SumBlog #10: Society as Human Product by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann

In reading the passage titled Society as Human Product by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, I read that "man's self-production is always, and of necessity, a social enterprise". Meaning that it is men together, create a human environment including all of its facets involving social and psychological factors. Even human productivity can be viewed as being sociallyb constructed releams not natural found in man alone. "Just as it is impossible for for man to develop in isolation, so it is impossible for for a man insolation to produce hman environment". (Berger).  Berger viewed people that lived their lives in solidarity as being on the same level of animals. People lacked the biologic ability to means to provide stability for human conduct or human order , meaning that they needed a guide to determine from where their human order derived, in other words how does social order itself arise? Amidst the reading I learned that simply put, social order is a product created by humans that continues to go through changes as life for humans change. Berger mentions that social order is produced by people as their life goes on and pulled from the events that he externalizes through their individual experiences. One aspect that is crucial to each human being is that he is able to find a place or create an environment where he is able to carry out his lfe in. The author clearly states that social order has nothing to do with the natural law of things in nature, but rather once again it is something that is socially created not something that is simply just known to man, however social order does correlate with a person's naturally given "equiptment". Humans are creatures of habit, for people , habits are formed by reapeatly performing certain "routines". This is true whether people are placed in the social sphere or the private sphere, habits can be formed in very personal ways that need not even be known to others. I think of driving in this aspect. A person may appear to be driving a vehicle with no or little effort or thought but because of the number of times that they performed the actions of driving, it becomes or appears to become "second nature". Due to the enormous amount of experiences in our lives, humans are able to skip the need for step by step directions that are generally required when executing a new taks. Habitualization is credited for the short cut because it actually takes precedence over any institutionalization that occurs. Sometimes people can perform a certain task without even necessarily appearing to be aware of it. However institutionalization, "occurs when there is a reciprocal typification of habitualized actions by types of actors". I undertstood this to mean that when like minded people convene together in commonality. The reading says that "institutions further imply that historicity and control", I translated that to mean that institutions such as schools for example were formed out of necessity, so there was an obvious need to gather likeminded individuals together in effort to further their commonality. Fun Fact... even human sexuality is socially controlled! Lastly discussed by Berger was the topic of socialization and how it arises.  Children are not able to distinguish between the natural world and the world that has been socially constructed around them because they have had no former relationship with how things are in nature versus what they have been exposed to for their entire lives, they have yet to become enlightened. In short, I learned that there are three factors that include: habitutualization, institutionalization and socialization when considering the key elements of society.  I chose the image below because I felt that it was an interesting example of how man creates society, not the other way around.

SumBlog #8: The Stranger......

Upon reading Georg Simmel's short essay titled "The Stranger", Simmel gave me a new meaning of the word "stranger". He did not mean it to be thought of in the literal meaning as we use it in today's context such as a completely "unknown" person, but rather a person that while may be unknown to some, is a person that is very much integrated into their lives; yet does not originate from the same 'place' as the other members of a group. The "stranger" is seen as an outsider that perhaps does not subscribe to the specific beliefs of that particular group , yet still respects them and has the ability, because they are objective; to be valuable by providing additional insight regarding certain subjects that are not thought of by the other members. Simmel provides an example in the reading by describing the relationship between people in a given community and a trader. Although the trader is not necessarily a member of that community, he definitely has an impact on the lives of the townspeople by bringing new and unusual resources to them. Simmel's concept pertaining to the "stranger" emphasizes individual contributions regarding influence. Once again , even though the "stranger" or in this case the trader, has the ability to come and go as he pleases; his very existence within a community brings a certain unique perspective to the group. He has the power to perhaps open people's minds to ideas that they may never have been exposed to. Simmel's sociology involves different levels of concern in terms of the psychological aspects of social life; as in what is going on in our own brains; Interpersonal Relationships, meaning how we experience society by sharing it with others and lastly the concept coined "The Spirit of the Times" that deals with what is popular in a given time frame that coinsides with the creation of cultural norms and values. My personal version of the concept of "the Stranger" is my periodic involvement of pulling random bar tending shifts at my best friend's bar that is located about two and a half hours away. While I am not necessarily an employee, I do act the part when I am there. I bring with me my own high level of standards to the job which in the beginning bothered the current employees because they viewed my presence there as "threatening" due to their substandard practices prior to my arrival. I believe because I am not a regularly scheduled employee, my outlook on my temporary position is seen as more "fun" and "novel", whereas the other group members of employees get lost in the routine of being there on more of a full-time basis so they had grown used to their mediocre performance. My intention of course is never to "outshine" them, but rather I see it as assuring that my best friend's business is successful versus having unhappy patrons displeased by the lack of enthusiasm given to them by the regular employees. I view my "strangeness" as an attempt to provide a refreshing rejuvenation to the bar's atmosphere, therefore making people want to come spend their money there and the for the establishment  itself to gain a positive review by the patrons; which of course is a recipe for a successful business. In short, although I am not usually a member of that community, my presence breaks up the monotony of day in , day out workmanship; that attempts to "raise the bar" regarding other's performance. In the beginning, I was seen as a threat, however now the regular employees view me as reminder to themselves to not get caught up in their own personal interests but rather treat every patron as an honored guest. Of course seeing their tips increase after following my lead helped change their minds fairly quickly. Ha!  I chose the picture below to illustrate my view of the bar's employees before my arrival, they all just sit around useless until I come and set the example of a hard worker with responsibilities. :)