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A review by dashtaisen
Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective by Peter L. Berger
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.0
I picked up "Invitation to Sociology" because I was interested in sociology and especially how it applies to tech and education. And it looks like sociology has some interesting insights to offer! This book specifically, on the other hand, was kinda meh.
There were some things I liked about it. Prof. Berger at least tried to write in an accessible and sometimes humorous way, and mostly succeeds. He offers a way of viewing social behavior with a balance of compassion, curiosity, and skepticism.
My favorite part of the book is when he talks about how sociology is trying to be taken seriously as a science, which leads some practitioners to take on a narrowly positivist approach which does not really serve anyone in the end, and which comes at the expense of developing a foundation in related fields such as history and philosophy. This was written in the early 1960s, and I don't know much about how the field has progressed since then. But it definitely made me think of the "data-driven" obsession that we often see in schools and tech companies now.
The author makes an earnest effort at showing how sociology relates to ethics and social justice, and spends quite a lot of time advocating for views which were probably pretty progressive in his specific circles. That said, the overall tone of the book is pretty gratingly chauvinistic in every sense of the word, even by the standards of the time (and I'm honestly less inclined to give social scientists a pass in that regard anyway).
So I got some useful stuff out of reading this, and there's also some stuff I'm happy to leave behind.
There were some things I liked about it. Prof. Berger at least tried to write in an accessible and sometimes humorous way, and mostly succeeds. He offers a way of viewing social behavior with a balance of compassion, curiosity, and skepticism.
My favorite part of the book is when he talks about how sociology is trying to be taken seriously as a science, which leads some practitioners to take on a narrowly positivist approach which does not really serve anyone in the end, and which comes at the expense of developing a foundation in related fields such as history and philosophy. This was written in the early 1960s, and I don't know much about how the field has progressed since then. But it definitely made me think of the "data-driven" obsession that we often see in schools and tech companies now.
The author makes an earnest effort at showing how sociology relates to ethics and social justice, and spends quite a lot of time advocating for views which were probably pretty progressive in his specific circles. That said, the overall tone of the book is pretty gratingly chauvinistic in every sense of the word, even by the standards of the time (and I'm honestly less inclined to give social scientists a pass in that regard anyway).
So I got some useful stuff out of reading this, and there's also some stuff I'm happy to leave behind.