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SOCIOLOGY DEFINED
Sociology is the study of society and human social interaction. Sociological research
ranges from the analysis of short contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to
the study of global social processes. The field focuses on how and why people are
organized in society, either as individuals or as members of associations, groups, and
institutions.
Someone working in the field of sociology is known as a sociologist. As an academic
discipline, sociology is generally considered a social science and is somewhat young
compared to other disciplines, having evolved in the early 19th century. However, there
have been social studies carried out by scholars and philosophers at least as early as the
time of Plato, thus making the field more or less established with older historical roots.
The word sociology comes from the suffix "-logy" which means "study of," derived from
Greek, and the stem "socio-" which is from the Latin word socius, meaning member,
friend, or ally, thus referring to people in general.
Because sociology is such a broad discipline, it can be difficult to define, even for
professional sociologists. One useful way to describe the discipline is as a cluster of subfields that examine different dimensions of society. For example, social stratification
studies inequality and class structure; demography studies changes in a population size or
type; criminology examines criminal behavior and deviance; political sociology studies
government and laws; and the sociology of race and sociology of gender examine the
social construction of race and gender as well as race and gender inequality. New
sociological sub-fields continue to appear—such as network analysis and environmental
sociology—many of which are cross-disciplinary in nature.
Many sociologists perform research useful outside the academy. Their findings aid
educators, lawmakers, administrators, developers, business leaders, and people interested
in resolving social problems and formulating public policy.
HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGY
Sociology is a relatively new academic discipline among other social sciences including
economics, political science, anthropology, history, and psychology. The ideas behind it,
however, have a long history and can trace their origins to a mixture of common human
knowledge and philosophy.
Sociology emerged as a scientific discipline in the early 19th century as an academic
response to the challenge of modernity: as the world was becoming smaller and more
integrated, people's experience of the world was increasingly atomized and dispersed.
Sociologists hoped not only to understand what held social groups together, but also to
develop an antidote to social disintegration.
The word sociology was coined by French thinker Auguste Comte in 1838 from Latin
Socius (companion, associate) and Greek lógos (study). Comte hoped to unify all studies
of humankind--including history, psychology and economics. His own sociological
scheme was typical of the 19th century; he believed all human life had passed through the
same distinct historical stages (theology, metaphysics, positive science) and that, if one
could grasp this progress, one could prescribe the remedies for social ills. Sociology was
to be the 'queen of sciences.'
The first book with the term 'sociology' in its title was The Study of Sociology (1874) by
the English philosopher Herbert Spencer. In the United States, Lester Frank Ward,
described by some as the father of American sociology, published Dynamic Sociology in
1883 and the discipline was taught by its own name for the first time at the University of
Kansas, Lawrence in 1890 under the course title Elements of Sociology (the oldest
continuing sociology course in America). The Department of History and Sociology at
the University of Kansas was established in 1891 [1],[2], and the first full fledged
independent university department of sociology was established in 1892 at the University
of Chicago by Albion W. Small, who in 1895 founded the American Journal of Sociology
[3]. The first European department of sociology was founded in 1895 at the University of
Bordeaux by Émile Durkheim, founder of L'Année Sociologique (1896). The first
sociology department to be established in the United Kingdom was at the London School
of Economics and Political Science (home of the British Journal of Sociology) [4] in
1904. In 1919 a sociology department was established in Germany at the Ludwig
Maximilians University of Munich by Max Weber and in 1920 in Poland by Florian
Znaniecki.
International cooperation in sociology began in 1893 when René Worms founded the
small Institut International de Sociologie that was eclipsed by the much larger
International Sociological Association [5] starting in 1949 (ISA). In 1905 the American
Sociological Association, the world's largest association of professional sociologists, was
founded.
Other "classical" theorists of sociology from the late 19th and early 20th centuries
include Karl Marx, Ferdinand Tönnies, Émile Durkheim, Vilfredo Pareto, and Max
Weber. Like Comte, these figures did not consider themselves only "sociologists". Their
works addressed religion, education, economics, law, psychology, ethics, philosophy, and
theology, and their theories have been applied in a variety of academic disciplines. Their
most enduring influence, however, has been on sociology, (with the exception of Marx,
who is a central figure in the field of economics as well) and it is in this field that their
theories are still considered most applicable.
One shift in the discipline away from scientific explanation had philosophical roots. Early
theorists' approach to sociology, led by Comte, was to treat it in much the same manner
as natural science, applying the same methods and methodology used in the natural
sciences to study social phenomena. The emphasis on empiricism and the scientific
method sought to provide an incontestable foundation for any sociological claims or
findings, and to distinguish sociology from less empirical fields like philosophy. This
methodological approach, called positivism, became a source of contention between
sociologists and other scientists, and eventually a point of divergence within the field
itself. Thus, while most sciences evolved from deterministic, Newtonian models to
probabilistic models which accept and even incorporate uncertainty, sociology began to
cleave into those who believed in a deterministic approach (attributing variation to
structure, interactions, or other forces) and those who rejected the very possibility of
explanation and prediction.
A second push away from a scientific explanation was cultural, even sociological, itself.
As early as the 19th century, positivist and naturalist approaches to studying social life
were questioned by scientists like Wilhelm Dilthey and Heinrich Rickert, who argued
that the natural world differs from the social world because of unique aspects of human
society such as meanings, symbols, rules, norms, and values. These elements of society
both result in and generate human cultures. This view was further developed by Max
Weber, who introduced antipositivism (humanistic sociology). According to this view,
which is closely related to antinaturalism, sociological research must concentrate on
humans' cultural values (see also: French pragmatism. This has led to some controversy
on how one can draw the line between subjective and objective research and has also
influenced hermeneutical studies. Similar disputes, especially in the era of the Internet,
have led to variations in sociology such as public sociology, which emphasizes the
usefulness of sociological expertise to abstracted audiences.
Focus of Sociology
Sociologists study society and social behavior by examining the groups and social
institutions people form, as well as various social, religious, political, and business
organizations. They also study the behaviour of, and social interaction among, groups,
trace their origin and growth, and analyze the influence of group activities on individual
members. Sociologists are concerned with the characteristics of social groups,
organizations, and institutions; the ways individuals are affected by each other and by the
groups to which they belong; and the effect of social traits such as sex, age, or race on a
person’s daily life. The results of sociological research aid educators, lawmakers,
administrators, and others interested in resolving social problems and formulating public
policy. Most sociologists work in one or more specialties, such as social organization,
social stratification, and social mobility; racial and ethnic relations; education; family;
social psychology; urban, rural, political, and comparative sociology; sex roles and
relationships; demography; gerontology; criminology; and sociological practice. In short
it's the study of common sense.
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