Blogging Sociologically

When we enter society and then mature within it, we come to think of ourselves as individuals. We learn to conceive of ourselves as living among a population of individuals: individual human beings, separate from, and independent of, the people by whom we are surrounded. When we look at the people around us and at people in the public eye and try to make sense of their actions and their lives in general, our first thoughts tend to be that they are governed by rational thought. Consequently, we tend to believe that they are entirely responsible for the outcome of their actions.

Arguably, our conception of human beings as individuals is a central theme within our socialisation and forms part of our foundational, common sense understanding of the world. We learn to think this way, just as we learn - among many other things - our gender, our nationality and our sexuality.

I wish, however, to assert at the outset that, while this kind of thinking may suffice (and, indeed, may largely be necessary) in everyday life, it is an inadequate basis upon which to properly understand either our own actions or those of others. Stated simply, the idea behind this blog is to consider and comment on aspects of everyday life from a broadly sociological perspective and to illustrate the view that human life is the product of people acting interdependently and in conjunction with each other.

The title, "Blogging Sociologically", derives from Bauman & May's book, "Thinking Sociologically".