Major Concerns of Sociology - Nature and Scope

 

Major concerns of Sociology -Nature and Scope What is Sociology? Sociology can be defned as a study o society or social lie, o group interaction and o o  Social behavior behavior.. It is the scientifc study o society. It is a social science which uses various methods o empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body o o knowledge about human social activity activity..

Nature of Sociology Sociology::Sociology is the branch o knowledge and it has its own characteristics. Sociology has dierent nature in society. It is dierent rom other sciences in certain respects. The ollowing are the main characteristics o sociology: sociology:

1. Soci Sociolog ology y is an indepe independent ndent s scienc cience e :It is not treated and studies as a branch o any other science like philosophy or political philosophy or history. 2. Sociology iis s the soci social al science and not a physical sc science ience : !s a social science it concentrates its attention on man, his social behavior, social activities and social lie. 3. Sociology iis s the cat categorical egorical and not a norm normatie atie disc discipline ipline :Sociology "#onfnes itsel to statement about what is, not what should be or ought to be". !s a social science sociology is necessarily silent about $uestions o value and it is ethically neutral. !. Sociology iis s the pure science and not an applied applied science : The main aim o pure science science is the ac$uisition o knowledge knowledge and it is not bothered weather the ac$uired knowledge is useul or can be put to use. ". Sociology iis s the rela relatiely tiely an a a#stract #stract s science cience and n not ot a concrete science :Sociology does not confne itsel to the study o this society o that particular society or social organi%ation, or marriage, or religion, or

 

group and so on. It is in this simple sense that sociology is an abstract nor a concrete science. $. Sociology iis s the gener generali%ing ali%ing and not a part particulari%ing iculari%ing or indiiduali%ing indiiduali% ing science :Sociology tries to fnd out the general laws or principles about human interaction and association, about the nature, rom, content and the structure o human groups and societies. It tries to make generali%ations on the basis o the study o s some ome selected events. &. Sociology iis s the gener general al science no nott a speci special al science : The area o in$uiry o sociology is general not speciali%ed. It is concerned with human interaction and human lie in general. It only studies human activities in a general way way.. !nthropology and social psychology oten claim themselves to be general social science. '. Sociology iis s #oth rat rational ional and an empiri empirical cal science : There are are two broad ways o appr approach oach to scientifc knowledge knowledge.. &mpiricism is the approach that emphasis e'perience and the acts that result rom observation and e'perim e'perimentation. entation. (ationalism is stresses reason and the theories that result rom logical inerence. !bove is the nature o sociology which helps to know about the sociology character on its feld. It is clear rom the above that sociology is an independent, a social, a categorical, a pure, an abstract, a generali%ing, both a rational and a empirical and a general science.

Scope o Sociology:  There are are two schools o thought with dier dierent ent viewpoints rregarding egarding scope and sub)ect matter o sociology ormal school and synthetic school. !ccording to ormal school sociology was conceived to be a social science !ccording with a specifcally defned feld. This school had *eorge Simmel, +er +erdinand dinand  T  Tonnies, onnies, !lred  ierkandt ierkandt and -eopor -eopord d on on iese as its m main ain advocates. /n the other hand the synthetic school with 0urkheim, 1obhouse and Sorokin advocated a synthesis in orm o coordination among all social sciences. 1. Fo Forma rmall Scho School ol of So Socio ciolo logy gy

+ormal school argued in avor o giving sociology a defnite sub)ect +ormal matter to make it a distinct discipline. It emphasi%ed upon the study o orms o social relationships and regarded sociology as independent. !ccording to Simmel sociology is a specifc social science which describes, classifes, analyses and delineates the orms o social

 

relationships or in other words social interactions should be classifed into various orms or types and analy%ed. Simmel argued that social interactions have various orms. 1e carried out studies o such ormal  ormal relationships as cooperation, competition, sub and super ordinate relationships and so orth. 1e said however diverse the interests interests are that give rise to these societies2 s ocieties2 the orms in which the interests are reali%ed may yet be identical. 1e emphasi%ed on the process o reali%ed abstraction o these orms rom human relationship which are common to diverse situations. ierkandt maintained that sociology should be concerned with ultimate orms o mental or o r psychic relationship which knit the people together in a society. !ccording to on iese there are two kinds o undamental social processes in human society. +irstly the associative process concerning concerning contact, approach, adaptation etc and a nd secondly disassociate processes like competition and con3ict. !part rom these two processes a mi'ed orm o the associative and dissociative also e'ists. &ach o these processes has subclasses which in totality give appro a ppro'imately 'imately 456 orms o human relationships. Sociology should confne itsel to the discovery o the undamental orce o change and persistence and should abstain rom a historical study o concrete societies. Tonnies divided societies into two categories namely *emeinschat 7community8 and *esellschat 7association8 on the basis o degree o intimacy among the members o  the society. society. 1e has on the basis o orms o relationship tried to dierentiate between community and society. 9a' eber also makes out a defnite feld or sociology sociology.. !ccording to him the aim o sociology is to interpret or understand social behavior behavior.. ut social behavior does not cover the whole feld o human relations. Indeed not all human interactions are social. Sociology is concerned with the analysis and classifcation o types o social relationships. 2. Synth Syntheti etic c Schoo Schooll of Soci Sociolo ology gy

Synthe Synt heti tic c schoo schooll wa want nted ed so soci ciol olog ogy y to be sy synt nthe hesi sis s o the the soc socia iall sciences and thus wanted to widen the scope o sociology sociology.. !ccording to 0urkh 0ur khei eim, m, so soci ciol olog ogy y ha has s thr three pr prin inci cipa pall divi divisi sion ons; s; na name mely lySo Soci cial al mor orph phol olog ogy y, so soc cial ph phy ysi siol olog ogy y an and d ge gene nerral so soc cio iollog ogy y. So Soci cial al morphology is concerned with geographical or territorial basis o lie o  people such as population, its si%e, density and distribution etc. This can be done at two levels analysis o si%e and $uality o population whic wh ich h a aec ects ts the the $u $ual alit ity y o so soci cial al relat elatio ionsh nship ip an and d so soci cial al gr grou oups ps..

 

Secondly, the study o social structure or description o the main orms o so soci cial al gr grou oups ps and in inst stit itut utio ions ns wi with th thei theirr cl clas assi sifc fcat atio ion. n. So Soci cial al phys ph ysio iolo logy gy de deal als s wi with th the the ge gene nesi sis s an and d na natu turre o vario arious us so soci cial al institutions namely religion, morals, law and economic institutions etc. In general sociology the main aim is to ormulate general social laws. !ttempt is made to fnd out i there are links among various institutions which would be treated independently in social physiology and in the course to discover general social laws.1obhouse perceived sociology as a science which has the whole social lie o man as its sphere. Its relations with the other social sciences are considered to be one o  mutual mut ual e' e'cha change nge and mut mutual ual sti stimul mulati ation. on. ?. 1ow and w why hy s socie ocieties ties pers persist> ist> @. 1ow an and d why so socie cietie ties s chan change> ge> !n allembracive and e'panding science like sociology is growing at a ast rate no doubt. It is $uite natural that sociologists have developed dierent approaches rom the time to time in their attempts to enrich its study. Still it is possible to identiy some which constitute the sub)ect matter o sociology on which there is little disagreement among the sociologists. Such topics and areas broadly theisfeld o sociology sociology. . ! general outline o the felds o sociology onconstitute which there considerable agreement among sociologists could be given here. =. The ma)or co concer ncern n o sociolog sociology y is sociolo sociological gical anal analysis. ysis. It mea means ns the sociologist seeks to provide an analysis o human society and culture with a sociological perspective. 1e evinces his interest in the evolution o society and tries to reconstruct the ma)or stages in the evolutionary process. !n attempt is also made "to analy%e the actors and orces underlying historical transormations o society". 0ue importance is given to the scientifc method that is adopted in the sociological analysis.

 

?. Sociol Sociology ogy has give given n suAcie suAcient nt attent attention ion to the study o pri primary mary uni units ts o social lie. In this area, it is concerned with social acts and social relationships, individual personality, groups o all varieties, communities 7urban, rural, and tribal8, associations, organi%ations and populations. @. Socio Sociology logy has been conce concerne rned d with the develo development pment,, structur structure e and unction o a wide variety o basic social institutions such as the amily and kinship, property and religion, economic, political, legal, educational and scientifc, recreational and welare, aesthetic and e'pressive e'pr essive institutions. B. Co sociologist can aor aord d to iignore gnore the undamental social pr processes ocesses that play a vital role. The social process such as cooperation and competition, accommodation and assimilation, social con3ict including war and revolution2 communication including opinion ormation e'pression e'pr ession and change2 social dierentiation and stratifcation, sociali%ation and indoctrination, social control and deviance including crime, suicide, social integration and social change assume prominence in sociological studies. 5. Sociology has placed high premium on the method o resear research ch also. #ontemporary sociology has tended to become more and more rational and empirical rather than philosophical and idealistic. Sociologists have sought the application o scientifc method in social researches. researches. -ike a natural scientist, a sociologist senses a problem or investigation. 1e then tries to ormulate it into a researchable proposition. !ter collecting the data he tries to establish connections between them. 1e fnally arrives at meaningul concepts, propositions and generali%ations 4. Socio Sociologist logists s are concer concerned ned with a task o "or "ormulat mulating ing conce concepts, pts, propositions and theories". "#oncepts are a re abstract rom concrete e'perience to represent a class o phenomena". +or e'ample, terms such as social stratifcation, dierentiation, conormity, deviance etc., represent repr esent concepts. ! proposition "seeks to to re3ect a relationship between dierent categories o data or concepts". +or e'ample "lower "lower class youths are a re more lik likely ely to commit crimes than middleclass youths". This preposition is debatable. It may be proved to be alse. T To o take another e'ample, it could be said that "taking advantage o opportunities o higher education and occupational mobility leads to the weakening o the ties o kinship and territorial loyalties". Though this preposition sounds debatable, it has been established ater careul observations, in$uiry and collection o relevant data. Theories go beyond concepts and propositions. "Theories repr represent esent systematically

 

related propositions that e'plain social phenomena". Sociological theories are mostly rooted in actual than philosophical. The sociological perspective becomes more meaningul and ruitul when one tries to derive insight rom concepts, propositions and theories. D. In the pre present sent era o e' e'plosi plosion on o knowled knowledge ge sociol sociologist ogists s have ventured to make speciali%ations speciali%ations also. Thus, today good number o speciali%ed felds o in$uiry is emerging out. Sociology o knowledge, sociology o history, sociology o literatur literature, e, sociology o culture, sociology o religion, sociology o amily etc., represent such speciali%ed felds., The feld o sociological in$uiry is so vast that any student o sociology e$uipped with genius and rich sociological imagination can add new dimensions to the discipline o sociology as a whole. Sociology has been concerned with the evolution o society. It has tried to analy%e the actors and orces underlying the historical transormations o society. +or e'ample, societies have evolved rom primitive tribal state to rural communities. 1ow villages have become important centers o com commercial mercial act activity ivity or o art a and nd cu culture lture and grown into towns and cities. Sociology has also been conce concerned rned with the unit units s o social lie. The attempt ha has s been to look at various types o groups, communities, associations and society.. The eort has been to study the pattern o social society relationships in these units. !n important area which sociology deals with is social institutions. The institutions provide a structure or the society and perorm unctions, which enable the society to meet its needs. In any society, there ar are e fve basic social institutions2 amily, political institutions, economic institutions, religious institutions and educational institutions. 1owever, in more comple' societies, there may be many other institutions such as bureaucracy, military organi%ations, welare and recreational recreational organi%ations, etc. #aste is also an institution, which is more or less peculiar to India. !nother area o study and analysis by sociologists is social processes. In one sense, the social institutions provide the stability and order whereas social processes are the dynamic aspects o social relations. !mong the various processes that will be dealt with in the latter units are sociali%ation, social control, cooperation, con3ict, social deviation and social change.