Sociological Mindfulness: Lesson 8, 1Soc Perspective

As students join our class, please read this excerpt, Sociological Mindfulness, from sociologist Michael Schwalbe's book, The Sociologically Examined Life.

Sociological Literacy: Sociological Mindfulness

The third theory that helps us have a sociological perspective is from a recent sociologist, Michael Schwalbe who wrote the book The Sociologically Examined Life.  In it, Schwalbe explains the concept of sociological mindfulness, in this excerpt.

Here is the Google Form for this lesson.

After reading the excerpt, answer these:

1) What does Schwalbe mean by "sociological mindfulness?"

2) How is this different from sociological imagination?

3) Why does Schwalbe say we should bother with sociological mindfulness?

4)What are some ways that you might live your life differently or view aspects of your life differently if you live with sociological mindfulness? 

Schwalbe's "sociological mindfulness" can be a difficult idea to grasp and Schwalbe admits that.  Mindfulness is a  concept that describes an awareness in the world at this moment here and now.  It implies being tuned in to the present moment.  Sociological mindfulness, therefore, is being tuned into both the way in which the present moment is influenced by society and also being tuned in to how we are a player in shaping the present moment.  The simple way I look at sociological mindfulness is that it is the mirror image of sociological imagination.  In other words, once we realize that people are influenced by their social setting, we can then realize that influence is happening right now and we are a part of it.  Each of us is both influenced by other people and influencing other people.

So, I think there are 3 critical aspects to sociological mindfulness.

First, in being tuned in to a sociological awareness, we can see and appreciate how we are affected by when and where we live and all of the social experiences that entails.  That is, we can think with a sociological imagination about ourselves.

Second, sociological mindfulness provides us with an awareness of how other people are shaped by society.  And because we realize that others are impacted by these experiences we can appreciate each person's uniqueness.  This makes us more understanding and ultimately more empathetic and forgiving of others.

The third part of sociological mindfulness is being tuned into the idea that not only is each of us being influenced by society, but also that each of us is a participant in society.  We all affect the social world, even in little ways.  Each little act we do matters and has an effect on other people.  This aspect has a much longer explanation:

Sociological mindfulness is an awareness that we are being influenced by the world and so we can question that influence and hopefully guide it.  And it is an awareness that we are influencing others and hopefully it makes us question that influence so we can have the impact that we want on our world.  Sociological mindfulness is an awareness that society is dynamic and fluid and we are a part of that. In short, sociological mindfulness is the awareness that how we interact in the world matters!

Another way of thinking about sociological mindfulness is an exercise in Schwalbe's reading,

Think of the people you love and the kind of life you wish for them...I hope you will consider the possibility that mindfulness may be useful as a way to create better lives for more people.

What kind of life would you wish for those whom you love? How can you affect the world to be more like this way of life? Can you see how humans impact society? How can you make an impact that supports the world you want to live in? I think by answering these questions, students can begin to think with sociological mindfulness.

If you are still having a hard time grasping sociological mindfulness think about the past and all the ways individuals with sociological mindfulness have impacted our world: think about  Rosa Parks, Gandhi, Elenore Roosevelt, Desmond Tutu, Caesar Chavez, Einstein, Mother Theresa, Rabbi Heschel, and think about the movements like the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, the women's rights movement, the civil rights movement, the elimination of polio etc... Here is a link to 9 people who changed the world.  And here are 10 acts of courage that changed the world.  All of these people and movements are a product of those who had sociological mindfulness.  Think about Rosa Parks and realize that her actions changed the people on that bus and that changed the people of the city which changed our nation and that has influenced the world's view of human rights and the dignity of all human beings.  Our actions in day to day life, like where we sit on the bus and how we treat others can make a difference.   That awareness is sociological mindfulness.  In my personal life, it might be my parents sending me to college even though they themselves never went there and they didn't have the money.  My grandfather might have had sociological mindfulness when he came alone to America in 1916 at age 15.  He wanted a better life for his future and his family's future.  Both, my parents and my grandparents had an awareness that their choices mattered and that their choices affected the future.  So they made the best decision they could for my future based on that awareness.

The Starfish Parable is another way to think about being sociologically mindful

One day, an old man was walking along a beach that was littered with thousands of starfish that had been washed ashore by the high tide. As he walked he came upon a young boy who was eagerly throwing the starfish back into the ocean, one by one.
Puzzled, the man looked at the boy and asked what he was doing. Without looking up from his task, the boy simply replied, "I'm saving these starfish, Sir".
The old man chuckled aloud, "Son, there are thousands of starfish and only one of you. What difference can you make?"
The boy picked up a starfish, gently tossed it into the water and turning to the man, said, "It made a difference to that one!"

 We cannot change the world, but by being aware of how our actions affect those around us, we can make a difference for those who we do come into contact with us.

This reminds me of chaos theory which is a modern theory of science and math that events sometimes seem random but really they are part of a complex system.  Sometimes the butterfly effect is used an example - that the world is so connected and reliant on all processes that the wind from a butterfly flapping its wings in Mexico might contribute to a typhoon across the pacific in Japan.  This thinking applied to society might be considered sociological mindfulness.

Here is a Thai commercial, called "Unsung Hero" that promotes the idea of sociological mindfulness.

Applying the sociological mindfulness and imagination to Touchscreen

Watch slam poet Marshall Soulful Jones perform his poem called touchscreen.  Think about how he has a sociological imagination.  Here are the lyrics.



5.  Jones's Touchscreen can be an example of sociological mindfulness - how?


If you realize that people are influenced by living in this age of technology that is sociological imagination.  And if you question the influence of technology on you and make conscious choices about how to let it influence you, that is sociological mindfulness.

Here is a link to my post about all the research showing the effects of digital devices with special attention to an article from the Atlantic that highlights some of the consequences of the constant barrage of social media.

Applying Sociological Mindfulness to Teen-Parent conflicts

6.  How would you apply sociological mindfulness to Coontz's article, Teen-Parent Conflicts?


Sociological mindfulness and the Iraq War:  Ted Talk by Professor Sam Richards

Below is a Ted Talk by sociology professor Sam Richards that highlights sociological mindfulness from a "radical perspective".  Richards talks about radical empathy but this another way of saying sociological mindfulness.

For a further understanding of this idea, you click on the link to "sociological mindfulness" and see some of my posts about it.

1SocPerspective 8: Imagine when...Sociological Imagination part 2

Can you recall what C. Wright Mills means by having a sociological imagination?

Seeing the world with a sociological imagination means being able to see how individuals are affected by where and when they live.  Yesterday's lesson applied the sociological imagination to where a person lives.  Just ten miles apart from SHS students might have a very different experience.  Today we will use our sociological imagination to examine how people might be affected by when they live.  Using old yearbooks from the school's library, examine the pictures of our school from years past.

Applying the sociological imagination to when a student attended SHS

In small groups, do a qualitative content analysis of the yearbooks from SHS past.  Look for differences between SHS now and then.  Answer the following questions on this Google Form:

1. What are the differences between that year and now?


2. How might you be different if you had been attending SHS during that time?


Private troubles and public issues
3. What are the different obstacles that you might've faced then instead of now?


4.  What are some ways that you might feel differently about yourself/school/etc if you attended SHS then?


Here are some of the pictures that I found:

Further sociological research on yearbooks

Here is a sociology research article that is a qualitative study of high school yearbooks and inclusivity/diversity.

OK, Boomer!

Another way of applying a sociological imagination to when someone lives is using this research from the Pew Research Center.  Click on the link and use the research to see how different generations have been shaped.  Remember that when we joke around about different generations (like saying  "Ok Boomer"), we are acknowledging that being born in a different generation means being more likely to think a certain way.

Beloit Mindset

Think about how a student being born today might experience the world differently than you?  Put another way, what has shaped you that a baby born today might never experience? 

This example of sociological imagination is based on the Beloit Mindset list. Beloit College used to publish a list of how the current year's college freshmen have experienced the world differently.  
A couple examples of this are from the NY Times:
Here is an article about students not writing in cursive.
And, this link is about the changing role of the wristwatch.
Another example is this video of a child who is trying to use a magazine like an ipad:

1Soc Perspective 7: A Sociological Imagination and Imagine Where...

Our last lesson, we looked at the idea of the social construction of reality as another way to understand what having a sociological perspective is.  Today we will look at a second theory that will continue to help you to think with a sociological perspective.

As students arrive, please read this excerpt from Outliers.

Please open the Google Form for this lesson and fill out the questions as you go along.

1.  What if you were born in a different place or a different time?  How would you be different?  Choose a place or time and brainstorm how you might be different.  

Applying Sociology:  The Sociological Imagination and Outliers

After brainstorming about how you might be different if you lived in a different time or place, read the following excerpt from Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers.  This excerpt is the introduction to the book.  It is about a small town in Pennsylvania and how the people in that town were affected by living there.

2. Describe life in Roseto, PA.

3. What did Dr. Wolf set out to study at first?

4. What did he find/conclude at the end of his study?

5. Were the people of Roseto, PA aware of that they were being affected in the way that Dr. Wolf concluded? Explain.

In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell writes about extreme success stories (aka Outliers). In the introduction (the excerpt linked above),  we learn that the people who lived in Roseto at that time were affected by the social life there even though they did not realize it.  In other words, they were affected by where and when they live.  This is is the task of sociology;  to understand how people are affected by where and when they live.  

This understanding is what an important sociologist, C. Wright Mills, calls having a "sociological imagination".   Mills explains "sociological imagination" as seeing the connection between history and biography. That is, who we are (our biography) is determined by where and when we live (our history).   As an example of this idea, the people of Roseto were affected by where and when they lived. Because they lived in the town of Roseto at that time, they lived in a way that affected them (without even knowing it) so that they had a much lower chance of getting heart disease and living longer than the rest of the country.  This idea might seem simple, but C. Wright Mills, an important sociologist, wrote in 1959, that people often forget this in both their daily life and their research.  Mills also adds that using a sociological imagination it is possible to see the private troubles as public issues.  In other words, often times a person's struggle in daily life is really part of a larger structural issue that individuals can't always see.

The rest of Gladwell's book, Outliers, uses a sociological imagination to explain extreme success stories. For example, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs tremendous success and wealth stemming from where and when they lived: 

Gladwell describes how being born in the mid 1950s was particularly fortuitous for those interested in computer programming development (think Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, both born in 1955). It also helped to be geographically near what were then called supercomputers, the gigantic predecessors to the thing on which you’re reading this post. Back in the 1960s, when Gates and Jobs were coming of age, a supercomputer took up a whole room and was not something most youngsters would have had a chance to see, let alone work on. But because of their proximity to actual computers, both Gates and Jobs had a leg up on others their age and had the chance to spend hours and hours (10,000 of them in Gladwell’s estimation) learning about programming.

For more info/examples of the sociological imagination, see this post from the Everyday Sociology site that explains how a sociological imagination can be used to analyze how individuals are affected by when and where they live.

Please add Mills' sociological imagination to your sociological framework graphic organizer:

6.  Do you have any questions about Mills' sociological imagination?  Can you explain it?

Imagine Where...

Applying your sociological imagination to where a person lives

Recall that a sociological imagination is understanding that an individual's experience is shaped by where and when they live.  Now, let's use a sociological imagination to examine data to understand how being a student in SHS's district might shape students differently than being a student in North Chicago.  North Chicago is just 10 miles northeast of SHS, but a student's biography might be drastically different if you live there.

Use your sociological imagination to analyze the three data sources below.  Using your sociological imagination, create a hypothesis for each of the data sources.  Be sure to cite data to support your hypothesis.

• Compare high school data from Illinois High School Report Card Data here.  Use data from the link to hypothesize how you (and the opportunities presented to you) might be different if you were going to school in North Chicago as opposed to Stevenson.  If you have trouble accessing the website, here is 2018 data for SHS.  Here is 2018 data for North Chicago.
• Compare the community data from CMAP.  Here are community snapshots for North Chicago and Lincolnshire.  Hypothesize how the data might shape your experience, opportunities, and challenges if you lived in North Chicago as opposed to Lincolnshire.

Compare SHS and North Chicago using the links above.  Then answer this:

9. (A&B) How might this data reveal that some of the private troubles of different students are really public issues?  A) Using the data in those links cite differences between SHS and N. Chicago.   These differences might be considered public issues.  Then, B) theorize how might those differences create private troubles?  In other words, how might those differences create problems for individual students living there? 


Choosing a College and Sociological Imagination
Another exercise in sociological imagination and college is at this post.  It has some ways of both using data and exploring college and the sociological imagination.

1 Soc Perspective 5: "Sal i'va had enough!" The Social Construction of Reality

We have learned about three paradigms that influenced the beginnings of sociology as a discipline.  They were the foundations of sociology as a discipline and most of what sociologists study can be viewed through one or more of these three paradigms.  These three paradigms are also three ways of having a sociological perspective.  Other sociologists have tried to explain the sociological perspective in their own ways.  I want to emphasize 2 other sociological concepts that help to illustrate the sociological perspective.  The first of these will be today's lesson.

Please wait for the lesson to begin before reading further.

Spit vial or vile spit?  

Note:  (This is a lesson first published in Teaching Sociology (2003) by Brouillette and Turner and updated in ASA's Trails.)  

Think about the population testing program for Covid at our school.  Imagine that you spit into the vial and brought that vial to SHS.   

Then read about all the ways all of the ways that saliva is beneficial:

Saliva continuously moistens the linings of the mouth, throat, and general bronchial area. Saliva aids in the prevention of infection in these areas. Some cold remedies, for example, so dry out the linings that the microscopic cracks in the linings often bleed and are very susceptible to infection. Also, the admonitions of parents to their children to eat slowly and chew well is not just to prevent choking on large pieces of food. The leisurely eating of food mixes saliva with the food, which shortly thereafter is blended with the gastric acids in the stomach. This compound now sets the stage for a catalytic combination of saliva, food, and gastric juices, which produces optimal digestion. The addition of an adequate amount of saliva allows the body to extract needed nutrients throughout the digestive tract. Finally, saliva offsets the possibility of too much acid in the stomach, and therefore lessens the possibility of heartburn or ulcers.

Now, after reading about all the ways that saliva is useful, if you arrived at school and the admin told you that your vial is not needed, would you open the vial and take your saliva back?

Here is the Google form for this lesson.  

1.  After reading all of the beneficial uses of saliva, would you take it back from the spoon?

Is that gross?  Why?

Simply put, the average American will be repulsed by the idea of spitting into a spoon and then swallowing it back again.  However, we are constantly swallowing our own saliva all day long and there is no biological difference between the saliva in your mouth and the saliva on the spoon.  However, we have learned from our society (parents, friends, media) that there is a difference between "saliva" and "spit";  Saliva is in our mouth and is not gross, whereas spit has left our mouths and is gross even if it has not changed at all biologically.  This makes us feel gross and repulsed by "spit".

In his 1966 book with Thomas Luckman, Peter Berger called this idea the "Social Construction of Reality".  To break the idea down:

Social - society/other people

Construction - create

Reality - feelings/experiences

 

In other words, our experiences or how we feel (our reality) is created (constructed) by others (society).  This is called the social construction of reality. 

2. Can you explain the theory of the social construction of reality?  

Social Construction of Spitting Across Cultures

In the US most of us would consider spitting gross.  However, we have learned that in some cases spitting is acceptable.  For example:

• Many of us have been to baseball games and watched players spit all throughout the game. We didn't get repulsed by that.

In fact, during one World Series, Reggie Jackson averaged 19 spits per at-bat!  (see this 1985 article from LA Times about baseball spitters)

 

Another example is when parents or siblings use their saliva to wipe off a baby's face. We don't find that repulsive, but if a teacher even accidentally drops saliva onto a desk it becomes gross. Can you imagine a teacher who spits like a baseball player?  We have been conditioned to accept spitting on the baseball field but not in a classroom.  Watching a teacher spit in a classroom would feel gross and disgusting because we have learned to think that this is unacceptable/gross behavior.  This can be true for many of our experiences; feelings of happiness, sorrow, stress, worry can often be created for us by our of the society.

Because our reaction to spitting is a creation of our society, the reaction to spitting in other countries is different - because it is a different society.  

In other countries, different types of spitting are so common that a British sociology professor, Ross Coomber and his team spent time studying the various types of spitting and he published this paper (2013).  From the BBC,

Ross Coomber, who is a professor of sociology at Plymouth University, will spend about a month visiting six Asian countries.
He said people should take historical and cultural influences into account before forming opinions about those who spit.
He added, in many nations it was an accepted part of their lifestyle.

In Africa, a study in the British Journal of Cancer identified many different spitting practices especially the ways that spit/saliva is used for healing!  From the journal, there are examples of:

(1) the use of saliva in healing and medical practices, 

(2) the use of saliva in initiation or ritual practices and 

(3) the use of saliva in feeding practices. 

Among some ethnic groups...it has been observed that part of the healing and treatment process involves using saliva to treat different ailments: 

Among the Somali, saliva is used in the treatment of all forms of disease (Helander, 1988, p 111)... 

In Tanzania, among the Bena, for the treatment of a boil, the traditional healer chews traditional herbs (mhefefa and munepa) and subsequently uses the chewed and softened herbs to treat wounds (Culwick, 1935, p. 395)... 

Among the Masai of East Africa, the juice of the plant ol giloriti (Acacia abyssinica) is chewed and spit onto the wound by a healer as an astringent (Merker, 1910, p. 247)... 

Among the Azande of Sudan the patient's body is sucked vigorously by the traditional healer (Rattray, 1923, pp 248–250)... 

Also among the Igbo of Nigeria, it is observed that a traditional healer (dibia) will suck the arms, head or abdomen of a new-born baby...

Among the Wolof of West Africa, when a baby is born, it is reported that an elderly woman will visit the mother and infant and subsequently give the infant a blessing by spitting on its face and kissing it....

Among the Nuer of Southern Sudan, it is noted that men spit on the heads of their children on returning from trips and young girls who have not seen each other for some time spit on each other as a form of greeting (Huffman, 1931, p 87)....

In Peru, shamen may use spitting to purify a person with a spiritual bath like the way this shaman did to Anthony Bordain.

The point is that people have learned what to expect from their social groups and those expectations shape how individuals react to situations.  Related to this is the Thomas Theorum which was published by the University of Chicago Professors William Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas.  The Thomas Theorum says, 

"If people define situations as real, then they are real in their consequences."

Although it was originally most connected to the symbolic interaction paradigm, the Social Construction of Reality can easily be applied to all 3 paradigms so I place it in the center of the pyramid on the graphic organizer called A Framework for Sociological Perspective.

"Bath Rooms" as a Social Construction

Please do not let the example of spit/saliva make you think that the rest of the world is gross while our culture is normal.  Instead, there is no objective normal, there is only the way that each society has affected it's people to feel.   For example, here is an example that you might not realize about how another culture would be grossed out by American culture.  

The Japanese would be grossed out by the typical American bathroom. In Japan, toilets are located in a different room than the shower and bath. Instead, the Japanese "bathroom" is literally a room for bathing.  And not only is the toilet separate from the bathroom, but within the bathroom the shower is always separate from the bath. They see the shower for cleaning and the bath for soaking after you have cleaned.  Instead, Americans freely bath their children in bathtubs and it is seen as a pleasant and cute experience. But many Japanese would feel repulsed by the idea of bathing in one's own filth.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier bathrooms in the US typically include a toilet but even within the US bathroom we socially construct a gendered bathroom.  For example, there is a faculty lounge that contain two individual restrooms. These restrooms are exactly the same: one toilet and one sink. For the first decade that I was at SHS these bathrooms were simply labelled "restroom".  However, at some point around 2010, the rooms were labeled with a "Men's" and a "Women's" sign on each. Even though I had used both of those rooms interchangeably for a decade, it suddenly felt weird for me to use the room labelled as "women's".  The sign socially constructs that feeling.

Similarly, Voodoo Donuts, a restaurant in Austin, TX has an all-gender bathroom.  When I found myself using the toilet next to my wife, it was a weird feeling because I am not used to going to the bathroom with her.  

"Food" as a social construction

At Voodoo Doughnuts, the bathroom was not the only social construct being challenged.  The restaurant also challenges our conception of what a doughnut is.

Other examples of the social construction of food are:

these recipes from Time Magazine or these from AtThirstForFirst.  

How would you feel about eating mountain chicken or closer to home is this recipe for Rocky Mountain oysters.

The Patriot

Another way social construction can be illustrated is in our symbols and how they shape our reaction. For example, there is a feeling that you should not walk on the Patriot.

3. Can you explain, in your own words, how one of the examples above is a social construction?  Just choose one:  spitting, bathing, bathrooms, food.  

4. Think about something from your own life; your religion, sports, fashion, or something else.  How are your feelings/experiences shaped by what you have learned from people?