Dr. M. N.

Sultanpur
M.A ,PH.D. JRF

Asst. Professor in Sociology

 What is Sociology?
What Do Sociologists Study?
The Origins of Sociology
The Institutionalization of Sociology
Sociology Today
Have you ever wondered why individuals and societies
are so varied? Do you ask what social forces have shaped
different existences? The quest to understand society is
urgent and important, for if we cannot understand the social
world, we are more likely to be overwhelmed by it. We also
need to understand social processes if we want to influence
them. Sociology can help us to understand ourselves better,
since it examines how the social world influences the way
we think, feel, and act. It can also help with decision-
making, both our own and that of larger organizations.
Sociologists can gather systematic information from which to
make a decision, provide insights into what is going on in a
situation, and present alternatives.

 Objective:
 To make the students to understand the
basic concepts of sociology.
 To provide the knowledge to understand the
importance of certain social processes such
as socialization, social control and social
change, in human social life.
 To mould the student as an ethical human
being and good citizen.
 Meaning,
 Definition,
 Nature, and
 Scope
 sociology is a distinctive social science, but it is not an
isolated social science, but every social science is
depending more and more on inter-disciplinary approach,
that is, historians and sociologists.

 WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?
 What is Sociology?
 Sociology is the scientific study of society, including
patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and
culture.

 The term sociology was first used by Frenchman Auguste

Compte in the 1830s when he proposed a synthetic science
uniting all knowledge about human activity. In the
academic world, sociology is considered one of the social
sciences.
 [1] Dictionary of the Social Sciences, Article: Sociology.
Edited by Craig Calhoun. 2002. New York : Oxford
University Press.
 Sociologistsstudy all things human, from the
interactions between two people to the
complex relationships between nations or
multinational corporations. While sociology
assumes that human actions are patterned,
individuals still have room for choices.
Becoming aware of the social processes that
influence the way humans think, feel, and
behave plus having the will to act can help
individuals to shape the social forces they
face.
 Meaning of Sociology:
 The term sociology is collected of two words;
Latin word „Socius’ means companion or
associate and Greek word „Logos’ means study.
Thus etymological meaning of sociology is, “The
science of society”. However, almost all
sociologists differ in their views regarding the
exact definition of the term. They generally
define sociology as study of:
 Social action- Max Weber
 Interactions- Gillin and Gillin
 Social relationships- MacIver and Page, A.W.
Green
 Social groups- M. Johnson
 Social institutions- Durkheim
 Society- Giddings, ward
 Auguste Comte: Comte defines Sociology as the science
of social phenomena “subject to natural and invariable
laws, the discovery of which is the object of
investigation”.

 Kingsley Davis: “Sociology is a general science of

society”.

 Morris Ginsberg: “In the broadest sense, Sociology is the

study of human interactions and inter-relations, their
conditions and consequences”.

 Anthony Giddens: “Sociology is the study of human

social life, groups and societies”.

 Thus, in general, Sociology is concerned with man, his

social relations and his society.
 Sociologists believe that our social surroundings influence
thought and action. For example, the rise of the social sciences
developed in response to social changes. In the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, Europeans were exploring the world and
voyagers returned from Asia, the Americas, Africa, and the South
Seas with amazing stories of other societies and civilizations.
Widely different social practices challenged the view that
European life reflected the natural order of God.
 In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western Europe was
rocked by technical, economic, and social changes that forever
changed the social order. Science and technology were
developing rapidly. James Watt invented the steam engine in
1769, and in 1865 Joseph Lister discovered that an antiseptic
barrier could be placed between a wound and germs in the
atmosphere to inhibit infection. These and other scientific
developments spurred social changes and offered hope that
scientific methods might help explain the social as well as the
natural world. This trend was part of a more general growth in
rationalism.
 The industrial revolution began in Britain in the late eighteenth century.
By the late nineteenth century, the old order was collapsing “under the
twin blows of industrialism and revolutionary democracy” (Nisbet, 1966:
21). Mechanical industry was growing, and thousants of people were
migrating to cities to work in the new factories. People once rooted in
the land and social communities where they farmed found themselves
crowded into cities. The traditional authority of the church, the village,
and the family were being undermined by impersonal factory and city
life.
 Capitalism also grew in Western Europe in the nineteenth century. This
meant that relatively few people owned the means of production—such
as factories—while many others had to sell their labor to those owners.
At the same time, relatively impersonal financial markets began to
expand. The modern epoch was also marked by the development of
administrative state power, which involved increasing concentrations of
information and armed power (Giddens, 1987: 27).
 Finally, there was enormous population growth worldwide in this period,
due to longer life expectancy and major decreases in child death rates.
These massive social changes lent new urgency to the deveopment of the
social sciences, as early sociological thinkers struggled with the vast
implications of economic, social and political revolutions. All the major
figures in the early years of sociology thought about the “great
transformation” from simple, preliterate societies to massive, complex,
industrial societies.
 Sociology was taught by that name for the
first time at the University of Kansas in 1890
by Frank Blackmar, under the course title
Elements of Sociology, where it remains the
oldest continuing sociology course in the
United States. The first academic
department of sociology was established in
1892 at the University of Chicago by Albion
W. Small, who in 1895 founded the American
Journal of Sociology.
 The first European department of
sociology was founded in 1895 at the
University of Bordeaux by Émile Durkheim,
founder of L'Année Sociologique (1896).
The first sociology department to be
established in the United Kingdom was at
the London School of Economics and
Political Science (home of the British
Journal of Sociology) in 1904.
 In 1919 a sociology departme nt was
established in Germany at the Ludwig
Maximilians University of Munich by Max
Weber, and in 1920 by Florian Znaniecki.
 International cooperation in sociology began in 1893
when René Worms founded the Institut International
de Sociologie, which was later eclipsed by the much
larger International Sociological Association (ISA),
founded in 1949. In 1905, the American Sociological
Association, the world's largest association of
professional sociologists, was founded, and in 1909
the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (German
Society for Sociology) was founded by Ferdinand
Tönnies and Max Weber, among others.
 Sociology Today
 Sociology is now taught and studied in all continents
of the world. Examples from 48 countries in the
world have been collected at McMaster University.

 https://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/in
trotosociology/Documents/Field%20of%20sociology03
3108.htm#whatissociology
 In nature of sociology we investigate, what type
of subject Sociology is? Is sociology a science, or
an art or what? To answer this question Robert
Bierstedt enlisted the following characteristics
of sociology in his book “The Social Order”:
 Sociology is an independent science. Sociology
like any other discipline have its own area of
study and not fully dependent on other
discipline.
 Sociology is a social science : Social sciences
focus on various aspect of human society while
physical sciences deal with natural phenomena.
Thus Sociology is a social science as it deals
with man and his social activities.
 Sociology is a categorical discipline:
Sociology is value-free. It is only interested in
„what is‟ and not „what should be‟ or „ought to
be‟.
 Sociology is pure science : As a Pure science it
is only interested in acquisition of knowledge,
it has nothing to do with application of that
knowledge. Like Physics is a pure science while
engineering is its application.
 Sociology is relatively an abstract science : It
studies the society in an abstract (Theoretical
not physical) way. Like, Sociology is not
interested in particular families but in family as
a social institution that exists in all societies.
 Sociology is a generalising science : Sociology
is not interested in particular events rather it
studies events in a general way. Example:
History study French Revolution but Sociology
will be interested in revolutions in general.
 Sociology is a general science: Like Economy
or Political Science, Sociology does not focus on
only one aspect of human activity. As it has to
deal with society it includes all aspects of
human life in a general way.
 Sociology is both a rational and an empirical
science. It studies the social phenomena in
scientific way. It is based on reason (logic),
observation and experimentation
 Sociology Is Social , Categorical Pure.
Abstract , independent Generalising Science
and General Science in Both Rational and
empirical Discipline but Not Physical
Science, Normative Discipline, Special Social
Science Applied Science Concrete Science
Particularising Science. Thus we can say that
sociology is a science of general nature and
falls in the category of social sciences
 http://www.digitalglober.com/meaning-
nature-scope-of-sociology/
 http://www.digitalglober.com/origin-and-
development-of-sociology/
THANK YOU