Sociology

Sociology

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The term Sociology is derived from Latin socius, "companion" or "associate," and Greek lógos (λόγος), "word," with the modern conventional meaning: "the study of." Translated, this means "the study of companions or associates." Therefore, sociology by definition, is the scientific study of individual behavior in society. Though sociologists study both macro and micro aspects of sociology, neither can be divorced from the other when attempting to understand human behavior in society.

Sociology is a branch of social sciences. The study of sociology, is an examination of how individuals are influenced by groups. This is achieved using social scientific theories and methods, which may include Qualitative and or Quantitative research techniques.

The goals of sociology are:

1. to understand human behavior in the context of society

2. to generalize human behavior

3. to predict human behavior

Areas of concentration includes the examination of: social relations,social stratification, social interaction, culture, deviance, medical sociology and more.

The term "sociology" was coined in the 19th century by the French thinker Auguste Comte [1] in 1838. Comte had earlier used the term 'social physics,' but that term had been appropriated by others, notably Adolphe Quetelet. Comte hoped to unify: history, psychology and economics. Comte believed society passed through three(3) stages: Theological, Metaphysical, and Scientific to acquire knowledge, in which the latter is referred to as Logical Positivism or positive science), often simply called "positivism." Comte argued that if one could grasp this progress, one could prescribe the remedies for social ills.[2]

Comte has come to be viewed as the "Father of Sociology."[2] The camp of Logical Positivism, which was led by the Vienna Circle tended to adopt scientific methods in the realm of social sciences, while others believe human behavior is an interaction, which cannot be isolated as a physical event such as that in the physical sciences. From a sociological perspective, using a "positivistic" approach to understanding human behavior entails the use of strictly quantitative analysis techniques.

Contents

Main theoretical approaches

See: sociological paradigms, sociological perspective, sociological imagination

Sociologists subscribe to a theoretical approach(es) to analyzing and interpreting human behavior. A standard textbook approach to understanding the main theoretical tenets include:

Structural functionalism, is often referred to as "Functionalism" and is considered an objective means to understanding macro aspects of human behavior in the context of society.

Key Figures:

Social conflict, is often referred to as "Conflict Theory" or "Dialectical." This perspective is typically deemed as the leading theoretical perspective addressing macro aspects of sociology, namely inequality.

Key Figures:

Symbolic interactionalism, is often referred to as "Social Behaviorism," or "Pragmatism." As a predominantly micro theoretical perspective the concentration is on subjective experiences because it enables us to understand individual behaviors in the context of society. "Dramaturgical Analysis" is a sub field of Symbolic Interactionism, with reference to Erving Goffman. The focus of this theoretical orientation is subjective experiences of "everyday life."

Key Figures:

Feminism, can adopt either a macro or micro perspective to understanding human behavior, namely how gender impacts behavior giving rise to inequality. This perspective is impart rooted in the "Social Conflict" theory. Areas on concentration include: (the distribution of power and wealth in a society), gender(the power relations between sex), education(the process of socialization), work(industrial relations) and social class.

Key Figures:

Post-modernism, is also a theoretical perspective of sociology, though not often deemed a major perspective is nonetheless a significant field of study. An area of concentration of this orientation includes risk analysis, surveillance and issues of modernity.

Key Figures:

The field of sociology ranges from the analysis of brief social contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social interaction to understand how people interact. To accomplish this, sociologists examine the ‘social location’ of individuals and groups such as employment, gender, ethnicity, income, education, and social class.

Practical applications of sociology

Sociological research provide educators, planners, lawmakers, administrators, developers, business leaders, and people interested in resolving social problems and formulating public policy.

Historical roots of sociology

Main article: History of sociology
Auguste Comte

Sociology, including economic, political, and cultural systems, has origins in the common stock of human knowledge and philosophy. Social analysis has been carried out by scholars and philosophers at least as early as the time of Plato.

The term "sociology" was first used in 1780 by the French essayist Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (1748-1836) in an unpublished manuscript.[3].

Sociology later emerged as a scientific discipline in the early 19th century as an academic response to the challenges of modernity and modernization, such as industrialization and urbanization. Sociologists seek to understand what holds social groups together, but also to develop responses to social disintegration and exploitation, of which the latter is examined predominantly from a "social conflict" (Marxist) perspective.

Major key figures

"Classical" theorists of sociology from the late 19th and early 20th centuries include: Vilfredo Pareto, Ludwig Gumplowicz, Ferdinand Tönnies, Émile Durkheim, Herbert Spencer, Georg Simmel, Max Weber, and George Herbert Mead to name some. Like Comte, these figures did not consider themselves only "sociologists." Their works addressed religion, education, economics, law, psychology, ethics, philosophy and theology. Their theories have been applied in a variety of academic disciplines and beyond. Each key figure is typically associated with a particular theoretical perspective and orientation used to interpret and understand human behavior.

Other key significant figures include: Raymond Aron - Jean Baudrillard - Zygmunt Bauman - Howard Becker - Daniel Bell - Peter Berger - Peter Blau - Herbert Blumer - Pierre Bourdieu - Dieter Claessens - Randall Collins - Charles Horton Cooley - Lewis A. Coser - Ralf Dahrendorf - W. E. B. Dubois - Norbert Elias - Gilberto Freyre - Michel Foucault - Herbert Gans - Harold Garfinkel - Anthony Giddens - Erving Goffman - George Homans - Thomas Luckmann - Karl Mannheim - Marcel Mauss - George Herbert Mead - Robert K. Merton - Robert Michels - C. Wright Mills - Talcott Parsons - Adolphe Quetelet - Gabriel Tarde - W. I. Thomas - Thorstein Veblen - Immanuel Wallerstein.

Institutionalizing sociology as an educational academic discipline

The discipline was taught by its own name for the first time at the University of Kansas, Lawrence in 1890 by Frank Blackmar, under the course title Elements of Sociology. It remains the oldest continuing sociology course in the United States. The Department of History and Sociology at the University of Kansas was established in 1891 [4] [5], and the first full-fledged independent university. The 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.[6]

Émile Durkheim

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) [7] 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 Institut International de Sociologie, which was later eclipsed by the much larger International Sociological Association (ISA), founded in 1949.[8] In 1905, the American Sociological Association, the world's largest association of professional sociologists, was founded, and in 1909 the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (German Society for Sociology) was founded by Ferdinand Tönnies and Max Weber, among others.

Positivism and anti-positivism

Articles: Positivism, Sociological positivism, and Antipositivism.
Max Weber

Early theorists' approach to sociology, led by Comte, was to treat it in much the same manner as natural science, applying the same methods 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 such as philosophy. This methodological approach, called positivism, assumes that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method, namely a quantitative methodology.

One push away from positivism was philosophical and political in theory, such as in the dialectical materialism based on Marx' theories. A second push away from scientific positivism was cultural, becoming sociological. 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 inform 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 concentrates on humans' cultural values; symbols (the things which we attach meaning to as the basis of social life; and social processes from a subjective perspective. (See also: French Pragmatism).

Twentieth century developments

In the early 20th century, sociology expanded in the United States of America, including developments in both macrosociology interested in evolution of societies and microsociology. Based on the pragmatic social psychology of George Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer and others (later Chicago school) inspired sociologists developed symbolic interactionism. Refer to 'The Mead Project' Mead Project.

In Europe, in the Interwar period, sociology generally was both attacked by increasingly totalitarian governments and rejected by conservative universities. At the same time, originally in Austria and later in the U.S., Alfred Schütz developed social phenomenology (which would later inform social constructionism). Also, members of the Frankfurt school (most of whom moved to the U.S. to escape Nazi persecution) developed critical theory, integrating critical, idealistic and historical materialistic elements of the dialectical philosophies of Hegel and Marx with the insights of Freud, Max Weber (in theory, if not always in name) and others. In the 1930s in the U.S., Talcott Parsons developed structural-functional theory which integrated the study of social order and "objective" aspects of macro and micro structural factors.

Since World War II, sociology has been revived in Europe, although during the Stalin and Mao eras it was suppressed in the communist countries. In the mid-20th century, there was a general (but not universal) trend for US-American sociology to be more scientific in nature, due partly to the prominent influence at that time of structural functionalism. Sociologists developed new types of quantitative and qualitative research methods. In the second half of the 20th century, sociological research has been increasingly employed as a tool by governments and businesses. Parallel with the rise of various social movements in the 1960s, theories emphasizing social struggle, including conflict theory (which sought to counter structural functionalism) and neomarxist theories, began to receive more attention.

In the late 20th century, some sociologists embraced postmodern and poststructuralist philosophies. Increasingly, many sociologists have used qualitative and ethnographic methods and become critical of the positivism in some social scientific approaches. Much like cultural studies, some contemporary sociological studies have been influenced by the cultural changes of the 1960s, 20th century Continental philosophy, literary studies, and interpretivism. Others have maintained more objective empirical perspectives, such as by articulating neofunctionalism, social psychology, and rational choice theory. Others began to debate the nature of globalization and the changing nature of social institutions. These developments have led some to reconceptualize basic sociological categories and theories. For instance, inspired by the thought of Michel Foucault, power may be studied as dispersed throughout society in a wide variety of disciplinary cultural practices. In political sociology, the power of the nation state may be seen as transforming due to the globalization of trade (and cultural exchanges) and the expanding influence of international organizations (Nash 2000:1-4).

However, the positivist tradition is still alive and influential in sociology. In the U.S., the most commonly, including the American Journal of Sociology and American Sociological Review, primarily publish research in the positivist tradition. There is also a minor revival for a more independent, empirical sociology in the spirit of C Wright Mills, and his studies of the Power Elite in the USA, according to Stanley Aronowitz.

Social network analysis is an example of a new paradigm in this tradition, which can go beyond the traditional micro vs. macro or agency (individual) vs. structure debates. The influence of social network analysis is pervasive in many sociological sub fields such as economic sociology (see the work of J. Clyde Mitchell, Harrison White, or Mark Granovetter for example), organizational behavior, historical sociology, political sociology, or the sociology of education.

Sociological debates

Throughout the development of sociology, controversies have raged about how to emphasize or integrate concerns with subjectivity, objectivity, intersubjectivity and practicality in theory and research. The extent to which sociology may be characterized as a 'science' has remained an area of considerable debate, which has addressed basic ontological and epistemological philosophical questions. One outcome of such disputes has been the ongoing formation of multidimensional theories of society, such as the continuing development of various types of critical theory. Another outcome has been the formation of public sociology, which emphasizes the usefulness of sociological analysis to various social groups.

Scope and topics of sociology

Selected general topics: Discrimination, Deviance, social control, Migration, Power Elite , Social action, Social change, Social class, Social justice/injustice, Social order, Social status, Social stratification, Socialization, Society, Sociological imagination, Structure and agency, medical sociology, social institution,business organizations, social interactions, activities,race, ethnicity, gender, globalization, social class, structure, family, deviation, social problems, social justice, crime, divorce,

Sub fields of sociology

Social interactions and their pros and cons are studied in sociology.

Most sociologists work in one or more specialties, such as, but not limited to, social stratification, social organization, and social mobility; ethnic and race relations; education; family; social psychology; urban, rural, political, and comparative sociology; sex roles and relationships; demography; gerontology; criminology; and sociological practice. In short, sociologists study the many dimensions of society.

Although sociology was informed by Comte's conviction that sociology would sit at the apex of all the sciences, sociology today is identified as one of many social sciences (such as anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, etc.). At times, sociology does integrate the insights of various disciplines, as do other social sciences. Initially, the discipline was concerned particularly with the organization of complex industrial societies. In the past, anthropology had methods that would have helped to study cultural issues in a "more acute" way than sociologists.[9] Recent sociologists, taking cues from anthropologists, have noted the "Western emphasis" of the field. In response, sociology departments around the world are encouraging the study of many cultures and multi-national studies. A good starting reference is Raymond Aron Main Currents in Sociological Thought Vol 1 & 2

Sociological research methods

Methods of sociological inquiry varies. The type of methodology used in research in sociology is predicated upon the theoretical orientation of the researcher(s). Data analysis of the research results may be analyzed either qualitatively and or quantitatively.

The proceeding list of research methods is neither exclusive nor exhaustive. Researchers may adopt one or more than one type of research methodology for a research project. Types of research methods include the following:

The choice of a method in part often depends on the researcher's epistemological approach to research as well as the researchers theoretical perspective. For example, researchers who are concerned with statistical generalizability to a population will most likely administer structured interviews with a survey questionnaire to a carefully selected probability sample population. By contrast, sociologists, especially ethnographers, who are more interested in having a full contextual understanding of group members lives will choose participant observation, observation, and open-ended interviews. Many studies combine several of these methodologies. Adopting three (3) methodologies is referred to as "Triangulation."

As is the case in most disciplines, sociologists are often divided into distinctive camps of support for particular research methodologies. This is based upon the researcher(s) theoretical orientation.

Combining research methods

In practice, some sociologists combine different research methods and approaches, since different methods produce different types of findings that correspond to different aspects of societies. For example, quantitative methods may help describe social patterns, while qualitative approaches could help to understand how individuals understand those patterns. Though, this does not mean that a qualitative approach can not identify or define patterns of behavior. Nonetheless, the method of analysis of the data obtained from a research methodology may be either qualitative, quantitative or both.

An example of using multiple types of research methods, namely three (3) for one research project is called "triangulation," such as a study of the Internet. The Internet is of interest for sociologists in various ways: as a tool for research, for example, in using online questionnaires instead of paper ones, as a discussion platform, and as a research topic. Sociology of the Internet in the last sense includes analysis of online communities (e.g. as found in newsgroups), virtual communities and virtual worlds, organizational change catalyzed through new media like the Internet, and social change at-large in the transformation from industrial to informational society (or to information society). Online communities can be studied statistically through network analysis and at the same time interpreted qualitatively, such as though virtual ethnography. Social change can be studied through statistical demographics or through the interpretation of changing messages and symbols in online media studies.

Sociological research data analysis

Main article: social research

The basic goal of sociological research is to understand the social world in its many forms. Quantitative methods and qualitative methods are two main types of sociological research methods. Sociologists often use quantitative methods -- such as social statistics or network analysis to investigate the structure of a social process or describe patterns in social relationships. Sociologists also often use qualitative methods such as focused interviews, group discussions and ethnographic methods to investigate social processes. Sociologists also use applied research methods such as evaluation research and assessment.

Sociology and other social sciences

Sociology shares deep ties with a wide array of other disciplines that also deal with the study of society. The fields of economics, psychology, political science and anthropology have influenced and have been influenced by sociology and these fields share a great amount of history and common research interests. social Psychology within sociology has historically been referred to as "sociological social psychology." One of the founders of social psychology, particularly as we understand it today is Muzafer Sherif and "Carolyn Wood Sherif" known for their work on "The Robbers Cave Experiment," and who wrote several editions of "An Outline of Social Psychology."

Today, sociology and other social sciences are better contrasted according to methodology rather than by objects of study. Additionally, unlike sociology, psychology and anthropology have forensic components that deal with anatomy and other types of laboratory research.

Sociobiology, is the study of how social behavior and organization has been influenced by evolution and other biological processes. The field blends sociology with a number other sciences, such as anthropology, biology, zoology, and others. Although the field once rapidly gained acceptance, it has remained highly controversial within the sociological academy. Sociologists often criticize the study for depending too greatly on the effects of genes in defining behavior. Sociologists often respond by citing a complex relationship between nature and nurture.

Sociology is also widely used in management science, especially in the field of organizational behavior as well as in the helping fields such as social work.

See also

Related theories, methods and fields of inquiry

  • Socio-economics
  • Sociological imagination
  • Sociophysiology
  • Statistical survey

Lists

Main lists: List of basic sociology topics and List of sociology topics
  • Sub fields of sociology
  • Timeline of sociology
  • List of sociologists
  • List of scientific journals in sociology
  • List of important publications in sociology

Footnotes

  1. ↑ A Dictionary of Sociology, Article: Comte, Auguste
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Dictionary of the Social Sciences, Article: Comte, Auguste
  3. ↑ Des Manuscrits de Sieyès. 1773-1799, Volumes I and II, published by Christine Fauré, Jacques Guilhaumou, Jacques Vallier et Françoise Weil, Paris, Champion, 1999 and 2007 See also Christine Fauré and Jacques Guilhaumou, Sieyès et le non-dit de la sociologie : du mot à la chose, in Revue d’histoire des sciences humaines, Numéro 15, novembre 2006: Naissances de la science sociale; see also the article 'sociologie' in the French-language Wikipedia.
  4. ↑ http://www.ku.edu/%7Esocdept/about/ University of Kansas Sociology Department Webpage
  5. ↑ http://www.news.ku.edu/2005/June/June15/sociology.shtml University of Kansas News Story
  6. ↑ http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJS/home.html American Journal of Sociology Website
  7. ↑ http://www.lse.ac.uk/serials/Bjs/ British Journal of Sociology Website
  8. ↑ http://www.isa-sociology.org/ International Sociological Association Website
  9. ↑ *Marc Abélès, How the Anthropology of France Has Changed Anthropology in France: Assessing New Directions in the Field Cultural Anthropology 1999 p. 407

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