SOCIOLOGY CLASS XI
SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIETY
• Society: Society is a web of social
relations.
• Main characteristics of society:-
1) Society is an abstract concept.
2) Mutual coordination and struggle.
3)
Interdependence
4) Dynamic
5)
Similarities and
differences between societies and individuals belonging to them.
• Relationship between individuals and society:-
1)
All human activities
are done in a society. Human development and existence depend upon the society s/he lives in.
2)
The process
of socialisation that develops the personality of a person takes place in society.
3) In this way,
an individual is most dependent on the society
s/he lives in.
4) Without individuals there will be no social relationships and without social relationships there will be no society.
But society is not limited to human beings alone. There are animal societies of varying degrees. So, what differentiates a ‘Human Society’from ‘Animal Society’
Human Society
• It is based on reason or rational behaviour.
• It has a system of law
and order.
• Humans live in society and are conscious of it.
• They have intelligence,
reason, culture and are capable of transmitting culture to the next
generation.
Animal Society
• It is mainly based on
instincts reflex behaviour.
• There are no rights and
duties in animal society.
• Animals live in society but are not conscious of it.
• They lack intelligence, reason, culture and are incapable of transmitting culture to the next generation.
The sociological imagination
- C. Wright Mills rests his vision of the sociological imagination precisely in the unravelling of how the personal and public are related.
- The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society.
- The most fruitful distinction with which the sociological imagination works is between ‘the personal troubles of the milieu’ and ‘the public issues of social structure’.
- The facts of contemporary history are also facts about the success and the failure of individual men and women. When a society is industrialised, a peasant becomes a worker; a feudal lord is liquidated or becomes a businessman.
- Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.
- In the contemporary world we belong to more than one society.
- We may use the term ‘our society’ to denote a linguistic or ethnic community, a religious or caste or tribal society. This diversity makes deciding which ‘society’ we are talking about difficult.
- Sociology studies human society as an interconnected whole and how society and the individual interact with each other.
- The term sociology was coined by Auguste Comte, a French philosopher and sociologist, in 1839. He is known as the ‘Father of Sociology’ as he is considered to be the first thinker who defined the scope of sociology as a discipline.
- Sociology is the youngest of all social sciences.
- The word Sociology is derived from the Latin word ‘socius’ meaning ‘companion or associate (society)’ and the Greek word ‘logos’ meaning ‘study or science’. Thus, the etymological meaning of ‘Sociology’ is the ‘science of society’.
- Sociology is the study of human social life, groups and societies. Its subject matter is our own behaviour as social beings.
- Sociology is not the first subject to study society. This is evident in the writings of philosophers, religious teachers, and legislators of all civilisations and epochs. Thinking about our lives and about society is by no means confined to philosophers and social thinkers. All of us do have ideas about our own everyday life.
- The observations and ideas that sociology as a discipline makes about ‘society’ is different from both that of philosophical reflections and common sense.
- Sociology is thus, the systematic or scientific study of human society and social behaviour, from large scale institutions and mass culture to small groups and individual interactions.
- One of the tasks of sociology is to unravel the connection between a personal problem and a public issue.
- It tries to understand that the individual in modern times belongs to more than one society and how societies are unequal.
• Value neutrality • Based on experimentation • Evidences
- The philosophical and religious thinking is concerned with the moral and immoral aspects of human behaviour, the desirable way of living, about a good society, etc. based on their observations and experience.
- These thinking are based the norms and values as they ought to be in society. It is about modelling a good society and differentiating it from a bad society.
- Sociology also studies human society and aspects of human behaviour but it is not about the norms and values as they ought to be.
- As a discipline, it is concerned with the way the norms and values function in actual societies based on observations and findings collected.
- Empirical study of societies is an important part of what sociologist do.
- When sociologists are studying society they must be willing observe and collect findings whether it is to their likings or not.
- Sociological thinking is bound by scientific procedures.
- The statements that sociologists arrive at should be through observations of certain rules of evidence that allow others to check or repeat to develop the findings further.
- The common sense knowledge that we have are based on our ‘naturalistic’ and/or individualistic explanation.
- It is acquired from a particular viewpoint, the viewpoint of the social group and the social environment that we are socialised into. This knowledge is gained from our own experience of society.
- A naturalistic explanation for behaviour is based on the assumption that one can identify ‘natural’ reasons for behaviour. Most of our actions are based on naturalistic explanation of human behaviour and might lead to unintended consequences.
- Common sense is not reflective and doesn’t question its own origin.
- Sociology on the other hand, breaks away from common sense observations and ideas. It works on meaningful explanation and unsuspected connections of our actions with our behaviour.
- Sociological thinking is based on ‘Why I hold a specific view about a particular behaviour or a social issue’.
- This systematic and questioning approach of sociology is derived from a broader tradition of scientific investigation.
- Sociologists and social anthropologists sought to categorise societies into types and to distinguish stages in social development. These features reappear in the 19th century in works of early sociologists, Auguste Comte, Karl Marx and Herbert Spencer.
- Efforts were therefore made to classify different types of societies on that basis, for instance: Types of pre-modern societies such as hunters and gatherers, pastoral and agrarian, agrarian and non- industrial civilisations. Types of modern societies such as the industrialised societies.
- Such an evolutionary vision assumed that the west was necessarily the most advanced and civilised. Non- western societies were often seen as barbaric and less developed. Indian sociology reflects this tension which go far back to the history of British colonialism and the intellectual and ideological response to it.
- Darwin’s ideas about organic evolution were a dominant influence on early sociological thought. Society was often compared with living organisms and efforts were made to trace its growth through stages comparable to those of organic life.
- This way of looking at society as a system of parts, each part playing a given function influenced the study of social institutions like the family or the school and structures such as stratification.
- The intellectual ideas that went into the making of sociology have a direct bearing on how sociology studies empirical reality.
- The Enlightenment, an European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries, emphasised reason and individualism. There was also great advancement of scientific knowledge and a growing conviction that the methods of the natural sciences should and could be extended to the study of human affairs. For example poverty, so far seen as a ‘natural phenomenon’, began to be seen as a ‘social problem’ caused by human ignorance or exploitation.
- Auguste Comte believed that sociology would contribute to the welfare of humanity.
- The Industrial Revolution was based upon a new, dynamic form of economic activity capitalism. This system of capitalism became the driving force behind the growth of industrial manufacturing.
- Capitalism involved new attitudes and institutions. Entrepreneurs now engaged in the sustained, systematic pursuit of profit. The markets acted as the key instrument of productive life. And goods, services and labour became commodities whose use was determined by rational calculation.
- The change industrialisation brought about was far-reaching and changed the structure of the pre-industrial society. There was the degradation of labour, the wrenching of work from the protective contexts of guild, village, and family.
- Both the radical and conservative thinkers were appalled at the decline of the status of the common labourer, not to mention the skilled craftsman.
- Urban centres expanded and grew. It was not that there were no cities earlier. But the industrial cities gave birth to a completely new kind of urban world. It was marked by the soot and grime of factories, by overcrowded slums of the new industrial working class, bad sanitation and general squalor. It was also marked by new kinds of social interactions.
- The factory and its mechanical division of labour were often seen as a deliberate attempt to destroy the peasant, the artisan, as well as family and local community. The factory was perceived as an archetype of an economic regimentation hitherto known only in barracks and prisons.
- For some like Marx the factory was oppressive. Yet potentially liberating. Here workers learnt both collective functioning as well as concerted efforts for better conditions.
- Another indicator of the emergence of modern societies was the new significance of clock-time as a basis of social organisation. A crucial aspect of this was the way in which, in the 18th and 19th centuries, the tempo of agricultural and manufacturing labour increasingly came to be set by the clock and calendar in a way very different from pre-modern forms of work.
- Prior to the development of industrial capitalism, work-rhythms were set by factors such as the period of daylight, the break between tasks and the constraints of deadlines or other social duties.
- Factory production implied the synchronisation of labour it began punctually, had a steady pace and took place for set hours and on particular days of the week. In addition, the clock injected a new urgency to work.
- For every student of sociology, it is significant to study the growth of sociology as a discipline in Europe. This is due to the very fact that the subject matter of sociology deals with issues and concerns developed in the new world order.
- These issues and concerns were developed during the rapid changes that occurred in European societies in the 18th and 19th centuries.
- Capitalism and industrialisation which developed in Europe undermined the old settled order and gave rise to many issues like urbanisation or factory production which are pertinent to all modern societies in varied form. The global impact of capitalism has been seen as the cause of uneven transformation of societies.
- Sociology emerged as a subject after the French Revolution of 1789. The French Revolution brought about a tremendous socio-political change in society, leading to disruption of social life and other social relations.
- In case of India, transformation of Indian society is linked to the history of British capitalism.
- Thus, the work of the western sociologist on capitalism and other aspects of modern society are important. It is relevant for understanding the social change in India.
The growth of sociology in India
Formal university teaching of sociology began in 1919 University of Bombay and later in Calcutta and Lucknow.
- During the course of their rule in India, the British officials realised that for smooth administration, it was important that they acquire knowledge of Indian society and culture. This prompted the origin of Sociology in India.
- Western sociological writings about Indian society were sometimes misleading. For instance, the understanding and portrayal of the Indian village was unchanging. Many Indian scholars thus, took to sociological studies to close such gaps.
- The diversified nature of the Indian society in terms of region, language, religion, ethnicity, caste, etc also led to the growth of sociology in India in connection with the discipline of social anthropology. This is a characteristic feature different from that of the western countries where both disciplines have been kept distinct from each other.
- Indian sociologist realised that the transformation process of contemporary Indian society is different from that of the western society. Modernity as understood in the western European society is the outcome of scientific process and democratic ideas. Wheres as the same process of modernity was introduced in Indian society under the colonial regime.
- The scope of sociology is extremely wide and it focuses its analysis on several aspects of the society and can be about mere individual interactions to larger social issues.
- The scope of sociology and its focus of analysis can be broadly classified into three categories:
- At the level of human interactions, the scope of study might focus its analysis on interactions between two individuals at different social environment, such as between a shopkeeper and customers or between friends and family members.
- National issues or issues impacting the larger public might include its focus of analysis for instance on social phenomena such as unemployment, caste conflicts, rural indebtedness, effects of forest policies on tribals’ rights, etc. These are issues specific to one particular society or a nation.
- Global social processes are those which are impacting the larger human population. While studying such phenomena, the focus of analysis for sociologists might include; impact of flexible labour regulations, globalisation of culture, entry of foreign universities on education system of the country, etc.
Relationship with other social sciences
Sociology belongs to the group of social sciences which includes anthropology, economics, political science, history, etc. There is no clear cut distinction between these subjects as they share certain common concepts, interests and methods. However, there is difference between these disciplines in terms of their view point and the selective interest.
Sociology and Economics
Sociology and Economics as social sciences have close relations. Society is greatly influenced by economic factors, and economic processes are largely determined by the environment of the society.
Classical economics however, dealt with interrelations of pure economic variables such as price, demand, supply, etc. Traditionally, it was focussed on understanding of economic activity such as allocation of scarce goods and services in a society and activity in terms of ownership of land and relation to means of production. The dominant trend in economic analysis is about how to formulate laws of economic behaviour of a society.
Sociology on the other hand looks at economic behaviour in a broader context of social norms, values, practices and interests.
For example; the large investments in advertisements is directly linked to the need to reshape lifestyles and consumption patterns. It provides questioning and critical perspectives on basic assumptions of economic behaviour. It facilitates the need for a socially desirable goal.
Sociology provides an understanding based on factual knowledge.
Sociology and Political Science
• Sociology studies both organised and unorganised societies whereas political science studies only politically organised societies.
• Sociology has a wider scope whereas political science is a narrow field.
• Sociology studies man as fundamentally a social animal whereas Political science studies man as a political animal.
• The approach to sociology is sociological. It follows its own methods in addition to scientific methods. The approach to political science is political.
• Sociology is a general social science, hence it studies all kinds of forms of social relations in a general way whereas political science because it concentrates on human relationships which are political in character.
Sociology and History
Sociology is interested in the study of present social phenomena whereas history is interested in the past events.
• Sociology is analytical and interpretive science. History is description science.
• Sociology is general science. History is a specific science.
• Sociology makes use of questionnaire, surveys, interview methods etc. History uses chronology, coins etc. to know about the unknown.
Test and re-test is possible for the facts which are generalised by sociology whereas test and re-test is not possible for the events mentioned in history.
• Sociology has a wide scope. History scope is narrower.
• Sociology is a young science. History is the oldest science.
Sociology and Psychology
• Psychology pertains to the study of the human mind, whereas sociology pertains to learning human behaviour.• Psychology deals with individuals or small groups, sociology deals with a larger group or to society itself.
• Psychology can be termed as an experimental process, whereas sociology as an observational process.
• Psychology deals with human emotions whereas sociology deals with the interaction of people.
• In psychological studies, it is perceived that the individual is singly responsible for all the activities, whereas in sociology, it is not an individual act. Sociology assumes that an individual’s act is influenced by his surroundings or to the group he belongs to.
Sociology and Anthropology
Anthropologists and sociologists are social scientists concerned with understanding the human condition, past and present, and equipped with the skills of developing rapport in unfamiliar situations, collecting and analysing quantitative and qualitative data, thinking analytically at the macro and micro levels, and communicating effectively, both orally and in writing.
However, these disciplines differ in terms of their selective interests.
Anthropology studies all aspects of life in “simple societies” as whole in a neutral scientific fashion. Anthropology is often characterised by tradition of long field work, living in community and uses ethnographic research methods.
Sociology on the other hand studies complex societies and therefore focuses on part of societies like religion, bureaucracy or social processes such as social mobility. Sociology often relies on survey method and quantitative data using statistics and questionnaire mode.
Is Sociology a science?
Sociology is a science as it involves objectives and systematic methods of investigation and evaluation of social reality in the light of empirical evidence and interpretation.
It is not a natural science because human behaviour is not exacting and varies from person to person.
Sociology is a categorical science because it relates to “what is”.
It is a pure science because sociology collects the knowledge about human society only and not concerned with its application. Sociology is an abstract science because it studies the design and norms of the society. It is a science of generalisation.