Introducing Sociology

What seems like half a lifetime (but was actually around 20 years) ago I posted a YouTube Trailer called What is Sociology that was part of a much longer 3-part film called Introducing Sociology. Since then the trailer’s garnered around 350,000 views and, as far as I can tell, the original film is no-longer available.

So, since I happen to have a copy of aforesaid film I thought it might be interesting to put it out there, as I’m told “The Kids” often say.

The other reason for posting the film is a comparative one in that it looks at and talks about Sociology at the turn of the Millenium, something that gives us an opportunity to consider social changes and continuities over the past quarter century, not just from within Sociology but also from without: such as the development of the Internet, mobile technology and the like.

If you want a point of comparison, it might be worth having a look at one of our later attempts to explain “What Sociology Is”.

While the first, major, part of the film is concerned with an outline of what sociology is – with a particular emphasis on changing ideas about culture and identity – the second part, Introducing Sociology as a Subject, adds what it calls “the Student Experience” into the historical mix. Broadly this section answers the question “what’s it like being a sociology student?” (albeit at the World-Famous London School of Economics – of which, in the interests of full disclosure, I am An Actual Allumnus. Student experiences at other, I hesitate to say “less-well-known”, institutes of learning may be slightly different).

Anyway, this section not only covers various aspects of what being a sociology student entails, it also has an interesting illustrative section based around the relatively new (2006-ish) phenomenon of the mobile phone, looking beyond its simple functionality and into the broader implications for surveillance and social control – something that, 20 years later, has expanded in ways it would be sociologically-useful to explore…

The final part of the film takes a brief look at “the future” (or “now” as you probably know it). Basically, it’s all about the skills you get from studying Sociology and how they influence the kinds of careers Sociology graduates follow. Where once it was all “social work and the police” (I’m exaggerating for what would be comic effect if it was remotely amusing), the kinds of skills sociologists bring to the table across a wide range of employments are now very much in demand.