The field of sociology help understands culture as a collection of languages, practices, traditions, rules, art, knowledge, or identities. All of these are developed by members of a group that make a unique social environment meaningful. Sociologists study culture by exploring how people or groups communicate. Also, sociology encompasses diffusion, evaluations, and cultural meaning across institutions, groups, and organizations. The purpose of this paper is to summarize two readings conveying information about the concepts of sociology.
In the first reading, the reading contextualizes a club drug as a social issue in the life of young individuals. The materials explore and analyze behaviors that are common with young persons engaging in the use of drugs ta nightclubs or raves through a sociology perspective. Common drugs used in clubs as informed by the resource are cocaine, and its influence is enormous, making people behave in an irresponsible way. Clubbing can be seen as the lasts a long line of young people’s culture. However, this form of social practice, as revealed in the readings, is unique because its adherence is not drawn from a specific class or location. Culture is defined by the centrality of music. The author opens with a brief outline of the book as a journey of the cocaine club, which has transformed and changed with time. One significant change in cocaine club is the development of slang, where people pick various names to associate and infer the meaning of something.
By reading this material, a deep meaning that can be deduced is how clubbing has become a popular culture of young individuals. Clubbing today defines the culture of young, and a close relationship between normalized substance use and clubbing is evident. The reading seems to make sense that social behavior among individuals, especially young people, are vast and most tied to irresponsible acts such as the use of drugs and sex. Perhaps it is high time health and regulatory bodied respond to the culture of club drug use.
In the second reading, by Devah Pager, the authors’ direct concern over criminal justice systems where most men are incarcerated pinpointing the impacts. The reading materials focus on the consequences of incarceration for employment opportunities for minority individuals. Victims of incarceration face challenges like lack of job or difficulties getting employment opportunities due to criminal records they hold. A number of black and white victims of incarceration who are job seekers have faced such a hard situation. Studies point that racial disparities are common the burden of obtaining a job by people who come out of prisons.
When reading this article, one key thing that stands out clear and makes sense is that criminal justice needs better reforms to help address the problem of racial discrimination. Practices and approaches used to handle criminals, or suspects impose significant impacts as well as awaken racial prejudices in the community, such that the environment becomes hostile to people who are willing to change. From the reading, the criminal justice system has had a history of incarcerating minority individuals in large numbers. As such, what the system paint in society is that certain people are posed as a threat, less knowledge, incompetent, violent, and difficult to deal with. The reading highlights the need for policy reforms.
In conclusion, this paper had reviewed two readings, one with the central theme of social behavior and the other on institutional practice and effects. The two readings reveal that the field of sociology conveys vast information about people and their surroundings.