Sociology Now, Census Update

the least developed countries, young people are using the Internet and hanging out
on Facebook. Societies maintain both feudal relations and capitalist ones—including
those countries that call themselves communist! We are governed by authorities that
rely on traditional, charismatic, and legal rationales.
What’s more, the world has become so interdependent that one society cannot
exist in isolation from others. The development of one society toward different ways
of organizing social life (replacing tribal elders with elected representatives, for exam-
ple) is heavily influenced by the global marketplace, by transnational organizations
like the United Nations, and by ideas that circulate over the globe via transportation,
telecommunications, and the media faster than any classical theorist could ever have
imagined. We no longer see less-developed societies as the image of our past, any more
than they see Europe or the United States as an image of their future.
Sociology remains a deeply “modern” enterprise: Most sociologists believe that
science and reason can solve human problems and that people’s lives can be improved
by the application of these scientifically derived principles. Yet sociologists are also
reexamining the fixed idea of progress and seeing a jumble of conflicting possibilities
that exist at any historical moment rather than the inevitable unfolding of a single
linear path. As a concept, postmodernism originated in architecture, as a critique of
the uniformity of modern buildings. Using elements from classical and modern, post-
modernists prefer buildings that are not fixed and uniform but rather a collage, a col-
lision of styles in a new form.
In sociology, postmodernismsuggests that the meaning of social life may not be
found in conforming to rigid patterns of development but rather in the creative assem-
bling of interactions and interpretations that enable us to negotiate our way in the world.
In the postmodern conception of the world, the fundamentals of society—structure, cul-
ture, agency—are all challenged and in flux. Thus we are simultaneously freer and more
creative and also potentially more frightened, more lost, and more alone.
In the face of these postmodernist ideas, the modern world has also witnessed a
rebirth of “premodern” ideas. Premodern ideas—kinship, blood, religion, tribe—were
the ideas first challenged by the Enlightenment view of the world, from which
sociology emerged in the nineteenth century. The increased freedom of postmodern

CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY 33

Your Outlook on Life: Are People Basically Fair?

Sociologists are interested in those aspects of social life that contribute to our evaluations of

others, such as the social positions we occupy. For example, what affects one’s outlook on social

life and on others with whom we interact? How do things like race, class, and gender relate to

one’s perceptions of others? So, what do you think?

1.2

What

do

you

think

❍Take advantage

❍Be fair

❍Depends

Do you think most people would try to take advantage of you if they got a chance,

or would they try to be fair?

?

Log on to

http://www.MySocLab.com to participate

in these polls and view your

class’s responses.