KARI ODA Socio Economists and Epidemiology Report Draft

Abstract

The social world consists of multiple realities which most people see in several different ways. A church wedding, for example, may seem for some people to be simply a celebration, but different people will look at and interpret it quite differently depending on their perspectives. Parents of both the bride and the groom, respective former friends of the newly wed who may have wished to marry either the groom or the bride, the pastor or priest who presides over or performs the ceremony, the tailor who lakes the bridal gown, a researcher on nuptiality and the management or proprietor of the hotel where the reception has been booked are each likely to view the wedding ceremony from a different perspective and to see entirely different things. Thus, Sociology helps us see ourselves and our social circumstances differently from the wayan economist or any other social and natural scientist would. In other words, the sociological viewpoint provides us with a unique way of looking at the everyday human behaviour and the human condition as though for the first time and with a special form of consciousness and curiosity. Nothing is taken for granted; everything is questioned. Ultimately, our own view of the world is shaped by our personal experiences of it.