Sociology and Culture
Sociology (from Latin: socius, "companion"; and the suffix -ology, "the study of", from Greek λόγος, lógos, "knowledge") is the scientific or systematic study of society, including patterns of social relations, social stratification, social interaction, and culture.
• Areas studied in sociology range from the analysis of brief contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social interaction.
• Numerous fields within the discipline concentrate on how and why people are organized in society, either as individuals or as members of associations, groups, and institutions.
• Sociology is considered a branch of the social sciences.
• Sociological research provides educators, planners, lawmakers, administrators, developers, business leaders, and people interested in resolving social problems and formulating public policy with rationales for the actions that they take.History
• 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.
• There are evidence of early Greek (e.g. Xenophanes, Xenophon, Polybios) and Muslim sociological contributions, especially by Ibn Khaldun, whose Muqaddimah is viewed by some as the earliest work dedicated to sociology as a social science. Several other forerunners of sociology, from Giambattista Vico up to Karl Marx, are nowadays considered classical sociologists.
• 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 hope not only to understand what holds social groups together, but also to develop responses to social disintegration and exploitation.
• The term "sociologie" was first used in 1780 by the French essayist Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (1748-1836) in an unpublished manuscript.
• The term was used again and popularized by the French thinker Auguste Comte 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 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 positive sciences'. Thus, Comte has come to be viewed as the "Father of Sociology".Institutionalising sociology
• 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, 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.
• 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) [15] 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.Scope and topics of sociology
• Sociologists study society and social action by examining the groups and social institutions people form, as well as various social, religious, political, and business organizations.
• They also study the social interactions of people and groups, trace the origin and growth of social processes, and analyze the influence of group activities on individual members and vice versa.
• The results of sociological research aid educators, lawmakers, administrators, and others interested in resolving social problems, working for social justice and formulating public policy.
• Sociologists research macro-structures and processes that organize or affect society, such as, but not limited to, race or ethnicity, gender, globalization, and social class stratification.
• They study institutions such as the family and social processes that represent deviation from, or the breakdown of, social structures, including crime and divorce. And, they research micro-processes such as interpersonal interactions and the socialization of individuals.
• Sociologists are also concerned with the effect of social traits such as sex, age, or race on a person's daily life.
• 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.