sociology

Max Weber

garbage

ology (the study of)

society

sociologist

light bulb joke

astronomy

telescope

anthropology

philosophy major

dating

social science

is a discipline whose central problem is the problem of order, involving how social systems bind time and space (i.e. How they establish the conditions under which time and space are organized so as to connect presence and absence).

'We should reformulate the question of order as a problem of how it comes about that social systems 'bind' time and space. The problem of order as a problem of how it comes about that social systems 'bind' time and space. The problem of order is here seen me of time-space distanciation the conditions under which time and space are organised so as to connect presence and absence' (Giddens 1990:14).

is a field of study that seeks to analytically separate forms of interaction or sociation from their contents and to bring these together under a consistent scientific viewpoint.

According to Simmel, THE TASK OF SOCIOLOGY is to analytically separate these forms of interaction or sociation from their contents and to bring these together under a consistent scientific viewpoint. Form/content analysis rests upon two principles: 1) the same form of sociation is observed in dissimilar contents and in relation to differing purposes... and 2) content is expressed through a variety of different forms of sociation as its medium' (NET).

is a field which discernes systematic order among the confusions of empirical fact.

when the anthropologist insist that his concern is with 'sociology' rather than with 'history', he at once imposes upon the evidence an assumption that systemic order may be discerned among the confusions of empirical fact. Such systemic order cannot be described without introducing notions of equilibrium and to that extent the argument of this book is itself an equilibrium analysis' (Leach 1964:xi).

Sociology is a general science of society'.

is a martial art, a means of self-defense. One uses it to defend oneself, without having the right to use it for unfair attacks.

I often say that sociology is a martial art, a means of self-defense. Basically, you use it to defend yourself, without having the right to use it for unfair attacks. Pierre Bourdieu

is a powerful analytical tool capable of producing awareness of those mechanisms that make life painful, even unlivable, and of bringing contradictions to light.

For Bourdieu, power is not an independent sphere but is, rather, located at the center of social life. Culture is viewed by Bourdieu as an expression of power, and not necessarily without political content. Bourdieu sees sociology as a powerful analytical tool capable of 'producing awareness of those mechanisms that make life painful, even unlivable' and of 'bringing contradictions to light' (Bourdieu 1999: 629). 'Symbolic violence' is a key concept in A Theory of Practice, which refers to the norms and values espoused by dominant social actors in the society, 'naturalized' as self-evident 'truth' and accepted as such by the dominated populace. This power is both visible and invisible in the social sphere.

is concerned not with the difference between things and people but between the attribution of interpretivism or determinism.

The important sociological difference is not between things and people but between the attribution of interpretivism or determinism' (fuchs 'beyond agency' 33).

is concerned with making descriptions of social settings which compete with the actual descriptions offered by the individuals who are party to those settings.

While traditional sociology usually provides descriptions of social settings which compete with the actual descriptions offered by the individuals who are party to those settings, ethnomethodology seeks to describe the practices (the methods) these individuals use in their actual descriptions of those settings. (wiki)

sociology, n.All

sociology