The actual study of sociology is a relatively new concept in scholarly terms. However, this does not entail that its concepts were not studied earlier, despite not being a concrete academia area. The earliest concepts of sociology can be found in the writings of Plato and Aristotle. With the exploration age, the concepts of sociology aroused many individuals when presented with newer scientific discoveries and other cultures. The term sociology was first coined by Auguste Comte, a Frenchman. Another key influential figure was Herbert Spencer who expanded concepts of sociology to educated classes. Sociology grew rapidly in the United States during the twentieth century while it began to decline in parts of Europe. In the early days …show more content…
First, the Enlightenment and colonization era of Europe allowed for sociology to expand greatly. Many at this time were being presented with controversial findings in respect to science and nature which questioned many about their role in society. In addition, new cultures and societies were being discovered which intrigued and engendered studies of aspects such as families and class. The Enlightenment era in Europe laid the foundation as well as sparking the study of sociology.
Another major step in sociology was the revival of macrosociology. I think many of the complex issues that society is presented with in modern times require a high level abstraction that encompasses multiple aspects. Macrosociology can achieve and began to tackle complex issues such as war, poverty, and degrading conditions in third world countries. With the world continuing to globalize, it’s nearly impossible to analyze society without looking at a higher level. With technological advancements, sociologists are now able to analyze large amounts of data, which goes well with the idea of
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Dependencies on societies on one another is at its highest. No longer can one society live and survive on its own without outside influence of another. It is with this basic but fundamental concept that sociology should progress into the future with. This will entail several aspects for sociology. For one, it should heavily incorporate general but mandatory study of various cultures. This will then allow sociologists to better understand the specifics as they have the crucial high level needed to analyze complex future societies. Sociology can also no longer grow by itself. Sociologists will need to work closely with all types of professions from politicians to technology developers. Leveraging these concepts along with advancements in technology, sociologists will be able to analyze and tackle vast amounts of complex information about future
Sociology is the study of the relationships that humans have with each other and social institutions. It aims to understand the links that exist between individuals and the social structures around them and also the functions that these social institutions perform in society.
Emile Durkheim is largely credited as the man who made Sociology a science. As a boy, he was enraptured by the scientific approach to society, but at that time, there was no social science curriculum. Vowing to change this, Durkheim worked scrupulously to earn his “degree in philosophy in 1882”. (Johnson 34) Unable to change the French school system right away, Emile traveled to Germany to further his education. It was there that he published his initial findings and gained the knowledge necessary to influence the French education system. Emile Durkheim is a distinguished and well versed man who, through his work, established a platform for other sociologist to build on.
Sociology cannot be clearly explained as there are many different theories and theorists; so far none of them have been defined as a correct answer. Although with all this information of theories and theorists sociology is relatively explained as agreed philosophies that delivers a reason for human society. Sociological theories are like most other theories, they are selective, and there is no quantity of theory to explain everything or define the infinite amount of information that exist or comprehend the methods of observing reality. Sociological theories vary and can be linked to each other according to various criteria. The two main perspectives of sociology are the micro sociological approach and the macro sociological approach. The micro sociological approach is based more on the persons being capable of their own independent thoughts feelings and behaviour; therefor society is built through their interactions amongst each other and the significances they attach to them. This approach is defined using Social Action Theory and Symbolic Interactionism. The Macro Sociological approach is on a much bigger scale and consists of a person being born into a current society which will then shape their behaviour. It centres on the organisations, values and the culture of that particular society and how it impacts an individual and their role in life. This approach is made clearer using Functionalism, Feminist and Conflict Theories.
In sociology, there are three names you will always hear, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. Each are successful sociologist, they have made many significant contributions to the development of sociology. While all being enlightenment thinkers, each of them have their own distinguish perspective and focuses in their respective theories. Durkheim, a structural functionalist, argued everything in society exist for a purpose, and that society are bounded together by ideas and social unity, social solidarity. Weber focused on rationality and bureaucracy, he believes they are key element to modern society and he is interested to understand how people feel. Marx is primarily study society with economic perspectives, focused heavily on inequality among classes
After reviewing the article titles given for this first assignment, I believe they indicate that Sociology, generally speaking, is not only a study of diversity or commonality in traits among people; it is also a science about factors in a person’s life and how these factors culminate responses. Interestingly enough, its topics of concern seem to be directly determined by current and common events of the world. Through the invention and expansion of new ideas, popular trends and fashions through time, Sociology adapts to responsibly to service the very subjects of interest it studies; for, even the slightest change of a person’s daily experience can have an insurmountable impact on attitude, personal growth, family dynamics and basic group behavior.
Sociology is something I didn’t know about until I took this class. This class introduced sociology to me. I learned about how society basically made boys supposed to like blue and girls supposed to like pink. Sociology is “the systematic or scientific study of human society and social behavior, from large-scale institutions and mass culture to small groups and individual interactions” (Ferris and stein 2014: p9). Sociology is not something you just learn when you are just born. You learn about sociology throughout your life. Sociology is displayed around things such as being around different environments, friends, and family. Education is a sociology idea that can examine a person’s class and schooling. The higher the education you have,
Sociology emerged from the desire of humans to understand our behaviour. However, throughout the years the way humans behave and believe has been passed through generations; and it was mainly explained in religious terms. The origins of sociology started with the social movements of the late XVIII century such as the French Revolution in 1789 and the subsequent Industrial Revolution in Europe. (Giddens, 1997)
The social conditions that people lived in, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were of the greatest significance of the production of sociology, the different problems and social disorder that resulted from the series of political revolutions escorted in by the French Revolution in 1789 distressed many early social theorists, when they eventually came to the conclusion that it was impossible to return to the old order , they wanted to find new sources of order in societies that had been disturbed by the different dramatic political changes.
I think everyone should ask themselves what is sociology? I believe that sociology is the scientific study of social behavior or society, including its origins, development, organization, networks, and institutions. This is a huge topic to cover. Sociology explains the way people act and think, based on
Sociologists develop theories to explain and analyze society at different levels and from different perspectives. Sociologists study everything from the micro level of analysis of small social patterns to the “big picture” which is the macro level of analysis of large social patterns.
Before I started taking the course of sociology I wasn’t really expecting to learn anything, it was just supposed to be an easy online class. However, that was not the case. It challenged my mind. I started to see sociology all around me, starting with family, then friends, and how I see things overall in general. The fact that we have an everyday life in which there are patterns in ways of living is what sets a platform for a sociological breakdown and for being a part in what we do. A better way of understanding ourselves. We use sociology in many ways every day. One central and important study of sociology is the study of everyday social life. Everyday life and sociology are definitely two different words and situations, but they tend to hold a close relationship. While sociology is the study of the human interaction, everyday life consists of everyday human interaction. Everyday life is filled by human beings interacting with one another, ideas, and emotions. Sociology studies the interactions with all of these and shows how mere interaction resulted in things such as ideas. For an example, race and ethnicity are important concepts in the field of sociology and are ones that are studied a great deal. Race plays a large role in everyday human interactions and sociologists want to study how, why, and what the outcomes are of these interactions. Current sociological theories focus mainly on how there are many different factors in our everyday items of life, like movies. We were assigned a final to write a review for a movie in sociological form. The movie that was on the list that also happened to be one of my favorite movies, Toy Story. When we were assigned the assignment, I never thought about how in-depth it was with sociol...
Sociology is a study of society social life, social change, and social causes and consequences of human behaviour and allows us to gain an understanding of the structure and dynamics of today’s society, looking at the interlinking links patterns of human behaviour. Sociology looks at the in which social structure and institutions affect our everyday life. Sociological imagination was founded by C. Wright mills in the 1950`s it is an overall understanding of that some of the things that happen in society may lead to a particular outcome. Mills said it is “the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and wider society.” sociological imagination can also be defined as the ability to look at how sociological situations can unfold due to how everyone is different. The way we behave is shaped by the situation that we find ourselves in, the values and norms that we have and the way that other members of society act around us. It is also a way of thinking about how things in society have led to a particular outcome, and understanding of what led to that specific outcome. Sociological imagination is an ability to look at things socially and how they interact and influence each other gaining an understanding of different cultures and class systems.
In the origins of sociology there are four major revolutions, which are all related to western societies. As each revolution changes it has many new ideas that rise out of it, but it also has some old ones that will fall. For example as the first agricultural revolution was happening it was creating the rise of the idea of surplus in food. Then as time goes on the idea of surplus is still there, it is just old news now. This is because things like villages had started to form due to advances in agricultural and no longer having to be nomadic. Out of villages come new ideas, like social classes and commercialism. When changes are made to society it creates new rises, and with the new rises there come falls of things that once were held important to the society.
To Quote Anthony Giddens: "Sociology is the study of human social life, groups and societies. It is a dazzling and compelling enterprise, having as its subject matter our own behaviour as social beings. The scope of sociology is extremely wide, ranging from the analysis of passing encounters between individuals in the street up to the investigation of world-wide social processes“(1989). Gidden’s statement describes sociology as a study that helps us understand our own behaviour as human beings in a social word. Sociologist study everything from the interaction between people in the street to the interaction between different countries. Sociologists aim to study how societies have changed over, how societies are structured and organized, the norms of society. It’s also important to understand that not all sociologists agree with each other, Sociologists often debate with one another to prove/disprove certain theories and concepts. By studying Sociology is it helps us analyze social conflicts on a micro and macro scope. Through a macro level, we can study large-scale social organization and large social categories it also examinees social processes and patterns society as a whole. We can analyze individuals much deeper on a micro level. This way we study a human by face-to face interactions. Its important as humans to understand the way our society came together and the reasons to how elements work and function together. Sociology gives us a deeper
The early developments of sociology date back to the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds. Sociology’s development was driven by a shift in three main factors; social, economics and politics. All the major philosophers in the early years of sociology thought about the great transformation from “simple, preliterate societies to massive, complex, industrial societies” (Asanet.org, 2014). This paper will discuss and evaluate how the Industrial revolution, French revolution and the dissolution of feudal social order to influenced the creation of sociology as an academic discipline.