University of Creative Technology Chittagong

Social Science and Accounting

Md Akther Uddin, PhD

Senior Lecturer, School of Business
The Study of Society and Culture

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Three revolutions had to take place before the
sociological imagination could crystallize:

 The scientific revolution (16th c.) encouraged

the use of evidence to substantiate theories.
 The democratic revolution (18th c.)
encouraged the view that human action can
change society.
 The industrial revolution (19th c.) gave
sociologists their subject matter.

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 Sociology
Sociology is the
systematic study of
human society and social
interaction. It is based on
the idea that our
relations with other
people create
opportunities for us to
think and act but also set
limits on our thoughts
and action.
 What is Sociology?

Sociology is also the study of

reifications, or social
constructions.

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 Sociology
• Howard Becker defined sociology
as the study of people “doing
things together.”

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 Sociology
• This reminds us that society
and the individual are
inherently connected, and
each depends on the other.

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 A society is a large social grouping that shares the same
geographical territory and is subject to the same political
authority and dominant cultural expectations.

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 Society
• Society is a group of people who
shape their lives in aggregated and
patterned ways that distinguish their
group from other groups.

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 Society Is….

A society is a group of people who

share a culture and live more or less
together. They have a set of
institutions which provide what they
need to meet their physical, social,
and psychological needs and which
maintain order and the values of the
culture.
Social structures are the more or less
stable patterns of people’s interactions
and relationships.
 Institutions are the principal social
structures that organize, direct, and
execute the essential tasks of living.
Some institutions are:
Family,
Educational,
Economic,
Religion,
Law,
Political Systems
 Sociological Imagination

• The ability to see the

relationship between
individual experiences
and the larger society.

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 Cool Insights from Sociology
• Humans cannot be understood
apart from social context (i.e.
society)

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Baby Names

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Names that have gained the
most popularity,
2004 – 2010

...Or, the names I’ll begin seeing all the time in

2022-2028

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 What Does Society Look Like?
• While the idea of society is familiar, describing
it can be difficult. Ultimately society is made
up of many different components, such as
culture, race, family, education, social class,
and people’s interactions.
• People who share a culture and territory

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 Types of Societies
• Traditional society
• Transitional/Prismatic society
• Modern society
• Post-modern society

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Karl Marx’s Classification of Society
• Ancient society
• Medieval society
• Modern society

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 Max Weber’s Classification of Society
• Traditional society
• Charismatic society
• Rational legal

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 Islamic Socio-economic model
• First ever constitution
• Welfare state
– Inclusive society
– Social security: Zakah, social beneifts
– Property rights
– Free market economy
– Prohibition of ‘Riba’ i.e. Interest

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 Culture

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• What is Culture?
• Components of Culture
• Language and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
• Variations in Culture
• Different ways of Viewing Culture
• Cultural Change
• American culture in perspective

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 What is Culture?
• Culture is the entire way of life for a group of
people (including both material and symbolic
elements).
• A set of rules set by social system, procedures,
ideas and values.
• It is a lens through which one views the world
and is passed from one generation to the next.
• It is what makes us human.
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 What makes up culture?
• Sociologists see culture as consisting of two
different categories: material culture (any
physical object to which we give social
meaning) and nonmaterial or symbolic
culture (the ideas associated with a cultural
group).

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 Material Culture
• Material culture includes the objects
associated with a cultural group, such as tools,
machines, utensils, buildings, and artwork.

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 Social Science and
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 Symbolic Culture
• Symbolic culture includes ways of thinking
(beliefs, values, and assumptions) and ways of
behaving (norms, interactions, and
communication).

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 Social Science and
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 Social Science and
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 Components of Culture
• One of the most important functions of symbolic culture
is it allows us to communicate through signs, gestures,
and language.
• Signs (or symbols), such as a traffic signal or product
logo, are used to meaningfully represent something else.
Gestures are the signs that we make with our body, such
as hand gestures and facial expressions; it is important
that these gestures also carry meaning.

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 Components of Culture (cont)
• Finally language, a system of communication using vocal
sounds, gestures, and written symbols, is probably the
most significant component of culture because it allows
us to communicate.
• Language is so important that many have argued that it
shapes not only our communication but our perceptions
of how we see things as well.

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 Components of Culture: Language

• The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which is the idea

that language structures thought, and that
ways of looking at the world are embedded in
language, supports this premise.
• Ex: snow, jam, Family Guy

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 Components of Culture (cont)
• What we do is culture and what we are
civilization
• Cultural integration
• Cultural lag
• Roles
• Roles conflict

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 Components of Culture (cont)
• Values, shared beliefs about what a group
considers worthwhile or desirable, guide the
creation of norms, the formal and informal
rules regarding what kinds of behavior are
acceptable and appropriate within a culture.
• Norms govern our behavior

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 Social Science and
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 Components of Culture: Norms
• Norms are specific to a culture, time period,
and situation. Norms can be either formal,
such as a law (a common type of formally
defined norm that provides an explicit
statement about what is permissible and what
is illegal in a society) or the rules for playing
soccer, or informal, which are not written
down and are unspoken.

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 Components of Culture: Norms
• Types of norms can also be distinguished by
the strictness with which they are enforced.
• A folkway is a loosely enforced norm that
involves common customs, practices, or
procedures that ensure smooth social
interaction and acceptance.

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 Components of Culture: Norms
• A more (more-ray) is a norm that
carries greater moral significance, is
closely related to the core values of a
group, and often involves severe
repercussions for violators.
• A taboo is a norm engrained so
deeply that even thinking about
violating it evokes strong feelings of
disgust, horror, or revulsion for most
people.

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 Social Control and Sanctions
• Sanctions are positive or negative reactions to the ways
that people follow or disobey norms, including rewards
for conformity and punishments for norm violators.
• Sanctions help to establish social control, the formal and
informal mechanisms used to increase conformity to
values and norms and thus increase social cohesion.

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 Looking at Culture(s)
• Sociologists who study culture often focus on
their own cultures.
• Some sociologists, however, engage in the
process of “othering” by studying unusual,
extraordinary, or deviant cultural groups.

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 Ways of looking at Cultures
• Ethnocentrism is the principle of using one’s
own culture as a standard by which to
evaluate another group or individual, leading
to the view that cultures other than one’s
own are abnormal.

Who wants a snack?

Cicadas, grasshoppers, and
other insects on skewers
for sale in Donghaumen
Night Market in Beijing,
China.

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 Ways of looking at Cultures
• Cultural relativism is the principle of
understanding other cultures on their own
terms, rather than judging according to one’s
own culture.
• When studying any group, it is important to
try to employ cultural relativism because it
helps sociologists see others more objectively.

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 Variations in Culture
• Although much research focuses on the
differences between cultures, there is also
tremendous variation within a culture.
• Multiculturalism values diverse racial, ethnic,
national, and linguistic backgrounds and so
encourages the retention of cultural
differences within society, rather than
assimilation.

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 Variations in Culture (cont’d)
• The dominant culture refers to the values,
norms, and practices of the group within
society that is most powerful in terms of
wealth, prestige, status, and influence.
• A subculture is a group within society that is
differentiated by its distinctive values, norms,
and lifestyle.

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 Variations in Culture (cont’d)
• A counterculture is a group within society that
openly rejects and/or actively opposes
society’s values and norms.

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 Variations in Culture (cont’d)
• Mainstream culture is often characterized by
points of dissension and division, which are
sometimes called culture wars.
• Sociologists also make a distinction between
norms and values are more aspired to (ideal
culture) than actually practiced (real culture).

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 High, Low, and Popular Culture
• High culture is distinguished from low culture based on
the characteristics of their audiences, not on
characteristics of their cultural objects.
• High culture refers to those forms of culture usually
associated with the elite or dominant classes.
• Popular culture refers to the forms of cultural expression
usually associated with the masses, consumer good, and
consumer products.

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 Cultural Change
• Cultures usually change slowly and
incrementally, though change can also happen
in rapid and dramatic ways.
• One of the key ways that material culture can
change is through technology.

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 Cultural Change (cont’d)
• Cultural change can also occur through
cultural diffusion, which is when different
groups share their material and nonmaterial
culture with each other.
• Cultural leveling occurs when cultures that
were once distinct become increasingly similar
to one another.

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 Cultural Change (cont’d)
• Cultural imperialism is the imposition of one
culture’s beliefs, practices, and artifacts on
another culture through mass media and
consumer products.

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Bangladeshi Culture in Perspective
• Long heritage and historical linkage
• Shared common values
• Multi-religious co-existence
• Family oriented society
• Language unites us
• Localism

• Is ongoing illegal immigrants/ refugees Rohingya a threat

to our culture?
• How can you explain the recent uprising of extremism?

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