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What is Sociology
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What is sociology? Briefly, trace its development, commenting on early sociologists’ ambition for a scientific study of society. Sociology is “the attempt to understand how society works. It studies the relationship between people, how those relationships form part of broader sets of relationships between social groupings, and how such groupings and institutions are related to the under society…” (BRITISH SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION) Sociology demonstrates the need to take a much broader view of why we are as we are and how we act. There are and have been a diversity of approaches to the development of social thinking and there has never been a discipline in which there is a body of ideas that all accept are valid. It is about our own lives, our own behaviour and is therefore complex and difficult to study. The practice of Sociology is involves the ability to think imaginatively and to detach oneself from any preconceived ideas about social life. It can also increase self understanding and influence our own futures from what we learn. This objective and systematic study of human behaviour is a relatively recent development with its beginnings being found in the late eighteenth century. Any study or discovery was initially expressed in religious terms or drawn from well known myths and superstitions. The French Revolution of 1789 marked a breakthrough in the abandonment of traditional ideas promoting those more secular such as liberty and equality. During the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, there was a broad spectrum of social and economic transformations. These rises of industry lead to migration from land to urban areas resulting in new forms of social relationships. Society as a whole has always been curious as to how we behave. The rise of a scientific approach in understanding the world brought about radical changes to our perspectives and outlook. Sociology emerged, as did biology, chemistry and physics as part of this important intellectual process and ‘…the shattering of traditional ways of life challenged thinkers to develop a new understanding of both the social and natural worlds.’ Sociology embraces a variety of theoretical views. The disagreement between theoretical standings and viewpoints can occasionally be quite radical and these differences can occasionally produce complex issues due to the problem of subjecting our own behaviour to study.
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