Why Sociology

Introduction
By non-sociologists, we are often asked, “What is sociology?”. But by sociologists, we are asked, “Why sociology?”. My simple answer to this question is that sociology resonates with the way I think. I was able to take a sociology course in high school. After completing this course, I declared sociology and psychology as my college majors before I set foot on campus. Hence, my undergraduate and graduate studies were both focused on sociology. Yet, there are contextual factors, told in the following story, relating to the development of my sociological imagination and how it is an essential part of my identity and thought processes.

Learning About Inequality at Young Age
A family sat hovered around an open stove for heat in their tiny apartment on a cold Iowa winter morning. They were appreciative of the food in the delivered holiday basket. A second family in another small apartment were all little people. Other people we visited had limited mobility. These were my first community service experiences  

As a young child, I delivered holiday baskets with my parents through their active participation in the Elks. At the time, I had many questions about what I observed. Why would people sit around an open stove when I was told this was dangerous? How did little people exist outside the childhood movies I watched? My parents were frank in their answers and instilled in me the principles of service, giving back, and understanding privileges and oppressions in our society. I remember distinctly what my father told me. If you have the ability to give back, you give what you can. I now understand this to mean that privileges afforded to us in society should not be used solely for personal gain, but to help others who are not as fortunate because of inequalities present in society. This has shaped my course of education and career. I chose sociology because of my desire understand why inequalities exist and ways to work for social change and justice.

My background is not a particularly unique one. I grew up in a middle-class family in Iowa as an only child. My needs were met and I had many other privileges afforded to me. Yet, as the story above illustrates, I learned about many sociological concepts, such as structural inequalities, at a young age. These experiences, in addition to my mother’s career, influenced my educational and career aspirations to become a sociologist. 

Relaying the Bureaucratic Rules
My mother worked as a disability claim’s representative for the Social Security Administration for twenty-five years. I learned from listening and observing at a young age about her work and its relation to inequalities and structures in society. The relevance of her work to sociology became increasingly apparent while in college working with people with disabilities, in graduate school, and in teaching sociology.  

My mom would tell stories about the clients she saw in her cubicle in her office. The stories were not always pleasant, which is exemplary of their sociological significance. There was the drunken man who threatened her because he could not get the assistance he needed and wanted. Another woman threatened to throw rocks through her windows. Of course, my mom was frightened, but she never stereotyped her clients in a negative way based on their social statuses. She understood their frustration with a bureaucratic system. Furthermore, despite our middle-class standing, our residential street could have been cut in half. The middle class houses and families were at the top of the street, while the lower income families and houses were at the bottom. One of her clients lived in a house at the bottom of the street. We would also see her clients while out in public places. Why is this important to tell? Because it gave a visual indicator about inequality in society. These people did not choose to be disabled and to live on a menial assisted income. Looking back, this is when I began to understand ability as socially constructed and how society’s structures perpetuate constrained choices. Furthermore, it also exemplified that there are true divides in society that we live by, even if they are socially constructed ones.

During high school, my mom was able to take an early retirement from the government. I did not understand the financial aspects of this at the time, but I do remember why she took the offer.  My mom was feeling burnt out in her career. She did not dislike her job, but felt that her role as the middle agent was constraining. She was the person who was working in between the individuals in society and the structures and institutions. She was the person who knew the stories of the individuals, but had to be the one that often had to deny the claims and needs of the person because of the government’s rules. This is a telling example of the tension between the sociological concepts of structure and agency, in addition to micro and macro levels of understanding, in the context of the person who had to relay the rules. Brining this back to graduate school, in the course of learning about welfare states nationally and internationally, I was amazed at how exceptional the US is in its welfare policies and how factors such as taxes, beliefs about ability and class, labor unions, race, and gender affect nations’ policies. Moreover, I understood how early retirements were a cost-saving measurement.  

The Social Construction of Ability
During college, I worked with people with disabilities. I enjoyed this job, formed close connections with my clients, and I was able to apply sociological concepts from my schooling to my work. For example, I was frustrated with how “normal” and “ability” were constructed. My clients were judged for not looking normal and critiqued by larger society for their disabilities, instead of being complimenting them for their abilities. We taught our clients to act “normal” within society so they could succeed.  “Normal” things included a clean house, a balanced diet, taking medication, and the such. Yet, half the “normal” people I knew did not always engage in these behaviors. This leads to questions about what normal is and who defines normal?  People with physical and mental disabilities are held up to different benchmarks than others in society, which illustrates how ability is a social construction. No one is perfect and no one will ever fulfill our ideal types of roles, such as parent, worker, and the so forth.  I believe strongly in this sociological concept and it has become an important concept I teach about in my courses, particularly those on families and inequality.

Conveying the Sociological Imagination: Teaching and Research
What I learned from my own family about inequality at a young age, my mother’s career, and my work in social services have had a fundamental impact on my teaching and research. Like some of my students, I may not have experienced inequality by growing up lower class or in a minority race or ethnicity, but what I have learned lets me be reflective of my own status in the world and see how structures permeate society. I can relate what I have learned to students to put a human face on many of the issues sociologists study and to show the link between the academic and outside world our students will be engaging in. This links to my research as I am reflective on how my own social status may affect the questions I ask and my interpretation, analysis, and presentation of data.  

Today: I am a Sociologist
My story of why sociology continues post-graduate school. I have realized that I will always think like a sociologist, whether this is in my role as a parent, community organizer, friend, news consumer, or in an entirely different career. My sociological imagination and analytical ability are essential elements in my interactions. My goal is to not only to understand a broader picture, that includes both individual and structural forces, but also to have accurate knowledge to base ideas and decisions on and to perpetuate the understanding of diverse realities. I have numerous examples of this in community and service work, teaching, and research. The important point is that I am a sociologist by training and the way I think, no matter what my title may be.

In conclusion, with PhD in sociology, one could argue that I am a sociologist by degree and hence, years of training. Although this is true, it is not by the credential per say that makes me a sociologist. I am a sociologist because of the way I think and view the world. I produce and confer sociological knowledge through my research and teaching, but also though the multiple roles I play in society. The sociological imagination will always be a part of me.