Sociology among the social sciences

Международная образовательная корпорация

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Course: Sociology Department: Humanities

Credits: 2 Semestr: 1

Lectures: 15 Seminars: 15 Academic year: 2015-2016

Timetable:

Khakimova Elvira, Ph.D. associate professor

Topic of the lecture:

Plan:

1) Definition of Sociology

2) Benefits and perspectives of sociological look at the world

3) Sociology as an academic discipline

4) Sociology among the social studies

The study of sociology starts from the basic premise that human life is social life (Rebach and Bruhn 2001, 5). Most of us are constantly involved in interactions with other human beings. From the families we are born into, through school, work, and play; retirements; and even the gatherings that memorialize our deaths, we spend our lives within a tapestry woven of interlocking social arrangements. Sociology focuses on these arrangements, including how they are created, how they change, and how they impact our lives, opportunities, and options. The word sociology itself actually derives from the Latin word socius (companion) and the Greek word logos (study of). Thus, sociology is most literally the study of companionship. Textbook definition of Sociology:

• the scientific study of the development, structure, interaction, and collective behavior of social relationships

But so what? What does that definition actually mean? Why is sociology important? Why should anyone study sociology? What does sociology offer to us in our personal lives? And what does it offer to wider society?

The study of sociology encompasses the diversity of social worlds, ranging from intimate, one-to-one exchanges to impersonal gatherings of large numbers of people. The focus can be as small as couples, or it can be much larger. It can include families, communities, entire cities, and even nations, or relationships and interactions among nations. Additionally, “virtual” social worlds such as those existing on the Internet are also included in sociological studies.

People who practice sociology are called sociologists. In his classic work Invitation to Sociology, Peter Berger describes a sociologist as someone who is “intensively, endlessly, shamelessly interested” in the doings of humans. A sociological look at the world provides a number of unique benefits and perspectives:

• Sociology provides an understanding of social issues and patterns of behavior – it helps us identify the social rules that govern our lives. Sociologist study how these rules are created, maintained, changed, passed between generations, and shared between people living in various parts of the world. They also study what happens when these rules are broken.

• Sociology helps us understand the workings of the social systems within which we live our lives - Sociologists put our interactions with others into a social context. This means they look not only at behaviors and relationships, but also how the larger world we live in influences these things.

• Social structures (the way society is organized around the regulated ways people interrelate and organize social life) and social processes (the way society operates) are at work shaping our lives in ways that often go unrecognized. Because of this perspective, sociologists will often say that, as individuals, we are social products.

Examples of social structures:

Social Processes mean the various modes of interaction between individuals or groups including cooperation and conflict, social differentiation and integration, development, arrest and decay.

• Sociology helps us understand why we perceive the world the way we do - We are overwhelmed with messages in a variety of forms about how we, and the world around us, both are and should be. These messages come in forms as diverse as guidance from parents and teachers, laws handed down by religious and political entities, and advertisements ranging from pitches for athletic shoes to feeding hungry children. Sociology helps us examine the types of messages we are constantly receiving, their source, how and why they influence us, and our own roles in producing, perpetuating, and changing them.

• Sociology helps us identify what we have in common within, and between, cultures and societies.

Sociologists know that, although people in different parts of the city, country, or world dress differently, speak differently, and have many different beliefs and customs, many of the same types of social forces are at work shaping their lives. This is an especially important perspective in a world where media headlines are often accused of focusing on divisive issues. Sociologists look for what social structure and processes mean for various groups. They look at how various groups shape, and are impacted, by society. Sociologists can help groups find common concerns, understand other groups’ perspectives, and find ways to work together rather than work at odds with each other.

• Sociology helps us understand why and how society changes - Obviously, the social world is constantly changing. This change has been a major interest to sociologists from the beginning of the discipline. However, many sociologists believe that sociology should not stop with only explaining society and how and why the world changes. They argue that sociologists also have an obligation to act, using their unique skills and perspectives to work to improve the world. Sociology, they argue, is a “field of inquiry simultaneously concerned with understanding, explaining, criticizing, and improving the human condition” (Restivo 1991, 4). Armed with a sociological perspective, we can more effectively take action if we don’t like what is happening. We can better participate in shaping the future for ourselves and for others.

The earliest sociologists came to sociology from a variety of disciplines:

1) Emile Durkheim and Max Weber had studied law

2) Charles Horton Cooley was an economist;

3) Lester Ward was a biologist;

4) George Simmel was a philosopher;

5) Andrew M. Greeley a Catholic priest;

Sociology as an academic discipline:

• In 1876, Yale University’s William Graham Sumner (1840–1910), taught the first course identified as “sociology” in the United States.

• The University of Chicago established the first graduate department of sociology in the United States in 1892.

• By 1910, most colleges and universities were offering sociology courses, although not in separate departments.

• Thirty years later, most of these schools had established sociology departments. Sociology was first taught in high schools in 1911–12

Sociology grew out of, and overlaps with, many disciplines. However, it also extends the boundaries of many traditional disciplines.

Discipline	Focus	Shared interests	Different focus of Sociology
Economics	Structure of material goods, financial markets, and transactions	Social consequences of production and distribution	Focus beyond a single structure
History	Context of past events/relationships	Establishing social context	Focuses on present
Political science	Group competition for power and scarce resources in the context of politics	Patterns and consequences of government	Focus beyond a single structure
Anthropology	Variations between cultures	Patterns of culture; types and consequences of interactions and communication	Focuses on industrialized rather that pre-industrial societies
Psychology	Individualistic perspective	Adjustment to life situations	Influences external to the individual

Sociology among the social sciences

The relationship between sociology and the other social sciences is in reality a relationship between sectors of different disciplines, not between whole disciplines. Sociology is one of the most open disciplines toward other disciplines. Sociology has exchanged concepts, theories, methods, practices, and substance most intensively with three other disciplines: political science, history, and economic s.

Glossary

Sociology	Cоциология	Әлеуметтану
Social structure	Социальная структура	әлеуметтік құрылым
Social process	Социальная процесс	әлеуметтік процесс
Social rules	Социальные нормы	әлеуметтік ережелері

Topic for Individual Work of Student with Instructor: Explain the meaning of sociology in the light of some standard definitions

Topic for Individual Work of Student: Personal considerations on the meaning and nature of society. The difference of sociology and psychology.

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