25th of July, 2019 (SoE)

Attendance

So how were the three days?

I am not going to talk about that. Did you enjoy it?

Okay so, I've decided not to ask today to summarise previous week's class.
This week you also went for the three days school visit.

We will have practicum exercise for SoE. You will go to same school with some exercises.
Out of eight days, three are non school exercises.

One is watching documentary. One is movie show. Last practicum day. One is something that is a surprise.

Mostly very small things to observe. My belief is that larger sociological question cant be answered by one or two observations. I will tell you what to keep in mind. I will tell you what to ask, how to ask, because an improper manner of asking question might make people uncomfortable.

I will brief you about that.

Course Structure on Moodle.

Once the question "What is Sociology?" is resolved, we will move forward.
I will give you some initial ideas.

Tomorrow I will spend some time on Sociology of Education.
Then I will present you the course structure.

Right?

Two classes we spent on the question,
" What is sociology? "

We asked two questions primarily,

1. What do we study in sociology?
2. How do we study society in sociology?

A what question and a how question.

1. For answering Q1 we had discussions and read papers.

What do we study in sociology?

Social Fact

The way we understand the term fact ... Tangible presence ... Something which has physical presence, we can feel it (air), we can taste it, we can touch it. Something that we can access through our five senses and confirm to make sure that a fact is not biased.

The moment we qualify the fact as social fact, it becomes a product of human consciousness.

This is what I want you to understand.

Everything, when analysed, is a product of human consciousness.

In sociology we deal with product of human consciousness.

Eg. Currency notes has material presence. Rupee, Dollar, Yen doesn't have any physical presence.

Money has mental presence.

Note: Poor man's cheque. I promise to pay the bearer a sum of ten rupees.

Note: The value of the work you do.

The way currency note functions , it has a symbolic function. It denotes a value.

Most of the transactions you do is not through physical currency note.

I never thought I will buy food through PayTM. Card is for bigger purchases, online purchases.

Basically, currency note doesn't have a lot of presence these days.

If you pay by currency notes in Europe, people may judge you.

Each social fact is a product of human consciousness.

Eg. Marriage. Every custom has different rituals.

Taking seven rounds. One can see the physical movement. But when those seven rounds make two people married, it becomes social fact.

Imagine any social fact. You cannot observe a social fact through your five senses. You must engage with it and derive the symbolic meaning.

You must have seen teacher teaching in the class.

Dont trust me.

Teaching is a social fact.
Because the speaking of the teacher is symbloic.

Physically one person is speaking and a group of people are just sitting and listening. The same act could be interpreted as teaching and preaching.

In many cases you might not even see someone speaking. For instance a sitar teacher playing a sitar.

How will you know what's happening?

By understanding the context, by interpretation.

Social facts are interpreted. They are not seen.

Saat Phere might be difficult for foreigners to interpret.

A lot of social facts have just been ingrained in our consciousness.

All social facts are products of social consciousness.

Try creating one example of social fact.

Because of interpretation or because of sensory perception.

Something which needs to be interpreted.

Some social facts:

1. Sindoor and Bindi
2. Touching books with feet
3. Wearing inappropriate clothes
4. Whistling
5. Singing songs when someone is passing
6. Closing the door for privacy
7. Opening door during Diwali
8. Gangajal
9. Non-disposal of images of gods and goddesses
10. Conversations and use of words: Dukaan band karna hai  - Dukaan mangal karna hai
Diya bujh gaya - Diya bad gaya
Language
11. White rangoli
Girls not being allowed to study; is that a social fact?

One counter example.

For social fact we need a context.
Festivals.

If you get a degree you get a job. This belief, is it a social fact?
MK: This belief guides your action, so its a social fact.

People of a certain community are terrorists. Is this a social fact?

What is the difference between a bias and a social fact? They are different shades of the same thing.

Degree, marksheet, tenth report card.
It has to be recognized collectively as a degree.

USA is a developed country, India is a developing country, Indonesia is an under-developed country.

Who decides the model of development?

We may disagree.

Development, how should it be interpreted?

This a matter of definition and collective interpretation. This is a dominant idea.

Some social facts that are debatable.

India has a democratic government.
The physical example: Elections, people standing in a queue, people pressing a button in the EVM.

Basically, any social fact involves act of interpretation.

Eg. Eating. Is not a social fact. But eating together is a social fact.

Psychologist Watson (maybe).
Behaviourist. He taught two pigeons to play Table Tennis. He first formed this habit that pigeon to play table tennis. 

Question. Contradict.  Think Differently.

The act of interpretation.

Social Fact: Result of collective interpretation.

The collective will keep changing.

The scientific facts are static in time and space. On the contrary, social facts keep changing.

The idea of certainty comes with fact.

Here we are admitting if social facts keep changing why are we calling it fact?

How do we arrive at collective consciousness?

Whether currency note is a social fact?

Pk is a good movie to understand social fact.

This is a tricky situation.

I am married. Is it a social fact?

Duality of facts.

Acts of collective interpretation keep changing.

Social facts are not universal facts.
Currency notes are a social fact in India.

Currency notes, marriage rituals have some kind of generality. That generality is limited by time and space.

Though social fact is not universal like the scientific facts but it has some stability, some certainty, some generality.

How we achieve some kind of generality?
How do social facts take birth?

It comes from generation to generation.

It resists change.

Coercion.

We achieve those generalities by forming habits, by creating culture. We go there by creating culture.

Product of consciousness because it requires interpretation.

Stability, certainty, generality.

This certainty comes because humans have the capacity to create a culture.


Break for 7 minutes 30 seconds!

From where do we attain the stability?

We get the stability by creating a culture.

Animals behave on the basis of their biological instinct. The instinct is to preserve its species.

Hard-wired in their biology.

Animals behave in certain ways because of their biology. To understand animals you have to understand their biology.

Human beings are not limited by biology.

I cannot reach the projector because my hand is not that long.
But I can use tools to switch on the projector.
Or I could use the remote and switch the projector on. So the remote is the extension of my hand.

Spectacles are an extension of my eye.

There are certain machines that help me listen sounds.

None of us can fly biologically. But we can fly.

Through these tools are bypassing, transcending our biology, our limits. Whatever limit biology has created, we are doing beyond it. We see what our naked eyes can see.

Is not our brain a biology?

Maybe, when we create culture we transcend our biology.

We also extend our memory. One social physchologist Some-vksy, as we have physical tool to extend our physical capacity, we have memory tool to extend our memory.

Simple memory tool; Tying a knot.

Story of Mirza Ghalib. He used to say a sher at midnight.
Tying the nada of his payjama. We are tool creating animals.  This also creates lots of problems.

Nature
Prakriti

Culture
Sanskriti

Kriti is common in prakriti and sanskriti.

Meaning of Pra - Prior.

Kriti - formation.

Pra-Kriti : Something which had been formed before we arrived: Prakriti.

Sanskriti: When we use that natural things and we create a better life. Harmonise.

We primarily create culture by creating memory tools.

Memory Tools - Writing, photography, videography, audio,

We are extending our memory by using memory tools.

This culture creates symbols.

Symbol: assigning a function to something.

For Eg. Marriage.

What helps us to interpret the seven rounds of the Hindu marriage.

Culture helps us to build collective consciousness.

Culture helps us to interpret certain things.

( Shows fifty rupees note ) The value assigned to this

People at ***** college take bath when they had to go for the placement interview .

Idea that we can make symbol of something else. Symbol is only symbol if it is collectively interpreted.

Worship.

Joining two hands is considered a mark of respect.

Some of our behaviour may not be explained by Biology

Lots of our acts cannot be explained by biology until and unless there are certain medical conditions.

Michael Someshot

Thik se chalo. Thik se baitho.

Don't be shocked if your students are behaving in a different way.

Even a simple act could have social connotation.

Chinese women foot binding.

Lots of behaviours require sociological explanation.

There is tendency to bring biological explanation for all kinds of sociological discrimination.

In 1930 one woman called Simon --- , women are not born, they are made.
The general belief is that females need to be treated differently because they have different biology.

Differences are not deficiencies. They could be interpreted as deficiencies.

Social facts are social constructions. Our life is constructed socially, culturally.

We conduct everyday acts through interpretation. You stop at a red light.  Red light is a symbol of stopping. This is an act of interpretation. Social fact. Its an act of interpretation, not a sensory perception.

Our life is constructed around these symbols. Its liberating. The moment we say something is a social construction... Biological facts are permanent. Social facts can be challenged. You challenge patriarchy.

Marx never said he was a sociologist. Realization that things are socially constructed

Min Expectation: 1 chapter.

Sociology: A very brief introduction ( By Oxford )
Marxism: A very short introduction

Class Tomorrow: 8:40 am