What is Sociology | O Level Notes Sociology 2251

Описание: Hello, everyone, this is the first lecture on sociology and by the end of this

lecture, you will have a general idea of what sociology is. We are all taught

maths, English and science subjects from primary school but what we are not

taught beforehand is sociology. This subject can be defined as the “The

organized study of the development, organization and functioning as well as

classification of societies, alongwith the relationships that exist within them.”

This tells us that sociology is the study of societies.



Sociological Perspectives

There are three major perspectives in sociology . These perspectives actually

represent the viewpoints of sociologists on societies and their functioning.

Within every perspective there are different schools of thought and within

every school are theories. So coming back to perspectives, the three main

perspectivres are:



1. Functionalism Perspective

2. Conflict perspective

3. Symbolic interactionism



Functionalism basically focuses on the interdependence of all

functions and their contribution in keeping societies functioning. All their

theories are marked by this notion. Famous sociologists from this perspective

include Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, and Robert Merton. These

sociologists look for consensus in society.



Emile Durkheim fathered the theory of solidarity in a society, his

works such as “Suicide” and “The elementary forms of religious life” also show

his deep enthusiasm and command in viewing the world in a perspective

neither philosophical nor psychological.



According to Durkheim in all societies solidarity and consensus exist,

these forms of cohesion are natural to the society and the forms of solidarity

are two:



1. Mechanical Solidarity: This form of solidarity exists due to the

homogeneity of activities in a society. It was inherent in simpler , more

primordial societies where all men shard similar activities i.e hunting and

building and the women did the child bearing and cooking. It is the

similarity of activities between members of the same sex that gave birth

to this form of solidarity



2. Organic Solidarity: This form of solidarity is present in modern-day

society where people specialise in different activities e.g engineer,

architect, businessman etc. No doubt activities are not similar but even

this difference gives rise to a bond because the people realize their

interdependence on each other as each member is needed to do his/her

job so that other members can benefit and vice versa.

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