sociology

Sociology

The objective of Sociology is to publish outstanding and original peer reviewed articles which advance the theoretical understanding of, and promote and report empirical research about the widest range of sociological topics. The journal encourages, and welcomes submission of papers which report findings using both quantitative and qualitative research methods; articles challenging conventional concepts and proposing new conceptual approaches; and accounts of methodological innovation and the research process. This journal is a member of the sociology.

Sociology is the study of human social behavior and its origins, development, organizations, and institutions. It is a social science which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social actions, social structure and functions. A goal for many sociologists is to conduct research which may be applied directly to social policy and welfare, while others focus primarily on refining the theoretical understanding of social processes. Subject matter ranges from the micro level of individual agency and interaction to the macro level of systems and the social structure.

            The traditional focuses of sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, and deviance. As all spheres of human activity are affected by the interplay between social structure and individual agency, sociology has gradually expanded its focus to further subjects, such as health, medical, military and penal institutions, the internet, and the role of social activity in the development of scientific knowledge. 

          The range of social scientific methods has also expanded. Social researchers draw upon a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The linguistic and cultural turns of the mid twentieth century led to increasingly interpretative, hermeneutic, and philosophic approaches to the analysis of society. Conversely, recent decades have seen the rise of new analytically, mathematically and computationally rigorous techniques, such as agent based modeling and social network analysis.

Origins

         Sociological reasoning predates the foundation of the discipline. Social analysis has origins in the common stock of western knowledge and philosophy, and has been carried out from as far back as the time of ancient Greek philosopher Plato if not before. The origin of the Survey the collection of information from a sample of individuals can be traced back to at least the Domesday Book in 1086, while ancient philosophers such as Confucius wrote on the importance of social roles. There is evidence of early sociology in medieval Islam. Some consider Ibn Khaldun, Arab Islamic scholar from North Africa, to have been the first sociologist, his Muqaddimah was perhaps the first work to advance social scientific reasoning on social cohesion and social conflict. Most sociological concepts were used in English prior to their adoption as the technical language of sociology.

         The word sociology is derived from both Latin and Greek origins. The word, companion, the suffix, the study of from, logos, word, knowledge. It was first coined in 1780 by the French essayist in an unpublished. Sociology was later defined independently by the French, in 1838. Comte used this term to describe a new way of looking at society. Comte had earlier used the term social physics, but that had subsequently been appropriated by others, most notably the Belgian statistician. Comte endeavored to unify history, psychology and economics through the scientific understanding of the social realm. Writing shortly after the malaise of the, he proposed that social ills could be remedied through sociological, an epistemological approach outlined in. Comte believed a would mark the final era, after conjectural and phases, in the progression of human understanding. In observing the circular dependence of theory and observation in science, and having classified the sciences, Comte may be regarded as the first in the modern sense of the term.

Foundations of the academic discipline

           Formal academic sociology was established by Emile Durkheim, who developed positivism as a foundation to practical. While Durkheim rejected much of the detail of Comte philosophy, he retained and refined its method, maintaining that the social sciences are a logical continuation of the natural ones into the realm of human activity, and insisting that they may retain the same objectivity, rationalism, and approach to causality. Durkheim set up the first European department of sociology at the in 1895, publishing his rules of the sociological method.

            Durkheim seminal monograph,  a case study of suicide rates amongst and populations, distinguished sociological analysis from or philosophy. It also marked a major contribution to the theoretical concept of. By carefully examining suicide statistics in different police districts, he attempted to demonstrate that Catholic communities have a lower suicide rate than that of Protestants, something he attributed to social causes. He developed the notion of objective social facts to delineate a unique empirical object for the science of sociology to study. Through such studies he posited that sociology would be able to determine whether any given society is healthy or pathological, and seek social reform to negate organic breakdown or social nominate.

Sociology quickly evolved as an academic response to the perceived challenges of, such as, and the process of The field predominated in, with British and generally following on a separate trajectory. By the turn of the 20th century, however, many theorists were active in the. Few early sociologists were confined strictly to the subject, interacting also with, psychology and, with theories being appropriated in a variety of different fields. Since its inception, sociological epistemologies, methods, and frames of inquiry, have significantly expanded and diverged.

         Durkheim, Marx, and the German theorist Max Weber are typically cited as the three principal architects of social science. Herbert Spencer, William Graham Summer, Lester F. Ward, Vilfredo Pareto, Alex de Tocqueville, Werner Sombart, Thosrstein velen, Ferdinand Tonnies, Georg Simmel and Karl Mannheim and  are occasionally included on academic curricula as founding theorists. Each key figure is associated with a particular theoretical perspective and orientation.

Positivism and anti-positivism

Positivism

        The overarching methodological principle of positivism is to conduct sociology in broadly the same manner as natural science. An emphasis on empiricism and the scientific is sought to provide a tested foundation for sociological research based on the assumption that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only arrive by positive affirmation through scientific methodology.

           The term has long since ceased to carry this meaning, there are no fewer than twelve distinct epistemologies that are referred to as positivism. Many of these approaches do not self identify as positivist, some because they themselves arose in opposition to older forms of positivism, and some because the label has over time become a term of abuse by being mistakenly linked with a theoretical empiricism. The extent of ant positivist criticism has also diverged, with many rejecting the scientific method and others only seeking to amend it to reflect 20th century developments in the philosophy of science. However, positivism broadly understood as a scientific approach to the study of society remains dominant in contemporary sociology, especially in the United States.

        Loic wacquant distinguishes three major strains of positivism, Logical, and Instrumental. None of these are the same as that set forth by Comte, who was unique in advocating such a rigid version. While Emile Durkheim rejected much of the detail of Comte philosophy, he retained and refined its method. Durkheim maintained that the social sciences are a logical continuation of the natural ones into the realm of human activity, and insisted that they should retain the same objectivity, rationalism, and approach to causality. He developed the notion of objective sui generis social facts to delineate a unique empirical object for the science of sociology to study.

            The variety of positivism that remains dominant today is termed instrumental positivism. This approach eschews epistemological and metaphysical concerns such as the nature of social facts in favor of methodological clarity, replicability, reliability and validity. This positivism is more or less synonymous with, and so only resembles older positivism in practice. Since it carries no explicit philosophical commitment, its practitioners may not belong to any particular school of thought. Modern sociology of this type is often credited to who pioneered large scale survey studies and developed statistical techniques for analyzing them. This approach lends itself to what called, abstract statements that generalize from segregated hypotheses and empirical regularities rather than starting with an abstract idea of a social whole.

Anti-positivism

Reactions against social empiricism began when German philosopher voiced opposition to both empiricism, which he rejected as uncritical, and determinism, which he viewed as overly mechanistic.  Methodology borrowed from but also a rejection of positivism in favour of critical analysis, seeking to supplement the empirical acquisition of "facts" with the elimination of illusions. He maintained that appearances need to be critiqued rather than simply documented. Early hermeneuticians such as pioneered the distinction between natural and social science. Various philosophers, and further theorized how the analysis of the differs to that of the due to the irreducibly complex aspects of human society, and being.

At the turn of the 20th century the first generation of German sociologists formally introduced methodological, proposing that research should concentrate on human cultural and social processes viewed from a resolutely perspective. Max Weber argued that sociology may be loosely described as a science as it is able to identify of human especially among, or hypothetical simplifications of complex social phenomena. As a non positivist, however, Weber sought relationships that are not as historical, invariant, or generalizable as those pursued by natural scientists. Fellow German sociologist, theorized on two crucial abstract concepts with his work on. Tonnies marked a sharp line between the realm of concepts and the reality of social action, the first must be treated axiomatically and in a deductive way, whereas the second empirically and inductively.

Functionalism

      A broad historical paradigm in sociology and anthropology, functionalism addresses the social structure  as a whole and in terms of the necessary function of its constituent elements. A common analogy is to regard and as organs that work toward the proper functioning of the entire body of society. The perspective was implicit in the original sociological positivism of Comte, but was theorized in full by Durkheim, again with respect to observable, structural laws. Functionalism also has an anthropological basis in the work of theorists such as, and. It is in Radcliffe Brown specific usage that the prefix structural emerged. Classical functionalist theory is generally united by its tendency towards biological analogy and notions of social evaluation. As gidden states Functionalist thought, from Comte onwards, has looked particularly towards biology as the science providing the closest and most compatible model for social science. Biology has been taken to provide a guide to conceptualizing the structure and the function of social systems and to analyzing processes of evolution via mechanisms of adaptation functionalism strongly emphasizes the pre eminence of the social world over its individual parts.

Conflict theory

          Functionalism aims only toward a general perspective from which to conduct social science. Methodologically, its principles generally contrast those approaches that emphasize the micro, such as interpretivism or symbolic interactionism. Its emphasis on cohesive systems, however, also holds political ramifications. Functionalist theories are often therefore contrasted with conflict theories which critique the overarching socio political system or emphasize the inequality of particular groups. The works of Durkheim and Marx epitomize the political, as well as theoretical, disparities, between functionalist and conflict thought respectively.

Structure and Agency

        Structure and agency form an enduring ontological debate in social theory, In this context  agency refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and make free choices, whereas structure relates to factors which limit or affect the choices and actions of individuals such as social class, religion, gender, ethnicity, and so on. Discussions over the primacy of either structure or agency relate to the core of sociological. A general outcome of incredulity toward structural or agential thought has been the development of multidimensional theories, most notably the action theory of Tacott Parsons and Anthony Gidden theory structuration.

Research Methodology

            

            Quantitative designs approach social phenomena through quantifiable evidence, and often rely on statistical analysis of many cases or across intentionally designed treatments in an experiment to create valid and reliable general claims.

            Qualitative designs emphasize understanding of social phenomena through direct observation, communication with participants, or analysis of texts, and may stress contextual and subjective accuracy over generality.

Sociologists are divided into camps of support for particular research techniques. These disputes relate to the epistemological debates at the historical core of social theory. While very different in many aspects, both qualitative and quantitative approaches involve a systematic interaction between and data. Quantitative methodologies hold the dominant position in sociology, especially in the United States. In the discipline two most cited journals, quantitative articles have historically outnumbered qualitative ones by a factor of two. Most articles published in the largest British journal, on the other hand, are most textbooks on the methodology of social research are written from the quantitative perspective, and the very term methodology is often used synonymously with. Practically all sociology PhD program in the United States require training in statistical methods. The work produced by quantitative researchers is also deemed more trustworthy and unbiased by the greater public, though this judgment continues to be challenged by antipositivists.

The choice of method often depends largely on what the researcher intends to investigate. For example, a researcher concerned with drawing a statistical generalization across an entire population may administer a to a representative sample population. By contrast, a researcher who seeks full contextual understanding of an individual may choose ethnographic or open ended interviews. Studies will commonly combine, or, quantitative and qualitative methods as part of a multi strategy design. For instance, a quantitative study may be performed to gain statistical patterns or a target sample, and then combined with a qualitative interview to determine the play of agency.

Methods

             

             Archival research or the Historical Method: Draws upon the secondary data located in historical archives and records, such as biographies, memoirs, journals, and so on.

            Content analysis: The content of interviews and other texts is systematically analyzed. Often data is coded as a part of the grounded theory approach using qualitative data analysis software, such as,

            Experimental Research: he researcher isolates a single social process and reproduces it in a laboratory seeking to determine whether or not certain social can cause, or depend upon, other variables Participants are randomly assigned to different groups which either serve as controls acting as reference points because they are tested with regard to the dependent variable, albeit without having been exposed to any independent variables of interest or receive one or more treatments. Randomization allows the researcher to be sure that any resulting differences between groups are the result of the treatment.

Longitudinal study: An extensive examination of a specific person or group over a long period of time.

Observation: Using data from the senses, the researcher records information about social phenomenon or behavior. Observation techniques may or may not feature participation. In participant observation the researcher goes into the field, and participates in the activities of the field for a prolonged period of time in order to acquire a deep understanding of it. Data acquired through these techniques may be analyzed either quantitatively or qualitatively.

Survey research: The researcher gathers data using interviews, questionnaires, or similar feedback from a set of people sampled from a particular population of interest. Survey items from an interview or questionnaire may be open ended or closed ended. Data from surveys is usually analyzed statistically on a computer.

Computational Sociology

             Sociologists increasingly draw upon computationally intensive methods to analyze and model social phenomena.  Using computer simulations, artificial intelligence, text mining, complex statistical methods, and new analytic approaches like social network analysis and social sequence analysis, computational sociology develops and tests theories of complex social processes through bottom up modeling of social interactions.

            Although the subject matter and methodologies in social science differ from those in natural science or computer science several of the approaches used in contemporary social simulation originated from fields such as physics and artificial intelligence. By the same token, some of the approaches that originated in computational sociology have been imported into the natural sciences, such as measures of network centrality from the fields of social network analysis and network science. In relevant literature, computational sociology is often related to the study of social complexity. Social complexity concepts such as complex systems, non linear interconnection among macro and micro process, and emergence, have entered the vocabulary of computational sociology. A practical and well known example is the construction of a computational model in the form of an artificial society by which researchers can analyze the structure of a social system.

Areas of sociology

Social organization is the study of the various institutions, social groups, social stratification, social mobility, bureaucracy, ethnic groups and relations, and other similar subjects such as education, politics, religion, economy and so forth.

Social psychology is the study of human nature as an outcome of group life, social attitudes, collective behavior, and personality formation. It deals with group life and the individual's traits, attitudes, beliefs as influenced by group life, and it views man with reference to group life.

Social change and disorganization is the study of the change in culture and social relations and the disruption that may occur in society, and it deals with the study of such current problems in society such as juvenile delinquency, criminality, drug addiction, family conflicts, divorce, population problems, and other similar subjects.

Human ecology deals with the nature and behavior of a given population and its relationships to the group's present social institutions. For instance, studies of this kind have shown the prevalence of mental illness, criminality, delinquencies, prostitution, and drug addiction in urban centers and other highly developed places.

Population or demography is the study of population number, composition, change, and quality as they influence the economic, political, and social system. 

Sociological theory and method is concerned with the applicability and usefulness of the principles and theories of group life as bases for the regulation of man's environment, and includes theory building and testing as bases for the prediction and control of man's social environment.

Applied sociology utilizes the findings of pure sociological research in various fields such as criminology, social work, community development, education, industrial relations, marriage, ethnic relations, family counseling, and other aspects and problems of daily life.

Culture

            

             For Simmel, culture referred to "the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history. Whilst early theorists such as Durkheim and Mauss were influential in cultural anthropology, sociologists of culture are generally distinguished by their concern for modern society. Cultural sociology is seldom empirical, preferring instead the hermeneutic analysis of words, artifacts and symbols. The field is closely allied with critical theory in the vein of theory W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and other members of the Frankurt Richard Hoggart and Sturat Hall questioned the division between producers and consumers evident in earlier theory, emphasizing the reciprocity in the production of texts. Cultural Studies aims to examine its subject matter in terms of cultural practices and their relation to power. For example, a study of asubculture would consider the social practices of the group as they relate to the dominant class. The cultural turn of the 1960s ushered in strcturalist and so called postmodern approaches to social science and placed culture much higher on the sociological agenda.

Economic sociology

The term economic sociology was first used by William Stanley Jevons in 1879, later to be coined in the works of Durkheim, Weber and Simmel between 1890 and 1920. Economic sociology arose as a new approach to the analysis of economic phenomena, emphasizing class relations and modernity as a philosophical concept. The relationship between capitalism and modernity is a salient issue, perhaps best demonstrated in Weber the protestant ethic and spirit of capitalism and Simmel The philosophy of Money.  The contemporary period of economic sociology, also known as new economic sociology, was consolidated by the 1985 work of Mark Granovetter titled Economic Action and Social Structure, The Problem of Embeddedness. This work elaborated the concept of, which states that economic relations between individuals or firms take place within existing social relations. Social network analysis has been the primary methodology for studying this phenomenon. Granovetter theory of the strength of weak ties and Ronald Burt concept of structural holes are two best known theoretical contributions of this field.

Environment

           Environmental sociology is the study of human interactions with the natural environment, typically emphasizing human dimensions of environmental problems, social impacts of those problems, and efforts to resolve them. As with other subfields of sociology, scholarship in environmental sociology may be at one or multiple levels of analysis, from global to local, societal to individual. Attention is paid also to the processes by which environmental problems become defined and known to humans.

Education

The sociology of education is the study of how educational institutions determine social structures, experiences, and other outcomes. It is particularly concerned with the schooling systems of modern industrial societies. A classic 1966 study in this field by James Coleman, known as the Coleman Report, analyzed the performance of over 150,000 students and found that student background and socioeconomic status are much more important in determining educational outcomes than are measured differences in school resources. The controversy over school effects ignited by that study has continued to this day. The study also found that socially disadvantaged black students profited from schooling in racially mixed classrooms, and thus served as a catalyst for desegregating busing in American public schools.

Knowledge and Science

               The sociology of science involves the study of science as a social activity, especially dealing with the social conditions and effects of science, and with the social structures and processes of scientific activity. Important theorists in the sociology of science include Robert K. Merton and Bruno Latour. These branches of sociology have contributed to the formation of Science and technology studies.

Political Sociology

Historically political sociology concerned the relations between political organization and society. A typical research question in this area might be, in this respect questions of political opinion formation brought about some of the pioneering uses of statistical survey research by Paul Lazarsfeld. A major subfield of political sociology developed in relation to such questions, which draws on comparative history to analyze socio political trends. The field developed from the work of Max Weber and Moisey ostrogorsky.

Contemporary political sociology includes these areas of research, but it has been opened up to wider questions of power and politics. Today political sociologists are as likely to be concerned with how identities are formed that contribute to structural domination by one group over another, the politics of who knows how and with what authority, and questions of how power is contested in social interactions in such a way as to bring about widespread cultural and social change. Such questions are more likely to be studied qualitatively. The study of social movements and their effects has been especially important in relation to these wider definitions of politics and power.

Social Networks

A social network is a social structure composed of individuals called nodes, which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as, friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige. Social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals. Social network analysis makes no assumption that groups are the building blocks of society, the approach is open to studying less bounded social systems, from non local communities to networks of exchange. Rather than treating individuals as discrete units of analysis, it focuses on how the structure of ties affects individuals and their relationships. In contrast to analyses that assume that socialization into norms determines behavior, network analysis looks to see the extent to which the structure and composition of ties affect norms. Unlike most other areas of sociology, social network theory is usually defined in formal mathematics.

Social Psychology

Sociological social psychology focuses on micro scale. This area may be described as adhering to sociological miniaturism, examining whole societies through the study of individual thoughts and emotions as well as behavior of small groups. Of special concern to psychological sociologists is how to explain a variety of demographic, social, and cultural facts in terms of human social interaction. Some of the major topics in this field are social inequality, prejudice, aggression, social perception, group behavior, social change, nonverbal behavior, socialization, conformity, leadership, and social identity. Social psychology may be taught with. In sociology, researchers in this field are the most prominent users of the however, unlike their psychological counterparts, they also frequently employ other methodologies. Social psychology looks at social influences, as well as social perception and social interaction.

Urban and Rural Sociology

Urban sociology involves the analysis of social life and human interaction in metropolitan areas. It is a discipline seeking to provide advice for planning and policy making. After the industrial revolution, works such as Georg Simmel the metropolis and mental life focused on urbanization and the effect it had on alienation and anonymity. In the 1920s and 1930s The Chicago school produced a major body of theory on the nature of the city, important to both urban sociology and criminology, utilizing symbolic interactionism as a method of field research. Contemporary research is commonly placed in a context of globalization, for instance, in Saskia Sassen study of the Global city. Rural sociology, by contrast, is the analysis of non metropolitan areas.

Sociology and other academic disciplines

Sociology overlaps with a variety of disciplines that study society, in particular anthropology, political science, economics, and social philosophy. Many comparatively new fields such as communication studies, cultural studies, demography and literary theory, draw upon methods that originated in sociology. The terms social science and social research have both gained a degree of autonomy since their origination in classical sociology. The distinct field of emerged from the many intersections of sociological and psychological interests, and is further distinguished in terms of sociological or psychological emphasis.

Sociology and applied sociology are connected to the professional and academic discipline of social work. Both disciplines study social interactions, community and the effect of various systems on the individual. However, social work is generally more focused on practical strategies to alleviate social dysfunctions; sociology in general provides a thorough examination of the root causes of these problems. For example, a sociologist might study why a community is plagued with poverty. The applied sociologist would be theses strategies directly or indirectly by means of mental health therapy, counseling, advocacy, community organization or community mobilization.

Social anthropology is the branch of anthropology that studies how contemporary living human beings behave in social groups. Practitioners of social anthropology, like sociologists, investigate various facets of social organization. Traditionally, social anthropologists analysed non industrial and non Western societies, whereas sociologists focused on industrialized societies in the Western world. In recent years, however, social anthropology has expanded its focus to modern Western societies, meaning that the two disciplines increasingly converge.

Sociobiology is the study of how social behavior and organization have been influenced by evolution and other biological process. The field blends sociology with a number of other sciences, such as anthropology, biology, and Zoology. Sociobiology has generated controversy within the sociological academy for allegedly giving too much attention to gene expression over socialization and environmental factors in general Entomologist E. O Wilson is credited as having originally developed and described Sociobiology.

Irving Louis Horowitz, in his the decomposition of sociology, has argued that the discipline, whilst arriving from a distinguished lineage and tradition, is in decline due to deeply ideological theory and a lack of relevance to policy making. The decomposition of sociology began when this great tradition became subject to ideological thinking, and an inferior tradition surfaced in the wake of totalitarian triumphs. Furthermore, a problem yet unmentioned is that sociology malaise has left all the social sciences vulnerable to pure positivism to an empiricism lacking any theoretical basis. Talented individuals who might, in an earlier time, have gone into sociology are seeking intellectual stimulation in business, law, the natural sciences, and even creative writing; this drains sociology of much needed potential. Horowitz cites the lack of a core discipline as exacerbating the problem. The Professor in Sociology at the and a member of the Advisory Editors Council of the Social Evolution & History journal, has voiced similar sentiments, we have lost all coherence as a discipline, we are breaking up into a conglomerate of specialties, each going on its own way and with none too high regard for each other.

Department of Sociology

            

 The Department of Sociology at Harvard has a rich and varied history. Whether it is the social systems approach of Talcott Parsons or the social exchange tradition pioneered by George Homans, the department has always been home to sociologists who are deeply committed to the development of sociological theory in the service of addressing fundamental sociological questions about the empirical world. The Harvard department of the 21^st century is characterized by unsurpassed methodological breadth and depth, with faculty and students engaged in methods ranging from ethnography, in depth interviews, and archival work to advanced statistical modeling. Deep engagement with central social issues in the American landscape such as urban inequality and mass incarceration is coupled with expertise in political, economic, and social and cultural issues in other parts of the world such as Latin America, Asia, and Europe. We invite you to explore sociology at Harvard.

What is Sociology

Sociology is the study of human social relationships and institutions. Sociology subject matter is diverse, ranging from crime to religion, from the family to the state, from the divisions of race and social class to the shared beliefs of a common culture, and from social stability to radical change in whole societies. Unifying the study of these diverse subjects of study is sociology purpose of understanding how human action and consciousness both shape and are shaped by surrounding cultural and social structures.

Sociology is an exciting and illuminating field of study that analyzes and explains important matters in our personal lives, our communities, and the world. At the personal level, sociology investigates the social causes and consequences of such things as romantic love, racial and gender identity, family conflict, deviant behavior, aging, and religious faith. At the societal level, sociology examines and explains matters like crime and law, poverty and wealth, prejudice and discrimination, schools and education, business firms, urban community, and social movements. At the global level, sociology studies such phenomena as population growth and migration, war and peace, and economic development.

Sociologists emphasize the careful gathering and analysis of evidence about social life to develop and enrich our understanding of key social processes. The research methods sociologists use are varied. Sociologists observe the everyday life of groups, conduct large scale surveys, interpret historical documents, analyze census data, study videotaped interactions, interview participants of groups, and conduct laboratory experiments. The research methods and theories of sociology yield powerful insights into the social processes shaping human lives and social problems and prospects in the contemporary world. By better understanding those social processes, we also come to understand more clearly the forces shaping the personal experiences and outcomes of our own lives. The ability to see and understand this connection between broad social forces and personal experiences what C. Wright Mills called the sociological imagination is extremely valuable academic preparation for living effective and rewarding personal and professional lives in a changing and complex society.

Students who have been well trained in sociology know how to think critically about human social life, and how to ask important research questions. They know how to design good social research projects, carefully collect and analyze empirical data, and formulate and present their research findings. Students trained in sociology also know how to help others understand the way the social world works and how it might be changed for the better. Most generally, they have learned how to think, evaluate, and communicate clearly, creatively, and effectively. These are all abilities of tremendous value in a wide variety of vocational callings and professions.

Sociology offers a distinctive and enlightening way of seeing and understanding the social world in which we live and which shapes our lives. Sociology looks beyond normal, taken for granted views of reality, to provide deeper, more illuminating and challenging understandings of social life. Through its particular analytical perspective, social theories, and research methods, sociology is a discipline that expands our awareness and analysis of the human social relationships, cultures, and institutions that profoundly shape both our lives and human history.

Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior. Sociologists investigate the structure of groups, organizations, and societies, and how people interact within these contexts. Since all human behavior is social, the subject matter of sociology ranges from the intimate family to the hostile mob, from organized crime to religious cults, from the divisions of race, gender and social class to the shared beliefs of a common culture, and from the sociology of work to the sociology of sports. In fact, few fields have such broad scope and relevance for research, theory, and application of knowledge. 

Sociology provides many distinctive perspectives on the world, generating new ideas and critiquing the old. The field also offers a range of research techniques that can be applied to virtually any aspect of social life, street crime and delinquency, corporate downsizing, how people express emotions, welfare or education reform, how families differ and flourish, or problems of peace and war. Because sociology addresses the most challenging issues of our time, it is a rapidly expanding field whose potential is increasingly tapped by those who craft policies and create programs.

Definition of institution sociology

An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community. Institutions are identified with a social purpose and permanence, transcending individual human lives and intentions, and with the making and enforcing of rules governing cooperative human behavior.

In sociology, social institutions are human organizations, social institutions and their social interactions, Sociology definition, Social institutions are established or standardized patterns of rule governed behavior. Social institutions include religions, family marriage, economic institutions, education, health care and the government. Social institutions serve to maintain the power of the dominant class.

Social institutions tend to reinforce inequalities and uphold the power of dominant groups, emphasize divisions and conflicts within social institutions.

Definition of Sociology

Sociology which had once been treated as social philosophy, or the philosophy of the history, emerged as an independent social science in 19th century. Auguste Comte, a Frenchman, is traditionally considered to be the father of sociology. Comte is accredited with the coining of the term sociology. Sociology is composed of two words, socius, meaning companion or associate; and logos, meaning science or study. The etymological meaning of sociology is thus the science of society. John Stuart Mill, another social thinker and philosopher of the 19th century, proposed the word ethology for this new science. Herbert Spencer developed his systematic study of society and adopted the word sociology in his works. With the contributions of Spencer and others it became the permanent name of the new science.

          The question what is sociology is indeed, a question pertaining to the definition of sociology. No student can rightfully be expected to enter on a field of study which is totally undefined or unbounded. At the same time, it is not an easy task to set some fixed limits to a field of study. It is true in the case of sociology. Hence it is difficult to give a brief and a comprehensive definition of sociology.

         Sociology has been defined in a number of ways by different sociologists. No single definition has yet been accepted as completely satisfactory. In fact, there are lot of definitions of sociology as there are sociologists. For our purpose of study a few definitions may be cited here.

The systematic study of human society, especially present day societies. Sociologists study the organization, institutions, and development of societies, with a particular interest in identifying causes of the changing relationships among individuals and groups.

Auguste Comete, the founding father of sociology, defines sociology as the science of social phenomena subject to natural and invariable laws, the discovery of which is the object of investigation.

Kingsley Davis says that Sociology is a general science of society.

Harry M. Johnson opines that sociology is the science that deals with social groups.

Emile Durkheim Science of social institutions.

Park regards sociology as the science of collective behavior.

Small defines sociology as the science of social relationships.

Marshal Jones defines sociology as the study of man in relationship to men.

Ogburn and Nimkoff Sociology is the scientific study of social life.

Franklin Henry Giddings defines sociology as the science of social phenomena.

Henry Fairchild Sociology is the study of man and his human environment in their relations to each other.

Max Weber defines sociology as the science which attempts the interpretative understanding of social action in order thereby to arrive at a casual explanation of its course and effects.

Alex Inkeles says, Sociology is the study of systems of social action and of their inter relations.

Kimball Young and Raymond W. Mack say, Sociology is the scientific study of social aspects of human life.

Morris Ginsberg of the various definitions of sociology the one given by Morris Ginsberg seems to be more satisfactory and comprehensive. He defines sociology in the following way, in the broadest sense, sociology is the study of human interactions and inter relations, their conditions and consequences.

A careful examination of various definitions cited above, makes it evident that sociologists differ in their opinion about definition of sociology. Their divergent views about the definition of sociology only reveal their distinct approaches to its study. However, the common idea underlying all the definitions mentioned above is that sociology is concerned with man, his social relations and his society.

The science of society social institutions, and social relationships, specifically, the systematic study of the development, structure, interaction, and collective behavior of organized groups of human beings

The scientific analysis of a social institution as a functioning whole and as it relates to the rest of society.

Sociology Explanation

Science of society, social institutions, and social relationships, and specifically the systematic study of the development, structure, interaction, and collective behavior of organized human groups. It emerged at the end of the 19th century through the work of EMILE DURKHEIM in France, and MAX WEBER and GEORG SIMMEL in Germany, and ROBBERT E. PARK and Albion Small in the U.S. Sociologists use observational techniques, surveys and interviews, statistical analysis, controlled experiments, and other methods to study subjects such as the, ethnic relations, schooling, SOCIAL STATUS and CLASS, BUREAUCRACY, religious movements, deviance, the elderly, and social change.

Functionalism Sociology

Structural functionalism, or in many contexts simply functionalism, is a broad perspective in sociology and anthropology which sets out to interpret society as a structure with interrelated parts. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements, namely norms, customs, traditions and institutions. A common analogy, popularized by, presents these parts of society as organs that work toward the proper functioning of the body as a whole. In the most basic terms, it simply emphasises the effort to impute, as rigorously as possible, for, Talcott Parsons functionalism came to describe a particular stage in the methodological development of social science, rather than a specific school of thought.

The functionalist approach was implicit in the thought of the original sociological positive, Auguste Comte, who stressed the need for cohesion after the social of the French Revolution. It was later presented in the work of Emile Durkheim, who developed a full theory of organic solidarity, again informed by positivism, or the quest for social facts. Functionalism shares a history and theoretical affinity with the empirical method. Latter sociological functionalists such as Niklas Luhmann and Talcott Parsons, however, can be viewed as at least partially antipositivists.

Structural Functionalism

Structural functionalism, or simply functionalism, is a framework for building theory that sees society as a whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole, and believes that society has evolved like organisms. This approach looks at both and social functions. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements, namely. A common analogy, popularized by, presents these parts of society as organs that work toward the proper functioning of the body as a whole. In the most basic terms, it simply emphasizes the effort to impute, as rigorously as possible, to each feature, custom, or practice, its effect on the functioning of a supposedly stable, cohesive system. For, structural functionalism came to describe a particular stage in the methodological development of, rather than a specific school of thought. The structural functionalism approach is a analysis, with a broad focus on social structures that shape society as a whole.

Structural functionalism and unilineal descent

            In their attempt to explain the social stability of African primitive stateless societies where they undertook their fieldwork, and argued that the Tallensi and the Nuer were primarily organized around groups. Such groups are characterized by common purposes, such as administering property or defending against attacks; they form a permanent social structure that persists well beyond the lifespan of their members. In the case of the and the, these corporate groups were based on kinship which in turn fitted into the larger structures of unilineal descent, consequently Evans Pritchard and Fortes model is called descent theory. Moreover, in this African context territorial divisions were aligned with lineages, descent theory therefore synthesized both blood and soil as two sides of one coin. Affinal ties with the parent through whom descent is not reckoned, however, are considered to be merely complementary or secondary, with the reckoning of kinship through descent being considered the primary organizing force of social systems. Because of its strong emphasis on unilineal descent, this new kinship theory came to be called descent theory.

With no delay, descent theory had found its critics. Many African tribal societies seemed to fit this neat model rather well, although Africanists, such as, also argued that Fortes and Evans Pritchard had deliberately downplayed internal contradictions and overemphasized the stability of the local lineage systems and their significance for the organization of society. However, in many Asian settings the problems were even more obvious. In, the local patrilineal descent groups were fragmented and contained large amounts of non agnates. Status distinctions did not depend on descent, and genealogies were too short to account for social solidarity through identification with a common ancestor. In particular, the phenomenon of cognatic kinship posed a serious problem to the proposition that descent groups are the primary element behind the social structures of primitive societies.

Leach critique came in the form of the classical Malinowskian argument, pointing out that in Evans Pritchard studies of the Nuer and also in Fortes studies of the Tallensi unilineal descent turns out to be largely an ideal concept to which the empirical facts are only adapted by means of fictions. People self interest, manoeuvring, manipulation and competition had been ignored. Moreover, descent theory neglected the significance of marriage and affinal ties, which were emphasised by Levi Strauss, at the expense of overemphasising the role of descent. To quote Leach, The evident importance attached to matrilateral and affinal kinship connections is not so much explained as explained away.

What is importance Sociology

The study of sociology basically aims at examining the patterns of human activities, deriving their causes and contemplating the future of the behavioural patterns in the society. The study of sociology is necessary for understanding and planning of the society.