Week 1

Introduction to Sociology
The term sociology is derived from Latin Socius which means social or being with others; and the
Greek logos which means study.

Auguste Comte (1798- 1857), founder of the discipline of sociology, defines sociology as the study of
interaction between human institutions, such as:

the family,
education,
religion as well as their development and the manner of transformation of societies.

Max Weber defined sociology as "a science which attempts the interpretative understanding of social
action in order to arrive at a causal explanation of its course and effects."

For him, the term social action referred to any human behaviour to which acting individuals attain
subjective meaning.

Sociology is the scientific study of social behavior or society including:

its origins,
development,
organization,
networks, and
institutions.

On the basis of these definitions, it can be concluded that sociology is the study of human behaviour in
groups.

Ballantine (1989), suggested that sociology could be divided into:

studies of institutions in the society,

studies of processes and
studies of other group related situations.

The structure of society is represented by family, religion, education, politics and economics.

Sociology study would be impossible without society.

The term society refers to a congregation of human beings who share a common cultural heritage in terms
of language and inhabitancy of a specific geographical region.

For instance, tribes living in Kenya as citizens share, to a large extent, common political ideology and
way of life.

The survival and continuity of a society depends on:

its ability to produce children and to induct them into the ways of the society.

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Members of society participates in the activities of the society in accordance of norms.

Thus, members of the society must fit and operate within social groups or social systems such as:

the family,
religious institutions,
school, government, and
economic structures.

Every individual in the society has specific roles to play within those social systems.

For instance, a secondary school, as part of a social system must educate children the values of the
society.

Government, provides an enabling economic environment and provide protection from both internal and
external enemies.

Development of Sociology
Sociology is the youngest of the social sciences and is an offspring of philosophy.

It was recognized as a discipline in the nineteenth century.

It developed as a response to problems in Western Europe brought about by two types of revolutions
which are:

1. French revolution and

2. the Industrial revolution.

In France, between 1789 and 1812, peasants revolted against the aristocrats because they denied them
political, material and social rights as citizens.

The aristocrats controlled the government and resources including land.

The peasants were only allowed to use land by the ruling class in return for services to them such as
military and domestic services.

The French revolution, often referred to as:

a democratic revolution,
led to the murder of the French King,
disorganization of society and
introduction of democratic practices.

During this time, industrial revolution was taking place in Britain.

Technological advances led to reduced labour workforce.

As a result, unemployment, social upheaval, and crimes increased.

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Industrialization also brought about urbanization, overcrowding in cities and towns, separation of family
members, that is, those working in cities, towns and job seekers from their rural based folks.

Movement of peoples affected family unity.

The scholars of the time were:

1. Auguste Comte,
2. Herbert Spencer,
3. Emile Durkheim and
4. Max Weber,

They believed that the discipline of sociology would help people to re-establish order in the society.

1. Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

French Philosopher, is said to have coined the term sociology from the Latin word socio meaning
society, and a Greek word logy, which stands for science, in 1838.

Thus sociology came to be associated with the study of society.

Comte lived during and after the French revolution.

The French revolution brought disorder, material and cultural poverty.

Industrial revolution, which was taking place in Europe at the time also, contributed to the breakdown of
agricultural way of life that was simple and integrative.

It sparked movements of people from rural areas to industrial centres which resulted in breakdown of
family ties, moral degradation and defiance of customs.

Comte was distressed by the negative social changes and he wanted to replace disorder with social order
through total reconstruction of society.

He contended that social events were not the result of accident and that they could be rationally ordered
and controlled through concerted effort.

He suggested that the discipline of sociology would provide people with the necessary knowledge for
reconstruction and establishment of order in the society.

In 1842, Comte launched his book entitled Positive Philosophy.

He believed that positivism or study of society using scientific methods, would help to bring out "social
facts" that would facilitate reconstruction of society.

what has been observed accurately by one scientist should be able to be replicated by others studying the
same issue.

According to Comte, positivism is a system of philosophy which examines the phenomena around us
through the senses.

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 all knowledge must be supported by facts.
facts that are not verifiable by observation through the senses do not constitute knowledge.

Comte identified two broad fields of study in sociology;

1. social statics and

2. social dynamics

1. Social statics is the study of various institutions like: the economy, government, family, churches and
other institutions and their interrelatedness to each other.

It deals with the investigation of laws of action and reaction of the different parts of the social system.

2. Social dynamics is the study of how societies developed and changed over time.

Comte believed that all societies moved through certain fixed stages of development, from primitive age
towards an increasing perfection. These stages marked a phase of intellectual development and these are:

1. Theological/fictitious/primitive ;
2. Metaphysical /abstract; and
3. Positive /scientific stages

Auguste Comte The birth of Positivism

The 3 conditions of intellectual development

Comte believed that human reason was capable of creating and restoring social order.

The problems accompanying industrialization had been people-created and could therefore be solved or
overcome through application of human mind.

Auguste Comte's Contribution to Sociology

1. He founded the discipline of sociology.

2. He recommended the use and application of scientific methods in the study of society,
3. He identified two broad fields of sociology namely: social statics and social dynamics.

Shortcomings of Comte's Conception of Society

i. Believed that all societies progressed through fixed stages, which neglects cultures borrow some
material as well as ideological aspects through diffusion.
ii. He also looked at society from a unlinear perspective.

2. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

Authored the first sociology text, Principles of Sociology

Most well known for proposing a doctrine called Social Darwinism

Suggested that people who could not compete were poorly adapted to the environment and inferior

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This is an idea commonly called survival of the fittest

He believed that society progressed through various socio-cultural stages, that is, from primitive tribal
societies which were homogenous, to large-scale industrial heterogeneous societies.

He likened society to an organism whose parts - institutions - function together harmoniously to form an
integrated whole.

Society is a resemblance of human body organs, which work to sustain it, for example the heart, brain,
lungs, kidneys and others must function in harmony for the body to be in good health.

Similarly, different institutions of the society must work together to sustain it.

Thinkers like Spencer were labelled as functionalist.

His evolutionary theory of societies was influenced by ideas of Charles Darwin, a believer in evolution of
species.

According to Darwin, weak species die while strong ones survive.

Spencer likened the survival of strong species to the survival of strong societies.

To Spencer, weak societies and individuals will perish while strong ones will survive.

He concluded that the wealth of the "haves" was an evidence of their natural superiority over the "have-
nots" (propertyless).

He condemn re-distribution of wealth and power by providing services such as public welfare and public
education.

It was seen by him as interference of social evolution for it promoted the interests of the weak at the
expense of the strong.

Contributions of Spencer to Sociology

He identified the following areas of study of the interrelatedness between various units like: family,
politics, religion, social control, restraints, rules and regulations, industry and work.

stressed the need for sociological study of associations, communities, division of labour, social
differentiation, social stratification, sociology of knowledge, sciences and the study of art and aesthetics.

Criticism of Spencer's understanding of society

was against the weak and disadvantaged.

His ideas about society had been greatly influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution which showed that
some species had become extinct on account of their failure to adapt to the environment.

Similarly, he contended that weak societies would perish while strong ones would survive.

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3. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

was a French scholar who defined sociology as the science of society.

He maintained that society is a reality and that it exists independent of the individual.

The existence of the society is reflected in its beliefs, codes of human conduct and ideals.

He stated that man is who he is (human being) because he/she lives in a society.

Durkheim emphasized the importance of analyzing the relationships among institutions and their social-
cultural settings.

He referred to various aspects of the society and human conduct as social facts. Social facts act outside us
to bring human beings in line with the moral demands of the society.

To him, it is the society, which makes individuals behave the way they do and society is held together by
traditions, common beliefs and values.

He termed these as the collective conscience, the social glue that bound people together.

Using this of thought, Durkheim attributed human acts not to individuals' decisions and wills but to
society.

For example, he viewed the phenomenon of suicide not as an individual act but as a social fact forced on
the individual by societal forces.

Using this theory, he was able to study the occurrences of suicide among people of different races, and
religions.

From his analysis of records in France and elsewhere in Europe, Durkheim noticed that people in certain
social categories had lower rates of suicide than others. For example, he established that:

Fewer Jews committed suicide than Catholics;

Fewer Catholics than Protestants committed suicide;
Fewer married people than single ones committed suicide.
Fewer civilians than those in military service committed suicide.

From these findings, he concluded that rates of suicide seemed directly related to differing levels of social
cohesion.

Durkheim hypothesized that the higher the degree of social cohesion, the less likely individuals would
take their own lives except in the case of over-integration.

Durkheims Typology of Suicide

1. Egoistic:- bonds which unites groups weaken, no sense of belonging and individuality,
meaninglessness, apathy and depression increases, too little integration
2. Anomic:- individuals are not regulated by norms and values of the group, or social order. Too
little regulation

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 3. Altruistic:- bonds between groups too strong, so individuals sacrifice themselves. Too much
integration into norms/values
4. Fatalistic:- norms of society oppress too much and stifle individuals. Too much regulation by
rules of society.

Durkheim also identified two types of societies. These included mechanical and organic solidarity
societies.

He conceptualized mechanical societies as primitive and folk type of societies. People in these societies
relate to each other almost in everything and integrative like family.

Modern societies or organic solidarity or industrial societies are held together by a web or network of
relationships based on contracts that are governed by the law.

Durkheim on the whole describes modern societies as disintegrative.

1. Contributions of Durkheim to Sociology

The earliest scholars to use empirical method to study the society.
2. He developed the sociological theory of social cohesion and he demonstrated the impact of social
cohesion on society through his study of suicide as a social phenomenon.
3. He developed the sociological concepts of social facts. These stand for different aspects of social
phenomena; for instance, laws, family, and education and so on.
4. He identified areas of study in sociology as:
General sociology, which included personality of the individual as well as collective
personality.
Sociology of religion.
Sociology of law and morals, political organizations, social organizations, marriage and
family.
Sociology of the crime.
Sociology of economics including subsections on the measurement of value and on
occupational groups.
Demography or study of population figures.
Sociology of aesthetics or values and morality.

4. Max Weber (1864-1920)

was a German sociologist and economist.

For him sociology is "a science which attempts the interpretative understanding of social action in order
to arrive at a causal explanation of its course and effects".

He regarded the term "social action" as all human behaviour to which acting individuals attach subjective
meaning.

Max Weber wrote extensively on religion, economic life, including money, division of labour,
bureaucracy and large-scale organizations.

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In his work on religion, he tried to examine the effect of religious ideas on economic activities and social
stratification.

He explained various Christian beliefs and material possessions.

Protestant religion, according to Weber, emphasized that there was no conflict between material
possession and salvation. The possession of lots of material resources was viewed as a manifestation that
God rewarded hard work.

In contrast, Catholicism stressed repentance of sin and it did not place a high value on ambition, wealth,
and success on earth.

Weber also came up with the concept of bureaucratisation.

This concept is concerned with the organization and co-ordination of human activities rationally on basis
of rules, qualifications, experiences, and positions of authority rather than persons of authority to achieve
goals.

He believed that society would be run through rational principles that allowed little or no room for
emotional concerns or individual differences.

He is also credited with identifying three distinct types of leadership, namely: charismatic, traditional and
bureaucratic legal authority.

5. Karl Marx (1818 - 1883)

was a German scholar.

Although he was not considered to be a sociologist, his ideas have had a profound effect on the field of
sociology.

His ideas predicted an impending revolution due to class conflict between the rich capitalists and the poor
working class. This made him "persona non grata" in his country.

He believed that human history and society are products of economic forces.

He asserted that the history of human society is the history of struggle between people of different social
classes.

In his book Communist Manifesto stated that societies were divided into two classes, that is, the "haves"
or the bourgeoisie, and the "have nots" or proletariat.

These classes emerged clearly after the industrial revolution.

He felt that the worker was alienated from the means of production in which "dead capital" or "dead
labour" dominated the "living labour", the worker. He expressed these ideas in his book called Capital.

He believed that society was infested with conflicts rather than integrative tendencies.

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Conflicts in Marx's opinion were those of economic nature. Conflicts force the society to move from one
stage to another.

He believed that capitalists would continue to exploit workers or proletariats, in their quest to amass
wealth. In the process, the gap between the haves and have nots would become too wide for workers to
bear.

Consequently, workers of the world would unite and overthrow capitalists and their governments.

To Karl Marx, governments only existed to protect capitalists and the governing class.

For exaple, in the event of socialism replacing capitalism, government would be replaced by series of
associations to manage the production, distribution of goods and provision of services.

Socialism as a system aims at providing the "greatest happiness to the greatest number".

The major shortcoming of socialism was that workers of the world did not unite to overthrow capitalism
as predicted by Karl Marx.

Again, where socialism emerged, for instance, in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe communist states,
it did not seem to generate enough wealth for distribution to all its citizens.

Scope and Concerns of Sociology

The scope is extremely wide ranging, from the analysis of passing encounter between individuals on the
street up to the investigation of global social processes.

The discipline covers an extremely broad range that includes every aspect of human social conditions; all
types of human relationships and forms of social behavior (Indrani, 1998).

Sociologists are primarily interested in human beings as they appear in social interaction and the effects
of this interaction on human behavior.

This can range from the first physical contacts of the new born baby with its mother to a philosophical
discussion at an international conference, from a casual passing on the street to the most intimate of
human relationships

Sociologists are interested to know what processes lead to these interactions, what exactly occurs when
they take place, and what their short run and long run consequences are.

The major systems or units of interaction that interest sociologists are social groups such as the family or
peer groups; social relationships, such as social roles and dyadic relationships, and social organizations
such as governments, corporations and school systems to such territorial organizations as communities
and schools (Broom and Selzinki, 1973).

Sociologists are keen to understand, explain, and analyze the effect of social world, social environment
and social interaction on our behavior, worldviews, lifestyle, personality, attitudes, decisions, etc., as
creative, rational, intelligent members of society; and how we as such create the social reality.

Sociology Today

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Although sociology emerged in Comtes vision of sociology eventually subsuming all other areas of
scientific inquiry, sociology did not replace the other sciences. Instead, sociology has developed a
particular niche in the study of social life.

In the past, sociological research focused on the organization of complex, industrial societies and their
influence on individuals. Today, sociologists study a broad range of topics. For instance, some
sociologists research macro-structures that organize society, such as race or ethnicity, social class, gender
roles, and institutions such as the family.

Summary

The chapter has defined sociology as the scientific study of human behaviour in groups
How sociology is developed was discussed.
Finally, the scope of sociology is highlighted.

Reference

Kibera, L.W. & Kimokoti, A.(2007). Fundamentals of sociology of education. Nairobi: University of
Nairobi Press. P. 1-16

Meighan, R. & Siraj, I.(2003). A sociology of educating (4th ed.). London: Continuum. P. 3-54

Assignment

Macionis, J. (2007). Sociology. Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, N.J. Publications. P. 1-24

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