History
[edit]Origins
The word
sociology (or
"sociologie") is derived from the
Latin:
socius, "companion";
-ology, "the study of", and
Greek λόγος,
lógos, "word", "knowledge". It was first coined in 1780 by the French essayist
Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès (1748–1836) in an unpublished
manuscript.
[15] Sociology was later defined independently by the French
philosopher of science,
Auguste Comte (1798–1857), in 1838.
[16] Comte had earlier used the term "social physics", but that had subsequently been appropriated by others, most notably the Belgian statistician
Adolphe Quetelet. Comte endeavoured to unify history, psychology and economics through the scientific understanding of the social realm. Writing shortly after the malaise of the
French Revolution, he proposed that social ills could be remedied through sociological
positivism, an epistemological approach outlined in
The Course in Positive Philosophy [1830–1842] and
A General View of Positivism (1848). Comte believed a
positivist stagewould mark the final era, after conjectural
theological and
metaphysical phases, in the progression of human understanding.
[17] In observing the circular dependence of theory and observation in science, and having classified the sciences, Comte may be regarded as the first
philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term.
[18]Comte gave a powerful impetus to the development of sociology, an impetus which bore fruit in the later decades of the nineteenth century. To say this is certainly not to claim that French sociologists such as
Durkheim were devoted disciples of the high priest of positivism. But by insisting on the irreducibility of each of his basic sciences to the particular science of sciences which it presupposed in the hierarchy and by emphasising the nature of sociology as the scientific study of social phenomena Comte put sociology on the map. To be sure, [its] beginnings can be traced back well beyond
Montesquieu, for example, and to
Condorcet, not to speak of
Saint-Simon, Comte's immediate precessor. But Comte's clear recognition of sociology as a particular science, with a character of its own, justified Durkheim in regarding him as the father or founder of this science, in spite of the fact that Durkheim did not accept the idea of the three states and criticised Comte's approach to sociology.
Both Comte and
Karl Marx (1818–1883) set out to develop scientifically justified systems in the wake of European
industrialisation and
secularisation, informed by various key movements in the
philosophies of history and science. Marx rejected Comtean positivism but in attempting to develop a
science of society nevertheless came to be recognized as a founder of sociology as the word gained wider meaning. For
Isaiah Berlin, Marx may be regarded as the "true father" of modern sociology, "in so far as anyone can claim the title."
[20]To have given clear and unified answers in familiar empirical terms to those theoretical questions which most occupied men's minds at the time, and to have deduced from them clear practical directives without creating obviously articifial links between the two, was the principle achievement of Marx's theory ... The sociological treatment of historical and moral problems, which Comte and after him,
Spencer and
Taine, had discussed and mapped, became a precise and concrete study only when the attack of militant Marxism made its conclusions a burning issue, and so made the search for evidence more zealous and the attention to method more intense.
Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was one of the most popular and influential 19th century sociologists. It is estimated that he sold one million books in his lifetime, far more than any other sociologist at the time. So strong was his influence that many other 19th century thinkers, including
Émile Durkheim, defined their ideas in relation to his. Durkheim’s
Division of Labour in Society is to a large extent an extended debate with Spencer from whose sociology, many commentators now agree, Durkheim borrowed extensively.
[22] Also a notable
biologist, Spencer coined the term "
survival of the fittest". Whilst Marxian ideas defined one strand of sociology, Spencer was a critic of socialism as well as strong advocate for a
laissez-faire style of government. His ideas were highly observed by conservative political circles, especially in the United States and England.
[23] [edit]Foundations of the academic discipline
Formal academic sociology was established by Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), who developed positivism as a foundation to practical
social research. While Durkheim rejected much of the detail of Comte's 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.
[24] Durkheim set up the first European department of sociology at the
University of Bordeaux in 1895, publishing his
Rules of the Sociological Method (1895).
[25] For Durkheim, sociology could be described as the "science of
institutions, their genesis and their functioning".
[26]Durkheim's seminal monograph,
Suicide (1897), a case study of suicide rates amongst
Catholic and
Protestant populations, distinguished sociological analysis from
psychology or philosophy. It also marked a major contribution to the theoretical concept of
structural functionalism. 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 (as opposed to individual or
psychological) causes. He developed the notion of objective
suis generis "social facts" to delineate a unique empirical object for the science of sociology to study.
[24] 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
anomie".
Sociology quickly evolved as an academic response to the perceived challenges of
modernity, such as
industrialization,
urbanization,
secularization, and the process of "
rationalization".
[27] The field predominated in
continental Europe, with British
anthropology and
statistics generally following on a separate trajectory. By the turn of the 20th century, however, many theorists were active in the
Anglo-Saxon world. Few early sociologists were confined strictly to the subject, interacting also with
economics,
jurisprudence, psychology and
philosophy, with theories being appropriated in a variety of different fields. Since its inception, sociological epistemologies, methods, and frames of enquiry, have significantly expanded and diverged.
[4]Durkheim, Marx, and the German theorist
Max Weber are typically cited as the three principal architects of social science.
[28] Herbert Spencer,
William Graham Sumner,
Lester F. Ward,
Vilfredo Pareto,
Alexis de Tocqueville,
Werner Sombart,
Thorstein Veblen,
Ferdinand Tönnies,
Georg Simmel and
Karl Mannheim are occasionally included on academic curricula as founding theorists. Each key figure is associated with a particular theoretical perspective and orientation.
[29]Marx and Engels associated the emergence of modern society above all with the development of capitalism; for Durkheim it was connected in particular with industrialization and the new social division of labour which this brought about; for Weber it had to do with the emergence of a distinctive way of thinking, the rational calculation which he associated with the Protestant Ethic (more or less what Marx and Engels speak of in terms of those 'icy waves of egotistical calculation'). Together the works of these great classical sociologists suggest what Giddens has recently described as 'a multidimensional view of institutions of modernity' and which emphasizes not only capitalism and industrialism as key institutions of modernity, but also 'surveillance' (meaning 'control of information and social supervision') and 'military power' (control of the means of violence in the context of the industrialization of war).
—
John Harriss The Second Great Transformation? Capitalism at the End of the Twentieth Century 1992, [29]
[edit]Other developments
The first college course entitled "Sociology" was taught in the United States at
Yale in 1875 by
William Graham Sumner.
[30] In 1883
Lester F. Ward, the first president of the American Sociological Association, published
Dynamic Sociology—Or Applied social science as based upon statical sociology and the less complex sciencesand attacked the laissez-faire sociology of
Herbert Spencer and Sumner.
[23] Ward's 1200 page book was used as core material in many early American sociology courses. In 1890, the oldest continuing American course in the modern tradition began at the
University of Kansas, lectured by
Frank W. Blackmar.
[31] The Department of Sociology at the
University of Chicago was established in 1892 by
Albion Small, who also published the first sociology textbook: An introduction to the study of society 1894.
[32] George Herbert Mead and
Charles Cooley, who had met at the
University of Michigan in 1891 (along with
John Dewey), would move to Chicago in 1894.
[33] Their influence gave rise to
social psychology and the
symbolic interactionism of the modern
Chicago School.
[34] The
American Journal of Sociology was founded in 1895, followed by the
American Sociological Association (ASA) in 1905.
[32] The sociological "canon of classics" with Durkheim and
Max Weber at the top owes in part to
Talcott Parsons, who is largely credited with introducing both to American audiences.
[35] Parsons consolidated the sociological tradition and set the agenda for American sociology at the point of its fastest disciplinary growth. Sociology in the United States was less historically influenced by
Marxism than its European counterpart, and to this day broadly remains more statistical in its approach.
[36][edit]Positivism and anti-positivism
[edit]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 method 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.
"Our main goal is to extend scientific rationalism to human conduct... What has been called our positivism is but a consequence of this rationalism."
The term has long since ceased to carry this meaning; there are no fewer than twelve distinct epistemologies that are referred to as positivism.
[24][44] 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
[24] by being mistakenly linked with atheoretical
empiricism. The extent of antipositivist criticism has also diverged, with many rejecting the scientifically driven social epistemology 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.
[24]Loic Wacquant distinguishes three major strains of positivism:
Durkheimian, Logical and Instrumental.
[24] None of these are the same as that set forth by Comte, who was unique amongst sociologists in advocating a formulation with such a restrictive epistemology and grandiose teleology.
[45][46] While Émile Durkheim rejected much of the detail of Comte's 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.
[24] He developed the notion of objective
sui generis "social facts" to delineate a unique empirical object for the science of sociology to study.
[24] 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 debates concerning clarity,
replicability,
reliability and
validity.
[47] This positivism is more or less synonymous with
quantitative research, and thus only resembles older positivist stances in practice: since it carries no explicit philosophical commitment, its practitioners may have any of a variety of viewpoints, including
postpositivism and
antipositivism. The institutionalization of this kind of sociology is often credited to
Paul Lazarsfeld,
[24] who pioneered large-scale survey studies and developed statistical techniques for analyzing them. This approach lends itself to what
Robert K. Merton called
middle-range theory: abstract statements that generalize from segregated hypotheses and empirical regularities rather than starting with an abstract idea of a social whole.
[48][edit]Antipositivism
Main article:
AntipositivismReactions against social empiricism began when German philosopher
Hegel voiced opposition to both empiricism, which he rejected as uncritical, and determinism, which he viewed as overly mechanistic.
[49] Karl Marx's methodology borrowed from
Hegelian dialecticism but also a rejection of positivism in favour of critical analysis, seeking to supplement the empirical acquisition of "facts" with the elimination of illusions.
[50] He maintained that appearances need to be critiqued rather than simply documented. Early hermeneuticians such as
Wilhelm Dilthey pioneered the distinction between natural and social science ('
Geisteswissenschaft'). Various
neo-Kantian philosophers,
phenomenologists and
human scientists further theorized how the analysis of the
social world differs to that of the
natural world due to the irreducibly complex aspects of human society,
culture, and
being.
[51]At the turn of the 20th century the first generation of German sociologists formally introduced methodological
antipositivism, proposing that research should concentrate on human cultural
norms,
values,
symbols, and social processes viewed from a resolutely
subjective perspective.
Max Weber argued that sociology may be loosely described as a science as it is able to identify
causal relationships of human "
social action"—especially among "
ideal types", or hypothetical simplifications of complex social phenomena.
[52] As a nonpositivist, however, Weber sought relationships that are not as "ahistorical, invariant, or generalizable"
[53] as those pursued by natural scientists. Fellow German sociologist,
Ferdinand Tönnies, theorized on two crucial abstract concepts with his work on "
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft" (lit.
community and
society). Tönnies 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 ("pure sociology"), whereas the second empirically and inductively ("applied sociology").
[54][Sociology is ] ... the science whose object is to interpret the meaning of social action and thereby give a causal explanation of the way in which the action proceeds and the effects which it produces. By 'action' in this definition is meant the human behaviour when and to the extent that the agent or agents see it as subjectively meaningful ... the meaning to which we refer may be either (a) the meaning actually intended either by an individual agent on a particular historical occasion or by a number of agents on an approximate average in a given set of cases, or (b) the meaning attributed to the agent or agents, as types, in a pure type constructed in the abstract. In neither case is the 'meaning' to be thought of as somehow objectively 'correct' or 'true' by some metaphysical criterion. This is the difference between the empirical sciences of action, such as sociology and history, and any kind of priori discipline, such as jurisprudence, logic, ethics, or aesthetics whose aim is to extract from their subject-matter 'correct' or 'valid' meaning.
Both Weber and
Georg Simmel pioneered the "
Verstehen" (or 'interpretative') method in social science; a systematic process by which an outside observer attempts to relate to a particular cultural group, or indigenous people, on their own terms and from their own point-of-view.
[56] Through the work of Simmel, in particular, sociology acquired a possible character beyond positivist data-collection or grand, deterministic systems of structural law. Relatively isolated from the sociological academy throughout his lifetime, Simmel presented idiosyncratic analyses of modernity more reminiscent of the
phenomenological and
existential writers than of Comte or Durkheim, paying particular concern to the forms of, and possibilities for, social individuality.
[57] His sociology engaged in a neo-Kantian enquiry into the limits of perception, asking 'What is society?' in a direct allusion to Kant's question 'What is nature?'
[58]The deepest problems of modern life flow from the attempt of the individual to maintain the independence and individuality of his existence against the sovereign powers of society, against the weight of the historical heritage and the external culture and technique of life. The antagonism represents the most modern form of the conflict which primitive man must carry on with nature for his own bodily existence. The eighteenth century may have called for liberation from all the ties which grew up historically in politics, in religion, in morality and in economics in order to permit the original natural virtue of man, which is equal in everyone, to develop without inhibition; the nineteenth century may have sought to promote, in addition to man's freedom, his individuality (which is connected with the division of labor) and his achievements which make him unique and indispensable but which at the same time make him so much the more dependent on the complementary activity of others; Nietzsche may have seen the relentless struggle of the individual as the prerequisite for his full development, while socialism found the same thing in the suppression of all competition – but in each of these the same fundamental motive was at work, namely the resistance of the individual to being levelled, swallowed up in the social-technological mechanism.
[edit]Theoretical frameworks
The contemporary discipline of sociology is theoretically multi-paradigmatic.
[60] Modern sociological theory descends from the historical foundations of functionalist (Durkheim) and conflict-centered (Marx) accounts of social structure, as well as the micro-scale structural (
Simmel) and
pragmatist (
Mead) theories of social interaction. Contemporary sociological theory retains traces of these approaches.
Presently, sociological theories lack a single overarching foundation, and there is little consensus about what such a framework should consist of.
[60] However, a number of broad paradigms cover much present sociological theorizing. In the humanistic parts of the discipline, these paradigms are referred to as
social theory, and are often shared with the humanities. The discipline's dominant scientifically-orientated areas generally focus on a different set of theoretical perspectives, which by contrast are generally referred to as
sociological theory. These include
new institutionalism,
social networks,
social identity,
social and
cultural capital, toolkit and
cognitive theories of
culture, and
resource mobilization.
Analytical sociology is an ongoing effort to systematize many of these
middle-range theories.
[edit]Functionalism
A broad historical paradigm in both 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 (popularized by
Herbert Spencer) is to regard
norms and
institutions as 'organs' that work toward the proper-functioning of the entire 'body' of society.
[61] 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
Marcel Mauss,
Bronisław Malinowski and
Radcliffe-Brown. It is in Radcliffe-Brown's specific usage that the prefix 'structural' emerged.
[62] Classical functionalist theory is generally united by its tendency towards biological analogy and notions of
social evolutionism. As
Giddens 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 analysing processes of evolution via mechanisms of adaptation ... functionalism strongly emphasises the pre-eminence of the social world over its individual parts (i.e. its constituent actors, human subjects)."
[63][edit]Conflict theory
Functionalism aims only toward a general perspective from which to conduct social science. Methodologically, its principles generally contrast those approaches that emphasise 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:
To aim for a civilization beyond that made possible by the nexus of the surrounding environment will result in unloosing sickness into the very society we live in. Collective activity cannot be encouraged beyond the point set by the condition of the social organism without undermining health.
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.
[edit]20th-century social theory
The functionalist movement reached its crescendo in the 1940s and 1950s, and by the 1960s was in rapid decline.
[66] By the 1980s, functionalism in Europe had broadly been replaced by
conflict-oriented approaches.
[67] While some of the critical approaches also gained popularity in the United States, the mainstream of the discipline instead shifted to a variety of empirically-oriented
middle-range theories with no single overarching theoretical orientation. To many in the discipline, functionalism is now considered "as dead as a dodo."
[68]As the influence of both functionalism and Marxism in the 1960s began to wane, the
linguistic and
cultural turns led to myriad new movements in the social sciences: "According to Giddens, the orthodox consensus terminated in the late 1960s and 1970s as the middle ground shared by otherwise competing perspectives gave way and was replaced by a baffling variety of competing perspectives. This third 'generation' of social theory includes phenomenologically inspired approaches, critical theory, ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism, structuralism, post-structuralism, and theories written in the tradition of hermeneutics and ordinary language philosophy."
[69]The
structuralist movement originated from the
linguistic theory of
Ferdinand de Saussure and was later expanded to the social sciences by theorists such
Claude Lévi-Strauss. In this context, 'structure' refers not to 'social structure' but to the
semiotic understanding of human culture as a
system of signs. One may delineate four central tenets of structuralism: First, structure is what determines the structure of a whole. Second, structuralists believe that every system has a structure. Third, structuralists are interested in 'structural' laws that deal with coexistence rather than changes. Finally, structures are the 'real things' beneath the surface or the appearance of meaning.
[70][edit]Structure and agency
Structure and agency forms an enduring ontological debate in social theory: "Do social structures determine an individual's behaviour or does human agency?" In this context '
agency' refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and make free choices, whereas '
structure' refers 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 and agency relate to the core of sociological epistemology ("What is the social world made of?", "What is a cause in the social world, and what is an effect?").
[74] A general outcome of incredulity toward structural or agential thought has been the development of multidimensional theories, most notably the
action theory of
Talcott Parsons and
Anthony Giddens's
theory of structuration.
[edit]Research methodology
Sociological research methods may be divided into two broad categories:
- 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
theory and data.
[75] Quantitative methodologies hold the dominant position in sociology, especially in the United States.
[24] In the discipline's two most cited journals, quantitative articles have historically outnumbered qualitative ones by a factor of two.
[76] (Most articles published in the largest British journal, on the other hand, are
qualitative.) Most textbooks on the methodology of social research are written from the quantitative perspective,
[77] and the very term "methodology" is often used synonymously with "
statistics." 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,
[78] though this judgment continues to be challenged by antipositivists.
[78]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
survey questionnaire to a representative sample population. By contrast, a researcher who seeks full contextual understanding of an individuals'
social actions may choose ethnographic
participant observation or open-ended interviews. Studies will commonly combine, or
'triangulate', 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.
[75][edit]Sampling
[edit]Methods
The following list of research methods is neither exclusive nor exhaustive:
- 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 analysed. Often data is 'coded' as a part of the 'grounded theory' approach using qualitative data analysis (QDA) software, such as NVivo.[79]
- Experimental research: The researcher isolates a single social process and reproduces it in a laboratory (for example, by creating a situation where unconscious sexist judgments are possible), seeking to determine whether or not certain social variables can cause, or depend upon, other variables (for instance, seeing if people's feelings about traditional gender roles can be manipulated by the activation of contrasting gender stereotypes).[80] Participants arerandomly 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 (such as a community or a place of work), 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.
[edit]Computational sociology
A
social network diagram consisting of individuals (or 'nodes') connected by one or more specific types of interdependency.
Sociologists increasingly draw upon computationally intensive methods to analyze and model social phenomena.
[81] Using
computer simulations,
artificial intelligence, complex statistical methods, and new analytic approaches like
social network analysis, computational sociology develops and tests theories of complex social processes through bottom-up modeling of social interactions.
[82] 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.
[83][84] 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.
[85] Social complexity concepts such as
complex systems,
non-linear interconnection among macro and micro process, and
emergence, have entered the vocabulary of computational sociology.
[86] 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.
[87][88][edit]Practical applications of social research
Social research informs
politicians and
policy makers,
educators,
planners,
lawmakers,
administrators,
developers,
business magnates, managers,
social workers,
non-governmental organizations,
non-profit organizations, and people interested in resolving
social issues in general. There is often a great deal of crossover between social research,
market research, and other statistical fields.
[edit]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 like family, education, politics, religion, economy, and so on 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.
[edit]Scope and topics
[edit]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".
[57]Whilst early theorists such as
Durkheim and
Mauss were influential in
cultural anthropology, sociologists of culture are generally distinguished by their concern for modern (rather than primitive or ancient) 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
Theodor W. Adorno,
Walter Benjamin, and other members of the
Frankfurt School. Loosely distinct to sociology is the field of
cultural studies.
Birmingham School theorists such as
Richard Hoggart and
Stuart 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 a
subculture (such as white working class youth in London) would consider the social practices of the group as they relate to the dominant class. The "
cultural turn" of the 1960s ushered in
structuralist and so-called
postmodern approaches to social science.
[edit]Criminality, deviance, law and punishment
Criminologists analyse the nature, causes, and control of criminal activity, drawing upon methods across sociology,
psychology, and the
behavioural sciences. The sociology of deviance focuses on actions or behaviors that violate
norms, including both formally enacted rules (e.g.,
crime) and informal violations of cultural norms. It is the remit of sociologists to study why these norms exist; how they change over time; and how they are enforced. The concept of deviance is central in contemporary structural functionalism and systems theory.
Robert K. Merton produced a
typology of deviance, and also established the terms "
role model", "
unintended consequences", and "
self-fulfilling prophecy".
[89]The study of law played a significant role in the formation of classical sociology. Durkheim famously described law as the "visible symbol" of social solidarity.
[90] The sociology of law refers to both a sub-discipline of sociology and an approach within the field of legal studies. Sociology of law is a diverse field of study which examines the interaction of law with other aspects of society, such as the development of legal
institutions and the effect of laws on social change and vice versa. For example, an influential recent work in the field relies on statistical analyses to argue that the increase in incarceration in the US over the last 30 years is due to changes in law and policing and not to an increase in crime; and that this increase significantly contributes to maintaining racial
stratification.
[91][edit]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.
[92] Economic sociology arose as a new approach to the analysis of economic phenomena, emphasising class relations and
modernity as a philosophical concept. The relationship between
capitalism and
modernity is a salient issue, perhaps best demonstrated in Weber's
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) and Simmel's
The Philosophy of Money (1900). 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
embeddedness, which states that economic relations between individuals or firms take place within existing social relations (and are thus structured by these relations as well as the greater social structures of which those relations are a part).
Social network analysis has been the primary methodology for studying this phenomenon. Granovetter's theory of the
strength of weak ties and
Ronald Burt's concept of structural holes are two best known theoretical contributions of this field.
[edit]Environment
Environmental sociology is the study of societal-environmental interactions, typically placing emphasis on the social factors that cause environmental problems, the impacts of these problems on society, and the efforts to resolve them. Attention is also paid to the processes by which environmental conditions become defined and known to a society.
[edit]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.
[93] 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 (
i.e. per pupil spending).
[94] 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
desegregation busing in American public schools.
[edit]Family, gender, and sexuality
Family, gender and sexuality form a broad area of inquiry studied in many subfields of sociology. The sociology of the family examines the family, as an
institution and unit of
socialisation, with special concern for the comparatively modern historical emergence of the
nuclear family and its distinct
gender roles. The notion of "
childhood" is also significant. As one of the more basic institutions to which one may apply sociological perspectives, the sociology of the family is a common component on introductory academic curricula.
Feminist sociology, on the other hand, is a normative subfield that observes and critiques the cultural categories of gender and sexuality, particularly with respect to power and inequality. The primary concern of feminist theory is the
patriarchy and the systematic oppression of women apparent in many societies, both at the level of small-scale interaction and in terms of the broader social structure.
Social psychology of gender, on the other hand, uses experimental methods to uncover the microprocesses of gender stratification. For example, one recent study has shown that resume evaluators penalize women for motherhood while giving a boost to men for fatherhood.
[95] Another set of experiments showed that men whose sexuality is questioned compensate by expressing a greater desire for military intervention and sport utility vehicles as well as a greater opposition to gay marriage.
[96][edit]Health and illness
The sociology of health and illness focuses on the social effects of, and public attitudes toward,
illnesses,
diseases,
disabilities and the
ageing process. Medical sociology, by contrast, focuses on the inner-workings of medical organizations and clinical institutions. In Britain, sociology was introduced into the medical curriculum following the Goodenough Report (1944).
[97][edit]Internet
[edit]Knowledge and science
The sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social context within which it arises, and of the effects prevailing ideas have on societies. The term first came into widespread use in the 1920s, when a number of German-speaking theorists, most notably
Max Scheler, and
Karl Mannheim, wrote extensively on it. With the dominance of
functionalismthrough the middle years of the 20th century, the sociology of knowledge tended to remain on the periphery of mainstream sociological thought. It was largely reinvented and applied much more closely to everyday life in the 1960s, particularly by
Peter L. Berger and
Thomas Luckmann in
The Social Construction of Reality (1966) and is still central for methods dealing with qualitative understanding of human society (compare
socially constructed reality). The "archaeological" and "genealogical" studies of
Michel Foucault are of considerable contemporary influence.
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."
[100] 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.
Main article:
Media studiesAs with
cultural studies, media studies is a distinct discipline which owes to the convergence of sociology and other social sciences and humanities, in particular,
literary criticism and
critical theory. Though the production process or the critique of aesthetic forms is not in the remit of sociologists, analyses of
socialising factors, such as
ideological effects and
audience reception, stem from sociological theory and method. Thus the 'sociology of the media' is not a subdiscipline
per se, but the media is a common and often-indispensable topic.
[edit]Military
Military sociology aims toward the systematic study of the military as a social group rather than as an
organization. It is a highly specialized subfield which examines issues related to service personnel as a distinct
group with coerced
collective action based on shared
interests linked to survival in
vocation and
combat, with purposes and
values that are more defined and narrow than within civil society. Military sociology also concerns
civilian-military relations and interactions between other groups or governmental agencies. Topics include the dominant assumptions held by those in the military, changes in military members' willingness to fight, military unionization, military professionalism, the increased utilization of women, the military industrial-academic complex, the military's dependence on research, and the institutional and organizational structure of military.
[101][edit]Political sociology
Historically political sociology concerned the relations between political organization and society. A typical research question in this area might be: "Why do so few American citizens choose to vote?"
[102] 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 sociolgy 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,.
[103]Contemporary political sociology includes these areas of research, but it has been opened up to wider questions of power and politics.
[104] 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.
[105][edit]Race and ethnic relations
[edit]Religion
[edit]Social networks
Main article:
Social networkA social network is a
social structure composed of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes", which are tied (connected) 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 nonlocal
communities to networks of exchange. Rather than treating individuals (persons, organizations, states) 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.
[edit]Social psychology
Sociological social psychology focuses on micro-scale
social actions. 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.
[108] 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, group dynamics, prejudice, aggression, social perception, group behavior, social change, nonverbal behavior, socialization, conformity, leadership, and social identity. Social psychology may be taught with
psychological emphasis.
[109] In sociology, researchers in this field are the most prominent users of the
experimental method (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.
[109][edit]Stratification
Social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of individuals into social classes,
castes, and divisions within a society. In modern
Western societies stratification traditionally relates to cultural and economic classes arranged in three main layers:
upper class,
middle class, and
lower class, but each class may be further subdivided into smaller classes (e.g.
occupational).
[110] Social stratification is interpreted in radically different ways within sociology. Proponents of
structural functionalism suggest that, since the stratification of classes and castes is evident in all societies, hierarchy must be beneficial in stabilizing their existence.
Conflict theorists, by contrast, critique the inaccessibility of resources and lack of
social mobility in stratified societies.
[edit]Urban and rural sociology
Urban sociology involves the analysis of social life and human interaction in metropolitan areas. It is a
normative discipline, seeking to provide advice for planning and policy making. After the
industrial revolution, works such as
Georg Simmel's
The Metropolis and Mental Life (1903) focused on urbanization and the effect it had on alienation and anonymity. In the 1920s and 1930s The
Chicago Schoolproduced a major body of theory on the nature of the city, important to both urban sociology and criminology, utilising
symbolic interactionism as a method of field research. Contemporary research is commonly placed in a context of
globalization, for instance, in
Saskia Sassen's study of the "
Global city".
[113] Rural sociology, by contrast, is the analysis of non-metropolitan areas.
[edit]Work and industry
The sociology of work, or industrial sociology, examines "the direction and implications of trends in
technological change,
globalization, labour markets, work organization,
managerial practices and
employment relations to the extent to which these trends are intimately related to changing patterns of inequality in modern societies and to the changing experiences of individuals and families the ways in which workers challenge, resist and make their own contributions to the patterning of work and shaping of work institutions."
[114][edit]Sociology and the other academic disciplines
Sociology and
applied sociology are connected to the professional and academic discipline of
social work.
[116] Both disciplines study social interactions, community and the effect of various systems (i.e. family, school, community, laws, political sphere) on the individual.
[117] 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.
[118] For example, a sociologist might study
why a community is plagued with poverty. The
applied sociologist would be more focused on practical strategies on
what needs to be done to alleviate this burden. The social worker would be focused on
action; implementing theses strategies
"directly" or
"indirectly" by means of
mental health therapy,
counseling,
advocacy,
community organization or
community mobilization.
[117]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.
[119][120] Irving Louis Horowitz, in his
The Decomposition of Sociology (1994), 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."
[122] Furthermore: "A problem yet unmentioned is that sociology's 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."
[122] Horowitz cites the lack of a 'core discipline' as exacerbating the problem.
Randall Collins, the
Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor in Sociology at the
University of Pennsylvania 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 specialities, each going on its own way and with none too high regard for each other."
[123] [edit]Journals
[edit]See also
[edit]References
- ^ "Comte, Auguste, A Dictionary of Sociology (3rd Ed), John Scott & Gordon Marshall (eds), Oxford University Press, 2005,ISBN 0198609868, ISBN 978-0198609865
- ^ Ashley D, Orenstein DM (2005). Sociological theory: Classical statements (6th ed.). Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Pearson Education. pp. 3–5, 32–36.
- ^ Ashley D, Orenstein DM (2005). Sociological theory: Classical statements (6th ed.). Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Pearson Education. pp. 3–5, 38–40.
- ^ a b Giddens, Anthony, Duneier, Mitchell, Applebaum, Richard. 2007. Introduction to Sociology. Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. Chapter 1.
- ^ Macy, Michael; Willer, Robb (2002). "From Factors to Actors: Computational Sociology and Agent-Based Modeling". Annual Review of Sociology 28: 143–66.doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.28.110601.141117.
- ^ Lazer, David; Pentland, Alex; Adamic, L; Aral, S; Barabasi, AL; Brewer, D; Christakis, N; Contractor, N et al. (February 6, 2009). "Computational Social Science". Science 323 (5915): 721–723. doi:10.1126/science.1167742. PMC 2745217.PMID 19197046.
- ^ A. H. Halsey(2004),A history of sociology in Britain: science, literature, and society,p.34
- ^ Geoffrey Duncan Mitchell(1970),A new dictionary of sociology,p.201
- ^ H. Mowlana (2001). "Information in the Arab World",Cooperation South Journal 1.
- ^ Dr; Akhtar, S. W. (1997). "The Islamic Concept of Knowledge". Al-Tawhid: A Quarterly Journal of Islamic Thought & Culture 12: 3.
- ^ Haque Amber (2004). "Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists". Journal of Religion and Health 43 (4): 357–377 [375]. doi:10.1007/s10943-004-4302-z.
- ^ Enan, Muhammed Abdullah (2007). Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Works. The Other Press. p. v. ISBN 9839541536
- ^ Alatas, S. H. (2006). "The Autonomous, the Universal and the Future of Sociology". Current Sociology 54: 7–23 [15].doi:10.1177/0011392106058831
- ^ Warren E. Gates (July–September 1967). "The Spread of Ibn Khaldun's Ideas on Climate and Culture". Journal of the History of Ideas (University of Pennsylvania Press) 28 (3): 415–422 [415]. doi:10.2307/2708627. JSTOR 2708627
- ^ 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.
- ^ A Dictionary of Sociology, Article: Comte, Auguste
- ^ Dictionary of the Social Sciences, Article: Comte, Auguste
- ^ "Stanford Encyclopaedia: Auguste Comte". Plato.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ Copleson, Frederick S.J. [1974] A History of Philosophy: IX Modern Philosophy (1994). Image Books, New York. pp118
- ^ Berlin, Isaiah. 1967. Karl Marx: His Life and Environment. Time Inc Book Division, New York. pp130
- ^ Berlin, Isaiah. [1937] Karl Marx: His Life and Environment. 3rd edition (1967). Time Inc Book Division, New York. pp13-14
- ^ Perrin Robert G. (1995). "Émile Durkheim's Division of Labor and the Shadow of Herbert Spencer". Sociological Quarterly36 (4): 791–808. doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.1995.tb00465.x.
- ^ a b Commager, Henry Steele (1959-09-10). The American mind: an interpretation of American thought and character since 1880s. ISBN 9780300000467.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wacquant, Loic. 1992. "Positivism." In Bottomore, Tom and William Outhwaite, ed., The Blackwell Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Social Thought
- ^ Gianfranco Poggi (2000). Durkheim. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Durkheim, Émile [1895] "The Rules of Sociological Method" 8th edition, trans. Sarah A. Solovay and John M. Mueller, ed. George E. G. Catlin (1938, 1964 edition), pp. 45
- ^ Habermas, Jürgen, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Modernity's Consciousness of Time, Polity Press (1985), paperback, ISBN 0-7456-0830-2, p2
- ^ "Max Weber – Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy". Plato.stanford.edu. 2007-08-24. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
- ^ a b Harriss, John. The Second Great Transformation? Capitalism at the End of the Twentieth Century in Allen, T. and Thomas, Alan (eds) Poverty and Development in the 21st Century', Oxford University Press, Oxford. p325.
- ^ "Sociology – History of Sociology | Encyclopedia.com: Oxford Companion to United States History". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
- ^ "University of Kansas Sociology Department Webpage". Ku.edu. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
- ^ a b "American Journal of Sociology Website". Journals.uchicago.edu. 1970-01-01. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
- ^ Miller, David (2009). George Herbert Mead: Self, Language, and the World. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-72700-3.
- ^ 1930: The Development of Sociology at Michigan. pp.3–14 in Sociological Theory and Research, being Selected papers of Charles Horton Cooley, edited by Robert Cooley Angell, New York: Henry Holt
- ^ Camic, Charles. 1992. "Reputation and Predecessor Selection: Parsons and the Institutionalists", American Sociological Review, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Aug., 1992), pp. 421–445
- ^ Morrison, Ken. 2006 (2nd ed.) "Marx, Durkheim, Weber", Sage, pp. 1–7
- ^ "British Journal of Sociology Website". Lse.ac.uk. 2009-04-02. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
- ^ "Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse". Bookrags. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ Hill, Michael R. (2002) "Harriet Martineau: theoretical and methodological perspectives" Routledge. ISBN 0415945283
- ^ Bendix, Reinhard (July 1, 1977). Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03194-6.
- ^ "Frankfurt School". (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved September 12, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online . Retrieved September 12, 2009.
- ^ "International Sociological Association Website". Isa-sociology.org. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ Durkheim, Émile. 1895. The Rules of the Sociological Method. Cited in Wacquant (1992).
- ^ Halfpenny, Peter. Positivism and Sociology: Explaining Social Science. London:Allen and Unwin, 1982.
- ^ Ashley D, Orenstein DM (2005). Sociological theory: Classical statements (6th ed.). Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Pearson Education. pp. 94–98, 100–104.
- ^ Fish, Jonathan S. 2005. 'Defending the Durkheimian Tradition. Religion, Emotion and Morality' Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
- ^ Gartell, David; Gartell, John (1996). "Positivism in sociological practice: 1967–1990". Canadian Review of Sociology 33: 2.
- ^ Boudon, Raymond. 1991. "Review: What Middle-Range Theories are". Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 20 Num. 4 pp 519–522.
- ^ Ashley D, Orenstein DM (2005). Sociological theory: Classical statements (6th ed.). Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Pearson Education. p. 169.
- ^ Ashley D, Orenstein DM (2005). Sociological theory: Classical statements (6th ed.). Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Pearson Education. pp. 202–203.
- ^ Rickman, H. P. (1960) The Reaction against Positivism and Dilthey's Concept of Understanding, The London School of Economics and Political Science. p307
- ^ Ashley D, Orenstein DM (2005). Sociological theory: Classical statements (6th ed.). Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Pearson Education. pp. 239–240.
- ^ Ashley D, Orenstein DM (2005). Sociological theory: Classical statements (6th ed.). Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Pearson Education. p. 241.
- ^ *Ferdinand Tönnies (ed. Jose Harris), Community and Civil Society, Cambridge University Press (2001), hardcover, 266 pages, ISBN 0-521-56119-1; trade paperback, Cambridge University Press (2001), 266 pages, ISBN 0-521-56782-3
- ^ Weber, Max The Nature of Social Action in Runciman, W.G. 'Weber: Selections in Translation' Cambridge University Press, 1991. p7.
- ^ Kaern, Phillips & Cohen. (1990) Georg Simmel and Contemporary Sociology. Springer Publishing. ISBN 9780792304074. p15.
- ^ a b Levine, Donald (ed) 'Simmel: On individuality and social forms' Chicago University Press, 1971. pxix.
- ^ Levine, Donald (ed) 'Simmel: On individuality and social forms' Chicago University Press, 1971. p6.
- ^ Simmel, Georg The Metropolis and Mental Life in Levine, Donald (ed) 'Simmel: On individuality and social forms' Chicago University Press, 1971. p324.
- ^ a b Abend, Gabriel. 2008. "The meaning of 'Theory'." Sociological Theory, 26:2
- ^ Urry, John (2000). "Metaphors". Sociology beyond societies: mobilities for the twenty-first century. Routledge. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-415-19089-3.
- ^ "Department of Anthropology College of Arts and Sciences The University of Alabama: Anthropological theories". As.ua.edu. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ Giddens, Anthony "The Constitution of Society" in The Giddens Reader Philip Cassell (eds.) MacMillan Press pp.88
- ^ Durkheim, Émile The Division of Labor in Society [1893] LA Coser: New York: The Free Press, 1984
- ^ Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto, introduction by Martin Malia (New York: Penguin group, 1998), pg. 35 ISBN 0451527100
- ^ Jay J. Coakley, Eric Dunning, Handbook of sports studies
- ^ Slattery, Martin. 1993. Key Ideas in Sociology. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes, Ltd.
- ^ Barnes, B. 1995. The Elements of Social Theory. London: UCL Press. Quoted in Jay J. Coakley, Eric Dunning,Handbook of sports studies
- ^ Cassell, Philip The Giddens Reader (1993) The Macmillan Press Ltd, pp. 6
- ^ Assiter, A 1984, 'Althusser and structuralism', The British journal of sociology, vol. 35, no. 2, Blackwell Publishing, pp.272–296.
- ^ Giddens, Anthony "The Constitution of Society" in The Giddens Reader Philip Cassell (eds.) MacMillan Press pp.89
- ^ Jürgen Habermas. Taking Aim at the Heart of the Present in Hoy, D (eds) 'Foucault: A critical reader' Basil Blackwell. Oxford, 1986.
- ^ Richard Rorty. Foucault and Epistemology in Hoy, D (eds) 'Foucault: A critical reader' Basil Blackwell. Oxford, 1986.
- ^ Giddens, A (1996). The Constitution of Society. California: University of California Press. pp. 14–19. ISBN 0520057287.
- ^ a b c Haralambos & Holborn. Sociology: Themes and perspectives (2004) 6th ed, Collins Educational. ISBN 978-0-00-715447-0. Chapter 14: Methods
- ^ Hunter Laura, Leahey Erin (2008). "Collaborative Research in Sociology: Trends and Contributing Factors". American Sociologist 39 (4): 290–306. doi:10.1007/s12108-008-9042-1.
- ^ Hanson, Barbara (2008). "Whither Qualitative/Quantitative?: Grounds for Methodological Convergence". Quality and Quantity 42: 97–111. doi:10.1007/s11135-006-9041-7.
- ^ a b Jstor.org
- ^ Martin, Patricia Yancey, Turner, Barry A.. (1986). "Grounded Theory and Organizational Research". The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 22(2), 141. Retrieved June 21, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1155984).
- ^ Jost, JT; Kay, AC (2005). "Exposure to benevolent sexism and complementary gender stereotypes: Consequences for specific and diffuse forms of system justification" (PDF).Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 88 (3): 498–509.doi:10.1037/0022-3514.88.3.498. PMID 15740442.
- ^ Bainbridge, William Sims (2007). "Computational Sociology". In Ritzer, George. Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Blackwell Reference Online.doi:10.1111/b.9781405124331.2007.x.ISBN 9781405124331.
- ^ Macy, Michael W.; Willer, Robert (2002). "From Factors to Actors: Computational Sociology and Agent-Based Modeling".Annual Review of Sociology (Annual Reviews) 28: 143–166.doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.28.110601.141117.JSTOR 3069238.
- ^ Epstein, JM; Axell, R (1996). Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institute Press. ISBN 0262050536.
- ^ Axelrod, Robert (1997). The Complexity of Cooperation: Agent-Based Models of Competition and Collaboration. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.ISBN 0691015686.
- ^ Casti, J (1999). "The Computer as Laboratory: Toward a Theory of Complex Adaptive Systems". Complexity 4 (5): 12–14.
- ^ Goldspink, C (2002). Methodological Implications of Complex Systems Approaches to Sociality: Simulation as a Foundation for Knowledge. 5. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation.
- ^ Gilbert, Nigel; Troitzsch, Klaus (2005). "Simulation and social science". Simulation for Social Scientists (2 ed.). Open University Press.
- ^ Epstein, Joshua (2007). Generative Social Science: Studies in Agent-Based Computational Modeling. Princeto: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691125473.
- ^ "Robert K. Merton Remembered". Retrieved 2009-12-02.
- ^ Banakar, Reza (2009) "Law Through Sociology's Looking Glass: Conflict and Competition in Sociological Studies of Law" in "The new ISA handbook in contemporary international sociology: Conflict, Competition, and Cooperation", Ann Denis, Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, eds., (London: Sage). An e-copy available at papers.ssrn.com
- ^ Western, Bruce. 2006. Punishment and Inequality in America. New York: Russel Sage.
- ^ "Principles of Economic Sociology by Richard Swedberg – An extract". Retrieved 2009-12-02.
- ^ Gordon Marshall (ed) A Dictionary of Sociology (Article: Sociology of Education), Oxford University Press, 1998
- ^ Hanushek, Eric A. (1998) "Conclusions and Controversies about the Effectiveness of School Resources" Economic Policy Review Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 4(1): pp. 11–27, accessed 30 December 2008
- ^ Correll, Shelley, Stephen Benard, In Paik. 2007. "Getting a job: Is there a motherhood penalty?" American Journal of Sociology 112: 1297–1338.
- ^ http://willer.berkeley.edu/WillerOverdoingGender.pdf
- ^ "British Sociological Association: Medical Sociology". BSA. Retrieved 2009-10-23.
- ^ D. R. Wilson, Researching Sociology on the Internet, Thomson/Wadsworth, 2004, ISBN 0534624375
- ^ The Internet Galaxy, Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society. Oxford, Oxford University Press (2001)
- ^ Ben-David, Joseph; Teresa A. Sullivan (1975). "Sociology of Science". Annual Review of Sociology 1: 203–222.doi:10.1146/annurev.so.01.080175.001223. Retrieved 2006-11-29.
- ^ Siebold, Guy (2001). "Core Issues and Theory in Military Sociology". Journal of Political and Military Sociology. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
- ^ Piven, F. (1988) Why Americans Don't Vote: And Why Politicians Want it That Way Pantheon. ISBN 0679723188
- ^ Lipset, S.M. Introduction: Ostrogorski and the Analytical Approach to the Comparative Study of Political Parties in M. Ostrogorski, Democracy and the Organization of Political (2 vol, 1964; 1982 ed.)
- ^ Contemporary political sociology ... - Kate Nash. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ Social movements: an introduction - Donatella Della Porta, Mario Diani. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ Kevin J. Christiano, et al., (2nd ed., 2008), Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments, Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9780742561113
- ^ Berger, Peter L. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (1967). Anchor Books 1990 paperback: ISBN 0-385-07305-4
- ^ Stolte, John F; Fine, Gary Alan; Cook, Karen S. (2001). "Sociological miniaturism: seeing the big through the small in social psychology". Annual Review of Sociology 27: pp. 387–413. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.387.
- ^ a b "What Is Social Psychology – An Introduction to Social Psychology". Psychology.about.com. Retrieved 2010-06-01.
- ^ Saunders, Peter (1990). Social Class and Stratification. Routledge. ISBN 9780415041256.
- ^ Dahrendorf, Ralf. (1959) Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- ^ Bornschier V. (1996), 'Western society in transition' New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers.
- ^ Sassen, Saskia – The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. (1991) – Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-07063-6
- ^ Watson, Tony J. 2008 Sociology, Work, and Industry. Routledge. ISBN 0415435552. p392
- ^ Sherif, M., and CW Sherif. An Outline of Social Psychology (rev. ed.). New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956
- ^ "Web page". Sociology and Its Relationships to Other Social Sciences. National Organization of Sociology. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
- ^ a b Kirst-Ashman, K.K. & Hull, G.H. (2009). Generalist Practice with Organizations and Communities (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning. ISBN 0-495-50715-6.
- ^ Hepworth, D.H, Rooney, R.H., Rooney, G.D, Strom-Gottfried, K., Larsen, J.A. (2006). "1". Direct Social Work Practice. Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole. ISBN 0-534-64458-9.
- ^ Janes, Craig Robert; Stall, Ron; Gifford, Sandra M (1986).James Trostle. Springer. ISBN 9789027722485. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
- ^ "Sociology-Basic Concepts". nos.org. Retrieved 2010-11-28.
- ^ Dugan, David. "NOVA: Lord of the Ants." NOVA: Lord of the Ants. Dir. David Dugan. Prod. David Dugan. PBS. WGBH, Boston, Massachusetts, 20 May 2008. Television.
- ^ a b Horowitz, Irving (1994) The Decomposition of SociologyOxford University Press. p3-9
- ^ Randall Collins, Cited in Horowitz, Irving (1994) The Decomposition of Sociology Oxford University Press. p3-9
- ^ "The most cited authors of books in the humanities". timeshighereducation.co.uk. 2009-03-26. Retrieved 2009-11-16.
- ^ "Journals Ranked by Impact: Sociology". 2010 Journal Citation Reports (Social Sciences ed.). Thomson Reuters. 2011.
[edit]Further reading
- Aby, Stephen H. Sociology: A Guide to Reference and Information Sources, 3rd edn. Littleton, Colorado, Libraries Unlimited Inc., 2005, ISBN 1-56308-947-5 . OCLC 57475961.
- Babbie, Earl R.. 2003. The Practice of Social Research, 10th edition. Wadsworth, Thomson Learning Inc., ISBN 0-534-62029-9. OCLC 51917727.
- Collins, Randall. 1994. Four Sociological Traditions. Oxford,Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-508208-7 .OCLC 28411490.
- Coser, Lewis A., Masters of Sociological Thought : Ideas in Historical and Social Context, New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971. ISBN 0-15-555128-0.
- Giddens, Anthony. 2006. Sociology (5th edition), Polity, Cambridge. ISBN 0-7456-3378-1 . OCLC 63186308.
- Landis, Judson R (1989). Sociology: Concepts and Characteristics (7th ed.). Belmont, California: Wadsworth. ISBN 0-534-10158-5.
- Macionis, John J (1991). Sociology (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-820358-X.
- Merton, Robert K.. 1959. Social Theory and Social Structure. Toward the codification of theory and research, Glencoe: Ill. (Revised and enlarged edition) . OCLC 4536864.
- Mills, C. Wright, The Sociological Imagination,1959.OCLC 165883.
- C. Wright Mills, Intellectual Craftsmanship Advices how to Work for young Sociologist
- Mitchell, Geoffrey Duncan (2007, originally published in 1968). A Hundred Years of Sociology: A Concise History of the Major Figures, Ideas, and Schools of Sociological Thought. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-0-202-36168-0. OCLC 145146341.
- Nisbet, Robert A. 1967. The Sociological Tradition, London, Heinemann Educational Books. ISBN 1-56000-667-6 .OCLC 26934810.
- Ritzer, George and Douglas J. Goodman. 2004. Sociological Theory, Sixth Edition. McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-07-281718-6 .OCLC 52240022.
- Scott, John & Marshall, Gordon (eds) A Dictionary of Sociology(3rd Ed). Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-860986-8, .OCLC 60370982.
- Wallace, Ruth A. & Alison Wolf. 1995. Contemporary Sociological Theory: Continuing the Classical Tradition, 4th ed., Prentice-Hall.ISBN 0-13-036245-X . OCLC 31604842.
- White, Harrison C.. 2008. Identity and Control. How Social Formations Emerge. (2nd ed., Completely rev. ed.) Princeton,Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13714-8 .OCLC 174138884.
- Willis, Evan. 1996. The Sociological Quest: An introduction to the study of social life, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-2367-2 . OCLC 34633406.
[edit]External links
At
Wikiversity you can learn more and teach others about
Sociology at:
- Professional Associations
- Sourse..(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology
- )
