Sociology

Overview

The American Sociological Association (ASA) defines sociology as “the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior” (“What Is Sociology?”, n.d.). Other definitions specifically note sociology’s interest not only in human society, but also the social institutions that structure it. Examples of such institutions include governments and government agencies, educational systems, economic systems, and organized religion.

Sociology is, by its nature, an amalgam of multiple academic disciplines unified through their distinct focus on social life, changes, behaviors, and institutions. In conducting sociological research and scholarship, academics draw on concepts native to anthropology, economics, history, political science, and psychology, among other disciplines. Sociology is differentiated from the multiple academic subjects that contribute to its framework through unique theoretical foundations, analytical viewpoints, and research methods that distinctly relate to the complex dynamics of human society.

Academic historians trace sociology’s origins to the age of antiquity, when philosophers including Confucius (ca. 551–ca. 479 BCE), Plato (ca. 428–ca. 347 BCE), and Aristotle (384–322 BCE) advanced early examples of social theory and social analysis. It coalesced into a distinctive academic discipline in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution (ca. 1760–ca. 1840), when industrialized countries experienced profound economic and social changes that led to the development of the modern world. The French philosopher and Auguste Comte (1798–1857) originated the term “sociology” in 1838 by combining the Latin word socius (“partner”) with logia, a conventional Greek term for the study of something. Comte is widely considered the founding figure of sociology as a distinct academic discipline, with his interest in the subject focusing heavily on how societies gradually change over time.

When Comte coined the term “sociology” in 1838, there remained high levels of crossover among humanities fields now recognized as distinct. This feature of the nineteenth-century academic and intellectual landscape had a profound influence on sociology’s developmental course, as many key contributors to the field during its nascent stages emerged from disciplines including economics, history, and philosophy. Comte believed that human societies were governed by innate laws, like natural sciences such as chemistry and physics. He hoped to discover, define, and systematize these laws and principles, believing that sociology held the potential to unify scientific and academic disciplines of all kinds.

Comte also established an influential paradigm that largely defined sociology during its early history by dividing social influences and institutions into two broad categories: social dynamics and social statics. According to Comte’s paradigm, social dynamics are influences and institutions that change over time and drive society’s ongoing evolution, while social statics always remain the same. In Comte’s view, the innate tension between social dynamics and social statics was the ultimate source of much social conflict, progress, and upheaval. Contemporary sociologists have largely abandoned this paradigm, believing it does not accurately describe or explain the factors guiding the ongoing kinesis of human society. However, Comte’s dynamics-and-statics model remains an important historical topic in sociology, and some modern sociologists continue to reference Comte’s dual categorizations when discussing social features and institutions.

Other noteworthy early contributors to classical sociology include Emile Durkheim (1858–1917), Karl Marx (1818–1883), and Max Weber (1864–1920). Durkheim played a leading role in the shaping and development of sociology into a distinct academic discipline, establishing methodological standards and advancing theories on the various means through which individuals connect with broader social structures and institutions. His key sociological works include On the Division of Social Labor (1893) and The Rules of Sociological Method (1895). Marx is well-known for his influential socioeconomic theories, most famously advanced in his 1848 treatise The Communist Manifesto, which he coauthored with the German thinker Friedrich Engels (1820–1895). Weber is credited with forming multiple important analytical perspectives that strongly influenced the emergence of sociology, including ideas on the nature and character of authority, the structure of bureaucratic institutions and how they are used to regulate society, and points of contact between economic and cultural forces. Notably, Weber was also a strong proponent of antipositivism, which holds that academics and researchers cannot separate themselves from the subjects they study and therefore can never truly be objective. This philosophical position placed Weber in opposition to Comte, who is also recognized as the founder of positivism. The positivism-versus-antipositivism debate was one of the first schisms in sociological theory and had a profound impact on the discipline’s early development.

Other noteworthy figures from sociology’s developmental era include Harriet Martineau (1802–1876) and W. E. B. DuBois (1868–1963). Martineau was an English essayist, historian, and journalist who wrote on subjects ranging from classical economics to critiques of religion. She also issued translations of Comte’s philosophical works on positivism. Martineau is now recognized as the first major female sociologist in the discipline’s history. DuBois, an essayist and a historian, is alternately characterized as both a social reformist and sociologist. A leading figure of Black activism during the early twentieth century, DuBois cofounded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. His efforts reflected points of contact between sociology and progressive political ideology in the United States.

During the initial decades of the twentieth century, sociology grew rapidly in the United States and Europe, with major European centers of sociological thought and theory emerging in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, among other locales. University-level sociology courses and departments first emerged as standard features of the Western academic landscape in the 1890s and were common by the end of the 1900s. The United States established itself as a world leader in sociology during the era of the World Wars (1914–1945), when many European intellectuals sought refuge across the Atlantic Ocean amid the chaotic turmoil engulfing Europe. During the postwar period, many European-born, US-trained sociologists returned to their native countries, bringing American sociological theories, frameworks, and research methods with them.

In the twenty-first century, sociology has coalesced around the study of interrelationships between social institutions and distinct social groups, especially in the context of such factors as economic class, gender, and race. It maintains its strong historical focus on systems of social control while also examining the dynamics of deviance from the forces and institutions that exercise that control. Contemporary sociology also heavily studies various forms of mass media, with recent emphasis on social media and the Internet.

Key academic bodies include the American Sociological Association (ASA), founded in 1905, and the International Sociological Association (ISA), established in 1948. The ASA functions as a professional organization of sociological academics and researchers, with a 2020 community of approximately 9,400 members. In April 2023, the Madrid, Spain-based ISA reported a total membership of about six thousand academics, who combined to represent more than 125 countries.

Applications

The ASA cites sociology as studying the ways in which individuals, groups, and broader social structures interact with subjects such as partner-based romantic relationships, family units, strangers, and members of particular economic classes, ethnic or racial backgrounds, and gender identities. Throughout its history, sociology has maintained a particular focus on the power dynamics that govern these interactions, and on how institutional social structures obtain, assert, and maintain power over society and the individuals comprising it. Sociologists study these phenomena on multiple levels including the micro, meso, and macro levels. The micro level includes individuals and small units, such as couples and families, and the interrelationships between them. The meso level, sometimes called the mezzo level, analyzes sociological dynamics on a community level, while the macro level considers sociological questions from holistic and systemic points of view.

Sociology also includes multiple branches and sub-disciplines, which broadly include theoretical sociology, historical sociology, political sociology, and the sociology of demography, among others. Some paradigms also consider criminology to be a specialized sociological discipline. Theoretical sociology is concerned with developing theory-based systems for understanding sociological phenomena, and with the development of methodologies and frameworks for defining and testing those theories. Historical sociology applies contemporary insights, theories, paradigms, and research methods to historical events, facilitating the shaping of continuous narratives of social evolution bridging ancient times and the present. Political sociology maintains an exclusive orientation on systems of political power, the sources of that power, the ways in which that power is exercised, and the micro-, meso-, and macro-level impacts of applied political power. The sociology of demography analyzes population demographics and the forces driving changes in demographic trends related to birth and death rates, age groups within society, economic classes and wealth disparities, and migration rates. Criminology is the study of crime, criminals, and the social forces that drive criminal activity and societal responses to it.

The concept of applied sociology is alternately described as a specialization within sociology, and as a means of understanding how sociological methods, theories, and insights find distinct applications in other academic disciplines. Areas of academic and scientific research that interact with sociology at particularly high rates include political science, history, economics, business, cultural studies, and law. Some commentators describe these interdisciplinary interactions as manifestations of Comte’s founding vision for sociology, which positioned the discipline as a unifying force across the sciences and humanities. However, critics of sociology often cite them to support claims that sociology is essentially a hybridization of other academic disciplines, and that the sum body of its knowledge and work would be easily absorbed by those other disciplines if the scholarly practice of sociology were ever to cease.

Another way to classify the applications of sociology is to consider how the field impacts and interacts with the everyday lives of typical people. Key examples relate to conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, prescriptive social roles and emotive expectations, and environmental issues. Conflict theory, which was first developed by Marx, views human society as the product of an ongoing, ceaseless struggle for power among opposing groups and describes social and class-based inequalities as products or results of that struggle. Sociologists generally classify these inequalities as being rooted in either the socioeconomic conditions that govern income disparities and wealth distribution, or in unequal access to opportunity due to such factors as race, ethnicity, economic status, and geographic location. Symbolic interactionism “aims to explain human behavior by evaluating the symbolic meanings individuals develop and build upon throughout their lives” (“5 Examples of How Sociology...,” 2022), such as the symbols used to identify social movements, or by individuals engaging in interpersonal communications. Sociology also displays a keen interest in prescriptive modes of governing social behavior and emotional expression through a complex set of expectations that can change in varying social settings or contexts. The contemporary environmental movement has increasingly penetrated social structures and institutions, prompting sociologists to respond by studying how environmental and ecological concerns interact with economies, businesses, communities, and social units on the micro level.

Viewpoints

Sociology is classified as a social science, a term used to describe academic disciplines engaged with the systematic, method-driven study of human society, its institutions, and how individuals and populations interact with those institutions and one another. Some academic institutions issue sociology degrees with science designations (Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, etc.) while others attach arts designations. This distinction primarily reflects the variable foci of sociology curricula. Science-oriented programs tend to place stronger emphasis on quantitative analysis and research methods, while arts-oriented programs tend to take more holistic, multidisciplinary, and qualitative approaches to the study of sociology. It also speaks to a fundamental, ongoing debate within sociology itself: the question of whether sociology is best described as a science or an art remains unresolved and, according to many experts, unanswerable. Scientists use method-based testing, reasoning, and validation techniques, while those in the arts use theoretical and conceptual systems that cannot always be tested or examined using empirical methods. Sociology displays both characteristics.

During the late twentieth century, debates rose both within sociology and in the broader academic world about whether sociology offered any unique utility as a standalone discipline. At their polar extremes, perspectives ranged from views endorsing Comte’s vision of sociology as a great unifying force in intellectualism to opinions dismissing sociology as a form of academic chicanery. Moderate positions generally coalesced around a consensus recognizing sociology’s multidisciplinary if somewhat overly broad mandate while acknowledging multiple notable and singular contributions to the academic, intellectual, and philosophical canon. Some observers, such as the Nobel Prize-winning economist Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992), opined that an academic discipline claiming to study all of society is as ill-defined and nonspecific as a theoretical academic discipline claiming to study the entirety of the natural world would be.

One specific aspect of this polarizing debate centered on sociology’s functional standing within the broader pantheon of social sciences. Some observers viewed sociology as the “Queen of the sciences, as the overarching and integrating framework for organi[z]ing studies of human activity” (Scott, 2005), while adherents of the opposite extreme characterized sociology as “a mere parasite or scavenger living on bodies of knowledge generated elsewhere” (Scott, 2005). The accompanying debate was never definitively resolved, with many sociologists and academics generally accepting the limited validity of both viewpoints while also acknowledging their accompanying limitations.

Another way of understanding the applications of sociology is to consider the discipline in the context of the major viewpoints its theoretical frameworks analyze, interrogate, and endorse. From this standpoint, sociology is sometimes said to have three main viewpoints: the interactionist, functionalist, and conflict perspectives. Interactionist perspectives reflect the principles of symbolic interactionism but also extend to more generalized social, emotional, and psychological influences. Functionalist perspectives focus on the tangible and observable relationships between individuals, groups, and larger social structures and social institutions. Conflict-oriented perspectives derive from the Marxist tradition, viewing human society as being comprised of various special-interest groups whose ongoing pursuit of their own objectives creates tensions within society. A key element of the conflict perspective holds that one group in society can only achieve progress by disadvantaging another group, which essentially problematizes the concept of progress itself as society is never uniformly able to move forward. This aspect of the conflict perspective is common among sociologists but is not universally accepted.

Some sociological perspectives tie in more closely with developmental psychology, looking at the means through which people become socialized. Examples of these viewpoints include social exchange theory, social learning theory, and labeling theory. Social exchange theory holds that people form relationships with one another via the explicit or implicit application of concepts similar to those used by businesses performing a cost-benefit analysis. Social learning theory suggests that individuals grasp social expectations and norms by “observing and imitating the behavior of others” (“Popular Theories of Sociology,” 2022), while labeling theory “considers that self-identity and the behavior of individuals may be determined or motivated by the terms used to describe or classify them” (“Popular Theories of Sociology,” 2022).

In the twenty-first century, sociologists have engaged with issues and questions associated with the social justice movement at increasing rates. Examples of these include race, gender, ethnicity, economic class, immigration status, the environment, and intersectional points of contact between two or more such categories. Similar phenomena have been documented in many other social sciences and humanities disciplines, with some experts noting that this increasing preoccupation with social questions in other areas of academia prompted something akin to a sociological identity crisis.

About the Author

Jim Greene is a Canadian-born, European Union-based freelance writer, editor, and researcher specializing in academic research and student reference materials covering the social sciences and humanities. An editorial professional since 2001, he holds a BA from Toronto Metropolitan University and an MFA from the University of Southern California.

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