Macro and Micro Sociology

Although Macro and Micro sociology are often framed as opposing approaches, they are and must be complementary approaches to studying society. Macro sociology refers to sociological approaches and methods that examine large-scale patterns and trends within the general social structure, system, and population. Usually macro sociology is also theoretical in nature. On the other hand, micro sociology focuses on smaller groups, patterns and trends in the context of people’s daily lives and experiences, often at the community level.

These two concepts are complementary approaches because, in essence, sociology is about understanding the way large-scale patterns and trends shape the lives and experiences of groups, individuals, and vice versa. There are differences between macro and micro sociology and the questions that identify these differences are as follows:

• What research questions can be addressed at all levels?

• What methods can be used to keep track of these questions?

• What does it mean to talk practically to do research?

• What conclusions can be drawn with both?

Research Questions of Macro and Micro Sociology

Macro sociologists often ask big questions that result in both research results and new theories, such as:

• In what ways has race shaped the character, structure and development of US society? Sociologist Joe Feagin asks this question at the beginning of his book Systemic Racism.

• Why do people still have a strong urge to shop all the time, despite having a lot of things, working long hours and running short of cash? Sociologist Juliet SCHOR asked this question in his classic book economic and it was studied as consumer sociology.

Microsociologists tend to ask more local, focused questions that examine the lives of smaller groups of people. For example:

• What is the impact of police presence in schools and communities on the personal development and lifestyles of black and Latin boys growing up in urban neighborhoods? Sociologist Victor Rios tackles this question in his famous book Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys.

• How do sexuality and gender intersect in identity development among boys in the high school context? This question is about masculinity and sexuality in high school in the very popular book you are fag by sociologist CJ Pascoe.

Macro and Micro Sociology Research Methods

Macro sociologists Feagin and Schor, among others, use a combination of analysis of statistics over long periods of historical and archival research to create datasets showing how the social system and its relationships have evolved over time. In addition, Schor uses interviews and focus groups more commonly used in microsociological research to establish intelligent connections between historical trends, social theory, and the ways people experience their daily lives.

Micro sociologists (including Rios and Pascoe) typically use research methods that involve direct interaction with research participants, such as one-on-one interviews, ethnographic observation, focus groups, and smaller-scale statistical and historical analysis. To address research questions, both Rios and Pascoe are embedded in the communities they study and become part of the lives of their participants, living between them for a year or more, seeing their lives and interactions with others firsthand, and by talking to them.

Macro and Micro Sociology Research Results

Results from macroosociology often show the correlation or causality between different elements or phenomena in society. For example, Feagin’s research, who also produced the systemic theory of racism, shows how whites in the United States have built and maintained a racist social system for centuries by holding control of basic social institutions such as politics and law. It does this by controlling educational and media and economic resources and limiting the distribution among people of color.

Feagin concludes that all these things work together to produce the racist social system that characterizes the United States today. Because of its smaller scale, micro-sociological research is more likely to generate correlation or causality suggestion between certain things than to prove it conclusively. What it gives and is highly influential is evidence of how social systems affect the lives and experiences of the people living in them. While his research is limited to a single high school in one place for a specific period of time, Pascoe’s work has been how certain social forces, including mass media, pornography, parents, school administrators, teachers, and peers, combine to produce messages for boys. It impressively shows that it is coming. (As the correct way to be masculine is to be strong, dominant, and necessarily heterosexual)

Sociology helps people learn by being prudent, how friends and family agree, how groups work, and where a society fits into the global system, by scientifically studying their daily lives. Studying sociology helps one to examine himself and his social life more deeply. Definitions Macro-sociology analysis focuses on the broader characteristics of society, the study of large-scale patterns of society. Conflict theorists and functionalists use this approach to analyze social class and how groups relate to each other, focusing on the social class system and social status. Micro sociology analysis focuses on social interaction, studying small-scale patterns of society Symbolic interactionists use this approach to analyze behavior, communication, and interaction.

Consequently, the advantage of this approach is that it introduces people to the sociological research panorama. He pays attention to the activities of individuals in their daily lives and sees that humans are not robots that mechanically follow the dictates of social rules and institutional norms, but beings who live their lives and have the ability to think. Through interaction, they work on symbols and meanings that allow them to interpret the situation, evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of certain actions, and then choose one of them. Thus, representatives of symbolic interactionism propose the image of a person as an individual actively shaping his behavior, rather than reacting passively to the external imperatives of structural constraints.

Although macro and micro sociology adopt very different approaches to examine society, social problems and people, they provide invaluable research results that help the social world to understand the problems and possible solutions to them.