Questions that sociologists ask

Q. What sorts of questions do sociologists ask?

A. E.g., …

– ABSTRACT –

What are the qualities of a thing?

What are the causes of a thing?

What are the functions of a thing?

What is the relation between X & Y?

How does (X) contribute to (Y) (e.g., X = surveillance, Y = social domination)?

How does (X) determine the way (Y) is done?

What are the causes of this behavior?

How is (X) formed?

How does (X) work? X = fundamentalism, absolutism, conversation, DMV lines, war, Flickr culture (or a culture captured on Flickr), Facebook culture, twitter culture, etc.

How does this interaction affect this fact?

How are things organized?

How do these people live?

How are people produced?

How do people produce other people?

How do people produce non-people (e.g., technology, environments)?

How do people play the game of life? Which rules do they follow? What do they think the rules are? Which strategies do they use? Which sacrifices do they make? Which calculations do they make?

– LESS ABSTRACT –

What is the relation of these people to the means of production? What are their relations to people that have the same relation to the means of production? What are their relations to people that do not have the same relation to the means of production?

What are these members doing?

How does living in the city change one’s worldview, or emotional state?

How does technological change, globalization, etc. affect inequality?

How do business practices affect public health?

How does this government use the legal concept “terrorist” in order to police their citizens and noncitizens?

How do people make sense of or give meaning to tragic or terrifying situations?

How do people surveil each other and themselves? E.g., are people not effectively “spying” on themselves, if you will, by constantly reporting on themselves via social networking sites?

How does (X) change the rhythms and durations of how people organize their everyday life? X = cell phones, smartphones, social networking sites, email, automobiles, etc.

How do scientists produce facts?

How do people make movements?

Are sovereignty, discipline, and control different shapes/qualities of societies (i.e., associations)? And if so, how is a quality produced? And how is this production generalized? That is, how does it spread? Are these productions technology/medium/mediator-specific? Who are the members of this society? And how do they produce it? And how are they produced by it?

What are the conditions of living of a people?

What are these people’s analyses of (X) (e.g., some thing, some situation, some phenomenon, etc.)?

Which things are difficult for these people to speak about? (E.g., because of fear of actual or imagined threats, such as rejection by peers or loved ones, or dismissal from work, etc.)

What are the political strategies of these people?

– What knowledges or beliefs are these strategies based upon?

– What are these people fighting for?

– Who do these speakers name as the enemy? And the allies?

– What are these political strategists (activists) doing in order to recruit and involve others? How do they attract and organize other people?