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How does A lead to B lead to C? It’s not always obvious, but sociologists do believe that somehow it all makes sense . . . and if it does make sense, that means you can figure out how to change it. (See the next section for more on social movements.)

A common phrase suggests that you “think globally, act locally.” That may sound a little hokey, but it makes good sociological sense — you can have the greatest impact on the people and places closest to you. Making changes in your everyday life can have a big impact over time, on you and on the people around you.

Learn How to Mobilize a Social Movement

Sociologists studying social movements have story after story about individuals and small groups who successfully brought about enormously consequential changes in laws, policies, and customs. The Civil Rights Movement, the movement to end child labor, the pro-recycling movement — all of those had uphill battles to start with, but eventually they turned into spectacular successes.

Of course, they also have story after story about social movements that didn’t work so well. In the middle of the 20th century, there was a big movement to get the United States to convert to the metric system (kilometers instead of miles, Celsius instead of Fahrenheit) — that one didn’t turn out so well, despite the fact that millions of schoolkids were made to memorize the metric system and learn how to convert “standard” units to metric units. Once they finished the fourth grade, the kids all tended to decide that was enough of that.

In social movements as in poker, it’s good to remember Kenny Rogers’s advice: “You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em; know when to walk away, know when to run.”

If you’re interested in making social change happen, read Chapter 13 of this book (if you haven’t already) and then consider reading more about the sociology of social movements. You’ll learn something about what strategies might work and what strategies won’t. It pays to try to convince people that you’re right, but appealing only to their heads probably won’t work: You also have to appeal to their hearts and their bodies. Consider all the different ways you can connect with them and interest them in your cause. With persistence and a little luck, you just might change the world . . . but be patient. It’s not apt to happen overnight.

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Run Your Company Effectively

In Chapter 12, I explain sociologist Richard Scott’s argument that organizations behave as “rational systems,” as “natural systems,” and as “open systems.” If Scott is correct — and most organizational sociologists believe that, at least in general terms, he is — your company is a machine, yes, but a machine made up of human beings and a machine that does its work by interacting with other machines. To run your company effectively, you need to understand:

Your corporate organization. Is your company designed to do its job as efficiently as possible? Does information travel accurately and quickly from one part of the company to another? Is there any obvious waste? Does everyone know what their job is?

Your corporate culture. How do people feel about working at your company? Do they like their coworkers? Do they feel like their jobs are healthy, satisfying parts of their lives generally — or are they just punching the clock?

Your corporate environment. What’s going on among the companies you deal with as suppliers, customers, and competitors? What are the laws and policies that affect your business, and how are they changing?

Understanding just one — or even two — of these aspects of corporate life won’t do it: You have to appreciate all these dimensions of corporate life. In many ways, sociological insight can help you understand how your company works, and (even if you don’t own the place) how to be most effective in your job.

Understand How We Can All Be

Different, Yet All Be the Same

This is one of the many paradoxes of sociology. On the one hand, sociologists study human societies in all their wild diversity, so sociologists appreciate how very different societies can be. Sociologists love to question assumptions that are taken for granted in their societies: Some of your very deepest values, beliefs, and customs are probably unique to your particular society. Even if it seems like it’s “common sense” or “human nature” for norms and values (see Chapter 2) to be the way they are in your society, that’s typically not the case.

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And still, sociologists know that there are commonalities among all people, in all places, at all times. That’s why sociologists interested in corporate life in New York City in the 21st century might read books or articles about social networks in Paris in the 18th century or about the spread of a fad across southeast Asia in the 19th century. In the generals — if not the particulars — people are people, and sociology demonstrates the similarities as well as the differences among people in different societies.

Sociology can surprise you by demonstrating just how very different people are in some ways, but it can also — and just as interestingly — surprise you by revealing unexpected connections between people living in very different places at very different times.

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Chapter 19

Ten Myths About Society

Busted by Sociology

In This Chapter

Discovering the truth behind common myths about society

Using sociology to question erroneous assumptions

You may have seen the TV program Mythbusters, where scientists and engineers test myths about the world to see if there’s any possibility these claims could actually be true. Can you actually survive a fall from a great height into a full dumpster? Can you make a bullet curve by flicking

your wrist while you shoot a gun? It’s very interesting — and social scientists can do that, too!

Just as many people are convinced, despite all evidence, that tapping on the top of a soda can will make it less likely to fizz over when it’s opened, many people are absolutely convinced of the truth of some things about society that are actually not entirely true. In this chapter, I run down a list of ten myths about society that sociologists have shown to be at least partially untrue; in some cases, however, they’re complete whoppers.

These myths range across the entire discipline of sociology — so if you’ve been reading this book from the beginning, you’ll recognize some of them as myths right away. There is some truth to some of them, but none of them are as completely, unambiguously true as many people are convinced they are. Two centuries of sociological research have shown that long-held assumptions about the social world can actually crumble quite quickly when held up to the light of scientific research.

And these are just a few examples. I hope this book inspires you to question whether all the things you believe about society are actually true, or whether they’re just faulty assumptions that you haven’t bothered to test or research. They may well be true . . . but sociology can help you to think about how they can be put to the test.

Here are a few that don’t pass.