User:Tutor banga/sandbox/White Night

White  Although easily overlooked, the subject of sociology remains to be quite an integral part of people’s lives. The essence of human life is the ability to be able to understand ones surrounding, adapt to it and most importantly, coexist with it in harmony. In their article “White Night”: Gentrification, Racial Exclusion and Perceptions and Participation in the Arts’, Samuel Shaw and Daniel Sullivan, provides a detailed empirical study on the social behaviors exhibited by people based on race difference. The general perception is that a society should think and act in unison. However, this ideology always manifests itself on the contrary. Most social circles in the world today are multi cultured. As a result, cases of social disorder are a common issue, thanks to the difference in cultural opinions. This paper attempts to discuss the social analogy presented in the above article in line with Emile Durkheim’s ‘Rules of Sociological Methods’. Society is the real sui generis (Priya). It is unique and thus, stands on its own. This characteristic makes it rather hard for one to understand it fully by just looking at it outwardly. In order to understand it better, social facts must come into play. He sets a distinct rift between biological or psychological studies and sociology. According to the renowned sociologist Emile Durkheim (59), sociology is the branch of science that deals with social facts. It is impossible to indulge and delve into the subject of sociology without giving credit to Durkheim and his ‘Rules of Sociological Methods’ works. Durkheim exhibited an extraordinary understanding of the society at large which explains his aptitude in the publication of the mentioned rules which are vital in carrying out empirical scientific researches with regards to the society. The most prominent of Durkheim’s set of rules for sociological methods, which is also the first, is the rules for observing social facts. In his work, Durkheim (62) completely alienates social facts from their doer. According to him social facts have absolutely nothing to do with the individual who perpetrates the action; they are quite independent of him or her. He offers that social facts are in actual sense the, manner of behavior, thoughts as well as emotions that influence their reaction to their surroundings. This is probably the reason why he referred to them as ‘States of the Collective Mind’ (Jones). The study conducted in the case study article depicts a uniform attendance of the monthly Last Thursday art walks in Portland by the two races; black and white. In the study, the difference in the number of attendance between the two races becomes apparent. It shows that the black community attends the show in small numbers as compared to the whites. Their characteristically little participation is in large part due to the negative feelings they reserve for the event. Specifically, they do not feel comfortable or welcome. Having studied Durkheim’s rules of sociological methods it is now easy to understand his concept of the social facts rules. In this case, the focus is not on the black community who are behaving in a queer fashion rather, it is the feelings they harbor against the event that stops them from attending it. Another rule on sociological method, is distinguishing between normal and pathological facts (Priya). On one hand normal facts are those widely accepted social facts that are fundamental for the smooth running of a society, while on the other hand, pathological facts refer to those facts that are generally perilous and have the propensity of causing or resulting into societal disorder. In their study, Shaw and Sullivan (242) identifies factors that cultivate racial differences and perceptions as the precursor of the negative attitude displayed by the black community who feel that the art show is basically white oriented as such has little or nothing to do with them. Yet another rule is the rules for the constitution of social types (Durkheim, 108). Durkheim saw the need to classify sociology with regards to the social classes. He had a clear dimension of the societal composition and understood that it affected the general social behavior.in the case study area, Portland the population is largely made up of the black community most of who are longtime residents as well as others who are recent newcomers. The rest is largely comprised of the white race. This kind of irregularity or non-uniformity in composition plays a great part in the attendance at social functions as depicted in the report. Still another vital rule in the sociological methods is the explanation of the social facts (Durkheim, 109). This rule is like a continuation of the first rule that observes social facts. It seeks to establish the causes as well as the functions for the behaviors or feelings that are social facts. In other words, it attempts to explain why individuals act or feel the way they do. The black community probably acts or feels the way they do due to the animosity that exists between the m and the white community. Undoubtedly, Emile Durkheim’s Rules of Sociological Methods provides a better way of studying as well as understanding society and the ways in which operates. That is what sets the difference between biological and psychological studies since it is easy to confuse sociology with the two subjects. Society is the vessel through which people traverse the mostly unfriendly terrain of life. It is thus, imperative to understand the concept of sociology. Durkheim makes this way easier in his publication. ...