SOC101 Introduction of Sociology

SOC101 Introduction of Sociology

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 THE ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY

Sociology

Sociology is the scientific study of human social life, groups and societies.

There was no sociology as a distinct discipline before the advent of 19th century. As a distinct discipline it emerged

about the middle of the 19th century when European social observers began to use scientific methods to test their

ideas. It looks that three factors led to the development of sociology.

The first was the Industrial revolution.

• By the mid 19th century Europe was changing from agriculture to factory production. There was the emergence of

new occupations as well as new avenues of employment away from the land.

• Masses of people migrated to cities in search of jobs. Pull and push factors were instrumental in such migrations. In

the countryside, due to the nature of agricultural society, there were no occupations that could be alternatives to

agriculture. Hence people got pushed to look for new places whereas the urban/industrial places with new job

opportunities provided a pull to the same population.

• At the new places there was anonymity, crowding, filth, and poverty. Ties to the land, to the generations that had

lived there before them, and to the ways of their life were abruptly broken. Eventually the urban life brought radical

changes in the lives of people.

• The city greeted them with horrible working conditions: low pay; long and exhausting working hours; dangerous

work; foul smoke; and much noise. To survive the vagaries of life, families had to permit their children to work in these

uncongenial conditions.

• People in these industrial cities developed new ideas about democracy and political rights. They did not want to

remain tied to their rulers. Therefore the ideas about individual liberty, individual rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of

happiness emerged, which actually laid the foundation to future political revolution.

The second factor that stimulated the development of sociology was imperialism. Europeans successfully conquered

many parts of the world. They were exposed to radically different cultures. Startled by these contrasting ways of life,

they began to ask why cultures differed.

The third impetus for the development of sociology was the success of the natural sciences. People moved to

question fundamental aspects of their social world. They started using the scientific method (systematic observation,

objectivity) to the study of human behaviour.

Auguste Comte

The idea of applying the scientific method to the social world, known as positivism, was apparently first proposed by

Auguste Comte (1798‐1857). He was French. He migrated from a small town to Paris. The changes he himself

experienced, combined with those France underwent in the revolution, led Comte to become interested in the two

interrelated issues: social order (social static) and social change (social dynamics). What holds the society together (Why

is there a social order)? And once the society is set then what causes it to change? Why its directions change?

Comte concluded that the right way to answer such questions was to apply the scientific method to social life. There

must be laws that underlie the society. Therefore we should discover these principles by applying scientific method to

social world. Once these principles discovered then we could apply these for social reform.

He advocated for building new societies on twin foundations of science and industry rather than on religion and

landowner‐serf relationship. انہوں نے مذہب اور زمينداروں کے خطبے سے متعلق تعلقات کی بجائے سائنس اور صنعت کی دو بنيادوں پر نئی

معاشرے بنانے کی وکالت کی۔

This will be a new science and Comte named it as Sociology (1838) – the study of society. Comte is credited with being

the founder of sociology.

Other early pioneer names are:

Herbert Spenser (1820‐1903)

He was an Englishman and is sometimes called second founder of sociology. He too believed that society operates

under some fixed laws. He was evolutionary and considered that societies evolve from lower to higher forms. In this

way he applied the ideas of Darwin to the development of human society, and hence this approach may be called as

Social Darwinism.

By following the basic principle of Social Darwinism Spenser advocated that ‘let the fittest survive’. There should be no

reform because it will help in the survival of lower order individuals. (Charity and helping the poor were considered to

be wrong). Spenser was a social philosopher rather than a social researcher.

Karl Marx (1818‐1883)

Karl Marx was a German. According to him the key to human history is Class Conflict. Not really a sociologist but wrote

widely about history, philosophy, economics, political science.

Because of his insights into the relationship between the social classes, he is claimed to be an early sociologist. He

introduced one of the major perspectives in sociology – conflict perspective.

Emile Durkheim (1858‐1917)

He was French. His primary goal was of getting sociology recognized as a separate academic discipline. His systematic

study comparing suicide rates among several countries revealed an underlying social factor: People were more likely to

commit suicide if their ties to others in their communities were weak. He identified the key role of social integration in

social life.

Max Weber (1864‐1920)

Max Weber was a German. He used cross‐cultural and historical materials in order to determine how extensively

social groups affect people’s orientations to life.

The Fields of Sociology

There is a big diversity in fields of interest in Sociology. There is long list of fields that have been provided by the

American Sociological Association as a Guide to Graduate Departments which is given below:

1. Biosociology Occupations/Professions Collective

2. Behaviour/Socioal Movements

3. Penology/Corrections Community

4. Political Sociology

5. Comparative Sociology/Macro sociology

6. Race/Ethnic/Minority

7. Relations Criminal Justice