Steven Lybrand and George Ritzer.

Finally, this project would never have come to fruition without Steve Rutter. Indeed, though the final product took a rather different form from the one he originally sketched out, the initial conception of this book began with him, not me. Moreover, at every stage along the way, Steve read and responded to my drafts, thus making the final products a truly collaborative endeavor. For this, I am grateful.

Preface

This book, in presenting a brief account of the sociological vocation and promise, is designed to serve as a text particularly well-suited for courses in which students are also expected to read from primary texts.

I has two specific goals in mind when setting out write Key Ideas in Sociology. First, I intended for it to provide students with a general overview of the ways in which a number of important ideas have helped sociologists to better understand contemporary societies and human social relations in those societies. At the same time, I wanted to show how those ideas have been continually reformulated by social theorists attempting to respond to the ongoing impact of social change.

KEY IDEAS IN SOCIOLOGY

PERTER KIVISTO

Contents

Preface xiii

1 ▇ Key Ideas About the Social World

Conceptualizing Contemporary Society

Industrial Society

Democracy

Individualism

Modernity

Careers of Ideas

Key Ideas and the Field of Sociology

Tools for Understanding Social Trends

2 ▇ Industrial Society: From the Satanic Mills to the Computer Age

The Industrial Revolution

Karl Marx: The Permanent Exile

The Intellectual Context of Marx’s Ideas