DEFINATION, SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION .

    INTRODUCTION:-

• In the family of social sciences, Sociology is comparatively a new entrant. But because of its dealing with social problems, social relationships and social interactions the importance of the study of this subject has considerably increased. It has considerably developed in methodology, scope and approach. Attempts are now being made to study every social problem scientifically and objectively, eliminating subjectivity to the extent possible a distinctive way of examining human interactions. Sociology is the systematic study of social behavior and human groups. It focuses primarily on the influence of social relationships upon people’s attitudes and behavior and on how societies are established and change. As a field of study sociology has a very broad scope. It deals with families, gangs, business firms, computer networks, political parties, schools, religions, and labor unions. It is concerned with love, poverty, conformity, technology, discrimination, illness, alienation, overpopulation and community.

    DEFINATION :- 

• The science of society, social institutions, and social relationships specifically : the systematic study of the development, structure, interaction, and collective behavior of organized groups of human beings.
•  Sociology is simply defined as the     scientific study of human life, social groups,whole society and the human world as such. It can be a dazzling and compelling enterprise,as it's subject matter is our own behaviour as social beings. The scope of sociology is extremely wide, ranging from the analysis of passing encounters between individuals on the street to the investigation of international relations and global froms of terrorism.

• Most of us see the world in terms of the familiar features of our own lives  - our families, friendship and working lives, for example. But sociology insists that we take a broader view in order to understand why we act in the way we do. It teaches us that much of what we regard as natural, inevitable, good and true mayor be so , and that things we take for granted are actually shaped by historical event and social processes. Understanding the subtle yet complex and profound way in which our individual lives reflect the contexts of our social experience is basic to the sociologist outlook. 

    THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION :- 

• Learning to think sociologically means cultivating our imagination. Studying sociology is not just a routine process of acquiring knowledge from books like this one . A sociologist has to be able to break free from the immediacy of their personal circumstances ti set things into a wider context . Doing sociological work depends on developing what the American author C. Weight mills, in a famous phrase called the sociological imagination .
• The sociological imagination requires us, above all, 'to think ourselves away'  from the familiar routines of our daily lives in order to look at them from a new point of view. Consider the simple act of drinking a cup of coffee. What could we possibly find to say , from a sociological point of view, about such a commonplace and uninteresting act? 
  

• We could point out , frist of all , that coffee is not just a refreshment; it has symbolic value as part of our day-to-day social activities. Often the rituals associated with coffee-drinking are more important than consuming the drink. For many people, the morning cup of coffee is the centrepiece of a personal routine and an essential first step to starting the day. Morning coffee can be followed later in the day by coffee with others - the basis of a group, not just an individual ritual. Two people who arrange to meet for coffee are probably more interested in getting tougher and chatting than in what they actually drink . In all societies, drinking and eating provide occasions for social interaction, and these offer a rich subject matter for sociological study . But that's far from all. 
• Coffee also contains caffeine , a drug which has a stimulating effect on the brain. many people drink coffee for the 'extra lift' it provides. Long days at the coffee or late nights studying- some student do this , believe it or not - are made nore tolerable by regular coffee breaks. Coffee is a habit - forming substance , but coffee addicts are not normally regarded as 'drug users'. This is because, like alcohol, coffee is socially acceptable drug, whereas cocaine, for instance, is not. Yet some societies tolerate the consumption of cocaine but frown on both coffee and alcohol. Sociologist are interested in why these differences exist and how they came about . 

 Getting together with friends for coffee is part of a social ritual which asto situates people within a broader social context. 

• Third, an individual who drinks a cup of coffee is unwittingly caught up in a complex set of social and economic relationship stretching across the planet. Coffee links people in the wealthiest and the most impoverished parts of the world . It is consumed in great quantities in wealthy countries but grown primarily in poor ones. Coffee in one of the most valuable commodities in international trade , providing many countries with their largest source of foreign exchange. The the production, transportation and distribution of coffee require continuous between people thousands of miles away from the coffee drinker. Studying such global connections is an important task for sociologists today. 
• Fourth, the act of sipping a coffee presumes a long process of social and economic development. Along with other familiar items of western diets -- like tea, bananas , potatoes and white sugar -- coffee became widely consumed only from the late 1800s , though it was fashionable among social elites before then. Although the drink originated in the middle East , it's mass consumption dates from the period of Western expansion more than 200 years ago . Virtually all the coffee we drink today comes from areas such as south America and africa that were colonized by Europeans; it is not a 'natural' part of the western diet. 
• Fifth , coffee is at the heart of current debates about globalization, international fair trade, human rights and environmental destruction. Coffee has become 'branded' and politicized. The decision consumers make about what kind of coffee to drink and where to buy it have become lifestyle choices. Some people drink only organic coffee, decaffeinated coffee or coffee that is 'fairly traded' through schemes that pay the full market price to small producers in developing countries. 

Coffee is more than a pleasant drink for these workers, whose livelihoods depend on the coffee plant.

  

•  Others patronize 'independent' coffee   houses rather than 'corporate' chains such   as starbucks and costa. For sociologist, the   apparently trivial act of drinking coffee   could hardly be more fascinating.