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• Social structures (the way society is organized around the regulated ways people interrelate and organize social life) and social processes (the way society operates) are at work shaping our lives in ways that often go unrecognized. Because of this perspective, sociologists will often say that, as individuals, we are social products. Examples of social structures:
Social Processes mean the various modes of interaction between individuals or groups including cooperation and conflict, social differentiation and integration, development, arrest and decay. • Sociology helps us understand why we perceive the world the way we do - We are overwhelmed with messages in a variety of forms about how we, and the world around us, both are and should be. These messages come in forms as diverse as guidance from parents and teachers, laws handed down by religious and political entities, and advertisements ranging from pitches for athletic shoes to feeding hungry children. Sociology helps us examine the types of messages we are constantly receiving, their source, how and why they influence us, and our own roles in producing, perpetuating, and changing them. • Sociology helps us identify what we have in common within, and between, cultures and societies. Sociologists know that, although people in different parts of the city, country, or world dress differently, speak differently, and have many different beliefs and customs, many of the same types of social forces are at work shaping their lives. This is an especially important perspective in a world where media headlines are often accused of focusing on divisive issues. Sociologists look for what social structure and processes mean for various groups. They look at how various groups shape, and are impacted, by society. Sociologists can help groups find common concerns, understand other groups’ perspectives, and find ways to work together rather than work at odds with each other. • Sociology helps us understand why and how society changes - Obviously, the social world is constantly changing. This change has been a major interest to sociologists from the beginning of the discipline. However, many sociologists believe that sociology should not stop with only explaining society and how and why the world changes. They argue that sociologists also have an obligation to act, using their unique skills and perspectives to work to improve the world. Sociology, they argue, is a “field of inquiry simultaneously concerned with understanding, explaining, criticizing, and improving the human condition” (Restivo 1991, 4). Armed with a sociological perspective, we can more effectively take action if we don’t like what is happening. We can better participate in shaping the future for ourselves and for others. The earliest sociologists came to sociology from a variety of disciplines: 1) Emile Durkheim and Max Weber had studied law 2) Charles Horton Cooley was an economist; 3) Lester Ward was a biologist; 4) George Simmel was a philosopher; 5) Andrew M. Greeley a Catholic priest;
Sociology as an academic discipline: • In 1876, Yale University’s William Graham Sumner (1840–1910), taught the first course identified as “sociology” in the United States. • The University of Chicago established the first graduate department of sociology in the United States in 1892. • By 1910, most colleges and universities were offering sociology courses, although not in separate departments. • Thirty years later, most of these schools had established sociology departments. Sociology was first taught in high schools in 1911–12 Sociology grew out of, and overlaps with, many disciplines. However, it also extends the boundaries of many traditional disciplines.
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