Wikipedia
Sociology
Sociology (Latin: socius, "companion"; -ology, "the study of", Greek λόγος, lógos, "knowledge") is the study of human societies."Comte, Auguste" A Dictionary of Sociology (3rd Ed), John Scott & Gordon Marshall (eds), Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0198609868, ISBN 978-0198609865 It is a social science (with which it is informally synonymous) that uses various methods of empirical investigation"Classical Statements8"> and critical analysis"Classical Statements4"> to develop and refine a body of knowledge on human social activity, often with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare. Subject matter ranges from the micro level of agency and interaction to the macro level of systems and social structures."Giddens Intro"> Giddens, Anthony, Duneier, Mitchell, Applebaum, Richard. 2007. Introduction to Sociology. Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company
Sociology is a broad discipline in terms of both methodology and subject matter. Its traditional focuses have included social stratification (i.e. class relations), religion, secularization, modernity, culture and deviance, and its approaches have included both qualitative and quantitative research techniques. As much of what humans do fits under the category of social structure and agency, sociology has gradually expanded its focus to further subjects, such as medical, military and penal organizations, the internet, and even the role of social activity in the development of scientific knowledge. The range of social scientific methods has also been broadly expanded. The linguistic and cultural turns of the mid-20th century led to increasingly interpretative, hermeneutic, and "postmodern" approaches to the study of society. Conversely, recent decades have seen the rise of new mathematically rigorous approaches, such as social network analysis.
History
Origins
Sociological reasoning predates the origin of the term. Social analysis has origins in the common st read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology