Thinking Sociologically
Think of an example of a social unit to which you belong. Describe the environment of the social unit. How does the environment influence that social unit?
Studying the Social World: Levels of Analysis
Picture for a moment your sociology class as a social unit in your social world. Students (individuals) make up the class, the class (small group) is offered by the sociology department, the sociology department (a large group, including faculty and students) is part of the college or university, and the university (an organization) is located in a community. The university follows the practices approved by the social institution (education) of which it is a part, and education is an institution located within a nation. Practices the university follows are determined by a larger accrediting agency that provides guidelines and oversight for educational institutions. The national society, represented by the national government, is shaped by global events such as technological and economic competition among nations, natural disasters, global climate change, wars, and terrorist attacks. Such events influence national policies and goals, including policies for the educational system. Thus, global issues and conflicts may shape the content of the curriculum taught in the local classroom, from what is studied to the textbooks used.
As discussed, each of these social units is referred to as a level of analysis (two students in a discussion group, to a society or global system; see Table 1.2). These levels are illustrated in the social world model at the beginning of each chapter, and their relation to that chapter’s content is shown through examples in the model.
▼ Table 1.2
Micro-Level Analysis.
A focus on individual or small-group interaction in specific situations is called micro-level analysis. The micro level is important because one-to-one and small-group interaction form the basic foundation of all social groups and organizations to which we belong, from families to corporations to societies. We are members of many groups at the micro level.
To understand micro-level analysis, consider the problem of spousal abuse. Why does a person remain in an abusive relationship, knowing that each year thousands of people are killed by their partners and millions more are severely and repeatedly battered? To answer this question, several possible micro-level explanations can be considered. One view is that the abusive partner has convinced the abused person that she or he is powerless in the relationship or “deserves” the abuse. Therefore, the abused person gives up in despair of ever being able to alter the situation. The abuse is viewed as part of the interaction—of action and reaction—and some partners come to see abuse as what composes normal interaction.
Another explanation for remaining in the abusive relationship is that battering is a familiar part of the person’s everyday life. However unpleasant and unnatural this may seem to outsiders, it may be seen by the abused as a “normal” and acceptable part of intimate relationships, especially if she or he grew up in an abusive family.
Another possibility is that an abused woman may fear that her children would be harmed or that she would be harshly judged by her family or religious group if she “abandoned” her mate. She may have few resources to make leaving the abusive situation possible. To study each of these possible explanations involves analysis at the micro level because each issue posed here focuses on interpersonal interaction factors rather than on large society-wide trends or forces. Moving to the next level, meso-level analysis leads to different explanations for abuse.
Meso-Level Analysis.
Meso-level analysis involves looking at intermediate-sized units smaller than the nation but larger than the local community or even the region. This level includes national institutions (such as the economy of a country, the national educational system, or the political system within a country), nationwide organizations (such as a political party, a soccer league, or a national women’s rights organization), and ethnic groups that have an identity as a group (such as Jews, Mexican Americans, or Native Americans in the United States). Organizations, institutions, and ethnic communities are smaller than the nation or global social units, but they are still beyond the everyday personal experience and control of individuals. They are intermediate in the sense of being too large to know everyone in the group, but they are not as large as nation-states. For example, state governments in the United States, provinces in Canada, prefectures in Japan, or cantons in Switzerland are at the meso level and usually more accessible and easier to change than the national bureaucracies of these countries.
In discussing micro-level analysis, we used the example of domestic violence. Recognizing that personal troubles can often be related to public issues, many social scientists look for broader explanations of spousal abuse, such as social conditions at the meso level of society (Straus 2017; Straus, Gelles, and Steinmetz 2006). When a pattern of behavior in society occurs with increasing frequency, it cannot be understood solely from the viewpoint of individual cases or micro-level causes. For instance, sociological findings show that fluctuations in spousal or child abuse at the micro level are related to levels of unemployment in meso-level organizations and macro-level government economic policies. Frustration resulting in abuse erupts within families when poor economic conditions make it nearly impossible for people to find a stable and reliable means of supporting themselves and their families. The message here is that meso-level economic issues in the society need to be addressed in order to decrease domestic violence.
Macro-Level Analysis.
Studying the largest social units in the social world, called macro-level analysis, involves looking at entire nations, global forces (such as international organizations), and international social trends. Macro-level analysis is essential to our understanding of how larger societal forces and global events shape our everyday lives. A natural disaster, such as recent droughts and floods in North America and West Africa, and massive hurricanes in Central America and the Caribbean, may change the foods we can serve at our family dinner table because much of what we consume comes from other parts of the world. (Figure 1.2 shows some of the deadliest natural disasters in 2017.) Likewise, a political conflict on the other side of the planet can lead to war, which means that a member of your family may be called up on active duty and sent into harm’s way more than 7,000 miles from your home. Each member of the family may experience individual stress, have trouble concentrating, and feel ill with worry. The entire globe has become an interdependent social unit. If we are to prosper and thrive in the world today, we need to understand connections that go beyond our local communities. We are, indeed, members of the global community.
▼ Figure 1.2 Loss Events Worldwide in 2017: Geographic Overview
Source: Münchener Ruckversicherungs-Gesellschaft, NatCatService 2018.
Patterns such as domestic violence can be examined at each level of analysis. Violence against women (especially rape) occurs at different rates in different societies, with some having a culture of rape (Kristof and WuDunn 2009). Recent gang rapes of a Danish tourist and young teenagers and the death of an 8-year-old girl from a gang rape became headline news and shone a spotlight on the culture and lack of law enforcement in some isolated parts