Sociology and common sense

Sociology is unusual among school subjects: you already know something about society before you start. You know about families, castes, festivals, money and rules, and most of it you learnt without being taught, just by living.

This prior knowledge is a mixed blessing:

• an advantage: the subject does not feel strange or frightening;
• a problem: much of what we 'know' has to be unlearnt before we can see society clearly.

So the first stage of learning sociology is mainly unlearning.

Why unlearn? Our everyday knowledge, our common sense, comes from the viewpoint of our own social group and surroundings. A rich city child and a poor village child 'know' very different things about the same society.

Common sense is 'partial' in two senses:

• incomplete: it shows only a part of social reality, the part we happen to see;
• biased: it leans towards the views and interests of our own group, like taking one side.

Sociology asks for self-reflexivity: the ability to look at yourself 'from the outside', as a stranger would. This self-inspection must be critical: quick to criticise yourself and slow to praise. Only then can you see how your own position shapes what you think is 'normal' or 'natural'.

For example, many people think caste no longer matters 'nowadays'. Sociology asks: who says so, from which position, and what does the evidence show?