Sociology: ‘The Excitement of Finding the Familiar Becoming Transformed’

“The excitement of sociology is usually of a different sort. Sometimes, it is true, the sociologist penetrates into worlds that had previously been quite unknown to him—for instance, the world of crime, or the world of some bizarre religious sect, or the world fashioned by the exclusive concerns of some group such as medical specialists or military leaders or advertising executives. However, much of the time the sociologist moves in sectors of experience that are familiar to him and to most people in his society. He investigates communities, institutions and activities that one can read about every day in the newspapers. Yet there is another excitement of discovery beckoning in his investigations. It is not the excitement of coming upon the totally unfamiliar, but rather the excitement of finding the familiar becoming transformed in its meaning. The fascination of sociology lies in the fact that its perspective makes us see in a new light the very world in which we have lived all our lives. This also constitutes a transformation of consciousness.” 

– Peter Berger (1963: 21), “Invitation to Sociology” [my emphasis]

This quote is often confused with “Seeing the general in the particular,” and “seeing the strange in the familiar.” The latter are phrases coined by John Macionis and Ken Plummer in “Sociology: A Global Introduction,” (2012 [1997]: 4-5, 5th ed.).

Berger writes extensively about the particularity of perspectives. For example:

“The sociology of knowledge, more clearly than any other branch of sociology, makes clear what is meant by saying that the sociologist is the guy who keeps asking ‘Says who?’ It rejects the pretence that thought occurs in isolation from the social context within which particular men think about particular things. Even in the case of very abstract ideas that seemingly have little social connection, the sociology of knowledge attempts to draw the line from the thought to the thinker to his social world. This can be seen most easily in those instances when thought serves to legitimate a particular social situation, that is, when it explains, justifies and sanctifies it.”

Berger also talks about making the familiar strange. For example:

“It can be said that the first wisdom of sociology is this—things are not what they seem. This too is a deceptively simple statement. It ceases to be simple after a while. Social reality turns out to have many layers of meaning. The discovery of each new layer changes the perception of the whole.”