What is sociology?

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Sociology is a comprehensive subject that studies the structure, function, occurrence and development of society through social relations and social behaviors. It has changed from anthropology, which mainly studies the origin, organization and customs of human society, to a discipline that studies the development of modern society and the organized or group behavior in society. In sociology, people do not exist as individuals, but as members of a social organization, group or institution.

General inspection

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Sociology appeared in the19th century as a response to the prominent contradiction of modernity. The contradiction of modernity lies in the fact that the world is getting smaller and smaller and more integrated, while the personal world experience is getting more and more divided and dispersed. Sociologists not only want to know what brings social groups together, but also want to know the development process of social disintegration in order to "correct". (This view is mainly held by Durkheim School in sociology, while other schools, especially Frankfurt School, do not discuss social treatment methods, because they think that the treatment schemes proposed for social diseases are often imposed on the vast majority of people with the concept of a small group, which can not only solve the problem, but also make it worse. )

Today, sociologists' research on society includes a series of studies from macro-structure to micro-behavior, including race, nationality, class and gender, to the study of individual social relations patterns as detailed as family structure. Sociology is divided into more and more detailed research directions, including crime and divorce, as well as interpersonal relationships and other micro aspects. Sociologists often use quantitative research methods to quantitatively describe the overall structure of a society, so as to study quantitative models that can predict social changes and people's responses to social changes. This research method, initiated by Radas F lazarsfeld, is now one of the main methodologies of sociological research. Another school of sociological research methods is qualitative research, including data collection methods such as participation in observation, in-depth interviews and group discussions, and analytical methods based on grounded theory and content analysis. Some sociologists engaged in qualitative analysis believe that this is a better method because it can strengthen the understanding of "discrete" society and unique humanities. This method never seeks consensus, but can appreciate each other's unique ways and learn from each other's strengths. The mainstream view is that quantitative and qualitative research methods are complementary, not contradictory.

history

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Comte invented the word sociology. Sociology is a new academic category. It spans economy, politics, anthropology, history and psychology. Its significance lies in finding the source of human knowledge and philosophy.

The word "sociology" was first coined by Auguste Comte, who tried to unify all humanities disciplines including history, psychology and economics with a physical method, so as to establish a discipline that can stand the test of scientific rules. At first, he called this new discipline "social physics". His main contribution is to finally separate the social sciences from the humanities. His sociological concept is typical of18th century: he thinks that all human activities will go through different historical stages, and if a society can grasp this stage, it can prescribe effective prescriptions for social diseases.

The first book about sociology was written by the British philosopher herbert spencer in the middle of19th century. In the United States, 1890 Elements of Sociology of the University of Kansas is the first course of sociology [1], [2] and [1892] The University of Chicago was founded by Abian Small, the first independent university college in the United States, and he also founded the American Journal of Sociology [3]. 1895, the University of Bordeaux in France established the first sociology school in Europe. 1904 the London school of economics and political science established the first sociology department in Britain [4]. 19 19 Max Weber established the first sociology department at the University of Munich. 1920 Florian Znaniecki established the first sociology department in Poland.

The first international cooperation in sociology took place in 1893. At that time, René Worms established the "International School of Sociology" and finally merged with the International Association of Sociologists established by 1949 [5]. Founded in 1905, the American Sociological Association is the largest sociologist association in the world today.

From 19 to the 20th century, a number of classic sociologists appeared, such as Karl Marx, Ferdinand Tonnis, Emile Durkheim, Pareto and Max Weber. Like Comte, they don't consider themselves sociologists. Their work involves religion, education, economy, psychology, ethics, philosophy, theology and other academic fields. Of course, they are very influential in sociology, especially Karl Marx, who is an important giant in economics.

Comte's early theoretical research method is to imitate the method of studying natural science and apply the same methodology to explore social phenomena. Emphasize that experience, positivism and scientific methods are the solid foundation of sociology. This methodology is called positivism.

In the early19th century, the study of social life by positivism and naturalism was questioned by German neo-Comte philosophers such as Dilthey and Heinrich Likel. They believe that nature is different from the social world, and human society has unique categories such as meaning, symbols, rules, moral norms and values. These elements have created human culture. According to this view, Max Weber developed "anti-positivism" explanatory sociology, emphasizing that the object of sociological research is the subjective meaning of human behavior. It is closely related to anti-naturalism, which makes sociological research pay special attention to the value of people and culture. This has led to an indistinguishable debate between subjective research and objective research, which has affected interpretation research. The internet age has also spawned a new branch of sociology-public sociology.

Finally, natural science has not actually replaced other social sciences, but has become another form of emphasizing objects and methods. Today, sociologists usually study human organizations and social systems through comparative methods, especially in the study of complex industrial social organizational structure. From the 20th century to 2 1 century, sociological research should also be an era of rapid progress.

Science and Mathematics in Sociology

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Sociologists often analyze groups such as social organizations, religious organizations, political organizations and business organizations. They study the interaction between social groups, trace the origin and development process, and analyze the influence of group activities on each member. Sociologists are concerned about the characteristics of social groups, the interaction between groups or members, and the influence of social characteristics (such as gender, age and race) on daily life. These social research results can help educators, legislators, managers and social workers to solve social problems and formulate public policies. Most sociologists have many majors, such as social organization, social stratification and social mobility, ethnic relations, education, family, social psychology, cities, rural areas, politics and comparative sociology, gender roles and relations, demographic geography, gerontology, criminal psychology and sociological applications.

Today, sociology studies human organizations, social groups, social interaction and so on, using a large number of comparative methods. The development of sociology has brought additional demands to other sciences, which is very important for the study of modern industrial society. In recent years, inspired by anthropology, it has accelerated the study of multiculturalism and multi-ethnicity.

On the other hand, sociology is developing into micro-social structure, such as race, social class, gender and family. Because there are many crimes, many family problems and great social pressure, sociology is urgently needed to find a solution.

Sociologists study social relations and predict social changes through quantitative research. They hope to have a deeper understanding of social operation through qualitative research, such as interviews and group discussions. Some sociologists are debating how to strike a balance between the two and fill the gap between them. For example, quantitative research describes large-scale social phenomena, while qualitative research describes how individuals understand large-scale social phenomena.

Main theory

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In social theory, some abstract and even complex theoretical frameworks are often used to explain and analyze social styles and macro-social structures. Social theory always has a disturbing relationship with classical disciplines, that is, most important sociologists have never held university positions. Nowadays, social theory is regarded as a branch of social science, covering anthropology, economics, theology, history and many other scientific fields. The first social theory was born almost simultaneously with sociology. Comte, the father of sociology, founded the first social theory-social evolution theory. /kloc-in the 0/9th century, the three major social theories were social evolution theory, social circulation theory and Marxist historical materialism. Although they are now regarded as outdated, they have produced new theories, such as new evolutionism, modern sociobiology, post-industrial social theory and multilateral theory.

Different from the objective natural science, social theorists rarely use scientific methods and other factual methods to prove their arguments. On the contrary, they all use some assumptions in the face of very big social trends. However, these assumptions take a long time to prove. This is the focus of critics' criticism. For deconstructionists and post-modernists, they even question that all research and methods are wrongly inherited. Many times, social theory is considered unprovable.

However, social theory is the biggest part of sociology. Objective scientific research often supports the explanation of social theorists. Statistical research based on scientific methods found that although women and others are engaged in the same occupation, there is a big income gap. This has become the premise of feminist complex social theory. In a word, especially for the followers of pure sociology, social theory makes such an appeal because its focus has shifted from the individual to the society itself and some social forces that can control our lives. This sociological insight has been focused on students and people who are dissatisfied with the status quo for many years, because it assumes that social structure and style are arbitrary or controlled by powerful social groups. This means the possibility of change. This implies that people at the bottom of society have been unfairly oppressed.

Social research methods

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Social Research Association collects empirical evidence through various methods, including questionnaire survey, interview, participant observation and statistical research.

The difficulty faced by different methods is that they are all based on the theoretical basis adopted by researchers to explain and understand society. As a functionalist, Emile Durkheim likes to explain everything with a large-scale social structure. If he is a symbolic interactor, he is concerned with how people understand others. Marxists or neo-Marxists turn everything into class struggle. Phenomenologists just think about how the public can establish their own meaning to reality. When faced with real social problems, all parties often argue about who is right and who is wrong, but in fact they will combine different methodologies.

Sociologists are interested in the Internet for four reasons: 1) It is a research tool. For example, online questionnaire survey replaces paper questionnaire. 2) Become a discussion platform. 3) It is a research topic in itself. Research on Internet Sociology: Online Community and Virtual Community. 4) Changes in social organizations due to the Internet, such as large-scale social changes from industrial society to knowledge society.

Sociology and other social sciences

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At the beginning of the 20th century, sociologists and psychologists studied industrial society and made contributions to anthropology. It should be pointed out that anthropologists have studied industrial society. Today, sociology and anthropology mainly focus on different theories and methods, rather than objects.

Sociobiology is a new science that integrates sociology and biology. Although it was quickly accepted, there are still many controversies because it tries to explain social behavior and structure by evolution and biological processes. Sociobiology is often criticized by sociologists for relying too much on the influence of genes on behavior. Social biologists say that there is a complex relationship between nature and feeding. Therefore, sociobiology is closely related to anthropology, zoology and evolutionary psychology. This is still unacceptable to other sciences. Some social biologists, such as Richard Macharek, require sociology to study non-human society.

Sociology is related to social psychology. The former cares about social structure, while the latter cares about social behavior.

Main sociological themes

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Group organization: family-community-village-market town-city-tribe-country-group-culture. ..

Groups and organizations

Primary social groups

domestic

be near

Children's play group

social organizations

bureaucratism

Social system: relatives-marriage-economy-politics-law-religion-education-culture-sports. ..

Social process: cooperation-competition-war-reform-revolution-public opinion-social values-social integration. ..

contact

social role

Norms and anomalies

social change

Stratification and flow

urbanization

modernization

Social problems: employment-ethnic division-crime-environmental pollution-population-immigration-racial discrimination-violence-poverty. ..

The main figures in sociology

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Auguste Comte (Auguste Comte)

Emile Durkheim

Herbert Spencer

Karl Marx

Max Weber (Max Weber)

Tonnis

Georg Simmel

Mannheim

Pareto theory and method

Malinowski

pelter

William sumner (william sumner)

william isaac thomas

Zlanetsky, florian

Parsons

merton

Smelser

Gans

Mills

Mead

Lewis Coser

George Casper Homans

Blau

Emerson

Gofman

Shu ci

Harold Garfinkel

Adorno

Erich fromm

Herbert marcuse.

Juergen Habermas (Jurgen Habermas)

Michel Foucault

Lyota

Lv Xian Fitz

Bourdieu

Anthony Giddens

Elias (Hebrew Prophet)

Clifford Geertz (cultural anthropologist, Clifford Geertz)

Fei Xiaotong

Sociological theory

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Social organism theory

Social development theory

Social justice theory

Social exchange theory

Social interaction theory

Social evolutionism

Social balance

Social cognitive theory

social nominalism

social realism

Social learning theory

sociocybernetics

structural functionalism

Conflict theory

Frankfurt school

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Frankfurt School is an academic group composed of the Institute of Social Studies of Frankfurt University in Germany. It is the largest Marxist school in the 20th century, one of the main schools of western humanism Marxism, and one of the important schools of modern western philosophy, both in terms of the number of representatives and the depth and breadth of theoretical achievements of its members. It can be asserted that it is impossible to fully and profoundly understand the evolution of human cultural spirit in the 20th century without learning and understanding the social critical theory of Frankfurt School.

Frankfurt School has many representatives, rich writings and a wide range of fields, and the activities of the main representatives cover almost the whole 20th century. Hawke Hallmo, the founder of Frankfurt School, is the same age as Lukacs and Bloch, while Habermas and others, the main representatives of the second generation, are still alive and active in the world.

1923, when a group of unorthodox Marxists, represented by Lukacs and Karl Kirsch, began to reflect on the experience and lessons of proletarian revolution and re-understand Marxist theory, the University of Frankfurt established a social research institute with the purpose of studying Marxism. The Institute founded the History of Socialism and Workers' Movement, and its first director was Karl Kronberg, a historian belonging to the Austrian Marxist tradition (186 1- 1940). Gruenberg is neutral in the debates among different factions within Marxism. He holds the same attitude towards orthodox Marxism in the East and unorthodox Marxism in the West such as Lukacs. In a sense, the Frankfurt Institute for Social Studies has become the connection point between eastern and western Marxist thoughts. The History of Socialism and Workers' Movement, which it runs, treats the eastern and western Marxist documents equally, and publishes newly discovered manuscripts of Marx and Engels, articles by Bernstein and others, and articles by Lukacs and Karl Kirsch. It can be said that during Gruenberg's tenure as director, the members of the Institute of Social Studies have not yet formed what we call the Frankfurt School today. 1930, Hawke Hamo took over from the sick Gruenberg as the director of the Institute of Social Studies, and the history of Frankfurt School, which is famous for its social critical theory, began. The history of Frankfurt School can be divided into three main stages.

The magic year from 1930 to 1949 is the founding period and early period of Frankfurt School. As far as the activity area of its members is concerned, it is mainly the American period of Frankfurt School.

The biggest difference between Hawke Hammer and Gruenberg is that he does not regard the Institute of Social Studies and the practice of socialism and the workers' movement as places where different Marxist ideas meet or talk, but sets a clear research direction for the members of the Institute of Social Studies, that is, to establish social critical theory or critical social theory. Hawk Hammer gave a speech entitled "The Present Situation of Social Philosophy and the Task of Social Research Institute" when he became the director. He clearly pointed out that the task of social research institute is to establish a social philosophy, which is not satisfied with the empirical analysis of economics and history in capitalist society, but reveals and explains "the fate of people as members of society" with "all material culture and spiritual culture of all mankind" as the object, and makes a universal philosophical and sociological criticism of the whole capitalist society. Therefore, on the one hand, Hawke Hammer introduced Freud's psychoanalysis to criticize culture and ideology; On the other hand, he introduced and organized many famous scholars to do this research, such as Adorno, Marcuse, Fromm, Benjamin and so on. These people either became members of the School of Social Studies of Frankfurt University or authors of the newly established Journal of Social Studies, thus forming a strong camp of Frankfurt School.

However, fascism came to power soon, and most members of Frankfurt School were Jews with radical Marxist positions, so they could not continue their activities in Germany. The Institute for Social Studies was forced to move to the United States in 1933, and was successively affiliated with Columbia University in new york and University of California at Berkeley. During this period, members of Frankfurt School gradually developed and established their own social criticism theory, and made an all-round cultural criticism of the developed capitalist society. During this period, Hawke Hammer published "Traditional Theory and Critical Theory" in 1937, which clearly summarized the theory of Frankfurt School as critical theory. During this period, Frankfurt School published many important critical theoretical works, such as Hawke Hammer's Authoritarian State, Hawke Hammer and Adorno's Dialectics of Enlightenment, Fromm's Escape from Freedom and Marcuse's Reason and Revolution.

1949 to the end of 1960s was the middle period of Frankfurt School, during which members of Frankfurt School returned to Germany and became active in West Germany. This is the heyday or golden age of Frankfurt School.

1949, at the invitation of the west german government, Hawke hamo and Adorno returned to China to rebuild the social research institute, serving as the director and deputy director respectively. Before long, Hawke Hammer became the president of Frankfurt University, and then went to the United States to give lectures. In fact, the work of the Social Research Institute is mainly presided over by Adorno. During this period, not only Hawke Hallmo, Adorno, Marcuse, Fromm and others (whether they returned to Germany or stayed in the United States) continued to construct and develop the Frankfurt School's social criticism theory, but also a group of young theorists such as Habermas, Schmidt, and Negert began to rise and become the second generation of Frankfurt School theorists. During this period, Frankfurt School further developed its own social critical theory. They further emphasized the dialectical negativity and revolution, comprehensively criticized the developed industrial society, profoundly revealed the alienation of modern people and the materialized structure of modern society, especially the bondage and rule of alienation forces such as ideology, technical rationality and mass culture, and formulated revolutionary strategies under the conditions of developed capitalism. The radical cultural criticism theory of Frankfurt School gained a high reputation and had a great influence in the student and youth rebellion that swept across Europe in the late 1960s. Hawk Hammer, Adorno, Marcuse, Fromm and other major representatives have all become very famous and influential social thinkers. Adorno's Dialectics of Negation, Fromm's Sound Society and Love and Civilization, Habermas's Cognition and Interest, and Schmidt's Marx's View of Nature are the main works representing the Frankfurt School's thoughts in this period.

Since 1970s, Frankfurt School has entered its later stage of development, which is the period when the main representatives of Frankfurt School died one after another and the school began to disintegrate.

The student movement that swept across Europe in the late 1960s brought the reputation of Frankfurt School to its peak, but Frankfurt School soon began the process of decline and disintegration. There are many reasons for this. First of all, the main representatives of the first generation Frankfurt School died one after another. Adorno died in 1969, Hawk Hammer in 1973, Marcuse in 1979 and Fromm in 1980. Secondly, there are great differences between Habermas and Schmidt, the main representatives of the second generation of Frankfurt School, which led to the disintegration of Frankfurt School. Schmidt is regarded as the orthodox successor of Frankfurt School. He believes that Frankfurt School's critical theory is still valid in the developed industrial society in 1970s, while Habermas emphasizes the inadaptability of Frankfurt School's traditional critical theory with modern social conditions. He began to explore the legitimacy of late capitalism and advocated replacing the core position of instrumental rationality with communicative rationality, thus reconstructing historical materialism with communicative action theory. These differences are reflected in Schmidt's thoughts on critical theory, critical theory as a historical philosophy and Habermas's works on the legitimacy of late capitalism, reconstruction of historical materialism, communication and social evolution. Theoretical differences have undermined the cooperation among members of Frankfurt School. From 65438 to 0969, Habermas served as the director of the Institute of Social Studies, but soon after, due to the deterioration of his relationship with Schmidt, Habermas withdrew from the Institute of Social Studies in 197 1. 1972, Schmidt became the director of the institute. Habermas returned to teach at Frankfurt University in 1983. Although the School of Social Studies still exists, Habermas and others are more active in international academic circles as independent thinkers, and the history of Frankfurt School as a strong school has basically ended.

Schools and branches of sociology

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Historical social school

School of Social Statistics

Branch of sociology

Sociological history

educational sociology

History of social thought

Sociological method

Social survey methods and social statistics

Experimental sociology

Sociology of mathematics

Applied sociology

Professional sociology, industrial sociology, medical sociology, urban sociology, rural sociology, family sociology, environmental sociology, youth sociology, aging sociology, criminal sociology, sociology of deviance, women's issues, ethnic issues, social issues, social masses and stratification issues, community, social security, social work, micro-sociology, political sociology, religious sociology, sports sociology, development sociology and population sociology.

comparative sociology

Social geography

cultural sociology

Sociology of art, sociology of knowledge and sociology of morality.

Historical sociology

economic sociology

military sociology

social psychology

History of social psychology, experimental social psychology

public relations

social anthropology

Organizational sociology

sociology of development

Welfare sociology

demography

Population economics, population sociology, population theory history, population history, population geography, population ecology, regional demography, population system engineering, population forecast, population planning, population policy and family planning.

See:

Psychology-Information Science-Politics-Socialism-Law of Social Development-Social Structure-Talent Science

Related literature

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Weber (Germany), Basic Concepts of Sociology, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2005, ISBN 7563352058.

Ip Chi Shing, What is Sociology, Yangzhi Cultural Undertaking Co., Ltd., 2005, ISBN 9578187181.

George Raiser (USA), Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots, Peking University Publishing House, 2005, ISBN 730 1087985.

Jonathan Turner (USA), The Structure of Sociological Theory, laurel Books Co., Ltd., 200 1, ISBN 95755 1498x.

Sociology (version 10), prentiss Hall Publishing House, 2004, ISBN 0131849182.

Piotr Sztompka，Socjologia，Znak，2002，ISBN 8324002 189

Sociology: a guide to reference and information sources. Third edition. Lyttleton, Colorado, Library Unlimited Company, 2005, ISBN 1563089475.

Dialogue between anthony giddens and anthony giddens, School of Politics, Cambridge University, 1998. Introduce classical sociology well.

Anthony giddens, sociology, political science, Cambridge.

Anthony giddens, Human Society: An Introduction to Sociology.

Robert Nisbet, Sociological Tradition, London, Heineman Education Books, 1967, ISBN 1560006676.

Evan Willis, Sociological Exploration: An Introduction to Social Life Research, 3rd edition, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1996, ISBN 08 13523672.

Andrey Korotayev, Artemy Malkov and Daria Khaltourina, Introduction to Social Macrodynamics, Moscow: URSS, 2006. ISBN 5-484-004 14-4 [6]。

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Sociological definitions in Chinese-English dictionaries (source: Baidu dictionary);