3.1 Chapter Learning Objectives and Overview
Kelly Szott and Kimberly Puttman
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you will be able to:
- Summarize how sociological theory helps us to understand and explain our world.
- Describe key theories of sociologists, particularly the scholars and scientists who are traditionally ignored.
- Explain how the social location of a sociologist might impact what they see.
Chapter Overview
With gratitude to my teachers, my students, Open Oregon, and my co-author for support in this attempt to re-craft the standard narrative of sociological theory.
– Kelly Szott
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqDWGgvpWnY
In the video that opens this chapter, we see that something as simple as where to go to the bathroom can be very complicated (Figure 3.1). Writing in 1892, Black feminist scholar Anna Julia Cooper noted a dilemma she encountered while traveling by train in the South. When her train stopped at a station, Cooper wrote, “I see two dingy little rooms with ‘FOR LADIES’ swinging over one and ‘FOR COLORED PEOPLE’ over the other; while wondering under which head I come” (1892:96). It is this precise dilemma that Black feminist theorists of intersectionality dealt with 100 years later when they pointed out the law’s inability to address the intersection of racial and gender discrimination.
Bathrooms have also emerged as a controversial space more recently with attacks on policies that allow gender-expansive individuals to use restrooms that align with their gender identity (Schilt and Westbrook 2015). We can see that then and now something that seems so mundane—bathrooms—can produce rich theoretical insights about society, a group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture.
The study of social problems is based in the wider field of sociology, the systematic study of society and social interactions to understand individuals, groups, and institutions through data collection and analysis. Sociologists study human interactions from the level of two people talking to systems that span the globe. In this chapter, we explore how sociological theories help to understand why our world works the way it does.
Focusing Questions
The following questions will help us understand how sociology is a science:
- How does sociological theory help us to understand and explain our world?
- Who are sociologists, particularly scholars and scientists who are traditionally ignored?
- How does the social location of sociologists influence what they see?
Let’s start by sorting out how we know what we know!
Licenses and Attributions for Chapter Overview and Learning Objectives
Open Content, Original
“Chapter Overview” by Kelly Szott and Kimberly Puttman is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Open Content, Shared Previously
“Society” definition from Introduction to Sociology 3e by Tonja R. Conerly, Kathleen Holmes, Asha Lal Tamang, Introduction to Sociology 3e, Openstax is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
“Sociology” definition adapted from the Open Education Sociological Dictionary edited by Kenton Bell is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
All Rights Reserved Content
Figure 3.1. “Texas State Rep. Gives Powerful Testimony on the History of Bathroom Laws” © Washington Post is licensed under the Standard YouTube License.
a social condition or pattern of behavior that has negative consequences for individuals, our social world, or our physical world
overlapping social identities produce unique inequities that influence the lives of people and groups.
a social expression of a person’s sexual identity that influences the status, roles, and norms of their behavior.
the unequal treatment of an individual or group based on their statuses (e.g., age, beliefs, ethnicity, sex)
one’s innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither – how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One's gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth.