Sociology Index : Understanding sociology. core sociological concepts, social processes, and the methods by which sociologists seek systematic knowledge about societies and cultures. Books, E-Books
Inspired by, and dedicated to our guide Prof. Son-Ung Kim of Hanyang Univ. Managing Editor - Rajrathnam V P - rajrathnamvenpro@yahoo.co.in |
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Contemporary Sociology and Sociological Theory. Concepts and theories of classical sociology. Career Opportunities for Sociology Students - Graduates with a sociology degree can choose to pursue a variety of careers.
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According to Max Weber, 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.
"Man is double. There are two beings in him: an individual being which has its foundation in the organism and the circle of whose activities is therefore strictly limited, and a social being which represents the highest reality in the intellectual and moral order that we can know by observation." - Emile Durkheim. Society is best conceived as the product of interactions between component individuals which are controlled by a body of traditions and norms that arise in the process of interaction. Social control is "the central fact and the central problem of society" - Park |
Sociology Subject Index Specialized Sociology Subfields
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| 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. -
Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels (The Communist Manifesto 1848) 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. - Georg Simmel |
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| Sociology Subject
Index Sociology of Globalization and Society The globalization process is seen as driven by the growth of international capitalism and involving the transformation of the culture and social structures of non-capitalist and pre-industrial societies. Globalization is marked by the expansion of the size and power of multinational corporations. Globalization is a world-wide process of the internationalization of communication, trade, human resource and economic organization. Sociologists have viewed social movements with a number of different perspectives - social movements as a response to social strains, as a reflection of trends and directions throughout the society more generally and as a reflection of individual dissatisfaction and feelings of deprivation. Social Organization and Formal Organization Social organization [social institution] works to socialize the groups or people in it. Social organization are patterns of relationships organized to meet some human needs. Formal organizations are typically understood to be systems of coordinated and controlled activities that arise when work is embedded in complex networks of technical relations and boundary-spanning exchanges. But in modern societies, formal organizational structures arise in highly institutional contexts. Information Society and Information Systems Sociology of the information society, in particular the social-cultural, political, and organizational aspects. Cultural change through the information revolution, changing patterns of work, employment, time and space in everyday life. Society has several mechanisms for building us and our personality. The first mechanism is socialization and the second mechanism is social control Through socialization we learn who we are and what is expected of us and others in our culture. All of our identities come from society. Socialization begins in childhood and continues throughout our lives as we encounter and move through different institutions. Population Studies and Social Demography The study of populations, including their size, structure and transformations. Overview of population processes: How populations grow and change over time - fertility, mortality, and migration. Demography deals with human populations; the statistical analysis of births, deaths, migrations, disease, fertility, growth and economic issues, as illustrating the conditions of life in communities. Deviance generally refers to violations of social norms (including legal norms) but many sociologists reject this behavioral or normative definition of deviance and see deviance instead as simply a label. Deviance in this view is that which we react to, through social control responses, as deviance. Sociology and Agents of Social Change What does social change mean? To explore the notion of social change and agents of social change. Social control is
defined as any effort to ensure conformity to laws, rules, or norms. It is the flip side
of deviant behavior. One often causes the other. When people find behaviors or attributes
offensive, they create laws, rules, or norms that prohibit those deviances. Then they will
attempt to ensure conformity by enforcing sanctions. As social beings, we all are immersed in group settings, at school, in the family, and at work. Social phenomena is all about groups. Groups are the context for most social activities. Everybody belongs to a group: audiences, boards of directors, committees, dance troupes, families, gangs, juries, orchestras, sororities, teams, and even terrorists. Vertical Social Mobility and Horizontal Social Mobility Social mobility is typically measured by comparing the status positions of adult children to that of their parents (intergenerational mobility), but it can be measured by comparing a person's status position over their own lifetime (intragenerational mobility). Sociologists see social mobility as a useful way to measure equality of opportunity. Postmodernism is hard to define, because it is a concept that appears in a wide variety of disciplines or areas of study, including art, architecture, music, film, literature, sociology, communications, fashion, and technology. It's hard to locate postmodernism temporally or historically, because it's not clear exactly when postmodernism begins. Social Power and Social Empowerment Social power is exercised within any given society in a variety of forms: coercive, economic and ideological. Power is the dynamic which keeps the social world in motion. Social power may be used for good or for ill. Social power is the ability to influence other people. What gives people power? Why is it so often abused? Construction and Analysis of Social Problems The study of social problems focuses on analyzing broader social and structural sources and contributors to issues that are problematic for and detrimental to the social health of a society, and then creating solutions based on it. Social Inequality and Social Injustice Social inequality is a fundamental aspect of virtually all social processes, and a person's position in the Social Stratification system is the most consistent predictor of his or her behavior, attitudes, and life chances. Social Institutions and Social Structure Social structure is the patterned and relatively stable arrangement of roles and statuses found within societies and social institutions. The idea of social structure points out the way in which societies, and institutions within them, exhibit predictable patterns of organization, activity and social interaction. Collective Behavior and Mass Behavior Collective behavior is activity involving a relatively large number of people, often spontaneous. Social movements and activism are organized and relatively sustained activities that have a clear goal in terms of achieving or preventing some social change. In all societies and civilizations, people have absorbed themselves in episodes of dramatic behavior, such as the crowd, the riot, and revolutions. The nature of these episodes has evolved into a field of sociology and a concept known as collective behavior. The term social class is used in many ways in sociology. Social class implies a group of individuals sharing a common situation within a social structure, usually their shared place in the structure of ownership and control of the means of production. In land based economies, class structures are based on individual's relationship to the ownership and control of land. An overview of existing empirical insights on the interrelationship between the socio-cultural dimension and economic development. Micro and Macro Sociological Theories Macrosociology is an approach to sociology which emphasizes the analysis of social systems and populations on a large scale, the level of social structure, and at a high level of theoretical abstraction. Microsociology focuses on the individual social agency. Microsociology analyses issues such as the role of women, the nature of the family, and immigration. Minority Problems and Minority Conflict Types of minorities and typical sources of minority conflict, the problems minorities experience, their grievances and demands form a major part of study regarding minority problems. Social Planning and Community Policy Social planning as a perspective on society, an approach to planning, and methods for helping communities develop. How planners can take communities seriously. Principles of Social Psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how we interact with, think about and influence other people. It includes such topics as group processes, prejudice, love, and persuasion. Social psychology is similar to sociology, however, social psychology looks more specifically at individual or personal explanations, whereas sociology looks at cultural explanations. - Dr. S. Pack. |
| Specialized Subfields | ||
| Sociology of Aging and Gerontology - Aging is a phenomenon that affects all human beings. Gerontology is the branch of science that deals with old age, the ageing process, and the problems faced by old people in society. | Sociology of Education - How social institutions and experiences within these institutions affect educational processes and social development. Education and society, educational processes and the social foundations of education. | Rural Sociology - Sociological approaches to rural policy challenges, issues such as community revitalization, rural demographic changes, rural development, environmental impacts, and rural-urban linkages. |
| Sociology of Family - The social, cultural, political and economic impacts of changing families. The family has many forms, like the two-parent family, single-parent family, blended family, same-sex family and adoptive family. | Economic Sociology - Sociological Economics a subject of sociological inquiry ever since the birth of sociology as a discipline, and Economic Sociology is certainly one of the most dynamic fields of sociology today. | Sociology of Literature - The roles of literature in society, and of society in literature. Literature is social evidence and reflects society and society shapes literature. Relationship between literature and society, |
| Sociology of Children - social circumstances of children’s lives, social class differences in children’s life experiences, perspectives on childhood socialization, gender and racial socialization of children, and also peer cultures created by children. | Historical Sociology - There has been important development in contemporary sociology and history after a setback due to fascism and Stalinism. Historical Sociology studies the past to find out how societies work and change. | Sociology of Mass Communication - Social role and importance of modern media in communication and culture. Academic programs for the study of mass media are usually referred to as mass communication programs. |
| Sociology of Knowledge - Sociology of knowledge is the study of the social bases of what is known, believed or valued both by individuals and society. The essential idea is that knowledge itself, how it is defined and constituted, is a cultural product shaped by social context and history. | Sociology of Leisure & Sport - Critical thought, and theory development on issues pertaining to the sociology of sport. To cover all aspects of sport and leisure globally from anthropological, cultural, economic, historical, political and sociological perspectives. | Society and Atheism - Atheism is as old as religion. As religion and its place in society have evolved throughout history, so have the standing and philosophical justification for non-belief. Epicurus was a materialist and probably the first to develop the argument from evil. |
| Sociology of Human Ecology - Human ecology is about how the relationship between the individual and the natural environment is mediated through society? Human ecology is the branch of sociology that is concerned with studying the relationships between human groups and their physical and social environments. | Sociology of Mass Society - 'Mass communication' refers to distribution of entertainment, arts, information, and messages by mass media. Social processes such as urbanization, industrialization and democratization blurred the sharp distinctions that had divided society leading to mass society. | Sociology of Gambling - The economics and legality of gambling. The current legal, legislative, economic, and social environment concerning gambling. In sociology of gambling we study gambling as a consequence of the social or subcultural environment in which the gambler lives. |
| Sociology of Sexualities - The research and study of sexuality is an interdisciplinary field of social analysis. Sexuality is an individual, biological and psychological phenomena. The idea of sexuality is a social fact or construction.Sociology of Sexualities should gain status as an ASA Section. | Political Sociology - Political Sociology is the Study of Socio-Political Phenomena. The founders of political sociology were Max Weber and Moisey Ostrogorsky. Political sociology deals with power and the intersection of personality, social structure and politics. | Urban Sociology - In urban sociology the assumption is
that place matters. Urban sociology has ignored the role of place in understanding a
critical aspect of personal and collective well–being. The challenges and opportunities offered to urban sociology |
| Sociology of Disability - Disability is a "disadvantage or restriction of activity caused by a contemporary social organization which takes no or little account of people who have physical impairments and thus excludes them from participation in the mainstream of social activities." - Michael Oliver | Sociology of Rape - The study of rape or sexual assault has grown greatly since the late 1960s due to feminist activists. Rape is a social harm directly touching a number of women and in many ways, impacts nearly all women. In Mill's terms, Rape is a social problem, or issue, that effects all of society. | Military Sociology - Military Sociology examines the impact of the military on society as well as the impact of society on the military. Sociological concepts, principles, and theories used in the study of the military. The military as a social institution. Contemporary military issues, situations, and problems |
| Sociology of Health - Health and Social Behavior and the Sociological Concepts of Health. The study of medicine and health policy is a central concern of sociology. Methods to the understanding of health and medicine in their social context of health, illness, and health care. Sociological approaches to health and health care have a long history. | Social Anthropology - Social anthropology or cultural anthropology is the science of human social and cultural behaviour and its development. Social anthropology is conceptually and theoretically similar to sociology. Methodological and ethical problems entailed by social research, specifically anthropology, | Sociology of Law and Litigation - "Respect for
the law, in a democracy, has derived from the fact that the law expressed the will of the
citizens... But how could this hold good for the minority?" - Emile Durkheim. "Equality before law does not describe the actual operation of any known legal system....." - Donald Black. |
Sociological Methodology - Methods of research in the social sciences. Methods best suited to research questions, measure concepts, apply sampling procedures, understand data collection strategies, and analyze data. The study or critique of methods. There are many philosophical issues around the use of a particular method or about positivism or measurement itself. |
Sociology of Work and Industry Sociology of Work includes a wide range of work areas: Work and Family - Organizational Culture - Group dynamics - Socialization processes - Absenteeism and turnover - Violence in the workplace - Gender and Race - Labor-management - Work attitudes and behaviors - Worker Cultures |
Sociology of Death and Dying - We subconsciously fear that we are all to be "victims" of death, we are not yet "explorers" of death. -What is the relationship between one's idea of death and one's idea of oneself, between awareness of mortality and awareness of identity? SOC 320 - Sociology of Death - chapman.edu |
| Sociology of Music, Art, TV, Film - The sociology of music has been an area left to European sociologists. Sociology of art is concerned with the social worlds of art and aesthetics. Social aspects, content, form and reception of film. | Sociology of Suicide - Suicide is the action or an act of intentionally killing oneself. Suicide is the act of ending or terminating one's own life, or "willful destruction of one's self-interest". Suicide may be a result of depression, desperation or other situations. | |
| Astrosociology a legitimate field the social science community and the space/aerospace community | Archaeology and Archaeological Study of past cultures through discovery and examination | Architecture, Architectural Sociology influenced by society and human behavior | Aristocracy - Oligarchy is government of a State run by its elite citizens |
| Bureaucracy is prominent in the large-scale administration of agencies of the modern state | Capitalism - capital is privately owned and profit is reinvested so as to accumulate capital | Colonialism - Political domination of one nation over another - Imperialism | Communism - revolutionary social change rather than just electoral politics |
| Crime and Criminology - Crime is the central focus of criminology and a major topic of the sociology of deviance | Cyberocracy - the effects of the information revolution on business and government gives cyberocracy. | Democracy - Rule by the People, of the people, for the people with equal rights and equal right to vote | Fascism - a form of extreme right-wing ideology - Fascism is political doctrine opposed to democracy |
| Feudalism - reciprocal legal and military obligations revolving around concepts of lords, vassals, and fiefs. | Human Rights - Universal Declaration on Human Rights was adopted by UN General Assembly on Dec 10, 1948 | Imperialism is domination by one or more countries over others for political and economic objectives | Nazism - remembered for its ideology of racial purity and of the superiority of the so-called Aryan race |
| Social Capital - The term "social capital" is an analogous to human capital and physical capital | Socialism upholds the principle of collectivity, rather than individualism | Technocracy - emphasizes "hard" quantitative and econometric skills | Theocracy - Many islamic countries are basically theocracies |
Sociology Topical Index & Dictionary
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